(published in Palo Alto Online, May 17, 2013)
Editor,
My name is Fr. Matthew Stanley and I am Pastor of the one Catholic Church in Palo Alto — St. Thomas Aquinas. Our parish consists of over a few thousand families and includes the three church sites of Our Lady of the Rosary on Cowper, St. Albert the Great on Channing, and St. Thomas Aquinas on Waverley. I am also a resident of Palo Alto and live at St. Albert’s Rectory.
I’m writing as a representative of the Catholic community of Palo Alto, asking you to please do everything that is feasible to preserve the affordable housing at the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park. Many of our parishioners live at Buena Vista and love it there. They are scared to be uprooted from the community and the parish that is very comfortable and dear to them. The people of St. Thomas Aquinas stand with the residents of Buena Vista in their desire to remain in their homes.
Palo Alto really needs this diverse community of hundreds of people. They add such a positive balance to our upscale town. Palo Alto has struggled for years to increase the number of affordable housing units, and now there is a threat to remove hundreds of low-income housing opportunities in one sweep. It would take years for our city to build up the numbers again. It doesn’t make sense.
Forcing all the people at Buena Vista to find other places to live isn’t right or just!
Fr. Matthew Stanley,
Channing Avenue, Palo Alto