FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 9, 2022
Media Contact:
SAN JOSÉ, CA - Today, Mayor Sam Liccardo, Councilmember Raul Peralez (D3), Chad Bojorquez, Chief Program Officer,
Destination: Home, Claudine Sipili Board Member,
Lived Experience Advisory Board, and Joanne Karchmer, Chief Impact Officer,
All Home, celebrated the groundbreaking of the city’s fourth quick-build apartment community that will be used for interim housing. Located at the former overflow parking lot adjacent to the San José Police Department Administration Building, known as Lot E, the community will include 76 units of interim housing with private bedrooms and bathrooms and shared community facilities. The site will only take six months to construct at 1/4 of the cost of traditional apartments.
The community will also host a transitional employment program similar to the San José Bridge program that will employ residents to maintain and steward the Guadalupe River Park. The City is also piloting a new transitional employment program similar to the existing San José Bridge program, that will allow residents to live at the new transitional community while working with local employment based non-profits to improve their job skills while they rebuild their resumes.
“San José continues to deploy our quick-build apartment communities, acting as an example for cities across the country for rapid solutions in our collective battle against homelessness,” said Mayor Sam Liccardo. “While we have so much work to do, I am grateful to our generous coalition of public and private philanthropic partners who continue to advocate and invest in this approach to rapidly rehouse our most vulnerable community members.”
The newest quick-build apartment community follows the same model adopted for the first three pilot communities at Bernal/Monterey, Rue Ferrari, and Evans Lane, which took less than a year to build and currently provide homes for 317 formerly unhoused residents. The City has embraced this new approach to modular transitional housing that can be built in a matter of months, providing an immediate response to the homelessness crisis and serving as a model for other cities.
“I'm proud that we were able to work with neighbors and community partners to help make this project a reality in order to disrupt the cycle of homelessness and provide safety, stability, and dignity for our unhoused neighbors, '' said Councilmember Raul Peralez (D3). “I look forward to continuing to identify creative and sustainable solutions to our ongoing housing crisis.”
The quick build apartment community at Lot E will contain communal amenities and provide 76 units of interim housing with ensuite bathrooms. Donated by the SHP Foundation founded by Peter and Susanna Pau, the prefabricated units will save the city millions in development costs. SHP Foundation previously contributed to the construction of the city’s first quick build apartment community at
Evans Lane and the Pau’s continued support for this housing model is generating ongoing interest in philanthropic support from other sources.
“We as a Christian group follow God’s command to be compassionate and caring,” said SHP Foundation founders Peter and Susanna Pau. “Homelessness is not just other people’s problem. It is now the Bay Area’s biggest problem, there are solutions but we all need to contribute. SHP Foundation is partnering with the City of San José to do something about it. We hope other cities and groups will join in.”
The Lot E quick-build apartment community is being developed by Bay Area-based firm Devcon Construction, Inc. The City of San José is funding construction through federal American Rescue Plan funds, City of San José Housing Department funds, and Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) funds from the state. Additional funding comes from the generosity of community partners Destination: Home who contributed a $1 million grant, All Home who provided $500,000, and Housing Trust Silicon Valley who provided $25,000.
“As part of the work of the
Community Plan to End Homelessness, Destination: Home is proud to support more immediate shelter options like this site, informed at all levels by those with the lived expertise of homelessness,”
said Destination:Home CEO Jennifer Loving. “Our grant of $1 millon to Lot E helps us get people off the streets now, while we continue to work together with the Mayor and San José to develop the necessary lowest-income permanent housing in Silicon Valley.”
Lot E, and the city’s previously-built quick-build apartment sites at Evans Lane, Rue Ferrari, and Bernal/Monterey are built on the success of the
bridge housing model to provide housing that closes the gap between street homelessness and permanent housing. The City, County, and Housing Authority are driving hard to meet ambitious goals of the
Community Plan to End Homelessness, permanently housing 20,000 unhoused residents and doubling shelter capacity by 2025. The construction of Lot E contributes to the Mayor’s goal of having at least 1,000 units of quick-build interim housing completed or in the development pipeline by the end of 2022. Construction at Lot E is slated to be completed in August 2022.
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About the City of San José
With more than one million residents, San José comprises the 10th largest city in the United States, and one of its most diverse cities. San José’s transformation into a global innovation center in the heart of Silicon Valley has resulted in the world's greatest concentration of technology talent and development.
About SHP Foundation
SHP Foundation is a private Christian foundation established in 1995 under IRS Code Section 501(c)(3). Its mission is to serve the poor and needy in the community by providing low-cost housing solutions, health care and education, often in partnership with other Christian organizations.
