Alameda County is cracking open its housing piggy bank. County and city leaders announced new Home Together Fund awards this morning, committing $53 million to help build more than 900 permanently affordable homes across the county, with up to 346 units reserved for people experiencing homelessness.
The money comes out of a recent county RFP that zeroed in on shovel-ready multifamily projects. According to the Alameda County Housing & Community Development Department, the Multifamily Homelessness Solutions round was set up to move roughly $40 to $50 million in Measure W capital and operating support into developments that can start construction fast instead of sitting in planning limbo.
Many of the winners are not mystery projects. They have already been sitting in local pipelines, waiting for exactly this kind of gap funding. City and developer materials identify Oakland sites such as 500 Lake Park Apartments and the St. Mary’s/SAHA proposal at 3135 San Pablo Ave as likely users of the county cash. Those projects appear in the city pipeline and on the developer’s project page, which lay out unit counts and target populations for the buildings, according to the Oakland HCD pipeline listing and 3135sanpablo.org.
County Announcement And Award Totals
In a brief public update, Alameda County Health named 10 awardees spread across Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Newark and Livermore. The county highlighted Liberation Park, 500 Lake Park, 1247 McKay, Downtown Livermore and 3135 San Pablo among the projects set to benefit and said the awards are expected to deliver more than 900 new permanently affordable homes, including up to 346 units dedicated to residents experiencing homelessness.
Why It Matters And What Comes Next
This funding round is one of the first big deployments of Measure W revenue, which voters approved in 2020, and of the county’s Home Together framework that was adopted last year. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Measure W was designed to create a long-term pot of money for housing and services, not a one-time splash.
City documents say these newly anointed projects will now move on to chase federal tax credits and other financing to close the remaining budget gaps. Oakland's planning update notes that county awards like these typically help push developments over the line in competitive Low-Income Housing Tax Credit applications, which is the difference between another press release and an actual building going up.
Michelle Starratt, the county’s housing director, oversees the Alameda County HCD programs that will now coordinate the next phase with cities, developers and service providers as projects lock in full financing and move toward construction. Alameda County HCD maintains staff contacts, background materials and RFP documents for the Home Together Fund and related funding rounds for anyone tracking how this money gets from policy to pavement.
