Apple Funds Hundreds of New Affordable Homes in SF Bay Area
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Apple is doing its part to create more affordable housing in what’s become one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the world by helping to launch a new fund that will advance affordable housing development.
In a newsroom post today, Apple announced that it’s teaming up with the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund, Sobrato Philanthropies, and Destination: Home to create The Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund, which will “make targeted, favorable loans to advance affordable housing development.”
The move is part of a broader 2019 commitment by the Cupertino company to invest $2.5 billion to make housing more affordable in communities throughout its home state of California.
Before the world knew the name Silicon Valley, and long before we carried technology in our pockets, Apple called this region home, and we feel a profound civic responsibility to ensure it remains a vibrant place where people can live, have a family and contribute to the community. Affordable housing means stability and dignity, opportunity and pride. When these things fall out of reach for too many, we know the course we are on is unsustainable, and Apple is committed to being part of the solution.Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO
The Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund is kicking off with an initial $50 million investment that will drive four specific projects in the greater San Francisco Bay Area to ultimately create more than 400 new affordable homes over the next two years, “using proven methods” to help affordable housing developers overcome the barriers they usually encounter on such projects, from financing to zoning and other regulatory hurdles.
We cannot effectively address the homelessness and affordability crises in the Bay Area if we continue building and funding affordable housing in the same way. We must think outside the box to significantly reduce costs and timelines. This fund is designed to showcase what is possible when we have clear goals, a shared commitment to meet these targets, and a simplified financing structure. We’re so grateful to Apple for helping to anchor this fund and bringing their innovative thinking to this important community work.Rebecca Foster, CEO of the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund
The first project will kick off next week in San Francisco’s Mission District, with Mercy Housing building 145 units of “permanent supportive housing” for seniors on the verge of homelessness. The second project is slated to break ground in Santa Cruz before the end of 2024.
Apple adds that it’s already committed over $1.6 billion to support affordable housing initiatives throughout California, “directly benefitting more than 60,000 Californians.” Those funds are supporting affordable housing developers across more than 90 developments throughout the state, collectively totalling 10,000 units. Apple has also prevented over 35,000 Bay Area residents from losing their homes and assisted more than 2,500 first-home homebuyers in getting financing.
‘Impossibly Unaffordable’
This latest move comes as housing costs are rising to unprecedented levels in many urban areas worldwide. In June, the Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy published its annual Demographia International Housing Affordability report that traditionally ranks housing affordability in cities within Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States in one of four categories from “Affordable” to “Severely Unaffordable.” However, things have gotten so bad that researchers had to add a fifth category this year: “Impossibly Unaffordable.”
With this 20th annual edition, we add a new category, “impossibly unaffordable,” which will apply to markets with a median multiple triple or more the “affordable” standard (3.0) which predominated in most geographies only three decades ago. The term ‘impossible’ was selected to convey the extreme difficulty faced by middle-income households in affording housing at a median multiple of 9.0. This level of unaffordability did not exist just over three decades ago. Furthermore, securing financing for a house at this median multiple is largely impossible for middle-income householdsWendell Cox, Demographia International Housing Affordability Report
Of the eleven cities that made the Impossibly Unaffordable list, Apple’s neighboring community of San Jose ranked fourth, with a score of 11.9, coming in behind Hong Kong, Sydney, and Vancouver. San Francisco came in eighth after Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Melbourne.
