Microsoft Will Spend $500M To Address Affordable Housing and Homelessness in the Seattle Region (geekwire.com)

Microsoft is dedicating $500 million to fund construction of affordable homes and homeless services in the Seattle region in an effort to alleviate a growing housing crisis driven by the city's tech boom. From a report: The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant will commit $475 million for loans to affordable housing developers over three years and another $25 million to services for low-income and homeless residents. It's the largest philanthropic pledge in Microsoft's history. "This is a big problem," Microsoft President Brad Smith and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood wrote in a blog post Wednesday. "And it's a problem that is continuing to get worse. It requires a multifaceted and sustained effort by the entire region to solve. At Microsoft, we're committed to doing our part to help kick-start new solutions to this crisis." Microsoft's announcement comes amid growing pressure on tech companies to mitigate the consequences of growth. Over the past decade, big tech companies have drawn thousands of newcomers to the Seattle tech region with lucrative tech jobs, bidding up housing costs and often squeezing out low-income neighbors.

Comments

Re: Shareholder interests

[backslashdot]

Not all shareholders have a goal of making maximal profit. Why is it assumed that the sole reason for owning shares in a company is to see financial returns. For example, I invest in Tesla not wanting much of it back but rather to see people get affordable electric cars and to dramatically reduce the 40,000 people killed in traffic accidents by enabling autonomous vehicles. Making a difference like that to me is more important than making money.

Investment not charity.

[Martin S.]

This is not a charitable donation, it is an investment, a loan for affordable housing. Smart investment considers intangible benefits from the obvious 'good publicity' from corporate responsibility to increasing their own value by increasing the value of the environs. It is not a bad thing, but let's see this for what it is, a smart business move.

Re:Investment not charity.

[fermion]

MS and very rich people do not do charity. They do philanthropy. They invest thier money to create the world they want, or to promote their right to extreme wealth.

Charity is when you give someone some money on the street or the Red Cross some money to deal with future disasters. Philanthropy is when you demand the guy on the street goes to homeless shelter or complain because the Red Cross does not spend money on the disaster you want

The reason home prices are so high is that certain groups of people like to live together and they like to have high home values so undesirables don’t go there. To see these groups of people just check the demographics of Seattle, San Francisco, and houston, each with very high densities of very well paid engineers.

Affordable housing can temper the tragedy of gentrification by providing resources to displaced people who can no longer afford to inhabit the area. More than likely it will just excaberate the problem by causing more to want to live there, encourage even higher prices to keep the undesirables out, and promote the myth that certain groups of people have the right to live wherever they wish, even if they. cannot afford it,

it is like socialism for the entitled.

Rates

[JBMcB]

1. The interest rates on the loans are below market, to the point that they will probably just barely make their money back if the loans are paid, depending on inflation
2. They are making loans to begin with - sometimes banks won't give out loans to develop low income housing as it's risky

Microsoft is the perfect company to solve this

[tbuddy]

They are experts if you need a place to crash.

Re:Have to fix the root cause

[WolfgangVL]

It's not JUST homelessness. That's a problem, and it's one of the worst in the country, but poor life choices do not drive the price of a 400 sq ft studio up past 1k/month.

Building more housing most definitely WILL help the root issue, providing the rich don't just buy them all up and rent them back to us at todays cost.

If the affluent want to enjoy living like royalty, then they need to ensure the servantry can afford the servants quarters.

I've been trying to buy a home in the Seattle suburbs for 2 years. Every time I find something I want and get to making an offer, I am outbid by 100k, sight unseen, with no strings attached. These are not families bidding me out, its wealthy investors.

Re:Have to fix the root cause

[Anonymous Coward]

This post is great in that it illustrates the very worst approach to solving homelessness. One that's been proven to fail over and over and over and over again, with almost a century worth of data to back up that notion.

You must treat homelessness first, then drug addiction next. Having warmth, shelter, food, and security is essential to building a foundation to which one can then deal with addiction.

If you're going to help people, help them. Put away your paternalistic moralizing. Tying benefits to purity tests is a recipe for failure.