Important Notes!

• Cities are required to report their annual progress to the State of California by April 1 of the following year. That is, their annual and cumulative progress through December 31, 2025 is reported in April 1, 2026.
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• The State counts all housing units in developments that have receivedcity building permits. Actual project completion or construction is NOT required.
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• Annual Affordable Housing Element Progress Reports Archive (City website)

2025 Menlo Park Housing Element Progress Report (April 1, 2026)

“As shown in Table 1 below, Menlo Park has achieved approximately 39.1% of its total 6th Cycle RHNA. At the end of 2025, the income category with the highest percentage of units receiving a building permit was the above moderate level, at nearly 60% of the City’s above moderate RHNA, and the income category with the lowest percentage of permitted units was the very low income affordability level at approximately 18.5% of the City’s very low income RHNA.”

A Closer Look At Very Low-Income Housing

• The City needs to issue building permits for an additional 603 housing units.
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• The required annual production for 2026 – 2031 is 603 units/6 years => 100 units per year.
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• Average annual production for the period between Jun 2022 – Dec 2025 (41 months) was 40 VLI units.
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• But the 2025 Production was only 19 VLI units
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• The Downtown AH Project is the only one in the pipeline that could provide hundreds of very low income housing units. But the City cannot count on it. If the November 2026 parking lot initiative were to pass, the City would need to convince a majority of voters to approve this project in a subsequent election.
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• The City has no back-up plan for the Downtown AH Project because the City Council claims there are no feasible alternative sites.

2024 Menlo Park Housing Element Progress Report (April 1, 2025)