Great news for our friends at the Housing Trust Silicon Valley! Sobrato will be investing $5 million in the Housing Trust’s newly launched TECH fund to fund affordable housing in Silicon Valley.

In March, the Housing Trust kicked off the TECH fund, which stands for Tech Equity Community Housing, with $2.5 million from Cisco Systems. San Jose-based Cisco has said it would match up to $10 million if other companies, foundations or wealthy individuals contribute.

Kevin Zwick, CEO at the Housing Trust, said he expects to have another $5 million secured for the fund by the end of next month, giving the nonprofit the opportunity leverage the full Cisco match.

The Housing Trust is targeting Bay Area tech companies to pitch in a total of $50 million to the fund by the end of the year and will grow it from there.

Companies can park their money in the fund for five or 10 years and earn either 1.5 percent or 2 percent interest on the investment, depending on how long they leave their money in the pot. Interest will be paid out twice a year.

Read the original article at the Silicon Valley Business Journal.