The site of a former Fremont motel, once used to house homeless individuals, is now a gleaming new affordable housing complex that was unveiled on Wednesday.

The opening comes after the city recently caught a lot of flak for adopting an ordinance that would make it illegal for anyone to "aid or abet" homeless campers. Some people accused them of being heartless. But at the same time, the city was quietly building more affordable housing than most Bay Area communities. 

"Three, two, one...!" City officials and project partners counted down as Mayor Raj Salwan performed the ceremonial ribbon-cutting. It was the official introduction of Bell Street Gardens, a 126-unit, all-affordable housing complex at Mowry Avenue and Bell Street, where the 70s-era Islander Motel once stood - a building known to cause headaches for the city.

In 2018, the blighted motel and two adjacent empty parcels were sold to a redevelopment firm, and while the project was still in the planning stages, the city used the motel to provide shelter for homeless individuals and families. 

"That right there is the old motel, which you would never know. You can't even tell," said Carolyn Bookhart, project coordinator for Berkeley-based RDC, the nonprofit developer. "We basically brought it down to the studs. We added a third floor. The designers did a really great job. And so, yeah, it was a real transformation."

Now, rather than creating problems, the property is helping solve them for people like Monique Orosco. She struggled to afford market-rate housing for years, watching as Bell Street Gardens was being built. When it was finished, she jumped at the chance to apply.

"And when they did call me, I cried. I was on 880 and I was so thrilled, so happy," Monique said. "We do talk among each other and everybody has shed a tear, how it has changed their lives tremendously because now we feel safe and at home."

"We combined each of the rooms in the motel to make up each apartment," said Rick Williams, a partner with Van Meter Williams Pollack, the urban design firm that turned the motel into apartments ranging from one-room studios up to 3-bedroom family units. 

Many rooms look out onto outdoor garden terraces, and the complex features a community room, laundry room, and even a room for bicycle storage. The project was conceived clear back in 2016, when it was harder to get projects approved, but interest rates and construction costs were more affordable. Now, that's flipped.

"Today, in today's world, it's easier to get a project entitled, but it's more challenging to get it funded," said Williams. "It's a $60 million project in construction only. And now, it would be considered a deal because construction costs have gone higher."

In other words, it's always something. But one thing that hasn't been a problem is the City of Fremont, which has invested $13 million from its housing fund to get the project started, and it now ranks third in the Bay Area for building affordable units.

"The city was really the first one in," said Dan Sawislak, RCD executive director. "So, basically, they saw the potential of this project. They got behind it. They voted to support it financially. And they've been a really great city in terms of getting more affordable housing built and being a leader in that space."

All this from a city that was being ridiculed for having such tough homeless laws. Salwan said it's about striking a balance.

"As of now, we have not enforced anything," said Salwan. "We have not been strict at all. We've been less strict than San Francisco, less strict than Oakland, other cities. So, we got the notoriety, but we did our part. We're still doing our part. We're not running away."

Salwan said Bell Street Gardens is just the second of five new affordable housing complexes scheduled to be completed this year in Fremont. For the record, the city has rescinded that ban on helping the homeless. Instead, they're doing what a lot of other communities aren't: putting their money where their mouth is and actually building places where people can afford to live. 

• Fremont
• Homelessness
• Affordable Housing