OAKLAND — About 100 affordable homes are being eyed on a site near downtown Oakland, a project poised to provide housing for senior residents, city documents show.

The units would be built on the site of a church and some apartments at the corner of West Grand Avenue and West Street, a neighborhood near downtown Oakland, according to a very preliminary application filed by the project’s developer.

All told, the project would consist of 101 units, which would include 100 affordable units for low-income seniors and one manager’s unit.

Community Housing Development has proposed the project, which would sprout on a site with addresses of 779, 783 and 793 W. Grand Ave., as well as 2204 and 2214 West St. in Oakland, according to the municipal planning files.

The property is owned at present by Joshua Christian Center, the city documents show.

The homes would be built in two phases, according to the planning files. The first phase would consist of 68 units to be built on the West Grand Avenue properties. The second phase would consist of 32 units on the West Street parcels.

“The project will target low-income seniors earning between 20% to 50% of the area’s median income,” Community Housing Development stated in its proposal.

In 2018, the area median income for the East Bay was $108,000 for a family of four, according to a post by Bay Area Equity Atlas.

The units also would be rented to families, with four units set aside for “persons with mental illness who are homeless, chronically homeless, or at risk of being homeless,” the developer stated.

It appears that the existing church would be replaced by a new religious site, according to the planning documents.

“The senior and supportive housing development would be built over a new church, fellowship hall, classroom and parking,” the developer stated in the planning proposal.

Source: www.mercurynews.com