Google helps PATH buy San Jose site to develop housing for homeless seniors

SAN JOSE — People Assisting the Homeless has taken a key step toward developing a new residential complex to house homeless senior citizens by purchasing an old supermarket site in San Jose north of the city’s downtown district, with some help from Google.

Acting through an affiliate, People Assisting the Homeless — PATH — has bought the former Dick’s Supermarket site at 1020 N. Fourth St. in San Jose, according to Santa Clara County public records.

“Our goal is to address the housing crisis and address homelessness in a meaningful way,” said Megan Colvard, regional director of PATH San Jose.

PATH San Jose has proposed the development of a 93-unit residential project whose units would be set aside solely for seniors who were formerly homeless.

San Jose city officials have yet to approve the project. At a recent community meeting, some neighbors expressed concerns about a homeless-focused development in their area.

The PATH affiliate, 4th Street San Jose, paid $6.8 million for the nearly 1-acre site, which is located at East Younger Avenue and North Fourth Street.

A portion of Google’s $50 million investment that was disclosed in July was deployed to enable PATH to purchase the property, according to Housing Trust of Silicon Valley.

Mountain View-based Google invested the money in Housing Trust’s TECH Fund. In 2017, Housing Trust launched that fund, which uses money from local companies and big organizations to finance affordable housing.

In the case of the old supermarket site, PATH Ventures was able to obtain a $7.8 million loan to bankroll the property purchase.

Half of the apartments will be set aside for residents who earn up to 30 percent of the area median income, with the rest of the units reserved for those earning 50 percent of the median income in the region.

PATH has held multiple community meetings that have prompted the nonprofit to tinker with the original concepts for the project.

“We have reduced the building heights, we reduced the amount of parking, and we have increased the commercial space,” Colvard said.

In the initial plan, the retail space would have totaled about 500 square feet. After consultations with the community, that amount was increased to 3,000 square feet, which could allow for multiple retailers

“Affordable housing developers usually don’t build out a lot of commercial space,” Colvard said. “We are working with the community to think up potential tenants.”

Despite some potential hurdles to development, PATH appears confident enough in its proposal that it closed escrow and completed the property purchase this week.

“There is a risk, but we feel very strongly about the concept,” Colvard said. “There is a lot of political will to address this problem in a meaningful way.”

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