So if you’re going to be announcing News, Thought or any other Announcement at a meeting, send it to us in writing and we’ll put it in Spinnings!

 

 

HIP Housing has a long and storied connection to the club. It has received Community grants from our foundation, several Rotarians have served on its board — Tony Villanueva is a past president and John de Russ and President Bruce are currently on the board — and it’s a homegrown organization.

She stated the obvious: There’s a complete lack of affordable housing in this area because, with so much protected open space and lack of action on the problem by some local agencies and cities, there’s a lack of buildable land; however, there are abundant jobs.

In the past few years the county has added 80,000 new jobs and only 3,000 housing units of any kind. Seventy-seven thousand workers a day commute to San Mateo County from areas beyond the urban area, areas such as Tracy and Modesto, more than Los Angeles.

“When did that happen?” she asked.

Within 15 years one of every 15 persons in the county will be 65 or older, a ‘Silver Tsunami’ that will exacerbate the problem as their financial security wavers and they find themselves unable to cover housing costs.

HIP Housing doesn’t build housing, it finds inventive ways to turn existing housing stocks immediately into accessible housing.

It does it through home sharing, self-sufficiency programs and property development and management.

Rotary helps with the latter. HIP Housing manages our Rotary Hacienda and Rotary Floritas senior housing developments. Our own Steve McDonald is property manager. It also has 92 units of its own.

Home Sharing pairs those who have with those who need housing. Often it’s a pairing of an over-housed senior and a younger working individual after through screening and matching. Each match has a HIP counselor who is there for the duration of the association. There is scrupulous follow-up to make sure both parties adhere a pre-move-in, detailed agreement specifying everything from meal preferences to quiet time to boundaries.

“Most of our matches are super happy and successful.”

HIP Housing was among the first but there are now about 50 such programs in the country.

HIP Housing also helps out with a compliance program that pushes for construction of auxiliary units, small in-law units that more and more cities are beginning to zone for and encourage. Compliance also comes into play with housing developers who are on the hook to build affordable housing offsets to their building approvals. “They’re not that adept, so we help.”

HIP Housing is always on the lookout for people with useable shared housing rooms or units — the estimate there are 60,000 in the county. Call 348-6660 to reach the experts at HIP Housing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Befuddled Bruce Bean could not find Jodi so called on T. Jack Foster for the Thought. His thought: “I want to sit down.”

 

 

 

 

 

Anne LeClair, channeling husband Jim, or perhaps not because I haven’t seen him on a golf course in years, had these chestnuts to offer.

Guy shows up on the first tee with only one ball. Playing partner asks what about if you hit it in the water, or into the trees or it gets dark? Aren't you afraid you'll lose it? No problem. Guy says the ball floats, has a homing beacon and is fluorescent in the dark. Boy, the partner says, I need one of those. Where’d you get it? Answer: I found it.

Then there was Amenpreet. By the 18^th hole he was way ahead on the $50 bet when he cut his tee shot well into the rough. He and partner looked and looked. When his partner turned his back Amenpreet nudged a ball to the hole in his pocket and it dropped down his pants leg to the ground. “I found it!” he cried. “You lousy cheat,” his partner said, “trying to beat me out of 50 bucks.” “I didn’t cheat!” Amenpreet protested. “I’ll have you know I know you did,” the partner says. “I’ve been standing on your ball for the last five minutes.”

 

Sheila Canzian, filling in for Larry Patterson, introduced Lorain Curtis, the retired park and recreation administrator for the town of Oak Bay, Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

Mitch Williams introduced Steve Potz-Nielson, a visitor from Texas who is a Delta Air Lines pilot “in his spare time.”

Dick Bennett presented Rashida Lilani, who was visiting for the second time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Bruce Behind the Ball: Ignore all the emails about moving the Dec. 5 meeting. Business will go on as usual on the regular schedule and we will meet as usual Thursday at Poplar Creek.

 

From Lisa Nash: The San Mateo General Plan is being updated to guide City policies through 2040. The City is inviting all San Mateo Rotarians to share their input on how to best support businesses in the future. This could include thoughts on jobs and the economy, traffic, housing, City services, etc. Please attend the next General Plan Visioning session Wednesday, November 28, 6:30pm-8:30 pm, at the San Mateo Library Main Branch on W. 3rd Avenue. Thank you!

 

Apologies to the Great Tom Mohr. We left him off the swearing-in announcement last week. Welcome back!

 

Anne Campbell received her first Paul Harris Award. Congratulations to Anne for making that milestone in supporting Foundation fundraising.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rosemary Azem distributed packets of information regarding her committee’s effort to fund a computer and scholarship program for the students of Corazal, Belize.

 

 

 

 

 

1928 was a very good year. T. Jack Foster, Liz Chalmers and John Kelly were born that year, and they are all very good.

 

Rod Linhares took it upon himself to create, print and present photo enlargements of pictures taken at various Rotary activities. His thought was that it’s nice that we often promote who we are, but it’d also be impressive to show what we do. The photos below will also go into the rotation of pictures on the club home page.

 

 

 

'I'd rather die by the sword than have to write Spinnings!’ — Anonymous Rotarian