County agency buys San Jose senior citizens affordable housing complex
SAN JOSE — A South Bay government agency has bought another San Jose senior citizens affordable housing complex that had been seized by federal officials through the foreclosure of a delinquent mortgage.
The Santa Clara County Housing Authority has purchased the Jardines Paloma Blanca housing complex at 132 North Jackson Avenue in San Jose, documents filed on July 19 with the county real estate officials show.
The housing agency paid $2.65 million for the Jardines Paloma Blanca complex, according to the documents filed with the County Recorder’s Office.
The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department sold the 43-unit residential complex to the County Housing Authority after it had foreclosed on a real estate loan it had issued to the prior owner of the complex.
This marked the second time within a week that HUD foreclosed on a mortgage for a senior citizens housing center and then promptly sold the complex to the County Housing Authority.
On July 13, the county agency paid $4.15 million to buy Girasol Housing, a 59-unit apartment complex at 1710 Alum Rock Avenue in east San Jose, county property documents show.
In the case of the Jardines Paloma Blanca complex on North Jackson, HUD provided the mortgage to an affiliate of Macsa Housing Corp. in 1994.
At the time of the foreclosure, the unpaid debt, consisting of the original mortgage amount, late fees, interest and penalties, was $10.5 million, county records show.
The price the County Housing Authority paid was well under the amount of unpaid debt and was much less than the property value for the Jardines Paloma Blanca complex, which was $5.5 million as of June 2023, according to the County Assessor’s Office.
It wasn’t clear why the HUD loan greatly exceeded the assessed value of the Jardines apartments.
What is certain, however, is that the County Housing Authority intends to ensure that the residents of the senior citizens’ complex are able to remain in the Jardines Paloma Blanca apartments in an uninterrupted fashion.
The Housing Authority has begun an outreach effort to contact all of the residents of the center in their primary language to assure them that they can continue to remain in the apartments at their current affordable rent levels, according to Fidel Contreras, a spokesperson for the County Housing Authority.
Plus, the purchases of the senior housing centers dovetail neatly with one of the primary missions of the county agency.
“It’s all about the preservation of affordable housing,” Contreras said.