Housing Security
In Silicon Valley, two issues drive inequity more than any others: housing insecurity and economic mobility. That’s the catalyst for The Sobrato Organization’s (TSO) Housing Security Initiative (HSI)—a bold, cross-company effort to ensure that low-wage, housing-insecure residents and families not only have a stable place to call home, but also the opportunity to thrive.
We envision Silicon Valley as a region where all individuals and families can remain in their communities, achieve economic success, and shape their own futures. Where every person has the dignity of a safe, stable home.
Why Housing Matters
Housing insecurity is one of the greatest challenges facing Silicon Valley today:
- The region lacks 118,000+ housing units affordable to people making below 120% of the Area Median Income.
- 173,000 households in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties are rent burdened.
- Families with young children are especially vulnerable—18,100 households with kids under age six spend more than they can afford just to stay housed.
- Nearly 370,000 San Jose residents live in neighborhoods already at risk of displacement.
Stable housing is the necessary condition for economic mobility and community belonging. When families are forced to leave, they lose not only their homes but their communities, schools, and support systems.
Our Approach: Production. Preservation. Policy.
HSI leverages the unique power of TSO by bringing together its Sobrato Real Estate, Capital, and Philanthropies groups to take a holistic approach and use all the tools at our disposal for greater impact and alignment to our core values. This integrated model allows us to address housing insecurity from multiple angles at once:
- Production – Through our impact investment tools and partnerships, we catalyze and finance the creation of new affordable housing across the San Francisco Bay Area, where affordable options lag far behind demand. This impacts many residents including essential workers—nurses, teachers, first responders, grocery clerks—who need local housing to stay in their communities.
- Preservation – We acquire, rehabilitate and operate existing naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) at risk of market rate redevelopment. We’re preserving housing complexes that may have been neglected over the past few decades, and turning those into dignified homes where families can stay connected to their neighborhoods, schools, and resources. Without this work, many would have been forced out of the area entirely.
- Pro-Housing Policy – Tackling the root problem: California’s undersupply of housing. With 75% of land zoned for single-family homes, we need policies that allow denser, more attainable housing for working families. We provide grants to and work with partners to advance solutions that can scale, improve, and shift California’s housing system.
Production – Partnerships for Impact
We believe lasting change requires the public and private sectors to work together, aligning resources and building shared solutions. In July 2024, the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund, Sobrato Philanthropies, Destination: Home, and Apple announced the launch of the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund (BAHIF) with $50 million in initial investment. The first-of-its-kind fund was created to provide fast, flexible and low-cost financing that removes the uncertainty that typically constrains development and adds significant costs to affordable housing projects.
By December 2025, the Fund had doubled to $100 million, unlocking more than 1,000 affordable homes cumulatively over the next two years. The first BAHIF-backed project, located at 1633 Valencia Street in San Francisco, opened that same month delivering 145 homes for formerly homeless seniors.
“As an anchor investor in BAHIF, and a strong proponent of innovation solutions to the ongoing housing crisis, we are incredibly proud of the progress we have made in delivering our promise to the community,” said John A. Sobrato, Founder and Board Chair Emeritus of The Sobrato Organization. “Together with committed partners and investors, we’re accelerating our capacity to build more affordable housing, faster.”
Preservation – Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing
At The Sobrato Organization, we see naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) as one of the most immediate and impactful ways to preserve stability for families in our priority communities. Our approach focuses on acquiring and stewarding existing housing so it remains affordable over the long term—protecting residents making less than 80% of the Area Median Income from displacement while investing in the quality, safety, and sustainability of the properties themselves. By pairing mission-driven ownership with resident-centered services and long-term capital, we work to ensure that NOAH remains a reliable foundation for dignity, opportunity, and community belonging in Silicon Valley.
Learn more about our Sobrato-owned NOAH properties.
