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A local nonprofit recently got a major boost from Google, after receiving a $1.5 million grant to support the purchase of an apartment building for low-income families.
The Mountain View Community Land Trust is seeking to raise $10 million for the acquisition and preservation of affordable housing in the Castro neighborhood, an area of the city with a higher number of low-income households.
“The main goal is to maintain and preserve our community so we have permanent housing that is stable and dignified,” said MVCLT co-founder Olga Melo, who spoke in Spanish.
If the initiative succeeds, it would be the first affordable housing in Mountain View owned and managed by a community land trust.
Melo and six other Latina immigrant women founded MVCLT in 2024, motivated by their decades-long work in the Castro neighborhood and a recognition that working-class families were struggling to stay in Mountain View because of the lack of affordable housing.
The nonprofit is looking to put housing in the hands of the community by taking land off the speculative market and giving residents a say in how their housing needs should be met.
“The residents are in charge and have control over the governance of the property. They’re in charge of how it’s run, and they make the decisions about it,” Melo said.
The $1.5 million from Google is a big step in carrying out those goals. The hope is that by the end of the year, the nonprofit will have raised $10 million so that it can purchase an apartment building to support families who are at risk of displacement, Melo said.
MVCLT has been looking at possible properties in the Castro neighborhood and has focused on older buildings that don’t need a lot of renovation, Melo said. The nonprofit doesn’t want to incur debt for future residents, she added.
Recent price listings for buildings that meet the criteria have ranged from nearly $4 million for a nine-unit building up to $14.2 million for a 23-unit building, according to a MVCLT press release.
Currently, some families are spending up to 80% of their income on housing, a huge cost burden that the nonprofit wants to bring down. The idea is for families to spend only 30% to 35% of their income on housing, Melo said.
The nonprofit also plans to give households earning less than 50% of the area median income priority for vacancies, the press release said.
To reach its $10 million goal, MVCLT is looking for an even split of funding from private and public sources. It has identified several possible opportunities, including from the city of Mountain View.
Last year, the Mountain View City Council set aside $4 million to help organizations acquire and preserve older apartment buildings. The program is part of a larger $20 million funding strategy to prevent tenant displacement, as a lot of rent controlled buildings are at risk of redevelopment.
MCVLT is hoping to tap into this funding source, although Melo emphasized that nothing has been committed yet.
Still, the nonprofit is optimistic that it can reach its fundraising target, given the strong start from Google. The support of the community also has been a big driver to see the project to the finish line, Melo said.
“The community knows us and trusts us,” Melo said. “We love being in Mountain View. It’s where we live and have raised our children. We want to continue to see our community in photographs in Mountain View, that we’re still here thriving,” Melo said.
This is great..so much better than tearing down these family-oriented small apartment complexes and replacing with sterile, high rises designed for tech workers!
There are problems that are not reported yet. In 1960s there was a records fire and Mountain View is missing a large amount of drawings needed under cal health and safety code 19850. And very likely these buildings are the ones missing.
You make a good point Steve but a very very thorough inspection can mitigate most of any potential issues.
I do agree with your direction, these things sound great but if rent is kept low, eventually the building will need improvements and there is no money available to make major improvements (eg new roofs, repainting, redoing all the windows). Everything fails at some point. I don’t think this organization has the experience to run his business.
Inspections are impossible if you don’t have an accurate and approved design to compare your test. The city has actually revised to inspect a property in the past. 184 Centre St is a commercial apartment on a residential land, making it violate the zone. And the building design was burned in a fire. When there us visible cracks in the foundation and the exterior suspension walkway, and yet no structural inspection occurs, you have a serious problem. Under Cal Health and Safety Code 19850
The building department of every city or county shall maintain an official copy, which may be on microfilm or other type of photographic copy, of the plans of every building, during the life of the building, for which the department issued a building permit.
The record for this building dors not exist and many others are destroyed.
As a former building inspector, I disagree. 2-3 story Apt buildings aren’t very complicated. As I said, you need to do a thorough inspection, including separate structural, foundation and mechanical inspections and you’ll cover as much ground as if you had a design.
