Google gift bolsters Salvation Army’s San Jose affordable homes development

SAN JOSE — Google is giving the Salvation Army $1.5 million to bolster efforts by the famed nonprofit to develop hundreds of affordable homes in San Jose, executives said Wednesday.

The gift is the first donation from the $50 million commitment that Google.org made in June to assist nonprofits that are attempting to tackle homelessness and displacement in the Bay Area. That charitable commitment was one part of a $1 billion investment by the search giant to create 20,000 new homes around the Bay Area.

“Google.org is committed to continuing our support for organizations like The Salvation Army to help find solutions to homelessness,” said Adrian Schurr, Bay Area Program Manager for Google.org, which is the search giant’s philanthropy organization.

The Salvation Army intends to use Google’s gift to triple the size of the nonprofit’s Silicon Valley Community Center at 359 N. Fourth St. in San Jose.

That big increase in square footage would enable the Salvation Army to develop a complex of affordable homes at that site, which is on North Fourth Street between Washington and East Julian streets.

“This gift from Google will make a significant impact on The Salvation Army’s ability to serve the homeless in the Bay Area,” said Major Roy Wild, who heads up the nonprofit’s operations throughout Santa Clara County.

The Salvation Army hopes to include 300 low-cost residences on the site. Those would consist of 225 affordable housing units and 75 transitional housing units.

“It is great to know that organizations such as The Salvation Army and Google are working together to help us,” said San Jose City Councilman Raul Peralez, whose district includes downtown San Jose.

The Google.org gift will provide $1 million for the redevelopment of the Salvation Army’s downtown San Jose site and another $500,000 in operating support to the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Center in San Francisco.

“We are always happy for any affordable housing,” said Sandy Perry, president of Affordable Housing Network of Santa Clara County. “But this donation and the Google $1 billion proposal don’t do enough to offset the negative impact that Google is having in the Bay Area. It doesn’t add up.”

The expansion of the Salvation Army’s downtown San Jose site is expected to eventually be able to accommodate 825 people.

“As the need for homeless services in our community continues to rise, the Salvation Army is committed to driving solutions to the complex, regional problems that we are facing today,” Wild said.

Carl Guardino, president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a business advocacy group, embraced the Google initiative.

“In a world where we want individuals and institutions to put their wallets where their words are, Google has once again revealed they don’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk,” Guardino said.

Mountain View-based Google recently disclosed the first specific details about the company’s proposed transit-oriented community near the Diridon train station in downtown San Jose.

The tech titan envisions a mixed-use neighborhood of office buildings, shops, restaurants, homes, public spaces, hotel rooms, and entertainment areas near the transit hub and SAP Center.

An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 homes would be built in the development, along with 6.5 million square feet of offices — equivalent to the size of three major regional shopping malls. Potentially, 25,000 people would work in the Google transit village.

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“This is a step in the right direction towards Google taking responsibility for its impacts in the Bay Area,” said Jeffrey Buchanan, director of public policy with Working Partnerships USA, a community organization that’s critical of Google’s downtown San Jose development.

But Guardino said he believes Google is stepping up on multiple fronts to address these woes, and he counted the Salvation Army initiative as being among those efforts.

“This is the latest example of Google’s commitment to our community,” Guardino said.

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