Adobe Systems Inc. | Focus 2002 Annual Report | Focus on Poverty: Housing Trust

The housing crisis in Silicon Valley, California, has attracted national attention. Only 16 percent of residents can afford to buy a home, compared with 60 percent elsewhere in the country, while rents have increased 23 percent in the last two years alone. There are four times as many jobs as available housing units. Yet affordable housing is essential to economic health, job recruitment, and talent retention, and directly affects transportation, education, and social services.

The Housing Trust of Santa Clara County brings together corporate and community investors and government entities to address housing issues that threaten the region's quality of life. When founded in 1997, the Housing Trust was the only organization of its kind to be funded solely by voluntary contributions. Today it is a model for communities across the country.

Adobe is a founding donor of the Housing Trust, precisely because the organization offers an innovative, self-sustaining solution. In 1999, Adobe made a US$1 million cash grant that the company is paying out annually over five years. In July 2001, after just two years, the Housing Trust achieved its first US$20 million fundraising goal and began distributing money to its three primary programs: low-interest loans for first-time home buyers, gap financing for builders of affordable rental developments, and support of transitional housing for homeless families.

Already the Housing Trust has helped 2,200 families find affordable housing and loaned US$8.7 million to finance more than US$490 million in private development. The organization today assists an average of one new home buyer per day, many of whom are teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public employees.

In 2002, Adobe President and CEO Bruce Chizen agreed to cochair the Housing Trust's new campaign to raise an additional US$2 million. The organization's ultimate goal is to assist 6,000 low- to middle-income households.

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