Berkeley OKs spending $53M on affordable housing projects at BART stations

By KTVU staff

Published April 28, 2021 7:21am PDT

Housing and Homeless

Berkeley invests in affordable housing

Berkeley invests in affordable housing at the BART Ashby parking lot.

BERKELEY, Calif. - The city of Berkeley is about to make the biggest affordable housing investment in city history.

On Tuesday night, the city council voted to spend $53 million to develop hundreds of new affordable homes at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations.

The projects will also include open space and community amenities.

About $40 million dollars comes from Measure O bond funds approved by voters three years ago.

BART leaders are excited about the project's approval.

Bart board vice president Rebecca Saltzman tweeted: "This is the leadership we need throughout the bay area and especially near transit to solve our housing crisis."

She added that BART has a goal of building 7,000 affordable homes on its property by 2040, but that the agency needs strong partnerships to get the job done.