Mountain View-based Community Services Agency has expanded its services over the past several decades, but its facilities have remained the same. CSA’s headquarters in Mountain View was built 31 years ago and, according to employees, is in definite need of a face-lift.
As a nonprofit that provides essential services to vulnerable populations, including food distribution and homeless case management, CSA’s resources have always gone toward providing as many services as possible for clients, leaving little money to revive its aging facilities. However, CSA leaders realized that in recent years, cramped quarters and infrastructure problems are preventing them from expanding.
“We need more space and, as we all know, commercial real estate in this area is just hard to come by,” executive director Tom Myers said. “We have decided that it’s time to refurbish this building and bring it up to snuff, if you will. This building needs to be more state-of-the-art for the types of services that we’re going to be providing.”
In addition to an elevator that sometimes stops between floors, a failing HVAC system, an aging roof and other needed fixes, the existing space could be better used by allocating more space to meet with clients and employees.
Thanks to a sweet deal with the Los Altos School District, CSA will soon relocate temporarily to the building at 435 San Antonio Road as the organization gears up to renovate its space at 204 Stierlin Road. The move will take place gradually, likely beginning in the fall, with renovation plans materializing from there.
CSA is leasing the new space, formerly the home of Joann Fabrics and most recently a community vaccination site, from LASD at the bargain rate of just one dollar per year for two years. The entire block on San Antonio is set to become the district’s 10th campus as well as a Mountain View city park by 2027.
Myers urged LASD officials to lease the space to CSA based on a “strong relationship” with the district, while knowing they would be seeking short-term tenants for the buildings before demolition, projected to begin in early 2025.
“They’re a great organization – beyond giving food and gift cards, they connect the most underserved in our community with services,” said Jessica Speiser, president of the LASD Board of Trustees, at a meeting approving the lease earlier this month. “We have been unofficially working with them for the past year and half to help get food for our underserved LASD families. … And with this lease, we could actually start doing the distribution from there to our community.”
CSA will move the majority of its services, including food distribution, homeless prevention services and outreach and engagement services, to the new space as early as the fall. Senior case management is currently handled at a remote site on Linda Vista Avenue and will remain there during the move.
Expanding plans
Myers sees the location shift as an opportunity to adjust and expand the agency’s services to meet the needs of the community.
“The renovation of this building is going to be assisting our staff, the services that we provide and ultimately leading to the delivery of services to our clients who need it the most,” he said.
The transition could include exploring more outreach opportunities and programs, including mobile food distribution and mobile case management. Given that staff will be operating at an increased geographical distance because of the move, it might also mean finding better methods of collaboration among the staff.
“Our friends at another service agency have created a mobile truck, and this may be the way we need to go in the future – a mobile truck that can actually take food and a case manager or case management team off-site and distribute food and case management from a single truck,” Myers said. “That may be one thing that’s in our future.”
The specific date of the move is yet to be determined, but Myers noted there will be plenty of outreach and communication to clients so they can still access the services they need.
In the meantime, he said the organization is always looking for new volunteers as well as donations. CSA is currently looking for volunteers who can perform administrative tasks, especially bilingual people who can speak either Spanish or Mandarin.
Director of programs Brandi Jothimani extended an open invitation to local residents who may be curious about CSA, its offerings or volunteer opportunities.
“Come meet us, come see what we’re doing,” she said. “We would love that.”
For more information, visit csacares.org.
