Housing Trust Silicon Valley – a nonprofit community loan fund that works to create a strong affordable housing market in the greater Bay Area – is launching the Apple Affordable Housing Fund, funded by a $150 million grant from Apple with the goal of building more affordable housing in the greater Bay Area.
The Apple Affordable Housing Fund is part of the comprehensive $2.5 billion commitment Apple made in November 2019 to help address the housing availability and affordability crisis in California. Housing Trust, which has a long history of successful public-private partnerships, will make loans to qualified developers to access these funds for projects that need unique and flexible capital to move into the construction phase. Developers are encouraged to submit a request for proposal on Housing Trust’s web site before the deadline of March 24, 2020.
“This is exactly what we mean when we talk about creating bolder measures and greater equity in the region,” said Kevin Zwick, CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, in a statement. “This grant creates opportunities to do what couldn’t be done otherwise, and we’re excited by the impact this fund will have.”
“Today’s announcement shows what our region can accomplish when we combine big investments, affordable housing industry expertise and opportunity, and the proven financial models led by Housing Trust Silicon Valley,” said Amie Fishman, Executive Director of Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, in a statement. “This Fund will inspire innovative solutions from around the Bay Area, and we can’t wait to see the solutions our affordable housing industry proposes moving forward.”
Developers are encouraged to review the threshold and preference criteria on the Housing Trust website and submit their most compelling proposals. The Apple Affordable Housing Fund will support a mix of incomes, from individuals and families at the lowest level incomes up to the “missing middle” – and all affordable homes developed will have long-term affordability restrictions. Additionally, the Apple Affordable Housing Fund is encouraging transit-oriented projects that incorporate sustainable methods, efficient use of resources and aspects that support resident and community equity. For more information and to submit an RFP please visit this page: https://housingtrustsv.org/applefundrfp/
ABOUT HOUSING TRUST SILICON VALLEY
Housing Trust Silicon Valley (Housing Trust) is a nonprofit community loan fund based in San Jose that works to improve the quality of life of low-income people in the greater Bay Area by increasing affordable housing opportunities. Since 2000, Housing Trust has invested over $317 million in programs that help everyone from those experiencing homelessness to renters to first-time homebuyers – creating over 19,000 affordable housing opportunities serving over 36,000 of our neighbors. It is the first nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) to receive a Standard & Poor’s rating, AA- because of its strong capacity to meet financial commitments. For more information visit www.housingtrustsv.org
MacDailyNews Note: Last November, Apple announced a comprehensive $2.5 billion plan to help address the housing availability and affordability crisis in California. As costs skyrocket for renters and potential homebuyers — and as the availability of affordable housing fails to keep pace with the region’s growth — community members like teachers, firefighters, first responders and service workers are increasingly having to make the difficult choice to leave behind the community they have long called home. Nearly 30,000 people left San Francisco between April and June of this year and homeownership in the Bay Area is at a seven-year low.
“Before the world knew the name Silicon Valley, and long before we carried technology in our pockets, Apple called this region home, and we feel a profound civic responsibility to ensure it remains a vibrant place where people can live, have a family and contribute to the community,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in November 2019. “Affordable housing means stability and dignity, opportunity and pride. When these things fall out of reach for too many, we know the course we are on is unsustainable, and Apple is committed to being part of the solution.”
How many homes does that cover?
About 100.
There are too many people in the Bay Area period. You could throw a trillion dollars at the problem, raze all of the open space (San Mateo County and Santa Clara at 38% and 27% respectively), build twenty story apartment buildings in single-family home neighborhoods, force everyone to ride trains and bicycles, but what kind of “solution” is that? A bigger problem is that most residents of the area are translplants with no roots whatsoever, and they don’t care if their permissive city councils allow obscene, developer-enriching construction that transform idyllic suburban towns into congested lemming farms serving Silicon Valley mega corps. A recession, earthquake or virus will do much more to alleviate the “housing crisis” (it’s actually an unsustainable population crisis), than all of Apple’s cash pile x10.
My solution is to fill in the bay. At least up to the San Mateo bridge. Think about it: all that extra land for housing etc. Plus space to add in more freeways so you don’t need to deal with bridges. A win win solution if you ask me.
“Idyllic suburban towns” are far from idyllic. I don’t want a 2800 sq ft house, I don’t need four bathrooms or a half-acre of useless Kentucky bluegrass. I want a vibrant, walkable, intellectually and culturally rich city, with easy access to work and outdoor pursuits. It’s cheaper, more sustainable, and more fulfilling than the alternative (low density sprawl).
Bravo! Well stated.
