After raising more than $500 million, a group of prominent Bay Area stakeholders is using that money to fund a double-whammy solution to the housing crisis — building new housing while also creating local tenant protections.

The Partnership for the Bay’s Future, which includes the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the San Francisco Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, on Tuesday announced investments that will produce or preserve 800 units of affordable housing — all of which should break ground or start renovations in the next six to 12 months.

At the same time, the partnership doled out funding for projects that will help local cities and counties — including San Jose and Oakland — do everything from provide relocation assistance to renters, to fund community land trusts.1

The partnership launched in January 2019 with $260 million in the bank, and much fanfare. Priscilla Chan, co-founder of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a pediatrician married to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, gave a speech, along with several other prominent local figures. Then the group went quiet, publicizing nothing more until it broke its silence Tuesday.

The partnership originally had sought to raise $500 million in three to five years to build and preserve 8,000 homes. Instead, its leaders say the fund should hit about $520 million by June — after just a year and a half — signaling support for its regional approach to solving the housing crisis. Investors include Facebook, Morgan Stanley, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, First Republic Bank, the San Francisco Foundation, biotech company Genentech and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

The group raised another $20 million to fund local policy solutions.
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• 1. “We’re a year in, and I think we’ve never been more aware of how much work we have ahead of us,” Caitlyn Fox, director of housing affordability for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, told media and supporters Tuesday at the Redwood City Woman’s Club. “But we are really inspired by the progress that has been made, which makes us feel hope that it’s possible to start to make a dent in this incredibly huge crisis in front of us.”