Amazon is committing more than $2 billion to affordable housing initiatives in the regions of Seattle, Nashville, Tenn., and Arlington, Va., attempting to leverage its extraordinary financial assets to address disparities in three communities where its rapid growth risks deepening the economic divide.
The tech giant’s new Housing Equity Fund, announced Wednesday morning, will seek to preserve and create more than 20,000 affordable housing units across the three regions by making below-market loans and grants to public agencies, housing partners and minority-led organizations.
It’s the latest effort by a major tech company to address the inequities fueled by the booming tech economy. Microsoft started the trend with a $750 million affordable housing initiative focused on areas around its Redmond, Wash., headquarters. In Silicon Valley and San Francisco, Facebook and Google have each committed $1 billion, and Apple announced a $2.5 billion pledge.
The tech industry is under growing pressure to address the downsides of its growth. Amazon is under intense scrutiny for its impact on communities and brick-and-mortar retailers, even as the company cites the economic benefits of its booming third-party marketplace, and the jobs provided by its growing fulfillment and distribution network.
Amazon’s market value now exceeds $1.6 trillion, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world. The company posted $14.1 billion in profits through the first nine months of 2020, up nearly 70%, even as it spent billions on COVID-19 initiatives. It reported more than $68 billion in cash and marketable securities as of September. Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos is the world’s wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of $186 billion.
After facing criticism for a lack of philanthropy in its hometown of Seattle earlier in its history, the company has been escalating its giving and community participation on a variety of fronts.
In a statement, Bezos called the Housing Equity Fund part of the company’s “long-standing commitment to helping people in need,” saying it will “help local families achieve long-term stability while building strong, inclusive communities.”
This is Amazon’s second major philanthropic initiative at this scale, following the announcement of its $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund in June. The company’s philanthropic initiatives are operated separately from Bezos’ personal philanthropies, including the Day 1 Fund, in which the Amazon founder has committed a total of $2 billion to programs related to education and homelessness.
The company also houses a Mary’s Place shelter for families in one of its new buildings, and has been a longtime supporter of the non-profit organization.
Thank you to @amazon for its $2 billion initiative to help address the affordable housing crisis, including initial funding to preserve affordability for 1,000 apartments in King County. We’re all in this together, and it is great to see this investment in our community.
— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) January 6, 2021
Amazon’s initial outlay from the Housing Equity Fund includes $185.5 million in loans and grants to the King County Housing Authority to preserve 1,000 affordable housing units in Bellevue, Wash. The company, based on a sprawling campus north of downtown Seattle, has also been growing rapidly in Bellevue after clashing with Seattle city leaders over taxes and other policy issues.
The company also made a $381.8 million commitment to an affordable housing project in Arlington, the site of its second headquarters.
In addition, the company says the fund “will provide an additional $125 million in cash grants to businesses, nonprofits, and minority-led organizations to help them build a more inclusive solution to the affordable housing crisis, which disproportionately affects communities of color.”
