Public Support Grows for Affordable Housing

PALO ALTO, CA—Silicon Valley and the Bay Area as a whole continue to add significantly more jobs than housing. Since 2010, Silicon Valley employment has increased by 29%, yet housing has increased by only 4%, a major factor in the housing affordability crisis, says Randy Tsuda, community development director of Mountain View.

To stem this tide, Palo Alto Housing, developer and manager of low- and moderate-income housing in the Bay Area, recently won 9% tax credits for a new affordable apartment community for low-income families and veterans. The developer is slated to break ground on .59 acres in February 2019 at 2821 El Camino Real in Redwood City, the site of a former Enterprise Rent-A-Car lot. Plans call for 67 studio and one-bedroom apartments for households with incomes between 30% and 60% of the area median income. In addition, its latest project in Palo Alto at 3703 El Camino Real was just rezoned to an affordable housing-combining district. The planning commission unanimously approved the rezoning on September 26.

“Longer term, Palo Alto Housing continues to advocate for more affordable housing and build more affordable residential units,” Sheryl Klein, Palo Alto Housing board chair, tells GlobeSt.com. “Palo Alto Housing’s more immediate goals include building out our development team so that we can get all of our projects in our pipeline completed as quickly as possible.”

That’s where a significant new hire comes in. Effective November 14, Tsuda will become president and chief executive officer of Palo Alto Housing, succeeding Candice Gonzalez, who held the position for more than 10 years.

Tsuda has been the Mountain View community development director since 2008. His career includes experience in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, and he has more than 20 years of experience in city planning, including four years as the assistant community development director in Los Gatos. In addition to his community development background, Tsuda also was director of corporate real estate for a technology company for five years and a lecturer for seven years in the urban and regional planning program at San Jose State University.

“Randy has led the way to bring more affordable housing to the city of Mountain View,” said Klein. “We have worked closely with Randy on our four Mountain View projects and saw first-hand his level of integrity, professionalism and commitment to affordable housing. We are thrilled that Randy will be Palo Alto Housing’s new CEO and are confident that he will be a great asset to our organization and the communities we serve.”

This past May, Tsuda received the “Bringing It Home” award from SV@Home, a nonprofit policy and advocacy organization focused on increasing affordable housing, on behalf of the work he and the Mountain View community development department staff did to create the North Bayshore precise plan. The plan, which was approved in December 2017 by the city council, will nearly double the number of affordable homes in Mountain View by adding a total of 9,850 new homes in the North Bayshore area including 2,000 affordable homes. Hailed as a blueprint for addressing the Bay Area’s housing crisis, the plan was supported by a broad coalition of local and regional community-based organizations. Tsuda has worked on numerous award-winning projects throughout his career, including those honored by the American Planning Association and the American Society of Landscape Architects.

“Palo Alto Housing’s history of providing high-quality affordable housing is well known and I have had the pleasure of working with Palo Alto Housing on behalf of the city of Mountain View,” said Tsuda. “I want to help them continue this legacy in Mountain View and in other communities in the Bay Area. Today, more than ever, it is critical that we come together to create stronger, more diverse communities by providing and maintaining high-quality affordable housing where individuals and families can thrive.”

Palo Alto Housing has a significant pipeline of new development projects with approximately 600 residential units in various stages of planning and development in the Bay Area. These include Eagle Park Apartments, a 67-unit affordable apartment community nearing completion in Mountain View, which will house low-income veterans and households earning up to 60% of the Santa Clara County area median income.

“Fortunately, public understanding and support of housing measures have risen dramatically and the state legislature continues to work on easing the process to build affordable housing,” Tsuda tells GlobeSt.com. “The November election will see numerous measures to fund affordable housing such as state propositions 1 and 2, and funding measures in San Jose and San Francisco, Santa Cruz County and Napa County. This builds on the success of revenue measures for affordable housing that voters in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Alameda counties passed in November 2016.”

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