Jeff Bezos Homeless Pledge Follows Amazon Fight Against Housing Tax

Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos’s pledge of $2 billion for homeless families and preschools has little chance of addressing the root cause of a problem often blamed on big technology companies: the shortage of affordable housing.

Bezos announced the plan Thursday in a Twitter post, offering with his wife, MacKenzie, to support nonprofits that provide shelter and food to young, homeless families as well as to launch and operate preschools. The pledge came three months after Amazon helped overturn a proposed tax on large employers in its hometown of Seattle that would have raised about $50 million per year to fight homelessness and create more affordable housing.