TEMPLE CITY >> About 300 residents packed Tuesday’s City Council meeting seeking the council’s help in blocking a development just outside city limits that would provide affordable housing and supportive services to veterans and people who were formerly homeless.

The proposal, made by affordable housing nonprofit Mercy Housing, seeks to turn the Golden Motel on Rosemead Boulevard into 169 units of “permanent, supportive housing” — 60 units for veterans and 129 units for formerly homeless persons, with some overlap across the categories. Six units designated for veterans will specifically be for those dishonorably discharged.

Rent for studio apartments will range from $431 to $735 per month, according to a Mercy statement. The project has been financed by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, and as such, residents will pay no more than 30 percent of their income toward rent, the statement said.

Representatives for Mercy Housing were not present at Wednesday’s meeting because the item was not on the City Council’s agenda for discussion. Ed Holder, vice president of regional development for Mercy Housing California, said Wednesday the development would have about 10 case managers on hand to offer residents a variety of services, including improving their access to health care and help them find job opportunities.

Mercy Housing developed and operates the El Monte Veterans Village, a 40-unit supportive housing development for formerly homeless veterans. The nonprofit organization has plans to build a similar development in the city by 2019.

Because the project is under the jurisdiction of Los Angeles County, Temple City does not get to approve or deny it, Mayor Cynthia Sternquist said before opening up Wednesday’s public comment portion of the meeting. Sternquist also requested that residents share their comments with the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning. The county’s Regional Planning Commission is set to discuss and potentially decide on the project at its May 31 meeting.

Nonetheless, residents like Lawrence Chou said they wanted the City Council to make a formal statement the county disapproving of the project.

“We elected you to represent us,” Chou said. “Help us out.”

An online petition asking the city council to disapprove the project has more than 1,500 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.

Resident Kenny Tsang said he was worried the project would bring an increase in crime and painted a dire picture of what he thought would happen should the project move forward.

“Property values will drop, people will move out of the city and local businesses will die out,” Tsang said. “I don’t want Temple City to become another Skid Row.”

A handful of speakers offered support for the proposal, most coming from an informal coalition of churches in Temple City whose parishioners volunteer to serve homeless people in the city. Temple City First & Faith United Methodist Church Pastor David Palmer said supportive housing like Mercy’s offers a permanent solution instead of simply providing temporary aid to homeless people.

“The individuals selected for this housing will come from the local community,” Palmer said. “They’ll be connected to resources to help them stay housed instead of living on the streets.”

Holder said the Mercy project would also likely decrease crime at the site. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Temple Station received 270 calls for service to the motel from Jan. 2014 to Jan. 2017 for “disturbance calls, assaults and other disruptions to the peace,” said Cpt. David Flores. From the beginning of the year to April 30, the station has received 28 calls for service from the motel.

Flores said while the numbers may seem large, but the 185 motel rooms on site bear consideration when comparing to single-family homes.

Mercy Housing is set to host a community meeting for the project 6:30 p.m. May 10 at Hope Christian Fellowship Church, 6116 North San Gabriel Boulevard in San Gabriel. In addition, the City Council is set to discuss the matter at its May 16 meeting. The time and location of the meeting have yet to be set because Sternquist requested that city staff look into holding the meeting somewhere better suited than Council Chambers to host the high number of residents expected to be there.

Holder said Mercy also intends to schedule tours of the El Monte Veterans Village for anyone interested in seeing what “permanent, supportive housing” looks like and how it operates.

“This is not a region that has much permanent, supportive housing even though voters passed Measure H in March,” Holder said. “The reality of what that means is new to lot of communities, so it’s up to us to educate them about what permanent, supportive housing is and how it can be a benefit.”