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When the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park was on the verge of being razed and replaced with a luxury-housing development six years ago, the Santa Clara County Housing Authority stepped in and bought the El Camino Real property, preserving it as one of Palo Alto’s few bastions of low-income housing.
Now, the housing authority is moving ahead with its own redevelopment plan for the park at 3980 El Camino Real, one that would replace mobile homes, community buildings and a motel on the west side of Buena Vista with a new apartment building. The authority also intends to replace existing mobile homes at the remainder of the site with new ones, according to a report that the agency issued ahead of a Feb. 13 meeting with the Palo Alto City Council to unveil the proposal.
The housing authority will solicit feedback about the new plan from Buena Vista residents and other stakeholders until June, after which it will submit plans with the city of Palo Alto and state Department of Housing and Community Development, according to a memo from the agency. If things go well, construction would begin at the end of this year or early next year.
For Buena Vista, the new proposal would represent the biggest transformation since the housing authority took ownership of the 4.5-acre property from the Jisser family in 2017. At that time, the county Board of Supervisors and the Palo Alto City Council each kicked in $14.5 million to help prevent the park’s closure. The Housing Authority contributed $12 million to purchase and another $19.9 million to renovate the residential community, a process that included replacing Buena Vista’s aged utility systems and bringing mobile homes up to code.
The agreement involved a mutual understanding by the funders that the Housing Authority would upgrade the mobile home park and preserve it as low-income housing for decades to come. To date, however, the process has moved much more slowly than some residents had hoped for. When the park operator, Caritas, concluded its work at Buena Vista in 2019 and the John Stewart Company took over, residents complained at a public meeting about the lack of improvements.
Since then, some mobile homes have been demolished and some residents have left. The park today has about 270 residents, according to the Housing Authority, down from about 400 at the time of the purchase. The 117 households in 2017 dwindled to 93 in 2019 and to 77 now, with a variety of income levels, housing types and family sizes.
The Housing Authority did not respond to questions from this news organization about Buena Vista and its planned development, but its new report touts the upgrades that it has made. In 2020 and 2021, it reportedly brought in 18 new recreational vehicles and manufactured homes to replace existing mobile homes, a program that it claims “created better quality housing for 61 park residents.” The agency has also reportedly cleaned out trash and abandoned cars, repaired homes, installed new electrical and gas utilities, replaced aged sewer and water lines and created new spaces for resident services and the community’s after-school program, according to the report.
The state agency and the John Stewart Company have also been inspecting units and bringing them up to health and safety standards, issuing compliant leases and certifying income levels, according to the memo. That work continues to this day.
The Housing Authority also acknowledged that its original plan to launch renovations shortly after purchasing the park and installing an operator has not gone as expected.
“Unfortunately, this plan was impacted greatly by the difficult realities of the park’s condition, including the state of the infrastructure systems, the physical condition and age of the units, a significant relocation project within the park, and the varying degree of barriers facing each household,” the report states. “While not insurmountable, these difficult realities have slowed down our efforts significantly.”
The goal, according to the memo, “continues to be the preservation and improvement of the park, and the stability and success of its residents.”
According to a report from the office of City Manager Ed Shikada, the upcoming council discussion will be part of a broader outreach effort by the Housing Authority, which will also include a meeting with the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. The authority also held a meeting with about 45 residents last month, the report states, with future plans to meet individually with residents to hear their concerns.
The Housing Authority told residents in a Jan. 23 notice that its long-term plan is to replace all mobile homes with new units and that the new apartments will replace the dwellings that were previously on site. The company also informed residents that there will be “significant onsite activity” and that those who will be required to temporarily relocate will get financial assistance from Poco Way HDC, the Housing Authority’s affiliated nonprofit.
“The Housing Authority and Poco are working diligently to maintain long-term, safe, high quality affordable housing for the residents of Buena Vista,” the notice states.
I hope the City and the County really do replace Buena Vista with a majority of low cost housing and assist physically with relocating all current residents to temporary housing and not add to the homeless community.
