Last year, in an effort to shift the public perception and
conversation about affordable housing, advocates in Santa Clara
County designed a whole week of activities
– home buyer workshops, policy seminars, and a tour of
affordable housing developments.
Last year, in an effort to shift the public perception and conversation about affordable housing, advocates in Santa Clara County designed a whole week of activities – home buyer workshops, policy seminars, and a tour of affordable housing developments. Saturday, May 14, marks the beginning of the second annual Affordable Housing Week, largely organized by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, with a tour of a variety of affordable housing developments. South County residents are invited to join others from around the county on this year’s tour that showcases exemplary developments in Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy.
The bus tour will start from Morgan Hill’s Murphy Ranch, a complex of townhomes for low-income renters that has garnered awards for its design and emphasis on ecologically sensitive building techniques. It will also recognize the Skeels Hotel, a single-room occupancy residential hotel above retail space in downtown Morgan Hill that I’ve passed millions of times in 8 years, but never known was there.
Remember the slum that existed behind the the Albertson’s shopping center? The City of Morgan Hill struggled for some time trying to clean up that ugly area. Here, you’ll see its success in transforming it into a lovely neighborhood with decent and affordable rental apartments at Villa Ciolino. Folks will be able to tour the brand new South County Housing Development, Jasmine Square, next to the post office on Monterey Highway. Opening in just a few weeks, it has 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments, retail space and an on-site childcare center that will be run by Go Kids.
The Boccardo Family Living Center in San Martin is an excellent example of affordable housing for special needs populations, namely low-income homeless families, and serves migrant farmworker families from May to November. Built by South County Housing and operated by EHC LifeBuilders, the Family Living Center has received national recognition for its design and very successful services to end homelessness.
On its way to Gilroy, the bus will pass Trimble Court/La Maestra, located just north of town. Trimble Court is a blended community of below-market and market-rate single-family homes, with some homes reserved for low-income teachers and city employees. The name honors the late Florence Trimble, Gilroy’s staunchest and most beloved advocate for poor and disenfranchised people. Adjacent to that neighborhood, the Sobrato Transitional Apartments have broken ground, and next to that is the site of the future Sobrato Transitional Center.
Guests will tour the Los Arroyos neighborhood, an award-winning blended community of low-income and special-needs apartments, affordable senior housing, and below-market and market-rate single-family homes. Then, finally, before heading back to Murphy Ranch for lunch, the tour will finish at Wheeler Manor, a wonderful example of an adaptation and addition to a former hospital into affordable apartments for seniors, with on-site senior day care center and a community center.
I have sat through more than my fair share of community meetings, city planning commissions and council meetings throughout the county, listening to NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) claims that affordable housing brings higher crime and lower home values to the surrounding neighborhoods. Just the words “affordable housing” seem to conjure images that both frighten and discourage. Frighten, because of the stereotype of housing wrought by high-density, awful projects like those from Chicago (which have since been blown to bits) and discourage, because the term affordable housing is shorthand for “a problem too big to solve.”
The thing is, these local projects put all the myths and objections to affordable housing to rest. Here are projects that inspire YIMBY (Yes! In My Back Yard) thoughts. They are nationally recognized models that blend so well into the neighborhoods, you don’t know they were specially designed for special populations (for example, the Boccardo Family Living Center often receives inquiries from people looking at market rate rentals). Values of surrounding homes have risen, not fallen. Most people would be proud to live in these communities.
And speaking of proud, what a thrill it is to showcase these projects, most of which were built by South County Housing. We’re fortunate to have a local organization that knows how to get the job done on these model projects, and do it beautifully.
The tour is open to the public by advance reservation, starts at 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 14; after an eight-stop escorted coach tour, participants are returned to Murphy Ranch for a picnic lunch by 1pm. Reservations can be secured by contacting the Silicon Valley Leadership Group at (408) 501-7864, or emailing ho*****@**lg.net. Registration deadline is Wednesday, May 11.
