Three affordable housing projects broke ground along International Boulevard and 73rd Avenue within weeks of each other. Measure U bond money, state Homekey rounds, and a $40 million CalHCD grant are all clearing their financing runways at roughly the same time.

On the 2700 block of International Boulevard in the Fruitvale district, a stretch of asphalt that had been a surface parking lot gave way to construction stakes in May. The project going up there — 75 affordable apartments, six stories, developed by Unity Council and Eden Housing — broke ground that month. In Deep East Oakland, 2751 73rd Avenue held a ceremonial groundbreaking on Juneteenth, June 19, for 119 permanently affordable homes on a site where the Black Cultural Zone had been running pop-up community programming. And at 3050 International, a 76-unit affordable complex built by Satellite Affordable Housing Associates and the Native American Health Center opened in May, the product of roughly $91 million in stacked financing and years of approvals.

Three projects. About sixty days. A question East Oakland residents are asking right now: why is this suddenly happening?

The short answer is that several large funding bets made years apart are clearing the pipeline at roughly the same time. Oakland voters approved Measure U in November 2022, a $350 million bond for affordable housing construction and preservation. California's Proposition 1, the $6.4 billion behavioral-health bond passed in 2024, has directed $75.5 million to Oakland in Homekey rounds. CalHCD awarded the city a $40.769 million Infill Infrastructure Grant Catalytic award in 2023 to support infrastructure improvements and roughly 673 housing units across multiple East Oakland sites. What looks sudden from the sidewalk is the end of a long underwriting runway.

The project at 2751 73rd Avenue — Liberation Park — illustrates the math: Eden Housing and the Black Cultural Zone pulled together $28 million from Measure U and $44 million in state financing to reach a groundbreaking. In the Elmhurst neighborhood, DignityMoves and the Housing Consortium of the East Bay constructed Brookfield Senior Gardens — 40 modular units of permanent supportive housing for seniors at 9418 Edes Avenue — with $14.3 million in Homekey funding. And at 1223 33rd Avenue, two blocks from Fruitvale BART, Unity Council and Self-Help Ventures Fund have approval for 68 affordable senior apartments on what was a surface parking lot.

The citywide numbers back what residents are noticing. Oakland permitted approximately 700 low-income homes in 2025, the highest rate in a decade according to Oaklandside, with more than 2,000 apartments in various stages of the pipeline.

Market-rate development is largely absent from the picture. Nearly everything now underway in East Oakland is 100 percent affordable or permanent supportive housing. Much of the pipeline still lacks confirmed construction-start dates, and a December 2025 letter from state housing officials found Oakland's ADU rules inconsistent with state law — a reminder that not every approval leads quickly to a shovel.

But on 73rd Avenue and along International Boulevard, fresh fencing and excavation equipment mark parcels that sat in financing limbo for years. The money finally came together.