The area of Silicon Valley has become highly gentrified due to tech companies which are setting up shop there. But, no non-tech employees afford to live there. Tech companies are also tend to seek out loopholes in tax laws.
In his blog post, CEO SundarPichai wrote: “Across the region, one issue stands out as particularly urgent and complex: housing,” he wrote, “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. But there’s more to do.”
Pichai says more than 45,000 Google employees live in the SF Bay Area. He tweeted: “Google started in the SF Bay Area, and we know our responsibility to help starts at home: we’re making a $1B investment to enable the development of 20K new homes in the region at all income levels, including affordable housing options in the next 10 years.”
After Google and other tech giants made the announcement, they have been facing backlashes by local communities. According to the local communities, Google and other techs are crowding the already tight housing market.
The company will break $1 billion into a few different types of funding and these are currently reserved for commercial and office space. No homes can be built there. They will also give $50 million to non-profit groups to solve the problem of homelessness and displacement in the region. Then, another $250 million will go towards an investment fund for developers to have their homes.
