The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Robert Scheer

A child runs through the courtyard at the Sunburst Apartments, which will soon be revamped in a First Community Housing project.

Council OKs nonprofit to renovate apartments

By Steve Enders

The appearance of Sunnyvale's Sunburst Apartments contradicts its name. The units are colored with fading yellow paint and chipped brown trim, and puddles from recent rain form in the dirt parking strip next to the apartments.

On one side of the complex towers a 15-foot-tall sound wall, separating the units from Highway 101, and on the other side sits a vacant lot, covered with two-foot-tall weeds.

At its Feb. 10 meeting, the Sunnyvale City Council voted in favor of granting a low-income housing advocacy group a loan that will help clean up the complex.

This is the second loan the city has granted First Community Housing. In March 1997, the city gave FCH a $1.2 million loan to construct the Parkview apartment complex on the vacant lot next to Sunburst.

FCH decided to acquire Sunburst after realizing that it could "negatively impact" the new development, according to a city report. FCH will purchase and renovate Sunburst while constructing the new building, and the two complexes will eventually operate under one name, Jan Lindenthall of FCH said at the Tuesday meeting.

"We're delighted to bring [the city] the opportunity to double the size of the 30

units at Parkview and [we'll add] several amenities which will make for a much better project," Tim Nieuwsma, executive director of FCH, told the council.

Work on the Sunburst Apartments will begin this summer, and will probably be completed in the winter of 1999.

One teenage resident at Sunburst said she is happy to see changes coming. The resident, who wouldn't give her name, lives in a one-bedroom apartment with her mother and sister, and says her apartment leaks water through the ceiling and has a faulty stove that shocks her when she uses it. Also, she said, the apartment needs new carpets and tile.

The owners of Sunburst weren't available for comment at press time.

Scheduled improvements include new carpets and window coverings, as well as much-needed paint and concrete repair.

FCH will also build a community center for the apartments, providing a place for children to do homework, for adults to meet and for tenants to do their laundry.

Both of the projects combined will cost nearly $7.5 million. The $300,000 will come from a federally funded city-development grant. FCH has to pay both the $300,000 and the $1.2 million back to the city over a 30-year period.

FCH will get the remaining $5 million from privately funded tax-exempt bonds.

The apartments, located at 245 Weddell Dr. currently have 32 tenants, 21 of whom qualify as low-income- housing recipients. Right now, according to Sunburst's manager, the apartments are not specifically designated for low-income renters. FCH will change that when it takes over the building.

To qualify for low-income housing, a family of four must earn less than 60 percent of the median income of that area. To meet low-income housing requirements in Sunnyvale, a family of four must make less than $38,000 a year.

FCH is promising low-income tenants that after renovation it will not raise rents, which currently range from $628 for a one-bedroom to $1,045 for a three-bedroom apartment. For those 11 residents who don't qualify for low-income housing, rents will rise to market rate after renovation, according to Dyane Matas, a housing officer with the city.

Lindenthall said that those tenants won't be forced to move, but if they choose to do so, FCH will provide financial assistance and help them find new apartments.

"These 11 families are paying far, far less than what the market rent is and what they can afford to pay based on 30 percent of their income," she said. "If they chose to move, we would assist them."

Councilmember Jack Walker showed concern for those tenants whose rents will increase. He said the families may have high living or child-care costs. Also, he said, if tenants were to move, they would probably have to pay first and last months' rent, which could cost thousands of dollars.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 18, 1998.
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