Hundreds more Californians get housing with Apple's help

AppleInsider

Apple is continuing its investment in affordable housing in California with a new partnership that aims to fund new developments in San Francisco.

Render of a proposed new housing development in San Francisco, backed by Apple. (Source: Apple)

Apple has been supporting affordable housing in its home state since 2019. At that point, it committed to spending $2.5 billion, and by 2021 had invested almost half of that.

"We believe everyone deserves a place to call home," said Kristina Raspe, Apple's vice president of Global Real Estate and Facilities in a statement, and we're proud that Apple's $2.5 billion initiative is supporting more affordable housing options across the state."

The new partnership sees Apple teaming up with the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund, plus Sobrato Philanthropies, and Destination: Home. Together they are launching a Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund, which is to make loans to help new affordable housing developments.

"Increasing access to safe and affordable housing is essential for thriving communities here," continued Raspe, "and we're excited to help launch the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund as part of our long-term commitment to our home state."

The Bay Area Housing Initiative is to begin with four projects that create over 400 new homes in the greater San Francisco region, in the next two years. Starting with a $50 million investment, the Initiative plans to promote new methods of funding housing development.

"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," said Rebecca Foster, CEO of the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund. "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," continued Foster. "We're so grateful to Apple for helping to anchor this fund and bringing their innovative thinking to this important community work."

Apple's investment in this new initiative brings the company's total to $1.6 billion of its $2.5 billion planned allocation. So far it has contributed to projects that have benefitted over 60,000 Californians, with more than 90 developments, and 10,000 housing units.

Separately, Apple says that it has also helped over 35,000 Bay Area residents who were at risk of losing their homes. Then it has also assisted over 2,500 first-time owners to buy their homes.



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ddawson100

Uniquely Bay-area problems can be solved by Bay-area agencies, corporations, and people getting together. I applaud Apple for contributing to solving local problems.

coolfactor

What passes as "affordable housing" needs to be closely watched. Here in Canada, many such buildings are springing up only for a basic apartment to be $1800/month. That's double what Social Services pays out. 

Affordable housing should be capped at $1000/month max, but when hardware stores are selling plastic parts at $20 a piece, it's understandable how construction can be so expensive.

Maybe government initiatives for affordable housing should bypass the retail sector entirely.

applezulu

coolfactor said:

What passes as "affordable housing" needs to be closely watched. Here in Canada, many such buildings are springing up only for a basic apartment to be $1800/month. That's double what Social Services pays out. 

Affordable housing should be capped at $1000/month max, but when hardware stores are selling plastic parts at $20 a piece, it's understandable how construction can be so expensive.

Maybe government initiatives for affordable housing should bypass the retail sector entirely.

“Affordable housing” is generally tied to localized “Area Median Income” (AMI) figures. Housing is considered affordable if tenants are paying no more than 1/3 of their income for rent and utilities.  Various levels of affordability are thus targeted at individuals or families making a given percentage of AMI. 

In tight housing markets, even mid- and upper-levels of these ‘affordable’ price ranges need to be constructed. This is because if nothing is available for people who make 110% or 120% of AMI, those folks will snap up everything at or below their price range, which then creates even greater scarcity for folks at lower income levels. 

applezulu

ddawson100 said:

Uniquely Bay-area problems can be solved by Bay-area agencies, corporations, and people getting together. I applaud Apple for contributing to solving local problems.

This problem really isn’t unique to the Bay Area. That area is, however, at the top of the price pyramid. People are leaving areas like SF either because they can’t afford it, or because they can cash out at top-dollar and move to smaller markets where they can buy more and spend less. This is then causing a secondary effect of exacerbating the affordability crisis everywhere else. 

So Apple investing in affordable housing there actually can help well beyond the Bay Area. 

edited July 2024

red oak

Why is Apple spending $ to fix California’s housing issues?  

This state is so F’in broken.  Run by socialists.  Mismanaged and failing

mattinoz

AppleZulu said:

ddawson100 said:

Uniquely Bay-area problems can be solved by Bay-area agencies, corporations, and people getting together. I applaud Apple for contributing to solving local problems.

This problem really isn’t unique to the Bay Area. That area is, however, at the top of the price pyramid. People are leaving areas like SF either because they can’t afford it, or because they can cash out at top-dollar and move to smaller markets where they can buy more and spend less. This is then causing a secondary effect of exacerbating the affordability crisis everywhere else. 

So Apple investing in affordable housing there actually can help well beyond the Bay Area. 

Which means you then get problems with services in the area and eventually the area has no future. There is no altruism here from Apple this just a sound long term investment.  

danox

red oak said:

Why is Apple spending $ to fix California’s housing issues?  

This state is so F’in broken.  Run by socialists.  Mismanaged and failing

So where is the red state Silicon Valley in America? Or for that matter in the so-called socialist EU? You out of your depth.

Someone in the English speaking countries UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand overall have to start caring about starter homes for those between 18-35, and Silicon Valley in the Bay Area won't continue in the long term without infrastructure schools, starter homes and more  jobs........

edited July 2024

dewme

This is not unique to California and it exists in many regions of the country. One of the primary contributors is highly restrictive zoning laws, i.e., NIMBYism. It doesn’t matter what Apple does if the local authorities don’t fix the root cause issues. But they can’t because the taxpayers and homeowners are fiercely defending their property values by forcing those in charge to follow their demands via voting. It’s an age old issue of someone climbing up a lifeline, reaching safety, and them cutting the lifeline so others cannot follow. Throwing money after human problems rarely improves the situation if the root cause is not fixed. California only seems worse because their markets are so out of whack with average buyers ability to afford wha the market demands. But this is happening all across the country and it will never change unless people change.