In the last three years, we partnered with Faith in Action Bay Area and Rebuilding Together Peninsula to improve the conditions of garages that are serving as homes for many families and residents in East Palo Alto. These and other critical community and technical partners will be able to carry the work forward to ensure more low-income homeowners can rehab their garages while minimizing the displacement of tenants. Thank you to all the partners and the City of East Palo Alto for their leadership in this housing preservation work.

“Get Healthy SMC was a critical partner in getting the initiative off the ground at a critical time when the state was also working on rolling out a series of new legislation that will forever change the landscape of options for homeowners to legalize or build new ADUs [Accessory Dwelling Units] on their properties.” - Cari Pang Chen, Associate Director of Rebuilding Together Peninsula

CitySytems, a participant of the Garage Conversion Initiative is now helping the City of East Palo Alto to refine the tools for streamlining the rehab and construction of second units. Another local partner, EPACANDO will take the coordinating role for the Garage Conversion Initiative. To sustain this work, the Initiative applied to CalHome state grant and the San Francisco Foundation Equity Grant. We are crossing our fingers!