iPhone maker Apple is allocating more than $400 million toward affordable housing projects and homeowner assistance programs in California this year.
This is a major milestone in the company’s multi-year $2.5 billion commitment to combat the housing crisis in the state. The funding will support thousands of Californians with first-time homebuyer assistance or new affordable housing units, according to a company statement.
Projects launching this year include the first affordable housing developments funded in partnership with Housing Trust Silicon Valley, which will create more than 250 new units of affordable housing across the Bay Area, as well as a mortgage and down payment assistance fund and an affordable housing investment support program, both created in conjunction with the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA).
Apple is also supporting additional construction of affordable housing units through its partnership with Destination: Home, which supports Silicon Valley’s most vulnerable populations.
After soliciting proposals earlier this year, Apple and Housing Trust Silicon Valley are excited to move forward with the first four projects funded through their public-private partnership, supporting affordable housing developments that span the North, East, and South Bay regions. The geographically diverse projects will create more than 250 new units of affordable housing, many of them reserved for veterans, the homeless or formerly homeless, and residents with developmental disabilities.
Also by working together with CalHFA, Apple this month is launching a first-of-its-kind-in-California affordable housing investment support program that will increase the availability of funding to develop and build new, very low- to moderate-income housing at a lower cost.
“Apple’s contribution could not have come at a more crucial time, as the COVID-19 pandemic has only made our work to end homelessness that much more urgent,” stated Destination: Home’s CEO Jennifer Loving.
“We were able to immediately invest their funding into several new housing developments that will provide a permanent home to vulnerable residents across the region and reinforce our Homelessness Prevention System at a time when we’re seeing an unprecedented number of at-risk families in need,” Jennifer added.
