Amazon will invest $ 2 billion to build affordable housing in these three cities

Amazon will invest $ 2 billion to build affordable housing in these three cities

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The tech giant’s new Housing Equity Fund will invest in moderate to low-income housing in Seattle, Nashville and Arlington, Virginia, where the company expects to have at least 5,000 employees each.

“This new $ 2 billion Housing Equity Fund will create or preserve 20,000 affordable homes in all three regions of our headquarters – Arlington, Puget Sound and Nashville,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, in a statement. “This will also help local families to achieve long-term stability while building strong and inclusive communities.”

The first investment of more than $ 567 million will go to 1,300 affordable apartments near “HQ2”, Amazon’s new headquarters in Virginia, and up to 1,000 apartments near its headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

In Arlington, Amazon said it invested $ 381.9 million in loans offered at below-market rates, as well as donations to the Washington Housing Conservancy, which goes to 1,300 affordable homes on the Crystal House property near HQ2. And in Washington, Amazon’s $ 185.5 million investment went to the King County Housing Authority to preserve up to 1,000 affordable homes. in Bellevue.

Amazon has been criticized in the past for gentrifying areas where it opened large operations and increasing housing costs.
Several cities competed aggressively to become HQ2’s new home – with Arlington, Virginia, and Long Island City, Queens, New York, winning the bid to share the headquarters in 2018.
But the reaction of community leaders and local government officials in Queens ended up prompting Amazon to withdraw from New York. Local officials said at the time that Amazon showed little interest in conversations about things like traffic congestion and rising housing costs that may have occurred with thousands of well-paid tech workers in Queens.

Amazon says its new approach was designed to help low- and middle-income families in areas it now calls home.

In each of the three regions, the company targets residences for families earning between 30% and 80% of the area’s average income.

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In addition to its $ 2 billion investment, the fund also includes $ 125 million in donations to minority-led organizations and public agencies designed to reduce the shortage of affordable housing, which disproportionately affects people of color, Amazon said.

The fund will also provide grants to government partners, such as transit agencies and school districts, to help families working in these areas.

“In expanding cities in the United States, many apartment buildings accessible to teachers, health care providers, public transport workers and others with modest incomes are increasingly being rebuilt into luxury apartments, causing displacement and reducing housing options for working families, “said Sarah Rosen Wartell, president of the Urban Institute in a statement.

“Investments like those announced by Amazon, which help preserve these existing buildings and maintain moderate levels of rent, are essential to local efforts that promote economic inclusion and support the stability and economic mobility of low and moderate income families. ”

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