A goal to catalyze 20,000 homes in the Bay Area

Miracle Money: California is a $750 a month for 12-month basic income and social support pilot for individuals experiencing homelessness in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles. The pilot is being evaluated by leading researchers at USC as part of a randomized control trial. As one of the first basic income pilots for unhoused individuals in the United States, Miracle Money also emphasizes the transformative power of social support, by matching each unhoused recipient with a volunteer phone buddy for weekly calls and texts. In a 2020 small pilot in the Bay Area, 66% of unhoused participants successfully obtained housing.

The Doorway Housing Portal centralizes housing listings across the Bay Area’s nine counties and enables housing seekers to use filters and a map-based interface to search for affordable housing. The online portal was developed with pro bono technical support from Google.org Fellows, a team that includes Google researchers, designers, product managers and software engineers.

J-PAL North America’s Bay Area Evaluation (BAE) Incubator offers Bay Area service providers the opportunity to design a randomized evaluation of their cash transfer program. Partners receive training, technical assistance, and connections to expert researchers in order to expand the base of rigorous evidence on cash transfer's impact on homelessness and housing stability.

Abode Services has had particular success with a Housing First approach to addressing homelessness. In July of 2020, Google.org granted $2 million in funding to help Abode Services tackle the homelessness in Silicon Valley—including building permanent supportive housing, providing wraparound services in supportive housing communities, reshousing participants in long-term apartments, and managing their properties.

Hamilton Families is a nonprofit working to end family homelessness in the Bay Area. They operate an emergency shelter and help place families into permanent housing. When families leave the shelter, 87% of families are stabilized after one year of being placed in permanent housing.

In November 2019, Google.org granted Hamilton Families $850,000 to support housing and wrap-around services for families experiencing homelessness. These funds are forecasted to help house 545 people and provide services to more than 1,300 people.

In May 2021, LifeMoves, Silicon Valley’s largest interim housing and supportive services for those experiencing homelessness, announced the opening of LifeMoves Mountain View. With a $1.5 million grant from Google.org, LifeMoves was able to realize this vision for an innovative, 100-unit modular housing facility that was built and brought into service in just six months, at a fraction of the cost of new housing units. The site also dedicates 30% of its square footage to supportive services offices and meeting rooms, allowing LifeMoves to help clients return to stable housing by providing them with case management, health care, counseling, life skills, employment assistance, and housing services. Serving approximately 124 people, this site will provide 10x the number of year-round beds for the Mountain View community.

Back in November 2019, Google.org matched a Santa Clara Board of Supervisors grant to LifeMoves with a $1 million grant, for a total of nearly $2 million. The funds helped LifeMoves expand two shelter facilities in San Jose, California.

La Avenida Apartments will ensure that lower-income neighbors can continue to live and work in the city, as well as help balance the jobs to housing ratio in the North Bayshore region. La Avenida will also help address the homelessness crisis by providing permanent supportive housing to individuals experiencing homelessness in Mountain View. The site will provide onsite service, including health and wellness, career, education, and financial literacy programming, to help ensure residents succeed in their new homes.

USA Properties Fund began construction on Mainline North, a much-needed affordable apartment community in Santa Clara that will help transform the vibrant neighborhood near Levi’s Stadium. Located in the 2300 block of Calle del Mundo, near Tasman Drive and Lafayette Street – Mainline North is part of the city’s Tasman East Specific Plan, an effort to establish a transit-oriented, walkable neighborhood. The 151 unit community helps meet that goal, being just a few blocks from a large grocery store, an elementary school, a park, and public transportation – including bus stops and the Lick Mill light-rail station.

Meridian, originally known as Sunnyvale Block 15, is a 90-unit affordable housing development located in the heart of downtown Sunnyvale that will serve households earning between 30% to 80% of Area Median Income. Twenty-three (23) units have been specifically prioritized for households with developmental disabilities, a severely underserved population in California’s housing landscape. The development was made possible through, among other sources, a strategic investment by Google alongside local and state sources with advocacy support from Housing Choices, a tireless advocacy organization for housing those with developmental disabilities.

Google and Housing Trust Silicon Valley provided a $17.2M loan for the acquisition of 2.22 acres at 57 and 67 E. Evelyn Avenue in Mountain View, CA. The envisioned project, which will be developed and managed by Charities Housing, will create approximately 160 units of affordable family housing.

Google partnered with Housing Trust via their Launch Initiative, which improves Housing Trust’s lending capacity and facilitates their investment in a broader range of affordable housing projects in the greater Bay Area.

This loan is funded by the Launch Initiative and leverages funds from Santa Clara County’s Measure A, Affordable Housing bond.

Less than 12% of adults with developmental disabilities own or rent their own home. The Kelsey Ayer Station will provide 115 homes to people of all abilities and incomes, with 25% reserved for people with disabilities. Developed in partnership with Sares Regis Group of Northern California and Devine and Gong, the building is designed to accommodate diverse access needs and includes amenities like a sensory garden, on-site programming for staff, gathering spaces, and a resident terrace.

BRIDGE Housing was selected to lead the redevelopment effort of Potrero Terrace and Annex public housing sites as part of the City of San Francisco’s HOPE SF Initiative. This revitalization effort will rebuild 619 units of distressed public housing and create another 1,000 new homes with a range of affordability, community facilities, retail, open space, and neighborhood programs and services.