Silicon Valley billionaire John Sobrato is leasing a two-acre plot of private land for $1 a year to help address the Bay Area's housing crisis

A Silicon Valley billionaire is leasing a two-acre plot of private land to a city for just $1 a year to help address the Bay Area's housing crisis. 

American real estate developer John Sobrato, 84, offered the San Jose City Council the opportunity to construct a 150-bed solar-powered temporary housing complex on Via Del Oro, Edenvale, in the south of the metropolis. 

Sobrato said he approached the authority to offer his two-acre plot , which has sat unused for 30 years, after seeing increasing numbers of rough sleepers. 

Although the plot lies in an industrial area, it is close to a bus line and the interstate and the project, which will be constructed by with social housing solutions company DignityMoves, has been hailed as an 'effort to end homelessness' in the city. 

Sobrato agreed to a five-year lease at just $1 a year, and San Jose councilors voted unanimously to approve the development on Tuesday. 

American real estate developer John Sobrato, 84, has offered the San Jose City Council the opportunity to construct a 150-bed solar-powered temporary housing complex on Via Del Oro in the south of the metropolis

The temporary housing complex will offer 150 units for people sleeping on the streets in the Bay Area

Although the plot lies in an industrial area, it is close to a bus line and the interstate

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the complex of cabins is 'designed to be movable when the city's lease runs out' so the 'quick-build community' can be launched again on another plot.   

He thanked Sobrato Philanthropies, a real estate and philanthropy network, and DignityMoves founders Elizabeth Funk and Joanne Price for their generosity. 

'This contribution is especially exciting because it allows to test a new approach that could help get privately-owned but currently unused private land off the sidelines and into the effort to end homelessness in San Jose,' Mahan said on X. 

'I'm so proud of our city for pushing the envelope on homelessness and constantly striving to better our approach so we can help more people suffering and improve the quality of life for everyone.'

Mahan posted a photograph of what the bedroom cabins will look like, along with a sketch of the overall layout. 

City officials said the development will also include shared kitchens and laundry rooms, outdoor seating, a parking lot and extra buildings to provide services like job training and substance abuse support. 

Sobrato is worth $10.3billion per Bloomberg, and while he is leasing his land for a steal, the project is expected to cost the city around $18million, according to NBC.  

San Jose is home to around 1million people, and it is the third most expensive city in the United States, behind only Manhattan and Honolulu, according to the latest report from the Council for Community and Economic Research. 

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the complex of cabins is 'designed to be movable when the city's lease runs out' so the 'quick-build community' can be launched again on another plot

A view of a homeless encampment on a street in West Oakland, California, last month, as local officials made moves to clear out the structures

The northern California city has become the nucleus of Silicon Valley tech culture, which is pushing prices up meaning thousands of people are unable to afford shelter. 

More than 6,300 people are sleeping rough in the city this year, according to the latest homeless census figures. 

The number of people without a home is skyrocketing in the US, and California is by far the worst-hit state.  

It has about a third of all the country's homeless people, and Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland and other Golden State cities have among the largest numbers of unsheltered people in the country.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development says 582,462 people did not have a permanent home on the single night in January last year when researchers carried out their most recent snapshot survey.

Some 60 percent of the destitute were in shelters, crashing with friends or relatives, or had other temporary digs. The rest were 'unsheltered' — sleeping in cars, on the streets or in derelict buildings.

Sights like this, a homeless person's belongings scattered on the street next to a bank in Los Angeles, California, have become a common sight at ATMs across the country

To capture the scale of the problem, DailyMail.com analyzed the department's data, which were released at the end of last year, to show which US states and cities have the worst homelessness rates. 

They show that about a third of the entire US homeless population — 171,521 people — are in California. That includes more than half of the country's unsheltered homeless population, 115,491 people.

California also added 9,973 homeless people between 2020 and last year's survey.

The Golden State has the country's highest rate of homelessness, with 44 non-housed people out of every 10,000 residents. It is followed closely by Vermont, Oregon, and Hawaii.