Philanthropic Efforts to Bring Affordability to Cities Raise Questions

The Partnership for the Bay’s Future is the latest coalition to funnel private investment into affordable housing efforts. The investment fund seeking to create and maintain up to 175,000 Bay Area households.

The coalition's $500 million fundraising target will seek investment from donors including the San Francisco Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Ford Foundation, and private partners including Facebook and Genentech. The announcement comes on the heels of Microsoft's recent announcement of $500 million in funding for affordable housing in Seattle. Private corporations and firms are increasingly getting into housing "at a time when affordability is becoming a more pressing political issue, and the role of the tech industry in accelerating housing costs has come under the microscope," writes Curbed's Patrick Sisson.

“That New York Times story about the Microsoft investment says that we can’t let government walk away from affordable housing,” says Randy Shaw, director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, and author of Generation Priced Out. “But the reality is, government has walked away for the last 40 years. Talk to anyone in the nonprofit housing world, and they’ll say having the kind of capital Microsoft is putting up is extraordinarily important.”