Facebook Commits $1 Billion to Ease Bay Area Housing Crisis
- Pledge aimed at building as many as 20,000 affordable homes
- Effort follows large housing pledges by Google, Microsoft
A cyclist rides past residential buildings in San Francisco on Sept. 12.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
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.