Amazon is committing to spending more than $2 billion over the next five years to build tens of thousands of affordable housing units. The eCommerce giant will build the housing units in three of the e-commerce giant’s major employment hubs.
The commitment underscores the current housing crises affecting parts of the US where large, high-paying tech employers reside. Amazon follows similar commitments from Apple, Facebook, and Google. All three companies have previously committed between $1 billion and $2.5 billion each to tackle similar issues affecting the San Francisco Bay Area.
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“Amazon has a long-standing commitment to helping people in need, including the Mary’s Place family shelter we built inside our Puget Sound headquarters. The shelter now supports over 200 women and children experiencing homelessness every night. This new $2 billion Housing Equity Fund will create or preserve 20,000 affordable homes in all three of our headquarters regions—Arlington, Puget Sound, and Nashville. It will also help local families achieve long-term stability while building strong, inclusive communities,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement.
Amazon plans to carry out the affordable housing project in Seattle, as well as Arlington, Virginia, and Nashville, Tennessee where it has opened fast-growing offices. The company employs more than 75,000 people in those regions alone mostly because of its headquarters in Washington. It also has around 1,000 employees each in Virginia and Tennessee and has plans to expand those workforces to more than 5,000 employees.
One goal is to avoid driving away employees who can’t afford in those areas. tech companies are often blamed for that though as their presence seems to drive up the rent of the areas they settle in.
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