Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
Facebook to invest $150 million to build homes for lower-income residents in the Bay AreaThe fund is the largest private fund in California dedicated to creating homes for families that earn less than 30 percent of the region's median income.
In a statement, the chief financial officer of the technology giant, David Wehner, said that this new Community Housing Fund will support the development of at least two thousand affordable homes in Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
The money will be available for low-interest loans to local government developers and nonprofit organizations to buy hundreds more units and create permanent housing, he said.
"Homekey has changed the way California creates housing for the homeless, faster and at a lower cost. Facebook has stepped forward to invest up to $150 million available for low-interest loans to local governments and non-profit organizations to purchase hundreds more units to create permanent housing.he said.
It should be noted that this investment is part of a $1 billion commitment that Facebook announced last year, while the COVID-19 crisis requires companies and governments to step up and give an extra push to protect the most vulnerable with thousands of housing units.
Investing in housing for people with extremely low incomes is critical to addressing homelessness, as people who qualify as extremely low-income are the most vulnerable to becoming homeless, Facebook said.
Many essential workers, whom we have all relied on during this pandemic, also rely on extremely low-income housing to live and attend school in the communities where they work.
Thus, this fund will help fill a critical gap in California, where there is "an immense shortage of extremely low-income housing and very few dedicated funding sources.
The fund will be administered by the Local Initiative Support Corporation, the nation's largest community development organization, while the Santa Clara County-based nonprofit Destination: Home contributed an additional $5 million.
Projects in Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties are eligible to apply, however, one third of the funds will be dedicated to Santa Clara County through our partnership with Destination: Home.
Starting today, projects are eligible to begin the process of applying for funding, and in the coming months a First Community Housing project in San Jose, California, will be funded, offering 123 deeply affordable apartments.
This effort is a direct result of collaborations with key partners to fund permanent and effective supportive housing models, to increase the availability of affordable housing for extremely low-income families, and to address the disproportionate number of people of African descent experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area.
The Community Housing Fund is part of the commitment to the Alliance for the Future of the Bay, a collaborative regional effort to address affordable housing, and is part of the Alliance's family of funds.
It also builds on years of Facebook's commitment to this space and its Catalyst Housing Fund, a pilot program of affordable housing launched in 2016 that has helped create 600 affordable homes near the technology's headquarters.
