Apple is partnering with the philanthropic arm of billionaire real estate developer John Sobrato and two other nonprofit groups to launch a $50 million fund intended to build or preserve affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, where explosive tech sector growth has contributed to some of the nation’s highest housing prices.
The Silicon Valley-based tech giant, among the world’s largest companies ranked by market capitalization at over $3.2 trillion, launched the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund as part of its pledge in 2019 to invest $2.5 billion to advance affordable housing efforts throughout California, the company said in a statement.
Apple teamed with Sobrato Philanthropies, the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund and Destination: Home to help finance at least four projects totaling 400 units within the next two years, with nearly half the houses targeted for extremely low-income households and formerly homeless residents.
John Sobrato, ranked for years among the richest Americans by Forbes magazine, in 1979 founded the Sobrato Organization, a Cupertino, California-based real estate development firm. Sobrato Philanthropies provided over $20 million in grants in 2021 for food, financial assistance and essential services, according to its annual report for that year.
Apple, e-commerce giant Amazon and Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, have all made multibillion-dollar pledges in recent years to support low-interest loans and other funds, grants and other funding for affordable housing.
The commitments have been a response to criticism that the growth of the largest tech firms, also including Google and Facebook parent Meta, has intensified a shortage of affordable housing in areas where they have offices with high-paid workers.
Growing Funds
California cities that are home to technology companies including Google, Meta and Apple have the highest apartment rents in the region, according to CoStar data. Rents in Cupertino, Apple's home base, average $3,658 for a two-bedroom apartment, roughly 11% higher than the greater San Jose market, where rents are nearly twice the national average and trail only New York City and San Francisco, according to CoStar data.
Amazon said last month that it is adding $1.4 billion to its program, for a total of $3.6 billion, to help build and preserve affordable housing in greater Seattle, as well as Arlington, Virginia and Nashville, Tennessee, where Amazon has added major corporate offices in recent years.
The added investment will support grants and financing for another 14,000 residences, Amazon said.
In the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund's first project, Mercy Housing is starting construction of a 145-unit senior housing at 1633 Valencia St. in San Francisco’s Mission District that was once a Sears, Roebuck & Co. department store parking lot, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
A second development in Santa Cruz, south of the Bay Area, is slated to be announced in the next few months, according to the report.
Including the new fund, Apple has now allocated over $1.6 billion to affordable housing initiatives in California benefiting 60,000 residents, the company said. Affordable housing developers are working with Apple to build or preserve more than 10,000 units across more than 90 developments statewide, including several completed projects.
“Increasing access to safe and affordable housing is essential for thriving communities here," Kristina Raspe, Apple’s vice president of global real estate and facilities, said in a statement.
