Spotted: Breaking ground on Oak Gardens, a MidPen Housing development

Elected officials and public- and private-sector partners gathered earlier this week to celebrate the groundbreaking of Oak Gardens, a development of MidPen Housing.

Oak Gardens is located on an infill site on the VA Palo Alto Health Care System campus in Menlo Park, which is owned by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This 100% permanent supportive housing community will feature 62 homes (including two manager’s units) serving veterans and their families with incomes up to 30%-50% of Area Median Income; 35 HUD-VASH project-based vouchers will provide even deeper affordability. Fifty-five of the homes will have a preference for households experiencing homelessness, and six of the 55 will be set aside for chronically homeless households. Oak Gardens is MidPen’s sixth community in the City of Menlo Park.

At Oak Gardens, residents will enjoy amenities such as a multi-purpose community room with a kitchen, landscaped outdoor space, a secure bicycle room, and laundry facilities. MidPen Services will offer case management and a broad array of on-site resident services that support education, physical and mental health, and economic mobility, and residents will have direct access to VA services and programs.

“My hope is that this project can serve as a testament that affordable housing should go everywhere in our community,” said Menlo Park Mayor Drew Combs, who lives a few blocks from Oak Gardens. “For the veterans who will live here, I will embrace the responsibility of being their councilmember, but most importantly, I will embrace and value all that comes with being their neighbor.”