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The Mountain View Whisman School District is in negotiations to sell part of its 144-unit teacher housing project to the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, the school board announced Monday, Aug. 18.
The district is planning to enter into an “innovative partnership,” wherein Mountain View Whisman would sell Foothill-De Anza some of its apartments, which the community college district would then rent to its own staff members, board President Bill Lambert announced when the school board reconvened after a closed session meeting Monday evening.
“This collaboration represents a creative, mission-aligned solution to right-size the housing community for the Mountain View Whisman School District, reduce the Mountain View Whisman School District’s operating expenses and lower average rents for district employees,” Lambert said in a prepared statement.
The price and terms of payment are still under negotiation, Lambert added. He did not say how many apartments would potentially be sold and declined to answer additional questions, citing the ongoing negotiations.
Foothill-De Anza spokesperson Ellen Kamei, who also serves as Mountain View’s mayor, said that while no action has been taken yet, the community college district “looks forward to a potential collaboration with the Mountain View Whisman School District to serve our community.”
Mountain View Whisman used roughly $88 million in bond funds to build the apartment building at 699 N. Shoreline Blvd., which it began leasing earlier this year. The idea was to provide a more affordable rental option for educators to live in an area with sky-high housing costs.
The bulk of the district’s apartments, 123, are currently set aside for Mountain View Whisman teachers and school staff. Another 20 are intended for city of Mountain View employees and one unit is reserved for a property manager.
However, recruiting enough tenants to fill the units has proved a challenge for the school district. Currently, just 52 out of 143 units have been rented, district spokesperson Shelly Hausman told the Voice. That includes 46 units rented to district staff, plus six to city employees. The district’s goal had been to reach 90% occupancy by the end of August.
How much a tenant pays in rent depends on both the size of the unit, and their income level. Roughly a quarter of the units are set aside for those earning up to 80% of the area median income, with a one-bedroom costing these tenants $1,450 per month. The rest of the units are open to anyone earning up to 150% AMI, with a one-bedroom costing $2,900 per month. These units previously had a 120% AMI cap, before the City Council agreed to raise it in June.
The rental rates are driven by the district’s costs to operate the project. One of the major costs is the land itself. Until recently, the district didn’t own the land, instead planning to pay a $1.9 million yearly ground lease, which would escalate 2-4% per year based on inflation.
Last month, the district announced that it would pay $53.5 million to buy the 1.8-acre plot of land from the real estate developer who built an adjacent market-rate complex. The district is funding that purchase through a combination of existing district funds and borrowed money.
Mountain View Whisman has scheduled a special board meeting for Monday, Aug. 25, to continue to discuss the potential sale of units to Foothill-De Anza. According to Lambert, the school district expects to provide more details on its plans at that time.
I hope MVWSD’s Board is going to extend the option to other nearby public education authorities, not just Foothill-DeAnza. If they don’t, FHDA will have almost all the negotiating leverage and MVWSD will have almost none. Meanwhile, the un-leased units will keep burning a hole through MVWSD’s budget.
Cautionary tale in how this sort of public investment can go sideways quickly. Best to focus on the three Rs.
In retrospect, the initial proposal to build housing on district own land (Cooper Park) would have been considerably simpler and cheaper.
So Mountain View has its share of responsibility for cost/complexity and for losing out on privately funded affordable housing units (as the developer skirted costs for affordability requirements).
Great work by the MVWSD Board to build public housing for teachers and city staff, and to own the land underneath it! I’m sure that all of this was a lot of work and required a clear vision and lots of persistence. What a wonderful housing resource that current public employees can use and future generations of parents and city residents will be happy to have for public employees! We absolutely need this kind of solution. Good work too, in adapting to any wrinkles in the plan. I agree with Bruce that MVWSD should arrange a solution that allows it to maintain control into the future, even if the solution involves somewhat more hassle and cost to MVWSD right now in dealing with multiple buyers (or *lessees* who could return space to MVWSD as its needs might change in the future).
so we’re now paying people to move here! Wouldn’t it better to pay people to LEAVE so the housing would be available for those who want live here?
I want to thank the Superintendent, new school board, and whoever else was part of this plan to have the FHDA college district offset the full cost of the land purchase of $53 million with the sale of 50 units to FHDA for $54 million. The $1 million per unit sale price covers MVWSD’s cost to build those units.
Link to MVWSD future sale of units to FHDA:
https://mvwsd.novusagenda.com/AgendaPublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=5628&MeetingID=300
Along with the new superintendent’s more collaborative negotiations earlier this year with the city to expand eligibility requirements to give housing access to more teachers, and the addition at Thursday’s board meeting of a highly qualified housing board, all these acts together have finally stabilized, right-sized, and offloaded this project.
Link to the new staff teacher housing board:
https://mvwsd.novusagenda.com/AgendaPublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=5609&MeetingID=299
Exciting future for MVWSD with this overbearing issue resolved.
Anyone know of Rudolph paid his sweetheart loan back yet?