Google, a longtime supporter and friend of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, is following through on its commitment to affordable housing by investing $50 million in our TECH Fund.
Housing Trust Silicon Valley launched the TECH (Tech + Equity + Community + Housing) Fund in March 2017 to provide affordable housing developers the flexible financing needed to compete for sites on the open market – a key barrier to building affordable housing. Google’s investment will enable Housing Trust Silicon Valley to continue helping create and preserve affordable housing units across the Bay Area. This investment follows closely on Google’s $1 billion commitment to invest in housing and the production of at least 20,000 homes in the Bay Area. It is the company’s first investment from its $250 million affordable housing fund.
The investments in TECH Fund tend to be deployed quickly, which is a main reason why the initiative has already helped bring online 2,255 homes across 20 developments in Silicon Valley. This includes the purchase of land, construction of new homes, and preservation of existing homes for affordable housing that is close to job centers and transit options in San Jose, Mountain View, and other cities and towns in the region.
Over half of the homes TECH Fund has helped secure are designated for families, a third for the homeless and/or permanent supportive housing, and one-in-five for seniors. Most homes are aimed at those earning 60 percent of the area median income or less.
“As part of our $1 billion housing commitment, we’ve been looking for ways to address the affordable housing crisis in the Bay Area,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google in our press release making the announcement. “Housing Trust Silicon Valley provided us with the perfect opportunity to do that through their TECH Fund, which uses critical capital to break down barriers to building affordable housing. We are proud to be the fund’s largest investor to date and look forward to working together to create housing for those who need it most.”
We thank Google for joining Cisco, the Grove Foundation, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, LinkedIn, NetApp, Pure Storage and the Sobrato Family Foundation in our endeavor – and we can’t wait to share the next TECH Fund announcement with you!