June 2018 - In This Issue:
Housing Trust to Administer SCC Homebuyer Program
 
At the June 19th 2018 Santa Clara County Board of Supervisor's meeting 
At the June 19th Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting Housing Trust Silicon Valley was named the administrator of the county's down payment assistance program. This is among SCC's big Measure A funded items, and the appointment of Housing Trust to run the county's program was a natural fit. 

The funds will assist approximately 230 households with incomes that do not exceed 120% of the Area Median Income over the first five years of the program by providing deferred loans for down payments up to 17% of a home's purchase price. Like Housing Trust's HELP program, the County's down payment loan program does not require monthly principal or interest payments - borrowers will repay the principal loan amount plus a share of appreciation based on the percentage of the amount borrowed. For the Mercury News story on this great announcement click here. 

Housing Trust is excited to work with Santa Clara County on their program and help those who need a #AHomeInSCC to find one!
Hello Summer (and Hello, Homeownership Month!)
 
Aufdermaur family enjoying a day at the pool 
It's June 21st so it means two things: the official start of summer and homeownership month! 

It's a time to celebrate the nearly universal American dream of home ownership but also promote ways we can help people close the distance between today and their dream. It's also a good time to reflect on who we've been able to help so far - like the Aufdermauer family.

As some of you may remember, Christian Aufdermauer was our special guest at Investor Briefing back in March, when he talked of his experience with the City of Santa Clara's Below Market Program (BMP) administered by Housing Trust. He guessed that without that program, he and his family of five would be living in a tiny two-bedroom rental paying at least $3,000 a month or sharing space with his in-laws in Hollister. But what they have thanks to the program is confidence, peace of mind and a sense of ownership. 

Homeowner Christian Aufdermauer with Keller Williams Silicon City CEO (and Housing Trust board member) Hilda Ramirez
The home they live in is a 4-bedroom, 3.5 bath townhouse with access to a park and pool - great for summer! - but also an extra bedroom for foster youth: so far the family has hosted a 10 year-old girl for two months before she was able to return back home to live with her family and today they have a teenage boy living with them working towards independence. 

We've asked different people from all walks of life what owning a home means, and the Aufdermauer family shows owning a home means a lot more than middle-class symbolism. It's a safe place for a family to live and help others.

We're thankful we were able to help Christian's family find #ABayAreaHome and look forward to assisting others in the greater Bay Area achieve their dreams.
 
Deadline Approaching for Guardino Scholarship 


2013 winner of Guardino Affordable Housing Scholarship, Ngoc Vo.
The June 30th deadline is approaching for the Guardino Affordable Housing Scholarship - a $3,000 award given out to four students living in affordable housing and  attending college this fall. Applicants can  apply here  using the online form. I f you work with any high school students, teachers, property managers, mentors or others who may be eligible to apply, please share the link to the Guardino Affordable Housing Scholarship page.  

If you have questions about the scholarship please contact Alison Frost at alison@housingtrustsv.org or 408-436-3450 ext. 224.
 
Big News In Small Homes
 
At the ADU Workshop on June 8. Pam Dorr, of non-profit Soup, was a guest speaker
Our Accessory Dwelling Unit Program - made possible with a grant from JP Morgan Chase and their PRO Neighborhoods initiative - has begun its series of workshops and we have a lot of ADU news to share.

Our First ADU Workshop 

The first ADU workshop was June 9th and Pam Dorr, who leads the Blocks affordable housing program at non-profit Soup, was a guest speaker who talked about site analysis and using shipping containers to make beautiful ADUs. Our list of homeowners wishing to get information on navigating the complex building codes and financing requirements of ADUs keeps growing and we're encouraging anyone interested in the topic to sign up on our ADU interest page. 

Next ADU Workshop - June 28

The next workshop will be led by Kol Peterson - Portland-based ADU expert and author of Backdoor Revolution - and held at the Santa Clara County Association of REALTORS® San Jose office on June 28th from 1 - 6pm.

ADU Conference for Elected Officials - June 29th 

An event aimed at educating elected officials with ADU ordinance best practices and homeowner tools via Housing Trust's Small House, Big Impact ADU Program will take place Friday, June 29th from 8:00am to 1:00pm at 1020 Enterprise Way in Sunnyvale (Microsoft Building B). For more information and to register click here.

Legislative Developments

There have also been some big legislative developments with ADUs both locally and statewide: our own ADU Programs Manager Vianey Nava was in Sacramento on June 20th to provide testimony in favor of SB831 - which ultimately passed the Housing and Community Development Committee.  The same week  San Jose passed an ordinance to make it easier for homeowners to build ADUs. That story is in today's print edition of The San Jose Mercury News and right  here . 

 
Where We've Been, Where We're Going Next
 
Our team at the Hayes Mansion in San Jose for our annual offsite planning meeting
In addition to watching the summer roll in, June is the month the entire Housing Trust team has an offsite to talk about what we've been able to do and what we want to do when our new fiscal year begins in July. 

This year we all met at the Hayes Mansion in San Jose where Naomi Chavez Peters from Greater Leader Consulting led us through our day - which included a fun exercise where we all wrote "six word bios" and tried to guess whose was whose. We also enjoyed a Housing Trust version of Jeopardy where knowledge of housing and finance-related acronyms and TECH Fund investors were good to have as the points and laughs were tallied.

In addition to the fun, we were thankful to all get together and be reminded of how small our team is and how much it has grown at the same time. Between creating our new ADU program and adhering to our 'more is more' theme throughout the past year, we've extended our reach a lot and will need your help more than ever as we head into the next fiscal year. Thanks for being part of our team!

 

Housing Trust Silicon Valley
75 E. Santa Clara St., Ste 1350
San Jose, CA 95113