A 68-unit affordable apartment complex for seniors is set to rise at 700 East Santa Clara Street, just east of downtown San Jose, on land owned by Santa Clara County. Eden Housing is building the project, called Trillium Senior Apartments, as part of a larger 661-unit affordable housing initiative envisioned by the Santa Clara County Housing Authority for the site of a former hospital.
Of Trillium’s 68 units, 67 will be set aside as affordable housing along with one manager’s residence, according to The Mercury News. Twenty of those units will be reserved as permanent supportive housing for seniors exiting homelessness. The apartments will be available to households earning up to 60% of the area median income, which works out to $86,310 for a one-person household and $123,300 for a household of four — well below Santa Clara County’s overall 2026 area median income of $143,850 for one person and $205,500 for a household of four.
IBM’s 1943 Card Plant Becomes the Project’s Anchor
Trillium’s design incorporates the adaptive reuse of Building 800, a structure built in 1943 that once served as IBM’s first card manufacturing plant and the company’s original West Coast headquarters, according to Eden Housing. Restored space inside the historic building will offer more than 3,000 square feet of community space, free for local neighborhood groups to reserve, opening onto a publicly accessible outdoor plaza.
Trillium sits inside the East Santa Clara Master Plan, a joint initiative led by Santa Clara County and the Santa Clara County Housing Authority, the newspaper reports. The plan calls for a mixed-use, mixed-income community with diverse housing options, flexible office space, retail, and open space, across a site bounded by East Santa Clara Street, North 14th Street, East St. John Street, and North 15th Street.
A 2.8-Acre Phase With More Homes Still to Come
Eden Housing is partnering with The Core Companies to master-develop the 2.8-acre phase of the site that includes Trillium, alongside a planned 114-unit affordable family building and 36 for-sale affordable townhomes, according to Eden Housing. Developers also used California’s Senate Bill 35 to secure streamlined environmental and administrative approvals for the 213-unit affordable phase of the project, according to San Francisco YIMBY…