One of the first 100% affordable housing developments in Cupertino poised to serve some of the community’s most vulnerable residents is drawing backlash from the surrounding neighborhood.
A local grassroots effort with more than 450 online signatures wants to stop a 40-home affordable development along Mary Avenue. The project proposes a first-of-its-kind housing mix of 19 homes for adults and families with children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and 20 homes for low-income residents. Those homes would eliminate 89 parking spaces and the multiple feet they take up near hundreds of apartments, townhomes and single-family homes, which residents said could create safety issues. Advocates disagree, saying the development is safe and necessary to provide homes for the 325 disabled residents in the city without many housing resources.
The project, proposed by affordable housing developer Charities Housing, doesn’t need City Council approval of its entitlements since it would be on a 0.79-acre site listed in Cupertino’s state-mandated housing plan. But it still needs councilmembers to approve legal documents because it’s on city-owned land. Development officials said the city hasn’t given a timeline for that, which has delayed construction originally planned for the end of next year.
City representatives did not respond to a request for comment about the timeline.
Community members such as Roberta Murai, whose two sons live near the proposed development, want the entitlements to come before the city council to halt the project. She’s helping lead a mail campaign against the project because she said taking away parking spots could lead to people parking unsafely. She said getting rid of part of the road where parking spaces are is dangerous. The project will not narrow vehicle lanes, according to the development team.
Murai said she’s not against diverse affordable housing, but the project should go somewhere with more room.
“It’s a safety issue for the whole entire neighborhood, and it’s something that can’t be reversed,” she told San José Spotlight. “It needs to be stopped now before they go any further.”
The project was initially well-received last year as a collaboration with nonprofits West Valley Community Services, Housing Choices for People with Developmental Disabilities and the Rotary Club of Cupertino Housing Corporation. It would provide an affordable housing option for residents making 50% or less of the county’s area median income — about $68,325 for one person, according to 2025 state data.
Housing Choices spokesperson Gia Pham said the main income source for most adults with developmental disabilities is Social Security, which isn’t enough to move out of their family homes and could put them at risk of homelessness. She said only 11 adults with developmental disabilities live in their own apartments in Cupertino.
Pham said the project has been carefully thought out and wants opponents to realize the development will add to the community, rather than take from it.
“Just think for a second and imagine that your child had a developmental disability,” she told San José Spotlight. “Wouldn’t you want your kid to have safe, affordable housing in the community where they grew up, close to family, friends, resources, a sense of belongingness?”
A resident in the Garden Gate community, who asked for anonymity due to privacy concerns, said the neighborhood is supportive of disabled residents — adding they’ve attended multiple community meetings about the project. But they said the developers haven’t considered how surrounding projects have affected the neighborhood, including the Westport development.
The resident said squeezing more homes into the space could affect quality of life and the safety of neighborhood children, with an increased risk of car crashes as the road changes.
“Everybody’s building in piecemeal, but nobody’s stepping back and (saying), ‘Oh my gosh. What is the cumulative effect of what we’re doing to this area? Is this really the right spot to be building into the street because it’s so narrow?'” they told San José Spotlight.
The idea for the project started more than a decade ago, when the Rotary Club proposed turning the land into affordable housing for older adults, which the presiding city council denied. In February 2024, councilmembers unanimously approved an exclusive one-year negotiation period between the city and developers for its latest iteration.
Orrin Mahoney, board member of the Rotary Club of Cupertino Housing Corporation, said it’s disappointing residents are opposing the project on unfounded safety concerns. He parked his car there for two days with a dash camera, and said the parking spots are hardly used except when nearby Memorial Park has festivals.
“It’s been one of the few (projects), besides the library, that actually brought everybody together,” Mahoney told San José Spotlight. “That’s why it’s frustrating now that that went away.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.