Affordable housing development
The County of Santa Clara funds a variety of affordable and supportive housing developments. Some of these projects are led by the County and others by property developers.
Our key funding sources include the 2016 Measure A Affordable Housing bond and HomeKey, a California initiative supporting interim and permanent housing solutions.
View these projects below by their stage of development.
County-led projects
The County of Santa Clara has a variety of County-controlled and County-owned properties, some of which are suitable for residential development. We have established a process to give the community an opportunity to partner with the County to develop these sites for affordable housing.
Development process
On September 4, 2019, our office issued a Request for Qualifications to create a pool of prequalified affordable housing developers who could respond to solicitations to develop affordable housing on County-owned land. This Developer Qualified Pool (DQP) consists of 16 experienced developers that are aligned with our goals of increasing affordable housing for our most vulnerable and poorest communities.
As County-controlled properties become available, the County issues a Request for Offers to accept development proposals from the DQP. We have selected developers from the DQP to develop the sites with affordable housing as marked by "County-led" projects.
Developer-led projects
On August 16, 2021, the County issued an over-the-counter Supportive Housing Development Fund Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for developers to apply for various County funding sources to create new, permanent affordable housing. To date, we have provided funding to developers through our NOFA and there are currently 56 affordable and supportive housing developments that are either in progress or completed.
Homekey state funding for interim and permanent housing
The California State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) announced the release of the Project Homekey Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for $600 million to purchase and rehabilitate housing, including hotels, motels, vacant apartment buildings and other buildings, and convert them into interim or permanent, long-term housing.
The program's purpose was to expand and diversify housing options for homeless persons at high risk for serious illness and impacted by COVID-19. Cities, counties, or other local public entities, including housing authorities or federally recognized tribal governments within California, were eligible to apply independently or jointly as the lead applicant with a non-profit or for-profit corporation.
Countywide Homekey proposals
On September 30, 2021, a group of public and private partners announced they would submit nine proposals to the State Project Homekey funding, which has the potential to spur the creation of more than 800 new deeply affordable and interim homes in our community in the next nine months. <<State an actual time period as people will not know when you published this copy.>>
Proposed Homekey sites
This is a proposed temporary housing program for families at the corner of Benton Street and Lawrence Expressway in the City of Santa Clara.
Additional resources
Learn more about Project Homekey in the cities listed below.
Project Homekey timeline
July 16, 2020
$600M allocated to buy and rehabilitate housing
The California State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) announced the release of the Project Homekey Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for $600 million to purchase and rehabilitate housing, including hotels, motels, vacant apartment buildings and other buildings, and convert them into interim or permanent, long-term housing.
The program's purpose was to expand and diversify housing options for homeless persons at high risk for serious illness and impacted by COVID-19. Cities, counties, or other local public entities, including housing authorities or federally recognized tribal governments within California, were eligible to apply independently or jointly as the lead applicant with a non-profit or for-profit corporation.
December 29, 2020
More than 6,000 permanent housing units acquired
Project Homekey had resulted in the acquisition of 94 projects, representing 6,029 units of permanent housing for individuals experiencing homelessness.
- Approximately 8,264 individuals, of which at least 1,207 are seniors, are housed or will be housed in 2021 within the nearly 6,000 units created by this first round of Homekey.
- As many as 24 of the awarded projects, representing 25 percent of the total number of projects, have or intend to house Transitional Age Youth (TAY) residents between the ages of 18 and 24 who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
January of 2021
California fiscal 21-22 budget allocates $1.4 billion to local governments to develop wide-ranging housing types
- Given the success of Project Homekey 1.0, the Governor's proposed FY21-22 budget, released in January of 2021, included another $1.4 billion in grant funding to local public entities, including cities, counties, or other local public entities to develop a broad range of housing types.
- These housing types include hotels, motels, single-family homes and multifamily apartments, adult residential facilities, and manufactured housing, and other existing buildings for Permanent or Interim Housing for Homeless Youth or Youth At Risk of Homelessness, Chronically Homeless, and Homeless Family Units (Homekey Round 2).
September 9, 2021
The Homekey Round 2 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) released
With the release of the Homekey Round 2 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) on September 9, 2021, the Homekey Round 2 Application became available at the end of September 2021.
HCD will accept completed applications on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted or May 2, 2022, whichever comes first.
The list of eligible uses for Homekey funding is as follows:
- Acquisition or Rehabilitation of motels, hotels, hostels, or other sites and assets, including apartments or homes, adult residential facilities, and other buildings with existing uses that could be converted to permanent or interim housing.
- Master leasing of properties for non-congregate housing.
- Conversion of units from nonresidential to residential.
- New construction of dwelling units.
- Relocation costs for individuals who are being displaced as a result of the Homekey Project.