- Google announced it is investing $50 million in Housing Trust Silicon Valley’s TECH Fund
Google has announced it is investing $50 million in Housing Trust Silicon Valley’s TECH Fund. And Google’s investment is the largest in the fund to date.
Housing Trust Silicon Valley launched the TECH (Tech + Equity + Community + Housing) Fund in March 2017 in order to provide affordable housing developers the flexible financing needed to compete for sites on the open market — which is a key barrier to building affordable housing.
Housing Trust Silicon Valley is a nonprofit community loan fund based in San Jose that is improving the quality of life for low-income people in the greater Bay Area by increasing affordable housing opportunities. And since 2000, Housing Trust has invested over $257 million in programs that help everyone from those experiencing homelessness to renters to first-time homebuyers thus creating nearly 19,000 affordable housing opportunities serving more than 34,000 in the area.
The TECH Fund was created by Housing Trust Silicon Valley for creating opportunities for philanthropists and large Bay Area employers to provide resources in becoming a part of the affordable housing solution. This fund launched in March 2017 with an initial investment from the Cisco Foundation. And Cisco was followed by investments from Google, Grove Foundation, LinkedIn, NetApp, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Pure Storage, and Sobrato Family Foundation. To date, Housing Trust raised $112 million for the TECH Fund to be revolved over the course of a ten-year investment period. After the ten year period, TECH Fund investors will receive a modest return on their investments in addition to the original investment being repaid.
This investment from Google will enable Housing Trust Silicon Valley to continue helping create and preserve affordable housing units across the Bay Area. And the funding follows Google’s $1 billion commitment for investing in housing and the production of at least 20,000 homes in the Bay Area. And this is Google’s first investment from its $250 million affordable housing fund.
“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 Google CEO Sundar Pichai. “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.”
Investments in TECH Fund tend to be deployed quickly — which is one of the reasons why the initiative already helped bring online 2,255 homes across 20 developments in Silicon Valley. The investments are for the purchase of the land, new home construction, and preservation of existing homes for affordable housing that is close to job centers and transit options within San Jose, Mountain View, and other cities and towns in the region.
“I welcome this announcement from the Housing Trust signaling forward momentum from Google about its commitment to help provide needed affordable housing options in our community,” added Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, CA-19.
More than half of the homes that TECH Fund helped secure are designated for families and a third are for the homeless and/or permanent supportive housing. And one in five is for seniors. Most homes are aimed at people earning 60% of the area median income or less.
“Google’s significant investment continues the momentum TECH Fund was designed to create,” explained Kevin Zwick — the CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley. “Stepping forward in a way that makes a difference and inspiring your neighbor to step forward and do the same. Not only will Google’s investment make a real impact, but it sends the intentional message that we’re not done and we can all do more when it comes to affordable housing.”
Featured Image Credit: Housing Trust Silicon Valley
