Eucalyptus Grove Grand Opening Event

For many people, the San Francisco Peninsula represents opportunity as a place where innovation thrives and careers are built. But for essential workers, veterans and families living paycheck to paycheck, the same region can feel like a door that's permanently closed. 

In Burlingame and the surrounding area, rents have long outpaced incomes, leaving many residents, including those who keep communities running, without a realistic path to stable housing. In San Mateo County, a single person earning over $100,000 a year can still qualify as "low income" — a striking measure of just how far housing costs have outpaced what most residents earn.

The challenge isn't unique to the Peninsula, but it's especially acute here. High demand and severely limited supply have pushed housing costs to levels that are simply out of reach for a much of the population. For those already navigating hardship — veterans returning from service, individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness — the gap between need and availability can be the difference between stability and crisis.

Eucalyptus Grove, a 69-unit affordable housing community at 1875 California Drive in Burlingame, was built with that reality in mind. The development offers apartments for families earning between 20% and 50% of the Area Median Income, targeting those with the greatest financial need. And critically, 23 of those units are reserved specifically for formerly homeless veterans and extremely low-income households. 

These aren't just affordable homes. They're a lifeline for residents who have often exhausted every other option.

Eucalyptus Grove goes beyond four walls and a roof. Residents have access to comprehensive support services provided by Abode Services, including case management, health referrals and life skills training. The goal isn't just to place people in homes, it's to help them stay there, build stability and move forward.

Projects of this scale and complexity don't come together without the right financial partners. Citi Community Capital supported Eucalyptus Grove as both the construction lender ($57.3 million) and permanent lender ($8.6 million), helping bring the development from concept to reality. 

Getting a project like this across the finish line takes more than funding. Citi worked hand-in-hand with the development team to work through the financing and logistical challenges that modular construction inevitably brings — the kind of partnership that's harder to quantify than a loan amount but just as essential.

By combining deep affordability with wraparound support services, Eucalyptus Grove offers something rare in one of the nation's most challenging housing markets: a genuine pathway to stability. For veterans who've served their country, for families stretched thin by the cost of living and for individuals working their way back from homelessness, a safe and stable home is where everything else begins.

That's the vision behind Citi's Blueprint for Housing Opportunity — a $60 billion commitment to creating and preserving at least 250,000 affordable homes over the next five years. Eucalyptus Grove is one example of what that commitment looks like on the ground: real homes, real support and real impact for the people who need it most.