With debts are increasing, so are home prices which makes it very difficult to purchase and/or rent homes especially in certain markets. With that being said, Google is trying to help their employees.
Google Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) indicated this morning that Google plans to give $1 billion toward affordable housing efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area. $750 million of the funds will go toward rezoning Google-owned property from commercial to residential use.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the investment in a blog post on Tuesday, saying it is the company's responsibility to be a good neighbor in the area where it originated 20 years ago and where it is one of the largest employers. Across the region, he said, "One issue stands out as particularly urgent and complex: housing. The lack of new supply, combined with the rising cost of living, has resulted in a severe shortage of affordable housing options for long-time middle and low income residents."
Google's investment won't come in one big check. Pichai said over the next ten years his company will repurpose at least $750 million of its land from its current office/commercial zoning into residential housing. This should support the development of at least 15,000 new homes. These will be for all income levels including options for middle-and-low income families.
Next, they will establish a $250 million investment fund for use as incentives for developers to build at least 5,000 affordable housing units across the market. An additional $50 million will be available through Google.org as grants to nonprofits focused on the issues of homelessness and displacement.
In addition, Pichai said the company will continue to work with local municipalities to make changes that allow residential developers to build quickly and economically. "Our goal is to get housing construction started immediately, and for homes to be available in the next few years. In Mountain View, we've already worked with the city to change zoning in the North Bayshore area to free up land for housing, and we're currently in productive conversations with Sunnyvale and San Jose," he said.