Affordable housing advocates and community members and leaders gathered in the heart of Fruitvale to celebrate the launch of construction for Casa Sueños, a 181-unit affordable housing development steps away from the Fruitvale BART Station.
Last month’s groundbreaking of Casa Sueños was a joyful celebration of partnership, collaboration, and community. In the words of The Unity Council’s founder and former CEO, Arabella Martinez, “it truly was a realizando el sueno (realizing the dream) moment for The Unity Council, the Fruitvale Community, and the City of Oakland.”
Casa Sueños is the third stage of the award-winning mixed-income, mixed-use, transit-oriented development of the Fruitvale Transit Village. In partnership with BRIDGE Housing, Casa Sueños will provide 181 units of affordable family housing to the bustling commercial corridor in Fruitvale Village.
Originally planned as a market-rate housing development, The Unity Council responded to the urgent housing needs of Oakland’s working families by providing studios, 1, 2, and 3-bedroom apartments to those making 20 – 80% of Adjusted Median Income (AMI). Additionally, 46 of the units will be set aside for the region’s chronically homeless, with permanent supportive services provided by Alameda County Health Care Services Agency.
The project also includes 7,500 square feet of affordable commercial retail space for a local nonprofit organization, the type of organization facing displacement, along with the community they serve, due to rising commercial rents.
Casa Sueños, (House of Dreams) will create stability, hope, and a path out of poverty for hundreds of working families and essential workers, veterans, and the chronically homeless.
