Dear Councilmembers,
My name is Haley Kovacs and I am a low-income resident of Menlo Park. I live in Flood Triangle with my husband, young daughter, and in-laws. I have lived in Menlo Park since 2014 when we were forced to boomerang home due to high bay area housing costs. My husband has been a resident of Menlo Park since 1989, excepting a few years as a young adult.
My husband works as a deputy court clerk at the Redwood City Superior Court, and he makes $70k. I was working as a preschool teacher and nanny before my daughter was born, and intended to be back to work by now, but I have been disabled by covid. I am working with the department of rehabilitation to be retrained in an occupation I can do, but my earnings potential remains low due to my inability to work full time due to disability.
We love Menlo Park. We consider this our home. We wont be able to inherit our home, and eventually will need to move.
When the most recent BMR housing became available we were so upset to see that we didnt make enough money to qualify. We need more deeply affordable housing for families such as ours, who are already part of the community.
I am asking the City Council to approve the building of housing that is affordable for families of my household income range. We cant just have BMR housing and studios, we need actually affordable family housing.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Haley Kovacs
Flood Triangle resident
