Microsoft pledges $500M to tackle Seattle housing crisis

[TexasTowelie]

SEATTLE (AP) — Microsoft pledged $500 million to address homelessness and develop affordable housing in response to the Seattle region's widening affordability gap.

Most of the money will be aimed at increasing housing options in the Puget Sound region for low- and middle-income workers at a time when they're being priced out of Seattle and some of its suburbs, and when the vast majority of new buildings target wealthier renters, said Microsoft President Brad Smith.

The pledge is the largest in the company's 44-year history, and, according to the company, is one of the heftiest contributions by a private corporation to housing, The Seattle Times reported . In comparison, the amount dwarfs the $100 million in annual funding for Washington state's Housing Trust Fund.

It's too early to say exactly how much affordable housing will ultimately result from the $500 million, Microsoft officials said. Smith said the company, based in the Seattle suburb of Redmond, hopes to leverage the fund to help create "tens of thousands of units."

Read more: https://www.fredericksburg.com/news/news-wire/microsoft-pledges-m-to-tackle-seattle-housing-crisis/article_d01aafb1-6257-56f8-a10b-c2ec09ee0cf0.html

[LisaM]

1. They should pledge it to enact rent control

and a state income tax. And then pigs will fly, of course.

Seriously, though, if they could find a way to quit displacing people, to tax all the millionaires, and to stabilize rents, that would help a lot, and be more of a permanent solution.