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The new Housing Equity Fund of Amazon is investing in moderate- to low-income housing around the cities of Seattle, Nashville, and Arlington, Virginia, and they are expecting to have a minimum of 5,000 employees each.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, and CEO said, 20,000 affordable homes will be created or preserved with the new $2 billion Housing Equity Fund in all three of our headquarters regions Arlington, Puget Sound, and Nashville.
In a statement, he also said this will help local families achieve long-term stability when they build strong, inclusive communities.
About $567 million of first investment will go toward 1,300 affordable apartment units near Amazon’s new Virginia headquarters and near its Seattle, Washington headquarters about 1000 apartments.
$381.9 million has been offered by Amazon in loans at below-market rates in Arlington, and grants to Washington Housing Conservancy that will go toward 1,300 affordable homes on the Crystal House property near HQ2, new Virginia.
And in the city of Washington, Amazon’s funding to the King County Housing Authority of $185.5 million was used to preserve up to 1,000 affordable homes in Bellevue.
In the past Amazon has been criticized for upscaling the areas where it has opened large operations and driving up the cost of housing.
To become the new home for HQ2 a number of cities competed aggressively with Arlington, Virginia, and Long Island City, Queens, in New York finally winning the bid for a split headquarters in 2018.
But Amazon had to pull out of New York because of backlash from community leaders and local government officials in Queens.
Local officials found that things like traffic congestion and rising housing costs that may have come along with thousands of highly paid tech workers in Queens were shown less interest by Amazon.
Amazon says its new approach is mapped out to help low- and middle-income families in the areas it currently calls home.
The company is targeting homes in each of the three regions, for households making between 30% to 80% of the area’s median income.
Amazon said, along with its $2 billion investment, the fund also includes $125 million in grants to minority-led organizations and public agencies With the aim of improving the shortage of affordable housing, which has been affecting people of color.
Government partners, like transit agencies and school districts, will also receive grants from the fund to help working families in those fields.
Sarah Rosen Wartell, president of the Urban Institute said, across the U.S., many apartment buildings affordable for teachers, healthcare providers, transit workers, and others with modest incomes are increasingly being converted into luxury apartments, causing displacement and has reduced housing options for working families.
To preserve and maintain moderate rent levels of these existing buildings is important to local efforts that promote economic inclusion and support the stability and economic mobility of moderate- and low-income families and thru investment like these Amazon has helped preserve it.
Reference Source: KCRA
