Santa Clara will no longer consider a site on White Oak Lane for a potential Project Homekey development following community backlash and concerns among council members that the project for transitional housing wouldn’t be financially feasible and would be too close to a high-speed intersection.
On Tuesday evening, the Santa Clara City Council unanimously voted — with Vice Mayor Raj Chahal absent — to explore other sites within the city for a 60-unit development for homeless families that’s being proposed by LifeMoves.
The nonprofit is looking to the city to be a co-applicant for Homekey’s second round of funding, which began last month. The pandemic initiative from Gov. Gavin Newsom has provided money to local government looking to refurbish hotels or vacant apartments for unhoused individuals.
But the prospect of constructing the project — which would consist of modular units stacked two to three stories high — on a vacant lot at 2035 White Oak Lane drew intense community opposition with more than 150 speakers during an hours-long hearing on the issue Tuesday night.
Many of them expressed their concerns with the project’s proximity to residential neighborhoods.
“I am not opposed to providing shelter to vulnerable persons in a community, but strongly oppose the choice of location of this LifeMoves project,” said Yu Lim, a resident who said he lives two blocks from the proposed location. “The site at White Oak Lane is totally unsuitable for interim housing units as the neighborhood is family oriented with many young children.”
A majority of the council also raised concerns with the location of the project, stating that it wouldn’t have good access to public transportation and is off of Lawrence Expressway on a turn that drivers make at high speeds.
The project also would be costly for the city’s already strapped coffers, council members said. While Homekey would provide some up front funding, the city would have to come up with money on an annual basis for operating costs. Jonathan Veach, the city’s housing division manager, estimated that it could cost anywhere from $2 to $5 million a year to operate.
“This council cut public safety and a lot of things that we can’t afford at this time,” Mayor Lisa Gillmor said of the most recent budget. “This would be a big expense for us and I’m not quite sure that this is the right property for that.”
But community opposition also seemed to play a role in the denial of the White Oak Lane site.
“There was one resident who made a comment saying that they worried that if the project went forward how it would be received by the residents, especially if LifeMoves is looking at this being a project for families,” Councilwoman Kathy Watanabe said. “I would be concerned about those families and especially the children. We are trying to make life better for families and if there’s resentment towards the project or resentment towards families that’s not going to help anybody.”
Watanabe suggested they look at other hotels on El Camino Real instead. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors last week approved plans to purchase the Bella Vista Inn on El Camino Real in Santa Clara with plans to eventually add a seven-story building adjacent to the soon-to-be-remodeled motel. The project would result in 120 affordable homes.
While the county has taken the lead on a number of Homekey projects over the last year, Office of Supportive Housing Director Consuelo Hernandez told this news organization that they prefer to defer to cities in taking the lead on transitional housing projects like the one being proposed by LifeMoves.
