The City of San Diego opened a new $15 million round of funding yesterday for Mayor Todd Gloria's Bridge to Home program, giving affordable housing developers until October 19 to submit applications for gap financing that helps stalled projects break ground. The Notice of Funding Availability marks the eighth round of a program that has already committed more than $120 million toward nearly 3,000 housing units across the city since 2021.
Gloria announced the new round in a post shared through the City of San Diego's account, touting the investment as the latest step in expanding the city's affordable housing pipeline. According to Inside San Diego, the $15 million breaks down into two distinct funding streams: $10 million from former redevelopment dollars restricted to site work and construction, and $5 million from the State Permanent Local Housing Allocation program aimed at households earning 30% or less of Area Median Income, which works out to $52,450 for a family of four this year.
More affordable homes are coming through Mayor Todd Gloria’s Bridge to Home program! The City is investing $15M to build housing San Diegans can afford and has already helped advance nearly 3,000 units since 2021. Learn more: https://t.co/hwwStORjl1#BridgetoHome #SanDiego
— City of San Diego (@CityofSanDiego) September 2, 2026
Bridge to Home functions as gap financing, stepping in to cover the final shortfall that keeps affordable housing projects from moving out of planning and into construction. The program pairs those local and state dollars with private tax-credit and loan packages already lined up by developers, according to the same report.
Eight Rounds, Thousands of Units, But a Gap Remains
Since Gloria launched the initiative in 2021, Bridge to Home has helped advance 2,969 affordable housing units across 30 projects citywide, per Inside San Diego's reporting. Of those, only eight projects have actually finished construction as of this month, delivering 676 completed affordable homes — including 156 units that come paired with supportive services for residents experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Completed sites include Jacaranda on 9th in Downtown, Ventana al Sur in San Ysidro, and Serenade on 43rd in City Heights.
That gap between committed funding and finished housing underscores how much of the program's impact still sits in the pipeline. Momentum has been building heading into Round 8: city staff recommended in June that $16.5 million from Round 7 go toward 430 affordable units spread across three projects, including the 98-unit 4th & Brookes Senior Apartments in Hillcrest, a round that drew ten developer applications requesting a combined $55 million in gap financing, the outlet reported.
Scoring Bonuses Target Child Care and Underserved Neighborhoods
Under the guidelines published for Round 8, developer proposals will earn bonus scoring points if they include on-site daycare, locate in state-designated Moderate to Highest Resource Areas, or partner with emerging developers, the report notes. Those Moderate to Highest Resource Areas represent neighborhoods that have historically lacked sufficient deed-restricted affordable housing, making the incentive an attempt to spread new units beyond the city's usual affordable-housing corridors.
Financing is only part of the equation. Gloria also established the Affordable Housing Permit Now program through executive order to speed up the regulatory side, and as of this month it has helped permit 7,481 homes citywide with an average staff review turnaround of just nine days. The program requires the city's Development Services Department to process qualifying permits within 30 days or fewer, a mandate designed to eliminate the administrative delays that have historically slowed 100% affordable developments.
Measured Against a Much Bigger State Target
Even with that combination of fast-tracked permitting and gap financing, San Diego's efforts sit against a far larger backdrop. Under California's 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment covering 2021 through 2029, the city is tasked with planning for 108,036 new housing units total, according to inewsource — an average permitting target of roughly 13,500 units per year.
The pressure behind that target is tangible for renters. A University of San Diego report released in 2025 found that more than half of San Diego County renters are housing-burdened, spending over 30% of their income on rent, while only 13% of households could afford a median-priced home as of the second quarter of last year. For 2026, HUD set the county's Area Median Income at $130,900 for a family of four, putting the low-income threshold at $104,940 and the very low-income threshold at $61,200, according to the San Diego Housing Commission.
The Bridge to Home program has become a recurring fixture of the city's housing strategy, with earlier rounds funding hundreds of units at a time. Whether Round 8 draws a similarly competitive field of applicants remains to be seen, and it is not yet clear which developers will submit proposals before the October 19 deadline or how quickly any recommended projects will clear City Council authorization.
