By Town Crier Staff Report
The Los Altos City Council decided to hold onto nearly $300,000 in affordable housing grants for as long as possible, rather than hand the money over to a non-profit agency in Cupertino as discussed earlier this year.
Santa Clara County each year allocates Community Development Block Grants from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to cities within the county to address local housing needs. Federal guidelines mandate that each city spend the money within 18 months or give it back.
Los Altos has a $281,604 surplus from old grants that it must spend this year on capital projects related to affordable housing. The city may spend the money on housing needs within Los Altos, in communities adjacent to Los Altos or within the county.
The dilemma is that the city has the money but no projects within its boundaries on which to spend it.
The city had initially earmarked most of the grant money for six affordable housing units initially planned for the Tree Farm site on El Camino Real until the non-profit developer pulled out.
Los Altos has given money to affordable housing projects in the past, but never to those within city boundaries, city staff said.
The council had offered to throw in nearly $300,000 needed to finish a $7 million, 22,000-square-foot affordable housing project in Cupertino, if the Cupertino City Council agreed to invest an equal amount of money in future affordable housing projects in Los Altos. Cupertino Community Services is the non-profit organization developing the project.
The Los Altos council decided earlier this month to seek out affordable housing projects in Los Altos first. If the city cannot find developers who will accept the grant money and its conditions by the county’s spending deadline, the council will give the money to Cupertino.
The decision came after Cupertino Mayor Sandra James told the council that “In the event that Cupertino were to risk losing CDBG funding, we would certainly be willing to consider directing these funds to an affordable housing project in Los Altos.”
Council members decided to hold onto the money in case a project becomes available in Los Altos and the developer is willing to accept the money and the attached strings.
The city is in the process of updating the housing element of its General Plan and the planning commission is reviewing plans for the city’s first exclusively affordable-housing complex. There is also talk about including affordable housing units in a land proposal for the city-owned site at the corner of First and Main streets.
Los Altos must have 256 affordable housing units by 2006 in order to meet the state’s housing goal.
