Silicon Valley’s SV@Home is developing an action plan to create 25,000 new affordable homes by
2026.

Silicon Valley is arguably one of the most successful places in the world with expansive job growth and some of the highest wages in the Country. However, the region’s success is tainted by growing inequity and a workforce that struggles with stagnant wages and exorbitant housing costs. Presently, it takes more than $54 an hour, or more than $122,000 per year, to afford the area’s median apartment rent of $2,825.

Continued job growth paired with the lack of affordable housing has created a regional jobs and housing imbalance that compounds travel times and congestion on our roads and freeways, gobbles up more of workers’ dwindling pay checks, and forces long-time residents out of communities they love. Santa Clara County has an existing deficit of 68,000 homes for extremely and very low-income households. In addition to the existing deficit, between now and 2022, the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) projects the need for 25,700 new lower-income and 10,636 new moderate-income units in Santa Clara County, or 3,212 and 1,329 a year respectively.