801 Alma Family Housing

Background

Our community succeeds largely because of the wide range of people who live and work here, including professionals, business owners, public safety workers, students, health workers, teachers, and our families. We have excellent health care facilities, childcare services, and activities for seniors. There are multiple amenities for residents who need assistance, such as people with disabilities and those seeking employment or housing, staffed by an array of skilled workers. Many of our homes are enhanced by gardeners and house cleaners. When we shop or eat out, the numerous retail clerks, restaurant servers, cooks, and janitors are eager to assist us.

A thriving community is inclusive, where workers from both ends of the economic spectrum can have homes. However, the extremely elevated cost of housing in the mid-peninsula area has had an exclusionary effect on many whose work contributes to our community's success. Quite simply, high housing costs have prevented lower-income workers from being able to live where they work.

We want to change that. Our aim is to increase the number of quality affordable homes for working families so that many of the integral members of our local area can live where they work. This will keep our community whole.

801 Alma enjoys the strong support of local government. The City of Palo Alto has a long history of supporting affordable homes in the community. The city has provided funding for a number of low-income properties over the years, and Palo Alto was one of the first California communities to have a "below market rate" housing program. The City of Palo Alto is providing a portion of the land and significant additional funding for 801 Alma.

The funding sources for the project include:

Low-Income Housing Tax Credits: $13,683,644

City of Palo Alto (funding and land): $9,780,000

Sand Clara County (Stanford General Use Permit Funds): $5,500,000

Permanent Mortgage (JP Morgan Chase Bank): $504,000

Santa Clara County Housing Trust: $500,000

Community Working Group (funding and land): $600,000

Federal Home Loan Bank Affordable Housing Program: $490,000

TOTAL: $27,925,193