Last month, Alameda County and City of Livermore officials joined other local leaders to celebrate the Grand Opening of Chestnut Square Family Housing, an affordable rental apartment community developed by MidPen Housing.
Watch the Grand Opening video here:
The result of a partnership between the City of Livermore and MidPen Housing, Chestnut Square Family represents the final phase of a longtime vision to transform a previously underutilized site into a vibrant intergenerational community where people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds live and have easy access to public transportation and many community amenities, both onsite and nearby.
Chestnut Square Family provides 42 rental apartment homes affordable to low-income families, including 10 apartments set aside for formerly homeless households. This joins Chestnut Square Senior Housing, 72 apartments next door, developed by MidPen Housing, and 44 for-sale market rate townhomes currently being built by Taylor Morrison. Construction on Chestnut Square Family was completed in Fall 2020 and resident households were moved in safely during the COVID pandemic.
“Chestnut Square Family helps advance our community’s efforts to address homelessness and the pressing need for affordable housing,” said Bob Woerner, mayor of the City of Livermore. “It’s a great model for future affordable development and I am glad we will be continuing to partner with MidPen on projects we have in the pipeline.”
Chestnut Square Family Housing demonstrates the impact an affordable home can have on families. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2021 Out of Reach report, it takes at least 2.8 full-time minimum wage jobs to afford a 2-bedroom rental home at fair market rate in the State of California. With affordable housing options like Chestnut Square, which is dedicated to households earning up to 60% of the Area Median Income, or $69,720 for a family of four, residents are no longer faced with working upwards of three full-time jobs totaling 112 labor hours to afford rent.
A resident who spoke at the Chestnut Square Family Grand Opening shared the opportunities living at Chestnut Square Family has provided his family – going from three full-time jobs to afford a two-bedroom apartment for a family of five, to being able to work full-time at one job and spending more time together as a family in a safe, affordable three-bedroom apartment in the Livermore community they know.
See his story:
“MidPen strongly believes that affordable housing is a necessary precondition for dramatic improvements in the lives of residents, and we have a great mix of needs that are being met here at Chestnut Square,” said Matt Franklin, President and CEO of MidPen Housing. “We’re excited to continue our work with the City of Livermore and County of Alameda to deliver on its affordable housing goals and make positive change in residents’ lives.”
MidPen Services, an affiliate of MidPen Housing, coordinates a broad array of onsite Family Services programming designed to empower residents to seek economic mobility, educational opportunity, and mentally and physically healthy lives. Case management for Supportive Housing residents is delivered by a third-party service provider in collaboration with MidPen Services.
MidPen Property Management provides onsite professional property management.
Financing for the $39.4M development was provided by the City of Livermore, the Housing Authority of the City of Livermore, Alameda County Housing & Community Development, California HCD IIG Grant, the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, CalHFA, the California Community Reinvestment Corporation, Housing Trust Silicon Valley, and Wells Fargo, with support from the Pedrozzi Foundation who were the previous owners of the site.