Her quest for a first-time homebuyer loan ended when she came across information about the Housing Trust of Santa Clara County. Qwan applied for a loan at the housing trust in May, and her application was approved in June.

The Housing Trust's First-time Homebuyer Loan Program gives no-interest loans of $6,500 to individuals whose household income is less than $115,200 and who are moving into their first home in Santa Clara County, the cost of which is less than $550,000. The loan is mainly given to buyers to cover their closing costs, and homebuyers are not obligated to return the loan amount until they sell or refinance their home.

With the housing problem in Sunnyvale escalating for residents and prices being among the highest in the country, council members at their July 22 meeting unanimously passed the motion to make a second contribution of $500,000 to the housing trust.

The city made a similar contribution of $500,000 to the housing trust more than two years ago in February 2001.

"The program allowed me to put less money down and freed up funds for me to furnish my place," Qwan says. "The application was very simple to fill out. It took about 15 minutes."

The nonprofit housing trust was launched in 2001 following a community effort led by the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, the county and other county organizations to fund first-time homebuyer programs, the construction of affordable homes and grants to homeless shelters.

The trust raised $20 million through its fundraising campaign, and contributions were made by private investors, cities, the county and high-tech companies such as Cisco Systems and Adobe during the economic boom times. The county made the largest contribution, $2.5 million.

Adam Burger, a development associate with the trust, says it is the most successful housing trust to date, with its capital of $20 million, which was raised in a record time of 18 months.

Council member Jack Walker said the trust specializes in lower cost housing for a segment of the population that can't afford to invest in housing. According to the city of Sunnyvale, there has been a constant drop in homeownership in the city, from 51 percent in 1980 to 47.6 percent in 2000.

"It is Sunnyvale's policy to make housing affordable, and the housing trust helps with that," Walker said.

According to the housing trust, the city has reaped the benefits of the previous $500,000 contribution because the trust, in turn, invested $700,000 in Sunnyvale that leveraged into more than $25 million.

Part of the trust's goal is to help low-salaried people who are important to the community buy homes—including teachers, firefighters, police officers and students. Out of the 28 loans given so far in Sunnyvale, six were given to teachers and a few others to nursing assistants and students.

"It's important that we have as many people living here as work here," Burger says. "The average stay of a teacher in Santa Clara County is less than five years."

"We want to encourage businesses to come to Sunnyvale and want people to be able to live where they work and spend more time with their families and their community," Councilwoman Pat Vorreiter said. "This makes for better quality living."