(Photo: Sahahomes.org)
Apple, Housing Trust Silicone Valley, and additional financial partners are funding a 30-unit veterans housing project in the Bay Area.
The project, Veterans Square, recently began construction with an estimated completion date sometime in 2021. Veterans Square will house 30 veterans and offer 100% housing assistance for each tenant.
One, single-bedroom unit is reserved for on-site management, 19 units are reserved for homeless California veterans through the HUD-VASH program, while the final 10 units are for homeless veterans with mental illness through California’s No Place Like Home program.
Onsite parking, laundry rooms, a community garden, courtyard, and community room are all included amenities. Most of the units are single-bedroom apartments, though two units have two bedrooms.
In addition to funding from Apple and non-profit Housing Trust Silicon Valley, Veterans Square is receiving funding from Chase bank and a number of government entities, including the city of Pittsburg and Contra Costa County.
California Veterans Homelessness
Veterans Square in the Bay Area isn’t the only recent effort to improve the situation of struggling veterans in California, particularly those who are homeless.
In Los Angeles, the Hollywood Community Housing Corporation is nearly finished with the construction of a 74-unit veterans housing complex. Additional housing projects by the corporation are also in varying stages of development.
CalVet notes that while veterans homelessness has improved since 2012, when as much as 25% of the United States’ homeless veterans lived in California, as many as 10,000 veterans are still homeless in the state.
An especially intense wildfire season, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, have only exacerbated veterans’ struggles in the state this year despite both private and public relief efforts.
Many veterans services organizations, including The American Legion, have advocated for increased support from state and federal agencies with some success. However, economic problems still persist for many veterans in the state.
Author: Christian Southards
Coming from a family with a proud military background and wanting to contribute his writing skills to a worthy cause, Christian began writing for the California American Legion in August of 2020. His father is a 25-year Army Veteran and his grandfather served in the Navy during Vietnam.
