Mountain View residents face eviction to make way for condos

On a recent summer afternoon, an ice cream vendor pushed a brightly colored cart along a residential street in Mountain View. But the chiming music did not draw any customers outside, not even a child — likely because most of the homes on the street sat vacant.

For the past several years, tenants have been moving out of an older apartment complex that lines both sides of Gamel Way, a cul-de-sac across the street from Castro and Mistral elementary schools. Only a handful of residents have remained after receiving regular notices from the property manager that the apartments will be razed to make way for a seven-story condominium development.

“I would call us the survivors because we are the ones who refuse to move,” Gamel Way resident Tania Peneva said. “And we still are withstanding all the pressure.”

Built decades ago, the apartment complex is covered by Mountain View’s rent control law. At one time, it was a bustling community composed largely of working-class immigrant families. Today, the complex is quieter — but still a lifeline for those who cannot afford paying market-rate rents in the city.

“The building is very old,” Peneva said. “It’s outdated but it’s still livable.”

When Peneva moved into her two-bedroom apartment in the late 1990s, the rent was $850 a month, she said. It has since risen to nearly $1,500, still far below the asking price for an average two-bedroom in Mountain View. Those go for roughly $4,500 a month, according to a recent Zumper analysis.

Peneva likely will not have the option of staying at Gamel Way for much longer. The termination notices she once received yearly now come to her mailbox every four months, she told the Mountain View Voice.

“We made a home here,” Peneva said. “But it might not be our home tomorrow.”

The threat of the wrecking ball

Ten years ago, Mountain View voters passed a rent control law with the aim of keeping homes affordable for lower-income residents. In the years that followed, the city was hit with several demolition projects that displaced tenants from rent-controlled apartments, often to make way for pricey rowhouses.

Some of those projects resulted in fewer homes than existed before, according to Mayor Emily Ann Ramos, a tenant advocate who served on the city’s Rental Housing Committee at the time. In 2019, Mountain View started to develop an anti-displacement strategy to preserve affordable apartments, but it was slow-going at first, Ramos said.

“There was a discussion of, ‘What do we do about it?’ And in true government fashion, it took awhile to do something,” Ramos recalled.

Around that time, the DeNardi Group — now known as DeNardi Wang Homes — submitted an application to raze the apartment buildings and build for-sale condos at 1919-1945 Gamel Way.

The developer did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the project and their plans to assist tenants in relocating.

Back when DeNardi first proposed the redevelopment, it sought to build 118 condos, but there was a catch. The project hinged on the sale of Gamel Way, which is currently a public road. That gave Mountain View some leverage.

“How the developers envisioned that project, the city would have to sell them that cul-de-sac,” Ramos said.

It was not just the City Council that had a bargaining chip. Gamel Way residents also put pressure on DeNardi. They formed a tenants union and hired a lawyer to try and save their homes, or at the very least, help them negotiate options to stay in Mountain View.

“We were sure that we would have to leave soon,” Gaël Sisich, a Gamel Way resident and tenant organizer, said. “We put up a good fight for at least a year.”

In 2021, the council approved the 118-condo project. The developer had agreed to replace all the rent-controlled apartments with affordable condos and provide relocation benefits for existing tenants, including paying the difference in the cost to rent a comparable apartment for 42 months. DeNardi also struck a deal to pay the city $4.8 million for the street.

Since then, the plans have changed. In 2023, DeNardi submitted a new application — this time for a builder’s remedy project with 216 condos, nearly twice the size of the original project. After several years, it now appears the revised project is moving forward, with the council planning to vote on selling the street next month. It is not yet known when the council will vote on whether to approve the actual development.

For Sisich, the project delays have been an unexpected boon as it pushed out the eviction timeline. But the threat of demolition also created an atmosphere of uncertainty, prompting tenants to move out before it was necessary to do so. Of the 29 apartments, only six are still occupied, Sisich said in July.

Humberto and Maria Cruz were among those who packed up their bags. The couple had been living in a studio apartment on Gamel Way with their two daughters, paying $1,250 a month, Humberto Cruz said. Worried they would be thrown out onto the streets, the family left four years ago after receiving two termination notices.

“It was difficult to find another place,” he said in Spanish, noting that he works in pest control and does not make a lot of money. “Rents in the area are expensive.”

The family eventually found a mobile home in Mountain View to rent for $3,500 a month.

“We feel like we were tricked,” he said. “We are paying so much more.”

‘Someone will benefit … but it may not be my neighbors’

In the past five years, tenant protections have gotten stronger in the state. Senate Bill 330 requires demolished rent-controlled homes to be replaced by affordable housing at a one-to-one ratio. It also stipulates that developers must provide relocation benefits for lower-income households and a “right of first refusal,” giving tenants first dibs to rent or purchase a home in the new development.

Mountain View recently updated its tenant protection policy, largely to align with SB 330. The changes included increasing relocation assistance and clarifying the process for notifying tenants when they must vacate a property.

Since 2016, there have been 24 development projects that have displaced — or are slated to displace — tenants from homes covered under Mountain View’s rent control policy. Those two dozen properties consisted of 891 rental homes, 748 of which were occupied, according to city spokesperson Lenka Wright.

While city and state laws were in many ways designed for situations like Gamel Way, it is unclear how much they will help tenants in the long term. Sisich is on a fixed income and said he still needed to find a place to live that would not drain his savings. Eventually, the rental assistance will run out, he said.

Sisich also questioned the feasibility of purchasing a condo at Gamel Way, even though residents will have the right of first refusal. Of the 216 condos that are slated to get built, 44 have been designated below market-rate. That includes 29 “replacement” condos, which will have their sale prices set at the income levels of the current tenants.

However, former tenants still face barriers to buying redeveloped homes, especially those with fewer financial resources, Ramos said. Challenges include down payments, credit checks and condo association fees.

“I have not heard of a successful case where the person moved out, for how long it was supposed to be built, and then came back when it was all done (to) a nice new unit,” Ramos said.

Because the right of first refusal is a recent requirement, Wright said that the city “does not have substantial data” on how many tenants have returned to redeveloped properties either to rent or purchase.

Meanwhile, the Gamel Way residents are not holding their breath that they will be the ones moving into the new condos.

“Someone will benefit,” Sisich said. “But it may not be my neighbors.”

This story originally appeared in the Mountain View Voice. Emily Margaretten joined the Mountain View Voice in 2023 as a reporter covering City Hall.