Microsoft is dropping a lot of money to help improve affordable housing in Seattle

Image: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

Where the tech sector has boomed, affordable housing has suffered.

Now, Microsoft is following other tech giants in wanting to be part of the solution, announcing a $500 million fund targeting homelessness and affordable housing in Seattle on Wednesday.

It’s the biggest pledge in the company’s history, and one of the largest by a private corporation towards housing, according to the Seattle Times. 

Seattle, much like Northern California, is facing a lack of affordable housing, as the rapid growth of tech has led to people being priced out of the housing market.

A municipal report from December declared the Seattle region needs 240,000 more affordable housing units by 2040, to ensure low-income households are not spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

“At some level we as a region are going to need to either say there are certain areas where we’re comfortable having more people live, or we just want permanently to force the people who are going to teach our kids in schools, and put out the fires in our houses and keep us alive in the hospital, to spend four hours every day getting to and from work,” Microsoft president Brad Smith told the Seattle Times.

“That is not, in our view, the best outcome for the community.”

Where the money is going

The majority of the funds ($250 million) will go toward market-rate loans to build low-income housing in the King County region, which encompasses the Seattle metropolitan area.

Another $225 million will be loaned to developers at below-market rates for the construction and preservation of middle-income housing, with investments to be initially made in six cities east of Seattle: Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, Renton and Sammamish.

Finally, $25 million will be used for grants to help address homelessness in the Seattle region, such as the Home Base program, which allows people facing eviction from their homes access to flexible funds and legal representation.

Microsoft’s pledge eclipses those made by other tech giants. Down in California, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have put their money towards affordable housing initiatives through their foundation.

Facebook’s soon-to-come Willow Campus, will have 15 percent of its 1,500 homes offered at below-market rates. Google is partnering with a developer and the City of Mountain View to build 6,600 units on its doorstep, with 20 percent to be designated as affordable housing.

Microsoft said it had been working on the plan for the last eight months. It conceded that more money will be needed to solve these issues, as well as public policy changes to help make affordable housing more attractive to build.