Honorable City Council Members,
Attached (and below) please find a letter from Menlo Together commenting on Agenda K1. Authorize loan to HIP Housing to Preserve 14 homes as permanently affordable.
Thank you for your consideration,
Karen Grove
650-868-2732
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February 22, 2021
Agenda K1. Authorize loan to HIP Housing to Preserve 14 homes as permanently affordable.
Honorable City Council Members,
On behalf of Menlo Together, thank you to the Council, to the Housing Commission (current and previous commissioners) and our Community Development Staff for expanding the scope of our BMR NOFA to invite proposals for a diverse set of strategies for preserving and producing affordable housing throughout our city.
We are pleased to see the proposal to loan BMR funds to HIP Housing to help them acquire and preserve as affordable, 14 rental units on Coleman Avenue, near Encinal School. These units will be affordable to families whose income is below 80% AMI, and HIP Housing states that the target income level will be 60% of AMI. This is an opportunity to add affordable housing for: front-line medical workers such as medical assistants (who are often the limiting factor on access to care), school staff including teachers, retail and restaurant staff, just to give a few examples of what it means to be “low income” in our region. These homes are in the award-winning Menlo Park City School District, and two of the units have two bedrooms, which is an opportunity to provide affordable homes for families with kids.
We urge you to approve this proposal, and we thank you and everyone who contributed to bringing it to you today.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Adina Levin
Karen Grove
Pamela D Jones
Julie Shanson
Ofelia Bello
Michele Tate
