Apple announces Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund to create more affordable homes

Apple has announced the launch of a new Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund, intended to help the creation of more affordable homes in and around San Francisco.

It’s the latest phase of the company’s multi-year initiative to help tackle the California housing crisis, which has seen many locals priced out of the areas in which they grew up …

Apple’s $2.5B affordable homes initiative

Apple first announced back in 2019 that it would be allocating $2.5B to a comprehensive plan to address the crisis.

As costs skyrocket for renters and potential homebuyers — and as the availability of affordable housing fails to keep pace with the region’s growth — community members like teachers, firefighters, first responders and service workers are increasingly having to make the difficult choice to leave behind the community they have long called home.

Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund

It said then that $150M of the $2.5B would be allocated to a housing fund in the Bay Area, and it has now revealed details for the first $50M of this.

Apple is teaming up with the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund, Sobrato Philanthropies, and Destination: Home — all experts in affordable housing development — to launch the new Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund. This fund […] will make targeted, favorable loans to advance affordable housing development […]

With an initial $50 million investment, the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund will support four projects in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, creating more than 400 homes within the next two years.

The scheme will use proven methods to help deal with some of the barriers which typically hold up affordable housing developments.

Tim Cook has previously said that the company feels a responsibility to help the area it calls home.

“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,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “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.”

Photo: Apple