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

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

“This new $ 2 billion capital fund will create or preserve 20,000 affordable homes in all three regions of our headquarters – Arlington, Puget Sound and Nashville,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon. a declaration. “It will also help local families achieve long-term stability while building strong, 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 has invested $ 381.9 million in lower-market loans, as well as grants from the Washington Housing Conservancy, which will go to 1,300 affordable homes at the Crystal House property near HQ2. In Washington, too, Amazon’s $ 185.5 million investment went to the King County Housing Authority to keep up to 1,000 affordable homes. in Bellevue.

Amazon has been criticized in the past for gentrifying areas where it has opened large operations and increased the cost of housing.
A number of cities competed aggressively to become the new home for HQ2 – with Arlington, Virginia and Long Island City, Queens, New York, eventually winning the bid for a split location in 2018.
But the reaction from community leaders and Queens local government officials eventually led Amazon to withdraw from New York. Local officials said at the time that Amazon had shown little interest in talks about things such as traffic congestion and rising housing costs that could have come with thousands of well-paid technical workers in Queens.

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

In each of the three regions, the company targets households for households that make up between 30% and 80% of the area’s average income.

In addition to its $ 2 billion investment, the fund also includes $ 125 million in grants to minority-led organizations and public agencies aimed at improving the affordable housing deficit, which disproportionately affects people of color. said Amazon.

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

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

“Investments such as those announced by Amazon, which help preserve these existing buildings and maintain a moderate level of rent, are essential for local efforts to promote economic inclusion and support the stability and economic mobility of low- and low-income families.”

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