Dear Council Members,
Although I don’t live in Menlo Park, I shop and dine there frequently, and for many years, had my office on University Avenue, near the corner at Santa Cruz Avenue. I appreciate the friendly character of downtown Menlo Park, and I can envision affordable housing developed on downtown parking lots as a positive addition and appropriate use of that space.
I’m also a nearly 80 year old Mom of an adult disabled son who, because of his disability, will likely always be a person of Extremely Low Income (ELI). Finding safe, affordable, permanent, supportive housing for him near access to essential community resources has been a decades long, mostly unsuccessful effort. The shortage of appropriate housing for adults like my son is legendary, and what is available is mostly unspeakably unsuitable. Like so many other Moms I know through my association with the local nonprofit Solutions for Supportive Homes, I’m despairing with no answer to the question: where will my son live when I am gone?
Downtown is exactly where we need deeply affordable homes. We could reduce the isolation which typically makes living disabled so much worse, make it easier for disabled people to access needed medical and social services, reduce costs of emergency responses, and demonstrate that we actually care about everyone in our community. Isn’t that the kind of community we want to belong in?
The alternative is not pretty: unhoused people wandering the streets, looking for someplace to sleep, making everyone who passes by them wonder, “what is wrong with our town, that we can’t find a way to take care of people who need it?”
Please approve proposals to develop deeply affordable homes in downtown Menlo Park.
Respectfully,
Melinda Henning
Resident of Foster City
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MELINDA HENNING
415-806-9161
melinda@melindahenning.com