Still the law Cal Health and Safety Code 19850 has no Grandfather clause. At the same time Jojn Carr testified in a Rental Housing petition that everything was in good order with the City regarding the property at 184 Centre St. 2 years before disclosing that the City did not have the building design or building permit. If the hearing files are still available you can confirm this.However since these City does not have the design, that would mean the property can never be in compliance with the Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act. A reporter at the Mountain View Voice has found the news report about a fire that destroyed them in 1959. Whe the building was being built. Upon any fire insurance claim regarding the city hall, the city would use the fire claim to buy an additional copy from the builder. I asked the city department about it, and asked for confirmation that the building was safe, and the city refused to answer the question. A video can be seen on YouTube. I also document the problems with cracks on the foundation, cracks in the elevated walkway, and sinking floor in the unit. However there was no structural inspection done ever, and at the same time the city employee testified that the “upon VISUAL inspection there wasn’t any indication of uninhabitable conditions. Given there was wall to wall carpet, you cannot see anything it is concealed. So in 2 situations the city implies the building is up to the law but was not. There was no repair of the foundation of the building do e with a permit. Finally, the building is a commercial apartment complex, a building class R4. But the site it is on is a land zone R3.1. Thus it should have either been rezoned or destroyed on 2000. And since there was a fire perhaps hundreds of buildings in the city have a major problem. All buildings with lost records either beed to be completely inspected, or may need to be condemned, because not only are they uninsurable, but no mortgage company can lend money to purchase them.
I do not know if you know the history of Google and Mountain View. First more than 14 years Google was promising to build a new campus called Bayshore. It was pronise to have as much as 5000 residential units. And that there was set aside affordable housing. This went on for years. Then the city had to provide services at a discount to move the project. The problem is in the last 3 years Google fired 35% of the Mountain View location workers, they closed and sold commercial real estate, and finally completely canceled the Bayshore project. And now the city is happy with a $1.5M donation from a $1.92T enterprise. This was so small regarding Google it doesn’t come close to petty cash, and doesn’t come close to the failed promises of Google to the city if Mountain View. I just needed to ensure you understood.
I do know the history from this venerable newspaper. I think you might fully understand the fact that the largest single taxpayer today to the city’s coffers is….Google. They contribute well more than they consume. For years, they subsidized our local shuttle service. They are an advertising company first and foremost. As a shareholder, they need to focus on making money so that shareholders like me can pay high property taxes to the city of mountain view.
So as a person with a conflict of interest in this matter, since you are a shareholder, does that mean you must recuse yourself in the City Council involvement with Google? Was this ever disclosed in your 700 form? The facts are you still didn’t address the years of dragging out the false promises of housing to the City of Mountain View for so long.
“Melo and six other Latina immigrant women founded MVCLT in 2024, motivated by their decades-long work in the Castro neighborhood and a recognition that working-class families were struggling to stay in Mountain View because of the lack of affordable housing.”
When gentrification strikes, low income people (often women and people of color) are pushed out of the community. The immigrant women who founded MVCLT in 2024 can testify to that Truth. Working-class families are struggling to stay in Mountain View.
“Recent price listings for buildings that meet the criteria have ranged from nearly $4 million for a nine-unit building up to $14.2 million for a 23-unit building, according to a MVCLT press release.”
So Google’s donation will help about four families? Woo-hoo!
Google’s donation is a PR move, not an act that will significantly bring relief to those in most desperate need of affordable housing.
We need housing policies that are designed to solve the housing crisis for those in VERY LOW, LOW, and MODERATE income families, not just Google’s highly paid tech workers. Our housing policies are the result of lobbying from CA YIMBY (an org founded by Zack Rosen and Nate Friedman, two tech elites).
“But with millions of middle- and working-class Californians struggling to pay exorbitant rents, Big Tech’s need to lead was hardly altruistic.
What pushed tech executives into action, Rosen candidly told The Information, was that the housing affordability crisis had become an “existential threat” to the growth of the tech industry.” – https://www.housingisahumanright.org/inside-game-california-yimby-scott-wiener-and-big-tech-troubling-housing-push/
Melo needed to take action because our housing policies are designed to help the Tech industry. Period.
Why should the powers of government be used to solve ONLY the problems of rich and powerful billionaires, instead of “we the people”?
Make no mistake, Tech elites are the driving force behind CA YIMBY.
Also, in the case of 184 Centre St, I was requesting a proper inspection for years and the City refused to perform it. On top of that the City defended the landlord regarding a rent reduction petition claiming everything was in order years before it came out the building designs were destroyed in 1959 . And in fact went to eviction court and refused to acknowledge in court that the records were missing. The employee was coached to answer any question with the answer “upon VISUAL inspection there was no evidence to suspect the unit was uninhabitable ” even when directly questioned both regarding laxk of drawings and the cracked foundation. There was no permit for any repairs on the foundation. And if you really want to see another record. The facts are your can see that the City has failed to perform any proper inspection and refused to do it