Funding for Ivy Palm Housing Effort Repurposed for Expansion of Mountain View Estates

RIVERSIDE – Riverside County’s initiative to turn a Palm Springs hotel into housing will not move forward, but the county will be able to repurpose state funds from that effort into helping eastern Coachella Valley families move from dilapidated mobile homes into new housing and vastly improved living conditions.

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors today approved the reallocation of state funds and federal CARES Act dollars from the Ivy Palm project in Palm Springs to complete the phase 3 expansion of Mountain View Estates in the community of Oasis.

In September, Riverside County received $10.5 million from the state’s Project Homekey housing program to fund three projects, including a hotel-to-housing conversion in Palm Springs and a 40-home expansion of Mountain View Estates. The county planned to purchase the Ivy Palm hotel and convert the hotel into permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.

The county’s offer for the Ivy Palm Hotel was accepted by the owner, but the sale was denied by the bankruptcy court on Dec. 8. Facing a Dec. 30 deadline to expend the state grant funds, county housing staff was successful in seeking state approval to reallocate the funds to add67 more new mobile homes at Mountain View Estates.

Today’s news means that a total of 107 mobile homes will be added at Mountain View Estates, completing the full build-out of the 398-home mobile home park.

“We were looking forward to Ivy Palm coming to fruition, it was well-needed and we were set to do this in partnership with the City of Palm Springs,” said Supervisor V. Manuel Perez. “On the other hand, this is positive news that we are able to use the state funding towards another much‑needed effort to improve housing for farmworker and service worker families in the eastern Coachella Valley. I appreciate the county housing team and the State of California for making this happen.”

Mountain View Estates was built to remedy the unsafe and unsanitary housing situation of residents at a dilapidated mobile home park known as Duroville. The mobile home park has clean water and sewer infrastructure, paved streets, safe electricity, as well as landscaping, fields and recreational facilities.

The first 40 mobile homes of the 107-home phase 3 expansion have been acquired and are in the process of being installed. County housing staff expect families to begin moving in this month.

Applications for the new mobile homes are currently being accepted by county housing staff and can be found at: https://www.harivco.org/Resources/MtViewEstatesProjectHomekeyApplications/tabid/242/Default.aspx

Supervisor V. Manuel Perez represents the eastern two-thirds of Riverside County on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. Stretching from Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs, south to the Salton Sea and east to Blythe and the Colorado River, the 4^th District is the largest geographical district in the county.

Supervisor Perez’s office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.