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Pastor Paul Bains leads United Hope Builders, which received a grant from the Facebook Innovation Fund to build a factory in East Palo Alto to manufacture prefabricated homes and employ local residents. He is pictured here outside a modular home in East Palo Alto on Jan. 25. Photo by Magali Gauthier.
Pastor Paul Bains leads United Hope Builders, which received a grant from the Facebook Innovation Fund to build a factory in East Palo Alto to manufacture prefabricated homes and employ local residents. He is pictured here outside a modular home in East Palo Alto on Jan. 25. Photo by Magali Gauthier.

United Hope Builders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to constructing affordable housing, may have to put its plans for a temporary modular housing factory in East Palo Alto on hold. Pastor Paul Bains, who runs United Hope Builders, told this news organization that the letter has caused his group to change its plans, but that it is still on track to have the factory up and running on a different site in East Palo Alto by the end of 2025. 

A Feb. 21 joint letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control told the nonprofit that its plan to store completed modular homes on its factory site — which is contaminated due to its past as a hazardous waste management facility — was too risky due to the possibility of unhoused people trespassing and living in the homes before they are shipped to their final destinations.  […]

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Eleanor Raab joined The Almanac in 2024 as the Menlo Park and Atherton reporter. She grew up in Menlo Park, and previously worked in public affairs for a local government agency. Eleanor holds a bachelor’s...