Apple on Monday announced a $2.5 billion plan to help address the housing crisis in California, becoming the latest tech giant based in the state to address a problem it helped cause.
The plan includes $1 billion for an affordable housing investment fund and another $1 billion to help first-time home buyers find mortgages.
“Affordable housing means stability and dignity, opportunity and pride,” Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, said in a statement posted on the company’s website. “When these things fall out of reach for too many, we know the course we are on is unsustainable, and Apple is committed to being part of the solution.”
Apple joins other Big Tech companies based in California seeking to ease the state’s severe housing crunch. Facebook said last month that it would give $1 billion in a package of grants, and loans. In June, Google pledged $1 billion for a similar effort in California.
Microsoft pledged $500 million toward affordable housing in Seattle in January.
Apple’s plan includes making available land it owns in San Jose, worth $300 million, for new affordable housing; $150 million to support affordable housing in the Bay Area, including long-term forgivable loans and grants; and $50 million to address the causes of homelessness in Silicon Valley.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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