Jessica Clark, 41
Clark was born and raised in Palo Alto. She and her husband, another native Palo Altan, have three children in the local public schools. Her husband is a respiratory therapist, and until several years ago, Clark ran a thriving day care business in their home. Then their landlords decided to move in, tossing them on the recent housing market — and changing their lives.
“The only place we could afford to rent at that time was a much smaller, much more expensive condo where I could no longer run my day care,” Clark said. “So I was forced to shut down.”
With the family’s income reduction, they qualified for Palo Alto’s Below Market Rate Housing Purchase Program, a program to help low and moderate-income buyers secure units. To put it mildly, the program is oversubscribed.
“This will be our sixth year on the list,” Clark said. “There are still more than 200 applicants ahead of us.”
Meanwhile, their rent keeps going up. Two years ago, Clark said, their current landlord raised their rent by nearly $1,000 a month. They can’t pay any more than they’re already paying.
“We’re paying $4,000 a month for a 1,200-square-foot condo,” Clark said. “But there are places nearby renting for $5,300. Our lease will be up in June the staff at the elementary school has to commute. There are real cracks in the foundation of the community here.”
It’s not easy to leave, Clark said, because her extended family’s lives are in Palo Alto.
“Our parents are getting older,” she said. “Our siblings live nearby. Our children’s lives are here.”
But with a new lease term approaching, they have started to think about it. If they had to move, Clark says, it would be out of the Bay Area altogether.
“Anywhere we could move locally, we’d be facing the same issue in a few years,” Clark said.
Worried about her family, she started going to City Council meetings. “And I just heard people complaining about traffic, about height limits, about trying to turn Palo Alto into Manhattan. I’m not asking for the moon here. I don’t think Palo Alto will become unrecognizable with a change in zoning laws and more homes. I think that will make it possible for Palo Alto to keep the people who hold a community together.”