Gateway Rising, Menlo Park’s newest affordable housing development, opens

Gateway Rising, the block-long development along Willow Road east of Highway 101 in Menlo Park, features 140 units along with a fitness center, bike parking, a communal room with a kitchen, picnic tables and much more. Buildings are connected with airy enclosed walkways with floor-to-ceiling glass.

Officials and Gateway residents, came together Friday (May 24) to cut a red ribbon at San Mateo County’s newest affordable development. Located in the Belle Haven neighborhood, Gateway Rising has emerged as a showpiece for what’s possible with foresight and public-private partnerships that work.

“These homes are a testament to the sustained efforts to prevent displacement in one of the most expensive regions in the country,” said Iliana Rodriguez, the County of San Mateo’s assistant county executive. “Gateway Rising also represents the County’s vision that, here in San Mateo County and Silicon Valley, surrounded by employment centers and amenities, housing affordable to residents with a wide range of incomes will still be available.”

Gateway Rising replaces a 1960s apartment complex built at a time when redlining and discriminatory housing policies directed Black individuals and families — and later Latinos — to live east of Highway 101.

To protect the area and local residents from gentrification, public agencies teamed with nonprofit housing developer MidPen Housing. Together, they developed a plan to replace the garden-style apartments with a development that would remain affordable.

Of Gateway Rising’s 140 apartment homes, 81 are filled by returning residents, seven are set-aside for households experiencing homelessness with the remaining 51 are for  households earning up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income.

The County’s contributions include a $5.1 million loan from the County’s Affordable Housing Fund, financed largely by the local Measure K half-cent sales tax, which provides local funds for local needs. Assistance also includes a $250,000 loan from the Housing Authority’s reserve funds and 81 project-based housing vouchers, which allows tenants to pay rent based on their income.

The waiting list for Gateway Rising is currently closed. For Gateway Rising property information, contact the leasing office at gateway@midpen-housing.org.

Photo by Bruce Damonte