Google said today that it would invest $1 billion over the next 10 years to address the chronic shortage of affordable housing options in the Bay Area. The move mirrors—and doubles—an earlier Microsoft initiative related to affordable housing in the Seattle area.
“Google is one of the Bay Area’s largest employers,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai explains in a new post to the Inside Google blog. “Across the region, one issue stands out as particularly urgent and complex: housing. The lack of new supply, combined with the rising cost of living, has resulted in a severe shortage of affordable housing options for long-time middle and low-income residents. As Google grows throughout the Bay Area—whether it’s in our home town of Mountain View, in San Francisco, or in our future developments in San Jose and Sunnyvale—we’ve invested in developing housing that meets the needs of these communities.”
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To further these efforts, Google is now committing to the following:
“Our goal is to help communities succeed over the long term, and make sure that everyone has access to opportunity, whether or not they work in tech,” Mr. Pichai continues. “Solving a big issue like the housing shortage will take collaboration across business, government and community organizations, and we look forward to working alongside others to make the Bay Area a place where everyone who lives here can thrive.”
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#436188">In reply to ajgisler:</a></em></blockquote><p>Housing shortages exist across the country not just in areas people like to complain about. That includes cities like Cleveland, Ohio and Columbus, Ohio and Atlanta, Georgia.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#436112">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>The irony is that decentralizing would probably save them money and they also might start to take advantage of the technologies to enable telecommuting they helped create. They are bleeding edge tech companies with 1950's style management policies. </p>
Bats
<p>LOL….let's be clear and honest about San Francisco. It's unsafe and full of smelly, ugly looking, bums. Some of them, are even YOUNG!!!! I would say they are in their mid-twenties in age. I thought their local and state governments are doing things about this? After all, aren't these people getting free healthcare from them? Didn't California politicians promise them this stuff already? LOL….what the heck in Nancy Pelosi doing? Why does Google have to do this? Last I check, San Francisco (and other parts of the Bay Area) is still called that and not "New Paris."</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#436115">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>I suspect the number of people in the streets increased significantly as tech moved in and raised the cost of living.</p>