Housing Trust Silicon Valley has rolled out a new $200M fund aimed at speeding up affordable housing production across the Bay Area.
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The new Building Impact Initiative is anchored by a major investment from Apple, with an additional $17M from a group of financial institutions and community and private foundations.
The coalition reflects a growing trend toward cross-sector capital stacks blending corporate, banking and philanthropic dollars to support development in a market where public subsidies remain scarce.
The financing system for affordable housing development is complex and byzantine, according to Edie Irons, spokesperson for San Francisco-based All Home, a nonprofit advocate for solutions to homelessness.
It takes whole teams of people braiding together often as many as 12 funding sources to finance one new build, Irons said. Affordable housing developers face big headwinds, as limited state and local budgets make it even more difficult to put together financing and costs run high.
The initiative targets the creation and preservation of about 7,400 affordable homes across the Bay Area. According to Housing Trust, the fund could generate $5.7M in annual rent savings for low-income households and promote sustainability by backing housing near jobs and transit. The recently passed SB 79 imposes density increases within half a mile of transit hubs.
The fund offers flexible capital at below-market rates, allowing the trust to move money quickly into projects without competing for limited grant money. That speed is critical amid escalating construction costs that delay many Bay Area projects.
Housing Trust has already invested $690M over the last 25 years and helped create 28,000 housing opportunities, leveraging roughly $9B in total capital.
The Bay Area faces increasing pressure to meet state-mandated housing quotas under the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process, which requires all local governments to adequately plan to meet housing needs. Failure to comply risks the loss of state funding and local control of land use.
Apple previously announced a $2.5B plan in 2019 that included a $1B affordable housing investment fund, a $1B first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund and $300M of Apple-owned land in San Jose set aside for affordable housing.
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