Millbrae La Quinta Inn purchase approved

Despite strong pleas from many Millbrae residents and officials, San Mateo County supervisors decided to move forward with the purchase of the La Quinta Inn and plans to transform the hotel into a permanent housing site for formerly homeless families and seniors.

“We have a lot of interim housing, which is great, but we cannot get people stuck in interim housing. We have to exit them out into permanent housing so they can begin to live on their own,” County Executive Officer Mike Callagy said during Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s easy to have that continued, let’s push this down the road and talk but, for those people, it’s a matter of life or death.”

In a 4-1 vote, Supervisor David Canepa the lone dissenter, supervisors declared their intention to purchase the La Quinta Inn for $33 million and to spend up to an additional $8 million to renovate the 99-room hotel into a 75-unit housing site. The site is expected to house up to 200 residents once open in 12 to 18 months.

The decision came after hours of public comment, some in support of the project but most of which came from Millbrae residents and officials who implored the county to pause the decision to allow for more discussion and planning. Their concerns touched on four areas — the location of the site, public safety, a loss of city revenue, and the planning process.

“We don’t approve of the process that was used. We do support supportive housing,” said Millbrae Mayor Ann Schneider, who noted the city has dedicated millions of dollars toward homeless housing and services and has limited taxable land. “This should have been done, if you were going to do it, in a town hall with all of you and all of us but you didn’t. Instead, you blindsided us.”

On safety and location, many argued that placing homeless residents near a school and senior center would potentially put those populations at risk, suggesting the county should look for some place further away from such facilities. Some also raised concerns that people experiencing drug addiction or mental illness would put the community as a whole in danger while placing more of a burden on the city to care for those in distress.

Supervisors weigh in

Supervisors acknowledged the concerns and passions of those against the project but largely pushed back on those claims. Board President Dave Pine said he would never support a project he believed would put the community in danger. Instead, he said the county’s investment into the La Quinta site would improve public safety given that families and seniors would live there and the site would have 24-hour staffing and oversight.

Supervisor Noelia Corzo, who shared she experienced homelessness with her family as a child, said the new residents will become part of the community, attending local schools and the senior center, and potentially becoming friends with those who already live in Millbrae.

“For those of you who came 20, 30 years ago and were able to buy a home, I’m so grateful you were able to do that, but your kids most likely can’t do that at this point in time because of how high the cost of housing and cost of buying a home is, and that’s a reality we all have to live with, and it’s also what has pushed so many people in our community into homelessness,” Corzo said. “I want to remind folks of how welcomed and safe you felt when you came to this community and ask you to please treat your new neighbors in that way.”

Three similar projects are in Supervisor Warren Slocum’s district, Shores Landing, a 95-unit permanent housing site for formerly homeless seniors, Casa Esperanza, a 71-unit permanent housing site for formerly homeless individuals, and Pacific Shelter, a 74-room interim housing site. All three are in Redwood City and the county’s new navigation center. Since those spaces opened, Slocum noted the county has quickly addressed any issues that have arisen and asserts he’s heard of no recent issues.

The county acquired state funding for those four projects, and another in San Mateo, through the Homekey Program, an initiative borne from Project Roomkey, a COVID-era program meant to get homeless residents into safe shelters. County officials are currently seeking Homekey dollars to help fund the La Quinta Inn purchase.

Finding compromise

Supervisors did concede on some economic and safety concerns. They agreed the county should better compensate the city for lost hotel tax revenue, supporting a $600,000 payment to the city annually for three years rather than the one-time $600,000 offer put up by staff.

Those funds would be in addition to funding the placement of two additional sheriff’s deputies in the city for three years and a two-year deployment of a mental health clinician who would be embedded with the department and deployed on calls where an individual is experiencing a mental health crisis. The county and city will reconvene near the end of those periods to determine whether the city is in a position to fund the services or if the county should continue providing support.

Supervisor Ray Mueller asked that those details be hammered out in a memorandum of understanding with the city within 30 days. The MOU would also clarify other expectations of the county including various upkeep requirements of the site and quarterly check-ins.

“I don’t want people to leave here today and think, ‘Well, it’s continued and they’re going to go off into a private place and disappear and we don’t know what they’re working on,’” Mueller said.

Mueller also shared support for helping Millbrae address issues caused by homeless transit riders being swept off of public transit into the city at night. He also requested that the document include a stipulation that the county will provide the restaurant on-site with a grant to help it move if the business begins to fail after the use change. The county is offering the restaurant, Bashamichi Sushi, a five-year lease instead of displacing the business and employees, a decision Callagy said could be mutually beneficial for the business and residents.

As for current hotel employees, a major concern for Canepa, supervisors directed staff to craft a plan for how the county will help connect those individuals with new steady jobs. Before that direction, Callagy said hundreds of similar openings exist in the county and that local organizations have expressed a willingness to help.

Canepa remained unsatisfied with the county’s proposal which he said was “being forced onto people.” He argued a more solid plan detailing how the county would assist current employees and work with the city should have been put forward and advocated for pausing the decision to continue working with Millbrae officials on a more agreeable plan, but he was ultimately outnumbered.

“We have nothing in place right now, no sort of guarantee,” Canepa said. “We should do the moral thing and that’s moral is to make sure that we take care of the people who work at La Quinta and who work at that restaurant.”

Canepa did vote alongside his colleagues on a similar but far less contentious decision Tuesday — to move forward with the $11 million purchase of a 45-room Ramada Inn at 721 Airport Blvd. in South San Francisco. An additional $4 million would be spent on renovating the site into permanent supportive housing which would also be operated by Episcopal Community Services, a San Francisco nonprofit also tapped to run the La Quinta Inn site.

Councilmember James Coleman and City Manager Sharon Ranals both spoke in favor of the purchase with Ranals expressing hope the county would enter into an agreement with the city similar to the one with Millbrae.