Eviction decision tabled for Meals on Wheels

LIVE OAK—The Live Oak School District (LOSD) Board of Trustees on Wednesday tabled a decision of whether to enforce an eviction notice to the senior programs using their building in Live Oak.

Meals on Wheels—overseen by Community Bridges—and Senior Network Services both use the building at 1777 Capitola Road. 

But LOSD has announced its intentions to build teacher housing at the site, and last year gave the organizations a June eviction notice.

The delay will allow the board to consider the possibility of including the senior services organization in future development plans.

“I believe there is much hope for the possibility of an intergenerational facility here, which will be a benefit to all of Live Oak for many many years past when any of us are involved in this project,” says Senior Network Services Executive Director Corey Azevedo.

LOSD with the Senior Center Organization purchased the property in 2004. The Senior Center disbanded in 2016, and LOSD has continued to rent the space.

In an informational packet for the Wednesday meeting, the district signaled that it planned to uphold that date.

It is unclear what the upcoming discussions will bring. 

But if it is forced to move, Meals on Wheels would have to find a space with an industrial kitchen, in addition to industrial refrigerators and freezers, among other things. Setting up a temporary location would cost nearly $200,000, says Community Bridges CEO Ray Cancino.

At the time of its eviction, LOSD told Community Bridges the Senior Center needed roughly $500,000 in maintenance. Community Bridges responded with an estimate of its own for a little more than $100,000, and offered to foot that bill on the condition that the lease was extended for two years. 

Cancino questions why LOSD is moving forward with plans to demolish the building, despite having no immediate plans to develop the site. In addition, he says, Community Bridges has been negotiating with LOSD on the possibility of a mixed-use housing project that could include Meals on Wheels.

“There is actually a long road ahead for them, from pre-approval to pre-development plans to assessment fees to the analysis that is needed that they haven’t even committed to doing,” he says. “I don’t think they even have the $300,000 for demolition.”

Community Bridges estimates that setting up in a temporary location would cost $180,000 per year for the next two years, which he says would lead to 18,000 fewer seniors that they could serve.

Seniors Council Area Agency on Aging Executive Director Clay Kempf says that, if the LOSD Board votes to move forward with the eviction, it would violate an agreement in Measure E, a $14.5 million bond measure approved in 2004 that allowed LOSD to purchase the property.

The language of that bond, Kempf says, explicitly states that the funds would be used to keep Meals on Wheels running.

“To renege on that promise, not only does it affect those 18,000 meals per year but it really calls into question, do senior organizations want to partner with other parties going forward?” he says. “It creates a real lack of trust which only harms all of us.”