Santa Clara County

Project Welcome Home

Abode has been partnering with Santa Clara County on a program that combines permanent supportive housing and community-based clinical services to help the most vulnerable and at-risk members of the South Bay community.

The program is called Project Welcome Home, which was California’s first Pay for Success project.

Project Welcome Home has aimed to rehouse as many as 200 chronically homeless individuals who are frequent users of the county’s emergency rooms, jails, and acute mental health facilities.

"Supportive housing is a powerful model for ending homelessness, and we've seen its tremendous impact on the most vulnerable people in our community — people who are chronically homeless and have been on the street for years," said Louis Chicoine, Abode's chief executive officer. "We hope this program not only changes the lives of participants, but also provides a template for future programs across the country seeking the best way to address chronic homelessness."

Pay for Success is a funding model under which governments pay for services only if and when a service provider achieves clearly defined, measurable results.

Featured Programs

Opportunity Center

For years, the Opportunity Center in Palo Alto has a been a haven for people in need of services or a roof over their head — or both. The housing site in the heart of Silicon Valley has 88 affordable apartments and offers a wide range of services for hundreds of homeless people in the Bay Area’s mid-Peninsula. 

Community Working Group (CWG) developed the Opportunity Center in 2006, in partnership with the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Clara.

The Opportunity Center is located at 33 Encina Ave. in Palo Alto. You can contact the Opportunity Center at 650-853-8672. 

Stabilizing Chronically Homeless Individuals with Project Welcome Home

This video — featuring our Chief Executive Officer Louis Chicoine and others — focuses on Project Welcome Home, which provides housing for chronically homeless individuals in the South Bay. Project Welcome Home is part of a partnership between Abode, Santa Clara County, Palantir, and UC San Francisco.

The Bridge to a Place Called Home

Sal and Elaine Sanchez were homeless for eight years in Silicon Valley after a series of health problems led to a spiral of financial difficulties. This video, produced by Cisco Systems, chronicles the struggles of Sal and Elaine, who are Abode clients, and how they have been able to find and keep housing.

Vermont House

Vermont House provides permanent supportive homes for 16 formerly homeless veterans. The site is funded by the City of San Jose and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Vermont House contains two buildings that were renovated in early 2018. Its renovations included seismic upgrades, new electric installations, plumbing, high-efficiency HVAC, solar, hot water, windows, stucco, sheet rock, flooring, and paint.

Amenities include community space, furnished rooms with TVs, WiFi with community computers, community gardens, a pet wash, picnic and barbecue areas, on-site parking, on-site laundry in each house, tenant storage, and property management offices. On-site services include case management, job counseling, placement referrals, life-skills training, financial literacy, and mental health services.

Plaza Hotel

The Plaza Hotel has been converted into a site of interim supportive housing in downtown San Jose. The former hotel was originally built in 1961. It opened in early 2018 after sitting vacant for eight years. Today, it offers 46 units of interim supportive housing for individuals who were homeless on entry but are part of an off-site rehousing program that is preparing an apartment for them.

Abode provides on-site property management and services for residents, helping them to be ready to move directly into their permanent housing once it is available. Services offered there include financial planning, life-skills training, coordination with housing services, connection to community resources, and benefits acquisition. Residents have furnished rooms with a TV, dorm-size refrigerator, microwave, table, chair, and storage. They also have on-site access to a community room, computers, laundry room, and parking in a nearby garage.

Featured Pipeline Project

Kifer senior apartments

Kifer Senior Apartments will feature 80 units dedicated to serving chronically homeless, low-income, and veteran senior households. The six-story building will be built on a half-acre property at 3333 Kifer Road in the city of Santa Clara. It will be be a combination of 30 studio apartments, 45 one-bedroom units, 4 two-bedroom units, and a two-bedroom apartment reserved for an on-site manager. Forty-six units will be reserved for chronically homeless seniors, and 8 apartments will be set aside for homeless senior veterans. Around half of the units will be ADA mobility compliant. 

Residents will have access to a community space, rooftop terrace, computer room, secure bike parking for 27 bikes, and 24 vehicle parking spaces. The property is located within walking distance of the Lawrence Caltrain Station for greater connectivity to the broader Bay Area. Abode will provide on-site services, including substance abuse support, health and wellness programs and resources, and 84 hours of education and workshops that will include vocational employment, financial literacy, and individualized self-sufficiency counseling. 

Construction at the site began in Spring 2022 and is expected to be completed by late 2023. Residents are expected to begin leasing homes in late 2023, shortly after construction is finished.