Housing

Other than the traffic, one of the biggest topics of concern throughout the Bay Area is rising rental rates. In San Mateo, some options are becoming available for more affordable housing, including the workforce housing at 1990 and 2000 Delaware Street. This community was welcomed with open arms as some much needed low-and-moderate-income housing in the community. To date, this is the City of San Mateo’s largest workforce housing project.

Built on the city’s old police station site donated by the City, the whole community is made up of 120 units with shared common areas aimed at housing a mixture of income groups. When this project was first proposed in 2008, there were sufficient affordable rentals for households with moderate incomes. Because of this, the intent of the project was not to fill a gap in the City’s housing market, but the goal was more social and community-oriented: develop a mixed-income project.

The community is pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented. The apartments are within a short walk to Caltrain, SamTrans, and San Mateo retail centers. The 2-acre property is unique in that it prioritized leasing to public sector employees, including employees of the City of San Mateo and the San Mateo/Foster City School District, by offering every third unit to these employees. This project came on-line in the midst of the current Bay Area housing crisis and took nearly a decade to come to fruition.

The project turned out to be more successful at creating a mixed-income community than originally thought as the market changed swiftly in the eight years since the project was proposed. Now, the mixed-income community is thriving and succeeding at bringing different income groups together.

There are two buildings in this new housing community each targeted at different income groups. 1990 Delaware was financed through a variety of government programs and targets families with incomes up to 60% of the area’s median income. This building was developed by Mid Pen Housing, a nonprofit housing developer. The second building, 2000 Delaware, was a public-private partnership between Westlake Urban and Palo Alto Partners to create workforce housing targeted at households whose income is up to 120% of the median, which is referred to moderate income.

The timing of this project is proving to be very beneficial to the community. Because households at all income levels are now impacted by the rental market, this project was a special opportunity to serve those who make more than allowed for the affordable properties, but still can’t afford the rising market rents. Currently, there aren’t any government funding sources that address the income groups between 80-120% of the median. That middle range is sometimes referred to as “workforce housing,” so the City’s deal to provide land and agree to moderate income rents was unique and is continuing to be successful.

The deal for building this community was made in 2011, and since then the rental market has drastically changed. “Although 2000 Delaware was originally expected to have rents close to market for new construction, they are now below the market,” said Sandra Council, Neighborhood Improvement and Housing Manager for the City of San Mateo. “Because the City provided the land for the deal, these rents will be restricted over time. Their increases will be modest, tied to increase in incomes rather than the real estate market,” Council said.

Outside of this new housing is San Mateo’s newest public art installation. Synthesis is a sculpture created by husband-and-wife artists Jonathan Russel and Saori Ide of Ride Art. This kinetic/wind sculpture is 20-feet tall, stainless steel, and designed specifically for the housing project. The sculpture can be seen on South Delaware Street. The artists wanted the artwork “to give a sense of belonging to the people who live and work in the area by providing a place or a moment to reflect on their personal stories.” Ide said that the title of the sculpture, Synthesis, “is about bringing the community together.”