Three years in: Our $1 billion Bay Area housing effort

Over the next three years, we will give more than $10 million of our $50 million grant commitment to select Bay Area nonprofits. The organizations are testing the impact of cash transfers on housing stability for homeless people. Cash transfers give money to people to spend on things like rent, medical expenses, food, or other day to day expenses. Direct cash support, infrastructure for nonprofits and randomized impact evaluation will be funded. It's possible to use critical research to help provide stable housing.

Over 235,000 households were provided with cash support to improve their financial resilience and weather economic uncertainty thanks to the generosity of the internet giant. Giving recipients the ability to decide how they spend their money leads to increased economic and psychological well-being. A one-time cash transfer to individuals experiencing homelessness leads to quicker housing stability and spending less days unsheltered.

There is no research on the effects of cash transfers on homeless people. The J-PAL is partnering with several homeless service providers in the Bay Area in order to better understand the impact. Providers are building their capacity to design and implement randomized evaluations of cash transfer programs.

Some cash transfer pilots are being supported by Google.org.

• Bay Area Community Services (BACS), alongside UCSF, is running a longitudinal study aimed at determining the effect of cash assistance for 100 Oakland households on housing stability and homelessness prevention while also measuring potential reduction of racial disparities in those who become homeless.
• Chapin Hall, in partnership with Point Source Youth and Larkin Street Youth Services, will be launching community engagement work to prepare for a Bay Area expansion of a national effort. Their program tests the effectiveness of direct cash transfers and support programs on housing stability and well-being for young adults facing housing insecurity.
• Miracle Messages, in partnership with the University of Southern California, will conduct a randomized controlled trial for people experiencing homelessness. The trial adds cash assistance to social support programming to measure multiple outcomes including housing stability, food security and mental health.

The most effective cash transfer delivery models and programs for reducing homelessness are being evaluated. It is our hope that the grants will help individuals and families experiencing housing insecurity, as well as expand the evidence base around the effectiveness of cash transfer programs in high income communities.

With this $10 million in grant funding, we have granted a total of $18 million of our commitment to Bay Area nonprofits. Over the course of four years, these organizations will provide services to more than 100,000 people and house 10,000 people. It is a testament to the impact philanthropy can have.

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We know that we have a responsibility to help start at home. We want to be a good neighbor in the place where it all began over two decades ago.

The Bay Area is home to one of the largest companies in the world. Housing is an urgent and complex issue across the region. There is a severe shortage of affordable housing options for middle and low income residents because of the lack of new supply. We have invested in developing housing that meets the needs of these communities as we grow throughout the Bay Area. There is still more to be done.

An additional $1 billion is being invested in housing in the Bay Area.

Over the next 10 years, we will transform at least $750 million of Google's land into residential housing. We will be able to support the development of at least 15,000 new homes at all income levels in the Bay Area. There were 3000 homes built in the South Bay. We hope that this will help address the chronic shortage of affordable housing options for middle and low income residents.

The $250 million investment fund will be used to give incentives to developers to build at least 5,000 affordable housing units.

$50 million in grants will be given to nonprofits focused on the issues of homelessness and displacement as a result of the increased supply of affordable housing. Over the last five years, we have given $18 million in grants to help address homelessness, including $3 million we gave to the newly opened SF Navigation Center.

We will support plans that allow residential developers to build quickly and economically. We want housing construction to start immediately and homes to be available in a few years. In Mountain View, we worked with the city to change thezoning in the North Bayshore area to free up land for housing, and we are currently in talks with other cities.

Quality housing is only one of the ways we invest in Bay Area communities. Community spaces that provide free access to co-working areas for nonprofits, improving transit options for the community and our employees, and supporting programs for career development are some of the things we support.

Our goal is to help communities succeed over the long term and make sure that everyone has access to opportunity. We look forward to collaborating with other organizations to make the Bay Area a place where everyone who lives here can thrive.