Affordable Housing: Corporate America Can Be Part Of The Solution

Abstract

Affordable Housing: Corporate America Can Be Part Of The Solution Amazon Getty Editorial Amazon E-commerce giant Amazon has launched a $2 billion Housing Equity Fund to preserve and develop more than 20,000 affordable housing units across three major hubs-Puget Sound, WA, Nashville, TN, and Arlington, VA. Amazon's Housing Equity Fund illustrates how major corporations can collaborate with local governments and help solve the affordable housing crisis that many communities are facing today. Amazon has already put its Housing Equity dollars to work in Arlington, where the corporation is now funding about 18 percent of all multifamily affordable housing in the county. The Amazon Housing Equity Fund provided low-rate loans and grants totaling $42 million to the Washington Housing Conservancy to acquire the Crystal House apartment community and help stabilize and lower rents for the 619 affordable units. Three years after announcing its affordable housing program comprised of $750 million in housing grants and investments, Microsoft had allocated $583 million towards the preservation and creation of approximately 9,200 housing units in the Puget Sound region, which included projects totaling $73 million in affordable housing investments and grants. Plans included repurposing at least $750 million of Google's land for residential housing and establishing a $250 million investment fund to provide incentives to developers to build at least 5,000 affordable units. Facebook announced a $1 billion affordable housing commitment to create up to 20,000 new housing units primarily in California over a ten-year period. As housing prices continue to rise across the nation, developers, local governments and major corporations have an opportunity to work together in the 21st Century as partners rather than adversaries to help address the inequities of housing affordability on numerous fronts.