Housing Trust Silicon Valley, a nonprofit community loan fund based in San Jose, has announced LinkedIn’s $10 million investment in TECH Fund has already been used to assist in the construction of 163 affordable housing units in Mountain View.
LinkedIn’s investment is part of a $8.1 million loan to Palo Alto Housing (www.pah.community) to purchase a site at 950 W. El Camino Real in Mountain View to develop and operate a 100 percent affordable housing complex. Twenty of the 70 units will be reserved for permanent supportive housing, aligning with Santa Clara County’s Measure A funding priorities.
Eden Housing was able to use the TECH Fund for a $9.7 million acquisition loan for an affordable housing project on 1100 La Avenida Ave. All 93 units are for residents who make 60 percent or below area median income.
The La Avenida Avenue project is also notable due to its location in the North Bayshore area of Mountain View. In December, the city completed its multi-year planning process for North Bayshore, which included a historic zoning change passed by a unanimous city council to allow up to 9,850 new housing units in the area, with 20 percent, or 1,970 homes, designated as affordable housing.
“With growing numbers of employed people living in vehicles and commuting great distances, we need to utilize creative approaches, such as the TECH Fund to accelerate affordable housing development,” said Lenny Siegel, Mayor of Mountain View, who was an early advocate for housing in North Bayshore. “TECH Fund investments allow below-market developers to compete for land early in the life-cycle of their developments and enabling more projects.”
“Projects like La Avenida are exactly why the Housing Trust was created,” said Linda Mandolini, president of Eden Housing. “There is such an enormous need and demand for affordable housing but also great demand and competition in the market for available sites. We value our partnership with the Trust and their ability to help us respond quickly to a land acquisition opportunity.”
“It’s particularly gratifying for LinkedIn to have had a role in helping get housing started in the district, as it’s the former home of LinkedIn prior to moving to the East Whisman part of Mountain View,” said Katie Ferrick, head of community affairs at LinkedIn. “The ability for housing to get started so quickly after passing the plan is remarkable, and it’s amazing that TECH Fund was able to fund the loan to make this all happen.”
“Throughout the years there was tremendous support to reimagine and redevelop what is basically a corporate campus into a thriving mixed-use urban village. The successful adoption of the North Bayshore plan is a wonderful private/public/community model for other localities to emulate,” said Pilar Lorenzana, deputy director of SV@Home, an advocacy organization for affordable housing. “Imagine if other communities and tech players in the Valley also stepped up to help house our neighbors.”
LinkedIn’s investment in TECH Fund was announced in early December 2017. It joined Cisco Foundation, Sobrato Family Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in investing in the Housing Trust TECH Fund initiative. For more information about TECH Fund click here.
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 quality of life low-income people in the Greater Bay Area by increasing affordable housing opportunities. Since 2000, Housing Trust has invested $145 million in programs that help everyone from the homeless to renters to first-time homebuyers – creating more than 15,000 affordable housing opportunities serving over 27,600 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
ABOUT TECH FUND
TECH Fund (Tech + Equity + Community + Housing) is an initiative created by Housing Trust Silicon Valley to create opportunities for philanthropists and large Bay Area employers to provide resources to be part of the affordable housing solution. The fund began in March 2017 with an initial investment from the Cisco Foundation that has since been followed by investments from the Sobrato Family Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The Housing Trust target is to raise $50 million for the TECH Fund to be revolved over the course of a ten-year investment period – at the end of which TECH Fund investors receive a modest return on their investments in addition to the original investment being repaid and, most importantly, having created 10,000 affordable housing opportunities during that time. For more information visit www.housingtrustsv.org/tech-fund/
Contact: Julie Quinn, Dir. Of Resource Development, Housing Trust Silicon Valley julie@housingtrustsv.org 408-436-3450 x 223
Contact: Michael Norris, Communications Manager, Housing Trust Silicon Valley michael@housingtrustsv.org 408-4363450 x 241