Facebook has awarded nearly $38 million to four local affordable housing projects as part of an effort to help address the region and state's housing crisis, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reports.

Awarded through the social media giant's $150 million Community Housing Fund announced last December as part of the $1 billion over ten years it has committed to affordable housing, the grants include $9.75 million to Villas at Buena Vista in San Jose, where PATH Ventures is developing ninety-four homes, about half of which will house formerly homeless people and families; $8.3 million to Lighthouse at Grace in San Jose, a project sponsored by First Community Housing that will house formerly homeless families and those at-risk of being homeless; $14 million to 1171 Sonora Court in Sunnyvale, a project sponsored by MidPen Housing Corporation that will provide 160 homes for those with extremely low incomes; and $5.8 million to Elevate Apartments in Alameda County, a project of Excelerate Housing Group that will offer 132 housing units, 80 percent of which will be set aside for people with extremely low incomes.

"We know that the path to ending homelessness is by building more housing for extremely low-income households," said Ray Bramson, chief operating officer of Destination: Home, which is working with Facebook on its affordable housing efforts, in a statement. The company, he added, is demonstrating "the catalytic impact that private funding can have in spurring the production of new homes for our lowest-income neighbors."

(Photo credit: Exelerate Housing Group)