Housing
A high-density housing development of more than 700 homes, nearly half of them deemed affordable, is in the works in El Cerrito on land owned by BART. The city received a $20 million state grant in October to propel the progress it has made on the San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan, which was adopted in 2014 to meet community housing needs. The plan, updated in 2019, would put houses on land by the El Cerrito Plaza BART station that is…
Elsa Stevens was so stressed about an impending rent increase at her senior housing complex in Richmond that she debated whether she should get a costly CT scan that her doctor had recommended. She did go through with the scan, which eased one worry. But the rent increase at Heritage Park at Hilltop, which offers affordable senior housing, has upset her holidays. “For Christmas, their present is a 5% rent increase,” said Stevens, who has lived at Heritage Park with…
It will be quite some time before any new homes are built in Keller Beach. Since January 2022, property owners in the small Point Richmond neighborhood have been barred from obtaining building permits, owing to a city moratorium on new connections to the Keller Beach Sanitary Sewer, which stretches for just over a mile along the area’s coastline. City officials tagged the line in November 2021, according to records, because of “severe internal corrosion” and sand deposits in portions of…
Twenty years ago, the Hilltop Mall was the place to be in Richmond. It was a bustling shopping area full of life, and around this time of the year, it would have been extra busy with holiday shoppers. Today, the mall is vacant and isolated, stores are empty and dark, with only Walmart open. But Hilltop’s owner says the site has a promising future providing three things Richmond needs: employment opportunities, retail space and mixed-use housing. Prologis, an industrial real…
Across the country, fears of a wave of evictions emerged when pandemic-era moratoriums and rent relief programs ended. In Richmond, those fears materialized. A little over a year after most pandemic-related protections were lifted for area renters, Contra Costa Superior Court data indicates that eviction cases have spiked in Richmond. The City Council officially lifted the local moratorium in April, but a large number of tenants have been eligible for removal from their homes since July 2022. According to the…
Lia Cortes paused as she walked past a group of girls admiring the trendy clothes displayed on mannequins leaning against a pink wall in a small clothing store. The streetscape at 22nd Street and Nevin Avenue has changed dramatically in the 23 years Cortes has lived in the neighborhood. “It is a main street. I used to drive through here but not walk because it used to be pretty sketchy,” Cortes said. Cortes lives in Terraces at Nevin, one of…
As inflation last year reached its highest level in 40 years, raising consumer prices on food, gas and even used cars, renters in San Pablo say they’ve felt the squeeze because of a lack of rent control in the city. This week, they asked the City Council to take up their cause. With hand-painted signs reading “Housing is a human right,” more than 30 people, including families, marched outside City Hall on Monday. Gathering shortly before the council meeting convened…
What does it take to move one person off the street and into housing? In Richmond, officials estimate it’s something like $75,000 in support services. Last month, the city received that when the City Council voted to accept $8.6 million from the state to move 115 people into housing from encampment hot spots along the Interstate 580 and 80 corridors. The infusion of cash, combined with a commitment of close to $4 million from the city and Contra Costa County,…
“People of Richmond” is a regular series in which reporters pose a question to people in the community. Answers are presented verbatim, though sometimes edited for brevity. Q: Do you agree that Richmond should be building more tiny homes for people now living in encampments? “Yes. We need to look for every possible solution for homeless people, regardless whether it is tiny homes or other buildings as well.” (Alison Moreno, librarian, pictured above) “Yes. I work in youth development and…