Published on October 29, 2019
Facebook Inc. is following other tech titans like Microsoft Corp. and Google, pledging to use its deep pockets to ease the affordable housing shortage in West Coast cities.
The social media giant said Tuesday that it would commit $1 billion over the next decade to address the crisis in the San Francisco Bay Area, building as many as 20,000 new homes that are accessible to teachers, nurses, first responders and other essential workers. A quarter of the funds are earmarked for a partnership with California to construct housing on state-owned land in areas where there aren’t enough residences.
“State government cannot solve housing affordability alone, we need others to join Facebook in stepping up,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in the statement. “Progress requires partnership with the private sector and philanthropy to change the status quo and address the cost crisis our state is facing.”
“A company like Facebook wants to build all the good will that it can, and this is certainly one way to do it,” said Margaret O’Mara, a University of Washington history professor and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. “I’m glad that big tech companies are stepping up to address the problem, but it’s going to require much more than this.”
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Originally written by Noah Buhayar for Bloomberg.