The Mercury News/San Mateo County/Kevin Kelly, Daily News Staff Writer, 7/14/16. "Facebook may pour $6.3 million into affordable housing in Menlo Park."
| Ignoring the fundamental housing shortage, displacement, and living in the street are not housing solutions. People are not RL frogs. |
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| Build it, those who need housing are already here. |
"MENLO PARK -- Facebook may put a $6.3 million fee it owes Menlo Park for a planned campus expansion directly into an affordable housing development instead of a city account for similar projects in the future. "Facebook is partnering with MidPen Housing to explore how future BMR (below-market-rate) fees can be used to accelerate the development of affordable housing," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to The Daily News.
The city's affordable housing fund, which contains roughly $10 million, has been criticized for not being spent in a timely fashion."The City currently has a significant balance of BMR Fees that could be used to make an immediate impact on the problem through investment in affordable housing," MidPen president Matthew O'Franklin wrote in a letter to the city June 29. "The City received three proposals ... in November 2015 and those funds have yet to be committed."
Lily Gray of MidPen said the social media company's money could be used for a planned redevelopment on the 1300 block of Willow Road, as well as two other possible sites where it owns and manages property in Belle Haven. In May, MidPen said the 1300 block, which provides 82 affordable units for families and seniors, could be redeveloped to allow for an additional 36 units.
The partnership was announced to the city at the June 29 Housing Commission meeting, where Facebook's below-market-rate agreement was being reviewed."We are definitely interested in affordable housing across the city, not just in Belle Haven," commission Chairwoman Michele Tate told The Daily News on Wednesday. "We are excited Facebook wants to use the money right away."
Related city solutions. MidPen Housing | Building Communities. Changing Lives. "Building Communities. MidPen Housing is one of the nation’s leading non-profit developers,
owners and managers of high-quality affordable housing. In the 45 years
since MidPen was founded, we have developed over 100 communities and
7,600 homes for low-income families, seniors and special needs
individuals throughout Northern California. Our developments are award-winning and nationally recognized." Mercury News/Daily News/Kevin Kelly, Staff Writer, 7/21/16, "Menlo Park: City studies plan to boost affordable housing.".... " 'I think that with guidance
from staff, we can find areas where we can have incentives not only for
the types of things, but where they can be located," Councilwoman Catherine Carlton said. "We
can't make the development happen ... but we can certainly sweeten the
deal.' " Comment. Remember when NIMBIES protested to save tenants from
eviction in this City (Pacifica) last year? Meantime since then, these same NIMBIES have made no effort to
promote solutions to build affordable housing in this City (Pacifica).
Note photographs. Building affordable housing, from Sarah Brett (project manager, MidPen Housing Corporaltion, Linked In, 5/6/15. "Housing is a human right" protest by Brant Ward (or may be Sam Wolson/Oakland, 5/2015, San Francisco Chronicle, file 2/10/16.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
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