Agrihood: Supporting Food and Housing Security

For some households, the dual challenge of food insecurity and housing instability creates significant financial stress as residents may need to choose between paying rent and feeding themselves and their families.

Enter: Agrihood. 

The Santa Clara, CA, development incorporates housing – including a 165-unit seniors affordable housing property – with an urban farm.

The need for affordable seniors housing in Santa Clara County is particularly acute, as nearly 25% of the population is over 60, and 70% of senior households are considered to be in low, very low, and extremely low-income brackets. 

Agrihood Senior Community opened in 2023 and serves residents making 60%, 40% and 30% of area median income (AMI), with preferences for veterans and carless households. Fifty-four units are also set aside for permanent supportive housing, which serves formerly unhoused individuals or individuals with different physical and mental capabilities. Additionally, residents have access to healthy, organic produce from the on-site urban farm, including super foods, native fruits and berries, and drought-tolerant plantings. 

“Our vision was to develop a mixed-income, multi-generational community that promoted health and wellness, decreased food insecurity, and increased access to retail, services and public transportation,” said Vince Cantore, vice president of development for The Core Companies, who is developing the community. 

Capital One provided construction debt to finance Agrihood. Additional funding sources included a Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity investment, a Freddie Mac permanent loan, and financing from Santa Clara County, the City of Santa Clara, and the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee.

More than 1.5 acres of open space represent the cornerstone of the broader Agrihood development. The open space provides opportunities for physical and mental well-being activities, from yoga to gardening. 

Within the seniors’ affordable housing community, Agrihood offers resident services aimed to increase financial and digital literacy, help residents pursue educational goals, provide food cultivation and preparation training and more. Residents of the permanent supportive housing units receive onsite, intensive case management services provided by an external organization.

Cantore said the property also hosts biweekly food bank events and delivers produce weekly from the farm to the lobby of the seniors housing building.

“Agrihood is more than its individual units – it’s a place for the community to come together and drive connection and engagement with one another,” said Cantore. 

That community played a large role in helping to shape the Agrihood development. The Core Companies worked alongside a diverse group of Santa Clara seniors, veterans groups, farmers, nonprofits, educators and neighbors to chart a path forward for the community. Santa Clara residents offered feedback through a series of public meetings that covered everything from design to programming activities to preserving the city’s deep agricultural roots.