Sunnyvale to add 176 new affordable apartments near Lawrence Caltrain station

Sunnyvale is on track to add 176 new affordable housing units near a busy Caltrain station in the city.

Local housing leaders and government representatives gathered Friday for a wall raising ceremony of the new development, Ira D. Hall Square. The 1.26 acre property is directly across the Lawrence Caltrain Station near Sonora Court and will open in fall 2025. Of the 176 affordable rental apartments available, 45 will be reserved for homeless individuals referred from Santa Clara County.

“[The ceremony] is a symbol of our determination and mission to create a world where everyone has a chance to succeed,” Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein said Friday. “Where every family can find a place to call home and a place where our community can grow and build a better future together.”

The complex comes as Sunnyvale plans to add 11,966 new homes by 2031, with roughly half reserved for low-income housing.The nine-county Bay Area is expected to build more than 441,000 new homes by then to meet housing demands, a roughly 15% increase in the region’s total housing stock.

Recently in April, the city welcomed 90 affordable housing units near W. El Camino Real. A quarter of the units are set aside for households with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Sunnyvale’s latest addition is spearheaded by MidPen Housing, a Foster City-based non-profit that builds affordable housing in northern California. Ira Hall was one of MidPen’s founders and a lifelong advocate for social justice and racial equity in the Bay Area. Although he passed away in 2023, his passion for serving the community lives on in his namesake development, said Matthew Franklin, MidPen’s president.

“Something he spent a lot of time talking about was trying to create a workplace where we bring our values, personally and collectively, and are not shy about putting them in the middle of the table,” Franklin said Friday.

A one bedroom apartment will cost $1,003 to $2,342 per month, while the average rent for a similar dwelling in Sunnyvale is $2,777. The space will be available to households who earn 30 to 70% of the county’s area median income — for a family of four that is around $53,290 to $114,400. In Sunnyvale, the median household income is roughly $174,506, and about half of its residents are renters.

The completed complex will offer parking and support services including financial literacy classes, ESL courses, afterschool and summer programs and case management for supportive housing residents.

Preston Prince, executive director of the Santa Clara Count Housing Authority said the square’s 75 housing vouchers provided by the county will provide $3 million a year in rental assistance. This not only helps rent burden-families, Prince said, but will also provide funds for MidPen to meet any operational needs and debt payments. “It’s a win-win,” he said.

A housing voucher, also known a Section 8 voucher, is a federal program that helps low-income families with housing. Holders pay 30% of their income towards rent, and the local housing authority covers the remainder.

Carole Hall, Ira’s wife, said she is touched that so many people will get to call the square home.

“How we speak of this enterprise, manifested in the future, it will matter. But not so much as much as what the kids call home,” she said Friday. ‘Maybe even Ira B. Hall will not matter so much as the kids whose potential is going to be realized in a safe, secure and magnificent space.”