Senators Boxer and Feinstein announce affordable housing funds for Silicon Valley


(San Jose: December 1, 2005) California’s United State Senators Boxer and Feinstein have announced that the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $100,000 to the Housing Trust of Santa Clara County.

The Housing Trust will use the funds to create additional affordable housing opportunities for Santa Clara County residents through first-time homebuyer assistance. The Trust offers up to $6500 in interest-free assistance to qualifying low and moderate-income families who are buying their first home in Santa Clara County. For more information on the program, please visit www.housingtrustscc.org.

The HUD award is part of the Trust’s “Phase III” fundraising campaign, launched in February, 2005. Phase III seeks to raise $10 million in total, and help 1,000 additional families each year for the next three years through the Trust’s existing programs. To date, public and private donors have contributed $6.1 million towards the campaign’s goals.

Since it’s inception in 1999, the Housing Trust of Santa Clara County has raised more than $30 million in local public and private contributions, and has invested $20.2 million in affordable housing opportunities throughout Santa Clara County. Since they began distributing funds in August, 2001, the Trust has already helped 5,165 families, including helping 1,397 families buy their first homes in Santa Clara County; enabled the development of 1,183 units of affordable rental housing, worth over $308 million; and helped create hundreds of units of shelter and special-needs housing in our community, making it possible for people like teachers, police officers, firefighters, nurses and civic employees to live in the communities they serve.