To celebrate the imminent purchase of the 18-unit Virginian Apartments in San José, the South Bay Community Land Trust (SBCLT) is launching The People’s Preservation Fund for Land and Housing.
The fund is intended to continue seeding and growing our efforts to purchase land in the South Bay, to ensure its permanent affordability and prevent further displacement. Our goal is for funds to be used towards long-term solutions that will enable us to purchase land for community ownership and benefit. We invite you to join us as partners in achieving the collective goals of our communities.
Particularly after the disappointing recent election results, we realize we have to rely even more on our community and our relationships for the inspiration, will, and resources to solve our housing problems. The defeat of Proposition 5, in particular, will make it extremely difficult to secure government funding for affordable housing in the near future, including for the preservation projects that South Bay CLT intends to continue carrying out. But we dare not become discouraged. The scarcity rhetoric of the government does not change the fact that Silicon Valley is still one of the wealthiest areas in the entire world.
Our initial goal is to raise $300,000 between November 26 – February 28, 2025 to support the following immediate needs:
$120,000 – Final closing costs for the Virginian Apts. (December 16, 2024!) [HIGH PRIORITY]
$140,000 – Emergency funds for Virginian Apts while City-awarded funds become available in March 2025 for rehabilitation
$40,000 – Final rehabilitation of SBCLT’s first property, Reed St.
