Large high tech employers Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Facebook have all taken steps to alleviate the affordable housing shortage in their communities. While their efforts are moving ahead, they are finding that even pledges to fund hundreds of millions of dollars may not be enough to make much of a dent in the problem.
Microsoft’s initiative to preserve or create more than 6,700 affordable homes, with about half the $750 million total yet to be committed, isn’t moving fast enough for executives at Microsoft Philanthropies. Most of the 15 proposed projects weren’t far enough along to fund, or didn’t target the suburbs where Microsoft wanted to build.
Even with the considerable backing of tech companies, these housing initiatives won’t result in enough new housing to alleviate the housing crunch. What is needed, advocates say, is widespread reform of federal, state, and local housing policies to spur more construction.
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