San Francisco Foundation Awards $1 Million to Catalyst Housing Fund

March 7, 2018

Facebook has announced that the San Francisco Foundation is contributing $1 million to the Catalyst Housing Fund, an $18.5 million public-private partnership seeded by the social media giant to help address the shortage of affordable housing in the region.

Established in 2016 as part of Envision Transform Build, a public-private partnership with the cities of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, the Catalyst Fund will deploy financial resources over the next five to eight years to accelerate the development of affordable housing in both communities. According to the San Francisco Business Times, the commitment by SFF is the first outside contribution to the fund, which is one of the largest sources of funding for affordable housing in the Bay Area, where rising construction costs have increased the cost of a single unit of affordable housing to more than $600,000.

“What’s really admirable about the Catalyst Fund is it really reflects a community engagement process,” Judith Bell, vice president of programs at SFF, told the Business Times. “Housing is one critical aspect of making sure people have access to opportunity.”