Microsoft is investing $500 million to help develop affordable housing and address homelessness in the Seattle area as the growth of tech companies in the region continues to flood the real estate market with high-salaried workers, leaving many other people behind.
The software company made the announcement Wednesday, explaining that the windfall will be distributed over the next three years. Most of it will go toward preserving and building new homes for low- and middle-income residents. A much smaller portion will immediately go toward homeless services and programs to keep people from being evicted – as of a count conducted in January 2017, the city recorded more than 11,500 homeless residents.
“The housing situation in the Puget Sound region has reached a point where it’s appropriate to use the word ‘crisis,’ ” Microsoft President Brad Smith told NPR member station, KUOW, on Thursday.
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