VIDEO: Big Wave’s official first day of construction! Our subcontractors are on site, surveying, leveling, excavating, and grading the soil in preparation to compact the building pad so that it’s ready for the foundation … after 24 years of planning, permitting and funding.
Fact Sheet
Mission: Provide housing, a sense of community, and access to opportunities for Bay Area adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Vision: Become a “community hub” and place to belong for adults with special needs throughout the Bay Area.
The Need: Approximately 55,000 Bay Area individuals have IDD such as autism, Down syndrome, developmental delay, brain injury, and cerebral palsy. Over half are 18+ and isolated and lonely once they leave the school system. 80% live at home with family caregivers, creating a crisis as family members age and pass. Bay Area affordable housing serves just 8% of adults with IDD. 85% are unemployed with limited job skills and job options.
The Project: A 12-acre campus which includes:
- 50,000 sq. ft. residence with 36 private studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments for 38 residents and aides. Seven of the units are reserved for need-based families.
- 10,000 sq. ft. outdoor courtyard for recreation, socialization, and community engagement, as well as inside communal areas.
- Commercial kitchen operated by tenant One Step Beyond, Inc. (OSBI), offering a Culinary and Catering Academy for Bay Area adults with IDD, teaching cooking skills for independent living or to gain employment in the culinary industry.
- Day Program operated by OSBI, providing continuing education, community inclusion, music, arts, physical fitness, recreation and job training.
- Additional 3,000 sq. ft. of commercial space on the ground floor for businesses that may provide potential employment opportunities for residents.
- Five-acre Farm on adjacent property for education and skills development, which currently serves hundreds of Bay Area adults each month from multiple County Day Programs, who help produce products sold to the local community.
- Supported living model where residents choose their daily activities from jobs to volunteering, day programs or recreation, with access to education, skills development, job opportunities and community engagement.
- Job Creation of dozens of local, above minimum wage jobs including administrative, caregivers, and other facility and campus support personnel.
Project Cost: Total cost to build: $37M
Funding: Community funded, including sale of residential memberships via a community housing cooperative; grants; private donations; up to $12.5 construction funding by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).
Progress: Secured all construction and utility permits. Installed underground infrastructure including water main, onsite water utilities, sewer main and on-site sewer and conduit for underground utilities; biological protection fence installed; compacted and certified pad completed; Phase I of wetlands restoration completed; temporary electricity installed, construction financing secured; general contractor secured.
Construction of the primary residence is targeted to begin September 2024 and take approximately 18 months to complete.
The Big Wave Residence
This campus on Airport Boulevard in Princeton Harbor, Half Moon Bay, California, offers critically needed lifelong housing and a community hub for Bay Area adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It includes individual apartments, communal spaces, an outdoor courtyard for socialization and community engagement, and a working Farm. Big Wave has worked with the California Coastal Commission and San Mateo County to secure the permits needed to meet regulatory requirements, the needs of the target population, and the community at large.
About Big Wave
The Big Wave Group is a Bay Area 501©3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide housing, access to opportunities, and a sense of community for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Located on the San Francisco Peninsula in Half Moon Bay, CA, the campus will include a 50,000 sq. ft. residence, a 10,000 sq. ft. outdoor courtyard for recreation and socialization, a working Farm, and a commercial kitchen operated by One Step Beyond, Inc. (OSBI). OSBI will provide a Culinary and Catering Program and Day Program for adults with IDD throughout the Bay Area. Project location: 380 Airport Road in Half Moon Bay, CA. Mailing: PO Box 1901, El Granada, CA 94018. www.bigwaveproject.org, Facebook, Instagram @bigwaveproject