Politics & Government
$20 Million Designated For East Palo Alto Affordable Housing
A local coalition will take the cache to have 128 new units built at the Light Tree Apartment complex on Bayshore Road.
EAST PALO ALTO, CA — The city of East Palo Alto announced Friday a local coalition will
receive $20 million to build more affordable housing and make transit and other infrastructure greener.
The city of Palo Alto, Eden Housing, East Palo Alto Community Alliance & Neighborhood Development (EPACANDO), and San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) collaborated to submit the grant proposal, according to a City of East Palo Alto press release.
The coalition received $13.5 million in loans for affordable housing development and $6.5 million in grants for transit and infrastructure improvements. The grant funds the construction of 128 new units at Light Tree Apartments, located at 1805 E. Bayshore Road, including 14 units for the
formerly homeless, disabled and youth.
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"The Light Tree Apartments, originally built in 1966, has been home to many generational cycles past and present. It is due a transformation and with these funds in will be one of the more modern housing facilities in the city," said Vice Mayor Regina Wallace-Jones.
Linda Mandolini, president of Eden Housing, which acquired the Light Tree Apartments property in 2001, said, "More than 200 names are on Eden Housing's waiting list for a unit in Light Tree Apartments. The grant is an opportunity for us to take 91 families off of that list and into a
high-quality home."
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The transit allotment of $2.25 million was designated to SamTrans to buy three electric buses for a planned bus route linking East Palo Alto with BART at San Bruno and other places, according to the city.
SamTrans will use $500,000 of the funds to provide Light Tree residents with up to 650 SamTrans transit passes per year for up to three years. The city will use the remaining $3.75 of the transit and infrastructure portion of the grant to modernize Addison Street by installing
sidewalks, bikeways, and making other changes to bus stops."
At EPACANDO we are excited to be awarded funding relating to control of greenhouse gas emissions. We are proud to address housing needs in coordination with transportation efforts by creating a development that models the link between them," said Duane Bay, executive director of
EPACANDO.
The grant money derives from Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities funding, according to the city.
—Bay City News