On November 4, Apple announced that it will donate $50 million to Destination: Home to reduce and prevent homelessness in Silicon Valley. This significant philanthropic contribution was part of a broader $2.5 billion commitment made by Apple to help combat California’s growing housing crisis.
Investing in Proven Strategies
Apple’s $50 million contribution will go to Destination: Home’s Supportive Housing and Innovation Fund, which was launched in 2018 to channel private, philanthropic investments towards proven solutions for reducing and preventing homelessness.
Since its launch, the Supportive Housing & Innovation Fund has already invested more than $15 million in key projects and initiatives that will help accelerate our progress towards ending homelessness in Silicon Valley. These investments have included:
- Providing no-interest or low-interest pre-development financing for 8 new housing developments with 622 supportive/ELI units.
- Funding new project manager positions at 4 supportive housing developers to advance construction of 1,300 new supportive/ELI units.
- Expanding capacity in the Homelessness Prevention System Pilot to serve 900 households in FY 19-20 and add targeted services for victims of domestic violence.
Scaling Impact through Apple’s Contribution
With this significant new philanthropic commitment from Apple, Destination: Home will scale several existing strategies AND invest in new initiatives to reduce and prevent homelessness in our community. This includes:
Expanding the Homelessness Prevention System to serve
1,500
households per year
Funding land acquisition
and pre-development activities for another
30 new
extremely low income and permanent supportive
housing developments
Providing grants to help a dozen non-profit affordable developers and supportive service partners increase staffing and organizational capacity to meet the growing need in our community
Funding a demonstration project that pilots a promising approach to decrease the cost or increase the speed of new housing development
Developing a new client-facing portal to help homeless and formerly homeless individuals better access and navigate supportive housing system services