Second Street Studios: A second chance at a better future

There is often no better feeling than the feeling of home. But for so many in Silicon Valley, that feeling is not possible. The numbers of those who are homeless continue to rise – the most recent numbers indicate that 9,700 people in Santa Clara County are homeless – an increase of 2,300 people in the last two years alone.

Those of us in technology inherently believe that there is no problem we can’t solve, and this is no different. There are absolutely ways to address this challenge – and help those who need it most. This week we are celebrating the grand opening of Second Street Studios, a 135-unit complex in San Jose dedicated to housing extremely low-income households that are the most vulnerable to the high housing costs in our region. In May, nearly 150 chronically homeless people were able to move into the units, giving them the chance to find stability, improve their lives, and have a place to call home.

These units would not have been possible without the efforts of a number of different organizations, and an incredible set of partnerships between both public and private entities. Santa Clara County and the City of San Jose have taken tremendous steps to help homeless individuals and families over the past few years, housing over 6,000 people, with 94% remaining stably housed. While they have managed to do this without any additional housing production and working with available market-rate housing, they have exhausted this supply. 

This is why the Second Street Studios development is so monumental – it is the first permanent supportive housing apartment complex to be built in San Jose. At Cisco, we have worked closely with Destination: Home, whose efforts have also been essential to helping the homeless in San Jose. Last year, Cisco committed $50 million to Destination: Home, and the vast majority of that commitment is going towards accelerating the development of supportive housing and building more units like those at Second Street.

We are proud to be part of helping find the solution, and we believe so much more can be done if more of us get involved and work together. I joined with the Business Roundtable this week in signing a statement that companies must do more to provide value not to only our shareholders, but to our employees and our communities. This is an imperative for business – to get involved in the communities we are in and do our part to make them better.

Taking this approach isn’t just needed locally. As global companies, we have to be responsive to and invest in the issues facing all the communities we operate in, not just in the backyard of our headquarters. For example, at Cisco, we have invested over $3 billion dollars in our Networking Academy program to support training and education in communities around the world. Many other companies around the U.S. have both local and global programs that they are committed to and I commend these efforts, but we have the responsibility – and are in the position – to do so much more.

I’m excited to see what our partnership with Destination: Home will make possible for the most vulnerable in our community, and the Second Street Studios represent the first of many complexes we plan to support. I appreciate those companies already supporting these efforts, but I hope even more will show their ongoing commitment to make our communities as strong as they deserve to be. We have the ability, and a responsibility, to provide the much-needed hope and opportunity for those who need it most.