Apple has partnered with Destination: Home, as well as California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA), and Housing Trust Silicon Valley as part of its $2.5 billion commitment to address the housing crisis across California.
The company has also teamed up with United Way of Greater Los Angeles to fund the Affordable Housing Initiative, a social impact fund that supports the creation of affordable housing for individuals and families who are unhoused or at risk of falling into homelessness.
Given the complexity of the affordable housing crisis, Apple has worked with community partners to identify a diverse array of programs and projects that approach the challenge in distinct ways. Apple has now deployed nearly $1.5 billion to support affordable housing across the state, including the construction of thousands of units of new housing, programs to support vulnerable populations, assistance for thousands of first-time homeowners, and an innovative bond recycling program to finance new developments.
more than 40,000 Californians who are receiving housing support through the projects and programs Apple has helped fund. Apple-supported projects are creating new homes for close to 20,000 individuals, and another nearly 24,000 people who were at risk of losing their homes have been able to stay housed.
“We are proud to be working side by side with organizations across the state to help ensure communities and families here can thrive,” said Kristina Raspe, Apple’s vice president for Global Real Estate and Facilities, in a statement. “Our partnerships have helped many across the community move into new homes, and are helping keep many more families in housing.”
One tenet of the company’s statewide housing initiative is the CalHFA Bond Recycling Program, which was launched with Apple’s support. The unique program creates an additional avenue of financing to help fund affordable housing developments, and has allowed CalHFA to access hundreds of millions of dollars in otherwise unavailable affordable housing funding, multiplying the scale of Apple’s commitment to the program.
Cedar Grove is one of 22 developments that are providing thousands of units of affordable housing through the CalHFA Bond Recycling Program, including numerous new projects under construction and others that are using the funding to rehabilitate aging units for new tenants. In partnership with CalHFA, Apple has also provided mortgage and down payment assistance to thousands of low- and moderate-income first-time homebuyers.
Housing Trust Silicon Valley and Apple’s public-private partnership has helped fund the creation of more than 1,000 new homes. Two of these buildings are currently in operation, five developments have been completed or are nearly complete, and six developments are under construction. That includes The Kelsey in San Francisco, a fully accessible, disability-forward apartment building that will house a ground-level commercial space for green businesses that employ people of all abilities, incomes, and backgrounds.
Over the past several years, Destination: Home has continued to expand its Homelessness Prevention System with Apple’s support, providing direct financial assistance to nearly 24,000 people, including Fernando Cortes and his son. Funds from Apple have also enabled Destination: Home to help create several thousand new supportive and extremely low-income homes in the Bay Area, and increased access to technology equipment and free high-speed internet for hundreds of low-income residents.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, there are many reasons why people have left San Francisco, Los Angeles, and California itself beyond the housing affordability issue. Even those who can afford housing have reasons why they do not want to live in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or California. (Trust us, we did our time.)
That said, only Apple would do this even though many other companies could, they don’t. This is yet another reason why U.S. consumers should support Apple, not some South Korean dishwasher maker, for one of myriad examples.
Apple leads. Hopefully, many more companies will follow Apple’s lead, as usual.
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