Affordable housing on display Affordable housing on display (June 04, 2004)

Bus will take public on tour of MV complexes

By Corey Pride

Affordable housing in Mountain View will be the main topic of discussion June 5 when an open house bus tour through four low- and fixed-income housing complexes takes place.

The tour will depart at 9:45 a.m. from St. Athanasius Church at 106 N. Rengestorff Ave. and will take riders to senior and family housing complexes, including Central Park, Sierra Vista, Tyrella Gardens and The Fountains. Riders will be given a tour of each property and the opportunity to mingle with residents.

The event is free to the public and is being sponsored jointly by the Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition, Charities Housing and Peninsula Interfaith Action (PIA).

Mid-Peninsula Project Manager Sarah Karlinsky said the open house is a good way to highlight the need for affordable housing.

"There is a large unmet need for affordable housing on the Peninsula. We have a lot of jobs but not enough housing for the people filling those jobs," Karlinsky said.

She said she is hoping for 50 to 100 people to attend and hopefully find out that people with lower incomes are not really different from anyone else.

"A lot of people don't want to live next to low-income people. There are a lot of misconceptions out there.," Karlinsky said.

Mountain View resident Bill James became involved in the affordable housing issue through his church. James will represent PIA in the ceremony after the bus tour.

"The fact that these (housing) developments exist shows what a good job the city has done," James said. "I'm really hoping people will turn out."

Kora McNaughton, Mid-Peninsula communications coordinator, said she plans to thank the Mountain View City Council for supporting affordable housing in the past few years.

"We rarely do these type of events. What we are really trying to do is thank the city," McNaughton said.

She said a lot of city governments are opposed to having affordable housing in their neighborhood but Mountain View does not fall in that category.

E-mail Corey Pride at cpride@mv-voice.com

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