Community Services Agency receives $1.5 million from the state to upgrade Mountain View facility

Bringing hundreds of clients into its facility every day, Community Services Agency (CSA) is ready to repair and renovate its heavily-used building on Stierlin Road, while also looking to expand access to its services in a new location.

The recent approval of the state budget, which includes $10 million for key community initiatives in District 13, will help make this possible, with $1.5 million earmarked for CSA, according to a press release from state Sen. Josh Becker’s office.

The funding will go towards repairing and repurposing the CSA’s headquarters on Stierlin Road, and will support CSA’s longer-term goals of finding an additional site for its Food and Nutrition Center to provide pantry services to residents in Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, the press release stated.

CSA Executive Director Tom Myers said he expects it will cost about $3 million for the building refurbishment and another $5 million for the acquisition of a new site. The city of Mountain View already has committed $1 million to the capital funding campaign, with CSA looking to secure more funding.

These investments, Myers emphasized, are distinct from the service donations provided by individuals. “We know that people donate money to us for services, and we’re going to continue to honor that. Our commitment is that people who donate money for services, that money will go to services,” Myers said.

With the large number of people coming through its doors every day for basic assistance and case management services, the Stierlin building has seen its fair share of wear and tear over the years. It has a leaking roof and a malfunctioning HVAC system and elevator. The 30-year-old building is in need of internal renovations that revamps the layout and improves accessibility.

“We’re going to try and do more in the way of cubicles, less in the way of offices, fewer closed doors inside the building,” Myers said. “We want to make sure that when people are greeted at the front desk, everything that’s out in the lobby is done in multiple languages,” he added.

Lack of storage space has also been a nagging issue at CSA. Boxes are stacked high onto file cabinets while the parking lot accommodates several large storage containers, including an external refrigeration and freezer unit.

Due to space constraints, it’s difficult to house all of CSA’s staff under one roof. Many of its employees, like the fundraising staff and senior services team, are located at Linda Vista Avenue, but that’s just a stop-gap measure until CSA can find more permanent office space. An affordable housing developer, Alto Housing, plans to build on the Linda Vista site soon.

“Our goal is to fix this up,” Myers said, referring to the Stierlin building. “Get as many employees in here as possible and then seek out additional space.”

The first phase of the project will entail a temporary relocation of Stierlin’s services to the former JoAnn fabrics store, near the corner of California Street and Showers Drive, as part of a lease agreement with the Los Altos School District – a move that will likely take place in October. Myers did not anticipate a major disruption to services, many of which occur off-site already, such as the mobile food donations and senior nutrition program that is held at Mountain View Senior Center.

The hope is that the Stierlin building renovations will be finished by next summer. “Everything is on track so far. And I really, really want this place to be fixed as quickly as possible,” Myers said. “So we can move on to the next phase, which is finding additional space.”