There is no easy answer for the challenges of modern urban megacities. As Apple and other companies dictate work locations, they are the ones who shape human migration. They should absolutely help resolve the obvious problems inherent to that.
But as we know most people don’t work at Apple and there are thousands of small towns where quality of life is dropping. They need more population density. There is a balance that must be achieved between sardine-living and the ridiculous modern McMansion plantation-wannabe model. Many people who grew up in extremely low density housing do not realize the opportunity costs they bear.
To my mind, the Civil War era brownstones were excellent – they were designed before the automobile and steel skyscrapers, so of course they were convenient for human scale living, and located very close to what everyone needed. Owners enjoy privacy and ample living room with benefit of excellent architectural efficiency and shared maintenance costs. Clustering those around parks with well designed mass transit (horse drawn street cars & carriages in that era, today bikeable and walkable) made for excellent quality of life. Using modern materials and energy saving tech, better communities could be the answer to a lot of the small town malaise that has gripped much of the USA and Canada. Infrastructure renewal will however require community-minded people who can live with their neighbors. Folding down badly planned sprawled rural communities and resurrecting the close-knit small town Main Streets would pay huge dividends in health and prosperity in many regions. Maybe companies like Apple should be diversifying their geographical footprints to enable stuff like this instead of continuing to add more people into the already congested coastal cities.
Best way to help is diversifying to another state. The corona virus will have the side effect of realizing that a bunch of us could work from home.
Living is certain cities is just like buying other expensive items. If I could not afford to stay in Los Angeles, I’d get the hell out. Average $2000 per month rent is not for everyone. I’d look at Kansas, City @ about $700 per month, or Tulsa @ about 600… and so on. I like the new Aston Martin V12 but it’s $950,000. I can’t afford it. I can’t even dream about it. So you get what you can afford.
There are complaints from people who have jobs, who could find similar jobs in other cities where rent is far, far cheaper. People relocate due to cost all the time. I’m getting ready to split and go to Texas. Soon as the place I’m in sells. Taxes in California are killing me and the people of California show no signs of ending their obsession with higher taxes. Can’t really blame the government if we the public keep voting for higher and additional taxes. It never ceases to crack me up when my liberal friends ask why the taxes are so high or why gasoline costs so much.
Bottom line, California will be fine, but it won’t be for everyone. Illegal Immigrants (protected group), upper middle to wealthy class, are fine, but everyone else is not welcome. Really don’t come here thinking you’ll get a single apartment that is affordable.
Cities cease being cities when only top earners can live there. You can ‘t have a city without teachers and fire fighters, store clerks and accountants.
The root of the problem is zoning. At the density of silicon valley communities, there are just enough homes for all of the $200k/yr developers and engineers. There will still be a housing shortage once all of the average earners have fled, but there won’t be anyone left to run the place : )
It seems ironic for Apple to be concerned about the affordability of anything..
California politicians have done every conceivable thing possible to make houses cost a lot. High taxes, massive building codes, land restrictions, crazy environmental policies, high minimum wages encouraging massive illegal immigration. Every dbas idea there is is fried first in California. The best affordable housi g is in other states with fewer stupid politicians.
‘homelessness is caused by lack of homes’ is the simplest, dumbest take you can possibly have on this issue. And Tim is throwing $2.5B at it.. I love what Tim has done for Apple, but this is ridiculous. This is more likely a political payoff than an act of altruism, although in general I believe Apple is very altruistic, as companies go.
Who do you think sweeps the floors, collects the trash, and provides security in Apple facilities? The answer is, generally speaking, contractors who pay their employees much less than Apple pays its own employees. The high-tech salaries have created such a demand for housing that the median monthly rent in Cupertino for a 966 sq. ft. apartment is $3471. Apple isn’t being altruistic by supporting affordable housing. They are trying to protect the people who make their business possible.
This is not a homelessness issue, it’s an economic / business growth issue. If silicon valley can’t attract more highly skilled folks (let alone everyone else it takes) due to housing affordability and the accompanying quality of life issues, companies like Apple can’t grow they way they project they’ll need to. Shareholders should be happy they’re addressing the issue, and being the smart folks they are, they are more likely to think about the challenge at a deeper level than their government is.
I’m convinced that endless unchecked growth is not healthy, especially if that growth is dictated by nondemocratic corporations. There are physical limits. Timmy can’t even manage the sprawling empire he has. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing at Apple most of the time. It would be wise for company executives to spin off the stuff they cannot manage well instead of pretending that their Ivory Towers can grow to infinity. Same goes for cities and nation-states. Efficiencies of scale must be tempered with adept oversight.
Despite delusions to the contrary, humans do not have the technology to outgrow obvious physical limitations.