City may set aside federal funds to help county buy hotel for homeless housing
City officials will consider today whether to set aside millions of dollars in federal community development money to help Santa Clara County buy a boutique hotel in the city’s south side to house homeless people in the coming years.
In January, the Mountain View City Council voted unanimously to set aside funds to help the county’s planned purchase of the 61room Crestview Boutique Hotel at the corner of El Camino Real and Crestview Drive, which officials hope will help ease a homelessness crisis that has exacerbated in recent years.
The city said in a report released ahead of today’s discussion that it would set aside $3.7 million in federal funds for the purchase and rehabilitation of the property if Santa Clara County moves ahead with plans to buy the hotel and run it as affordable housing.
In the staff report, officials are recommending that the council pay for its potential share of the multimillion-dollar project with about $2.1 million from federal Community Development Block Grant funds and about $1.6 million in Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program.
The availability of those funds is based partly on a lack of interest from nonprofit developers to invest in capital projects. Usually the city gets applications from a number of developers seeking money to build affordable housing or other community-based projects, but this year there’s been a dearth in requests amid the pandemic.
To buy the hotel, the county would most likely use 2016 Measure A affordable housing bond funds, city staff said. If the project moves forward undisturbed — and an overwhelming majority of members on the council appear to support it — the city could start moving in residents in two years.
Mountain View Mayor Ellen Kamei said during an interview Monday that today’s meeting won’t be about buying the site but rather setting money aside in the event the county chooses to move forward with the purchase. The entire process could take between 18 and 24 months, Kamei said.
“The county and the city have been working on holding public meetings and no decisions will be made without community input,” Kamei said. Speaking for herself, Kamei said “the city is committed to creative solutions on how we address the affordable housing crisis, and that’s why we’re looking at this.”
But since the Crestview’s owner first approached the city about selling the hotel to turn it into affordable housing, neighbors in south Mountain View have formed a group to oppose its purchase. Less than a month after it was first discussed by the City Council, nearly 400 people signed a petition started by Save South Mountain View objecting to the plan’s lack of detail.
The petition criticized the council for not disclosing early on who will get to live in the property, though some council members have said that the city’s homeless population and those living in vehicles could be a good start.
As of Monday, the petition has garnered over 1,200 signatures. In an update to signees last week, Save South Mountain View said they have been in dialogue with Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian’s office.
The update says that supervisors won’t likely vote on the Crestview project until June or later, and that staff are currently “doing due diligence about the site regarding finances, site use, etc.” The county has indicated to Save South Mountain View that “this will help them refine some for the outstanding questions about the site.”
The neighborhood group is urging its supporters to look out for a survey within the coming weeks to help gauge other options and concerns about the project. The survey will also give people an opportunity to participate in county focus groups to discuss the project.
If the results of the first community meeting — which was held March 30 — are any indication, it’s likely the city will continue to face backlash over the project. Save South Mountain View has said the March 30 discussion was “rather disappointing” because the city and county did not clarify in concrete detail who the target demographic will be for the project.
In an interview Monday, Simitian said his hope is that sometime at the end of May or the beginning of June the county will hear from residents again before the supervisors take up the issue in June or later.
Over the next several weeks, the county and city will work to give residents a clearer view of what’s intended for the site and who will get to live there, Simitian said. People on both sides of the issue, Simitian said, have characterized the project “based on hunches and speculation” which is making conversations difficult.
“The city, to its credit, has wanted to talk about the possibilities in an open, public way from day one,” Simitian said. “But that means that folks in the community were going to have their own notions about what the project may or may not entail. I would hope that next time we pull the community together for a conversation, that we have a clearer understanding of what is and isn’t on the table for discussion.”