|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Alta Housing CEO and president Randy Tsuda has shaped local housing policy in the region for decades. Nowhere is this more evident than in Mountain View, where Tsuda helped guide some of the city’s most influential land use policies, laying the groundwork for thousands of new homes to get built over the past 15 years.
Today, he is leading an effort to build affordable housing on downtown parking lots in Palo Alto.
In recognition of his work, the Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California selected Tsuda to receive the Catherine A. Bauer Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors individuals who have made a long-term impact on housing affordability.
“It’s a thrill to be recognized but it also makes me think about the hundreds of people that I’ve learned from,” Tsuda told this publication. “From elected officials to advocates to community residents and now my team here at Alta Housing, I’ve learned from all of them.”
In 2018, Tsuda took over the helm of Alta Housing, a nonprofit developer that has built more than a thousand apartments for low and very low-income households in the region. Under Tsuda’s leadership, the organization has grown by more than 40% and expanded access to affordable housing opportunities, including in Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Redwood City, according to a statement by the nonprofit.
“(Tsuda) has guided us through the most productive period in our history,” said Jack Thompson, chair of Alta Housing board of directors. “He leads with integrity, wisdom and compassion, and as a result, we’ve substantially grown the number of residents who have a great place to call home.”
Planning for housing growth
Before joining Alta Housing, Tsuda served as Mountain View’s community development director for 10 years. He was hired in 2008 at a time when the city was just starting to update its general plan, which serves as a kind of blueprint for long-term growth. The framework has guided new housing developments in the city, especially in the San Antonio area and along El Camino Real, where thousands of new apartments and some condos have been built, Tsuda said.
Tsuda also helped usher in a long-term plan to transform North Bayshore from an office park into a new urban community that could support high density residential growth and places for people to shop, dine and recreate. The city banked on Google to fulfill this vision.
In 2023, the City Council gave Google the greenlight to build a mega-development in North Bayshore that plans for 7,000 new homes and 3 million square feet of office space, retail and restaurants. The project also includes 26 acres of parks and open space to be built over the next 30 years. Since then, the tech behemoth has pulled back on some of its plans to build housing and offices in other parts of the city, raising questions about the feasibility of the North Bayshore plan.
Tsuda noted that it has taken longer than anticipated for some of Google’s projects to come to fruition. He attributed this to the pandemic and changing real estate priorities. However, he also expressed optimism about North Bayshore, describing it as a high opportunity area.
“The idea of creating a whole neighborhood in an area that is essentially an office park right now, I think is still a good one,” Tsuda said. “It’s still a portent of what we will see in other similar types of areas around the Bay Area.”
Progress on the Peninsula
At Alta Housing, Tsuda also has played a role in bringing more affordable housing to Mountain View. In 2021, the Luna Vista apartments opened, a 70-unit development for low-income residents on El Camino Real. Before then, the nonprofit had one affordable housing project in Mountain View, the Eagle Park Apartments, also located on El Camino Real.
More Alta projects are in the pipeline too, including one that recently broke ground on a municipal parking lot, known as Lot 12 at 444 Bryant St. The 120-unit affordable housing project will serve low and very-income residents. It also will include units for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness and for those with developmental disabilities.
Another Alta project, a 108-unit affordable housing development at 1020 Terra Bella Ave., which used to accommodate inhabited vehicles as part of the city’s safe parking program. The development is expected to break ground this summer, according to Tsuda.
While the Lot 12 and Terra Bella projects are underway, Alta has struggled with the financing for a third affordable housing development at 1012 Linda Vista Ave. Last year, the city pulled $10 million that had been previously allocated to the project and redirected it to Lot 12, which was “shovel ready” at the time. Tsuda said that Alta is currently in discussions with the city about tapping into its affordable housing reserve, with the hope that the project can get off the ground soon.
“Every level of government right now has a shortage of funding so it’s a particularly challenging time,” Tsuda said. “It’s taking a while to assemble the five to seven sources of funding that’s necessary to build any one of these projects.”
Alta has also been busy in Palo Alto, where in 2022 it opened Wilton Court, a 59-unit development in the Ventura neighborhood that includes residences for individuals with disabilities. The project represented a triumphant return to Palo Alto for the nonprofit developer, which in 2013 was at the center of a citywide referendum that struck down an affordable-housing project in Barron Park.
Other Palo Alto projects may be coming soon. Earlier this year, the developer won support from the City Council to pursue a six-story project with 72 units on a city-owned parking lot on Lytton Avenue. The project is now advancing through the city’s approval process despite a lawsuit from downtown property owners who are challenging the legality of transforming public lots to other uses.
Even with the recent progress, the funding constraints are making it difficult to build affordable housing not just for Alta Housing but for other developers as well, according to Tsuda.
“Given how long it’s taking to get projects funded, Alta and other similar nonprofits, we are wary of purchasing additional land right now,” he said. “We’re looking at every opportunity to build on city-owned land where the carrying costs are low.”
While Tsuda identified the acquisition of funding as the biggest challenge for Alta Housing, he noted that the nonprofit has still been able to expand its geographic footprint in the region. More cities are recognizing the need for affordable housing with local residents increasingly in support of it, he said.
“I think people now understand that folks that are living in affordable housing are actually people that are already in our communities,” Tsuda said. “They’re folks that we interact with every day, whether it’s restaurants or grocery stores or doctor’s offices or elementary schools. … I think there’s a real understanding of that, much more so than I’ve ever seen before.”
Palo Alto Editor Gennady Sheyner contributed to this article.
Mountain View moves forward with $4.6M plan to fix eroded banks at Stevens CreekMay 5, 2026 11:19 am
