NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Amazon is adding $1.4 billion to a fund it established three years ago for preserving or building more\u00a0affordable housing\u00a0in regions where the company has major corporate offices, CEO Andy Jassy announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\u00a0Seattle-based company\u00a0said the new sum would go on top of the $2.2 billion it had already invested to help create or preserve 21,000 affordable housing units in three areas: the Puget Sound in Washington state;\u00a0Arlington, Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee. When it launched its\u00a0Housing Equity Fund\u00a0in January 2021, Amazon said it aimed to fund 20,000 units over five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The additional money will go to the same regions with a goal of building or maintaining 14,000 more homes through grants and below-market-rate loans. To date, most of the funding went to non-profit and for-profit developers in the form of loans that allow Amazon to earn revenue through interest payments. Amazon said 80% of the units also benefited from government funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like other\u00a0tech companies\u00a0that have made similar investments, Amazon launched its affordable housing fund following years of complaints that well-paid tech workers helped drive up housing costs in regions where their employers had set up\u00a0major hubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Housing advocates in cities\u00a0like Seattle\u00a0and\u00a0San Francisco\u00a0have long blamed an\u00a0influx of corporate workers\u00a0for driving up the demand for housing and pricing out long-time residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alice Shobe, the global director of Amazon Community Impact division, said 59% of the units Amazon supported so far have been preservation projects that make use of existing housing. They include donations and loans to nonprofits and local government agencies that can purchase buildings and\u00a0stabilize rents, or otherwise maintain naturally occurring affordable housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to maintaining housing stock, such projects prevent private developers from remodeling apartment buildings and putting the units on the market at much higher prices, Shobe said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve made a big difference in both the amount and quality of affordable housing in these three communities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amazon targets its investments to provide housing for individuals with low-to-moderate incomes, which the company defines as those earning 30% to 80% of a given region\u2019s \u201carea median income.\u201d The company has said it wants to focus on what it calls the \u201cmissing middle,\u201d a demographic that includes professionals like nursing assistants and\u00a0teachers who don\u2019t qualify\u00a0for government subsidies but still struggle to pay rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September, Amazon made a $40 million investment to drive home ownership in the three regions. But the rest of the money so far has gone toward apartment buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company previously received some criticism\u00a0in Northern Virginia\u00a0for neglecting the housing needs of people on the lower end of the income spectrum. Projects designed for such individuals are likely to require more government subsidies and take longer to complete, said Derek Hyra, a professor at American University and a founding director of the Metropolitan Policy Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shobe said Amazon has worked to maintain a \u201cmixed portfolio\u201d without losing its focus on the missing middle. Currently, the company says most of the units it has supported serve households earning less than 60% of the area median income, which goes up to $82,200 for a family of four in Washington state\u2019s King County, where Seattle is located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Companies like Amazon can help with the supply of affordable housing, but their money alone won\u2019t do much to move the needle without significant investments from\u00a0the federal government, according to Hyra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey have a good amount of money, but not enough money to solve the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An internal Amazon memo that was\u00a0leaked last year\u00a0to the nonprofit labor organization Warehouse Worker Resource Center and posted online shows the company sees its philanthropy as a tool that can help it burnish its reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a person familiar with the matter, the housing fund previously sat under Amazon\u2019s government and corporate affairs division. However, it was moved to the company\u2019s public relations arm when Jay Carney, Amazon\u2019s former public policy and communications chief, left in 2022, the person said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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