A new 130-unit affordable housing project with 64 apartments for formerly homeless residents has opened in downtown San Jose near Diridon Station.
The Solaire Apartments complex at 425 Auzerais Ave. was completed with $26 million in county funding. That includes $13.2 million from Measure A, a $950 million affordable housing bond county voters approved in 2016.
“We are helping residents of the Solaire Apartments and thousands of others across the county fulfill their own potential by providing critically needed housing,” Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Susan Ellenberg said in a statement.
Supervisors have allocated nearly $700 million in Measure A funding to 56 affordable developments. Once all those projects are completed, they will include 5,127 new units and 689 renovated apartments. So far, 21 projects have been completed, creating 1,525 new units and 618 rehabilitated units.
The county also uses Measure A funding for a program to identify homeless people ready with the necessary paperwork to move quickly into new affordable projects like Solaire. The program helped 187 people a month last year.
Once homeless people move into housing, county officials work to connect them with case managers and needed services, including mental health care or drug treatment.
“We aim to make the process as efficient and stress-free as possible for individuals and families to get the support they need and the dignity of secure and affordable housing,” Consuelo Hernández, director of the county’s Office of Supportive Housing, said in a statement.
According to the most recent estimate, Santa Clara County had about 9,900 homeless residents in 2023, a 1% dip from 2022. Roughly three-quarters of them lived outdoors or in vehicles, and the rest stayed in homeless shelters.
In addition to supportive housing for homeless people, Solaire Apartments offers 64 units for households earning between 50% to 60% of the area’s typical income. That’s no more than $76,140 for a single person and $108,780 for a family of four.
