Success Stories
Pictured L to R: Joe Pon, former Vice President of Applied Materials; Kevin Zwick, Executive Director of the Housing Trust of Santa Clara County; Congressman Mike Honda; Carl Guardino, President & CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group; Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren; Ken Yeager, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors & Housing Trust Board President; and first-time homebuyer Joanne Pang.
HTSCC's Success Story: How We Became a National Model
"The Housing Trust is a certifiable Silicon Valley Solution: a public-private effort to patch resources together in creative ways." – The San Jose Mercury News
In the 1990's the high cost of housing in Silicon Valley had skyrocketed. The high-tech boom had morphed into the dot-com revolution causing the average home price in Santa Clara County to skyrocket and leaving many would-be homebuyers out of the market. At the time seven out of ten residents could not afford to buy a home in the County in which they resided; rental prices had jumped 23 percent in a two-year period; and the vacancy rate dipped dramatically to two percent. Individuals and families were not the only group impacted by this high-cost housing crisis. Businesses also complained of problems recruiting and retaining top talent.
The First $20,000,000 Raised
By 1998 the Housing Trust of Santa Clara County was born. Led by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, what is now the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, affordable housing activists, local businesses and foundations organized to create something groundbreaking: a non-profit Housing Trust, supported by voluntary contributions, devoted to addressing the full range of affordable housing needs from increasing homeownership and preventing homelessness to increasing the supply of rental and permanent housing.
The call went out: raise $20 million and leverage $200 million in two years to assist 2,000 families; and Silicon Valley responded. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors was the first to invest in the Housing Trust with a generous $2 million grant, which was coupled with a $1 million grant from Intel and a combined $1 million investment from high-tech giants, Adobe Systems, Cisco Systems, Applied Materials, Solectron and homebuilder KB Home. Within 18 months of launching the campaign all cities and towns in Santa Clara County followed suit to contribute to the Housing Trust, and within two years the $20 million goal was exceeded.
An Enduring Public-Private Partnership
A decade later, scores of Silicon Valley employers, employer foundations, state and federal housing agencies and private citizens have voluntary sustained a shared goal to make Santa Clara County a more affordable place to live. Through our early efforts, and the continuing leadership of our donors and partners, we have raised more than $40 million to invest more than $32 million to create thousands of housing opportunities for Silicon Valley's workforce, families, seniors and special needs individuals.
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