To clarify – the agreement signed by Buena Vista owner Housing Authority, Palo Alto and the County is that all 117 households there at the time of the purchase in 2017 got to remain if they chose to.
While temporary relocation may occur to allow for the badly needed infrastructrue upgrade, no one wil become homeless. Just as was done at Stevenson House in Palo Alto a few years ago, Housing Authority will find temporary relocation housing for residents.
Most Buena Vista residents are homeowners with property rights. They pay rent for the space their homes sit on. Those that choose to remain owners of mobile homes have the right to do so.
The Buena Vista renters will live in the apartment building where added units will return the total household count to what it was in 2017, and are well sited next to a 2.5 story below-market-rate apartment bulding on an adjacent property.
I am glad to hear that we are updating the living standards at Buena Vista. What I wonder is why don’t we further densify this property. We have a need for low-income housing and this is a good place for it. Why such a modest proposal?
How will cost of housing change for the current residents once the new facility is built or during their transition period? I’m very glad we are seeking solutions to provide a safer living environment for them, but I hope that the change will not increase their housing costs and force them into homelessness or out of our community where they are valued friends and neighbors.
I feel sure that many of the residents like the idea of a Mobile Home Park with a community feel and neighbors they have known for a long time. I wonder how they feel about being moved into an apartment building instead? It may be more modern, but I wonder if they will feel at home in such a place.
What a great opportunity for a grant request to study what happened between 2017 and now. Where did the 2017 residents that left, go?…and why did they leave? Kudos to those who led the charge in getting the reported upgrades installed. You get bonus points if that was accomplished without raising the rent beyond a normal level based on CPI’s. However, points will be taken away if it’s discovered that rent increases were designed to pay for the new upgrades. Also, make sure the rent rates for units in the new apartment building won’t be any higher than the housing costs of those whose housing they will replace.
Hello, Gennady: Redevelopment is expensive, not to mention the added costs of moving residents into temporary housing. Where is the money coming from? In particular, will the housing sponsors seek additional County and City funding?
Perhaps there’s something missing from this report, but it appears that the city and county officials involved in this project have not been good stewards of tax dollars…In following the money in this story, the county and city have put up $14.5M each to purchase ($29M sub-total); the Housing Authority put up $12M to purchase ($41M sub-total) and another nearly $20M to renovate ($61M total)….There are now 77 households (down 34%) and 270 residents (down 32%)…That’s nearly $800K per household and $226K per resident…Renovations and operations “have not gone as expected,” and now the Housing Authority wants to start all over again…It seems the tax payers of Palo Alto and Santa Clara County are owed a full accounting of how their $61M was spent and should have a voice in any furhter propsed spending on this project…
In the late 90’s my in-laws missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to accept a small increase on rent space at their MHP with the option of staying forever with no more increases. They were in Europe at the time and didn’t hear about it until they returned, after the offer expired. The property manager said it’s too bad they missed out on it but couldn’t re-open the offer. I hope that this is being offered now to Buena Vista mobile homeowners — no space rent increase, ever. The homes themselves can’t be moved because they would fall apart — not that there’s anywhere to move it TO. My MIL died leaving her husband with half the social security checks, and annual space rent increases without limits. It became an albatross that he ended up selling for $3k to a person who passed the credit check, and he moved into a great ADU with very nice people who have never raised the rent. Space rents have been overwhelmed by skyrocketing increases. It’s no longer an affordable option. Who would have ever thought that a slab of asphalt would be worth a king’s ransom to anyone? Nobody but a rent gouging landlord could envision that. I hope PA would not follow the rent gougers to get whatever they can squeeze out of people who own “mobile homes” that aren’t actually mobile.
When you improve properties, their rents will push higher. If you want low income housing, building a giant apartment building next door is the exact opposite of wise. Fix the sewer system and move on.
Wow, 60 million for this project, what a waste! You could give each family $250,000 and do so much more good