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Affordable Housing Vignettes

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This series of vignettes all focus on California communities who sought to provide more affordable housing in their community.  Many of the projects had additional benefits for the surrounding areas.  The vignettes offer a before and after snapshot of the project.  

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Alameda Military Base Reused for Infill Projects


Alameda_before_0.gifThe Community Before

The City of Alameda was once home to the huge Alameda Naval Weapons Station, a U.S. military base decommissioned in the late 1990s.

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Burbank Includes Childcare Center in Housing Project

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The Community Before

The area that is now home to Cottage Homes was greatly deteriorated. Housing in the neighborhood was substandard.

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Fremont Project Built Entirely for First-Time Home Buyers

23819_Fremont_1.gifThe Community Before

The Adams Avenue neighborhood was beleaguered by problems, including transients who used the street’s dead end to access homeless encampments along the nearby railroad tracks.

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Foster City Replaces Blighted Shopping Center with Housing For All Income Levels

The Community Before

Before Foster City replaces blighted shopping center with housing for all income levelsFoster City had a rundown shopping center with an abandoned gas station. The gas station was unused for some fifteen years and two of the remaining nine shopping center tenants had abandoned their sites.

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Hayward Works With Developer to Sell Units Below Market Rate

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The Community Before

Rundown single-family homes with illegal additions, an old gas station, obsolete commercial buildings and an auto repair shop once populated the block of downtown Hayward now known as Renaissance Walk.

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Lafayette Creates a Transit-Oriented Development That Includes Affordable Housing

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The Community Before

Ten years ago this underused, five-acre site along the city’s main thoroughfare housed marginal businesses, boarded-up buildings and Lafayette’s corporation yard.

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Los Gatos Uses Infill Site to Provide Affordable Housing

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The Community Before

Before redevelopment, this site was a public eyesore – a vacant, undeveloped lot overgrown with weeds.

Case Story

Richmond Rehabilitates Housing Complex

The city of Richmond recently unveiled Pullman Point, a revitalized affordable housing community.

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San Diego Uses Public-Private Collaboration to Develop Family Apartments

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The Community Before

Barrio Logan is a historic, culturally-vibrant and ethnically-diverse community in South San Diego.

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San Leandro Creates Affordable Rental Units for Developmentally Disabled Adults

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The Community Before

Fuller Gardens was an auto-wrecking yard fronting on San Leandro’s main thoroughfare. The buildings were old and worn, and upkeep had been minimal. The San Leandro Redevelopment Agency was interested in supporting a housing project for city residents with special needs.

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Santa Clara Cleans Up Contamination, Preserves Historic Structures, and Includes Affordable Housing

The Community Before

This site was the former home of Agnews Hospital West Campus, which was surplused by the state in 1996. The 320-acre site contained 100 acres of historic buildings, a few large storage buildings and vacant space. The redevelopment agency had to remove close to three feet of soil contaminated with arsenic and lead from prior agricultural uses before it could safely use the property.

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