The ground has long since been broken at the Downtown San Jose site on North 2nd Street near St. James Park, where today City and County officials, nonprofit leaders, affordable housing advocates, and real estate executives gathered to celebrate the construction of a first-of-its-kind project many years in the making.

What makes this particular project so significant is that it will be the first-ever permanent supportive housing for the homeless in Downtown San Jose—and only the second of its kind in the City as a whole—which is currently suffering its own housing crisis much like the rest of the Bay Area. San Jose City Councilmember Raul Peralez was a featured speaker at today's construction celebration. "Affordable housing and homelessness is the biggest problem facing the Bay Area," says Peralez, "we know the solution, and it's developments like this."