Developer Breaks Ground on $70M Affordable Housing Project in North Fair Oaks, and He Isn’t Alone

A San Diego developer is breaking ground on a $70 million project for residents that have been shut out of one of California’s priciest housing markets.

Affirmed Housing is building 86 apartments in North Fair Oaks, San Mateo County’s lowest-income community where displacement pressures run high. The new units are reserved for households earning less than $111,000 a year in a county where the median single-family home costs nearly $2 million.

To fund construction on The Monarch at Redwood, Affirmed assembled a patchwork of loans, tax credits and equity from Housing Trust Silicon Valley, First Citizens Bank, Lument Finance Trust, Redstone Equity Partners and others. The deal comes amid soaring construction costs, stubbornly high interest rates and limited federal vouchers.

“There are a lot of creative people in our business,” Affirmed President Jimmy Silverwood said. “We are continuing to find solutions to finance deals.”

The six-story development will have studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, with 39 designated for residents in state programs providing supportive housing and mental health services.

County must plan for over 1,200 affordable units

San Mateo County has rezoned swaths of North Fair Oaks — an unincorporated area under county jurisdiction — as a hub for denser housing near transit, grocery stores and restaurants. A half mile away from Affirmed’s project, Mercy Housing is adding 179 affordable units at a mixed-use development called Middlefield Junction.

County supervisors have boosted funding for affordable housing across the board. Earlier this year they also approved $9 million for an 88-unit affordable housing development in Menlo Park, on land owned by the Ravenswood City School District. Alliant Communities is the developer.

County officials say the developments are critical steps toward meeting state mandated housing requirements, but the pace needs to accelerate. That won’t be easy. Pulling Affirmed’s project together meant the county had to chip in with funding.

Between 2014 and 2022, San Mateo County’s Affordable Housing Fund awarded $217 million in local funds and $68 million in federal funds to 61 projects totaling 4,418 units.

By 2031, San Mateo County must plan for 2,833 new units in its unincorporated areas, including more than 1,200 for low and very low-income households, due to state housing mandates. Individual San Mateo cities face their own separate housing goals.

“We are getting closer to those numbers,” Supervisor Lisa Gauthier said. “Now we need to get these projects across the finish line.”