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From: Eldridge, Karyl <br />To: GRP -City Council <br />Subject: Tishman Speyer/MidPen project/Please vote to approve <br />Date: Monday, October 12, 2020 10:09:13 AM <br />Attachments: 20 1010 Gatekeeper MidPen Tishman Comments.pdf <br />Dear Honorable Mayor Howard and Members of the City Council, <br />As the Council turns its attention this evening to the Tishman Speyer/MidPen project that is <br />under consideration, I am writing as a veteran leader with Faith in Action Bay Area to <br />encourage you to approve this proposal. <br />For the past twenty years, I have been engaged in the work of Faith in Action Bay Area, <br />previously Peninsula Interfaith Action, to help ensure that everyone in the community has a <br />safe, decent affordable place to live. The proposed project, which includes 80 units of <br />affordable housing at the low -and very low-income levels, is an important step toward <br />realizing that important goal. <br />I understand the basis on which staff has recommended denial of the project, and I do not <br />believe that such staff considerations are an irrelevancy in the least. But given the need for <br />deeply affordable units—a need made all the more profound by the pressures families have <br />experienced in the current COVID moment—I urge you to find a way forward with this <br />project. Given the fact that our Area Median Income is now so high, housing at the deeper <br />levels of affordability is critically important to provide stable shelter to those on the lower end <br />of the economic spectrum, including many of the essential service workers on whom the <br />community so heavily relies. <br />Also, I think it is especially important to realize that as your current planning processes <br />proceed, the cost of the land will inevitably rise to levels that will make it impossible for <br />MidPen, or any affordable housing developer, to acquire it. The proposal before you is not <br />only an exciting opportunity but also a time -sensitive one, and again, I urge you to find a way <br />to overcome the obstacles and bring this project to fruition. <br />Sincerely, <br />Karyl Eldridge <br />Veteran Leader with Faith in Action Bay Area <br />H <br />