Amazon slated to spend $2 billion on affordable housing for employees

This may be a great year for thousands of employees of e-commerce giant Amazon, as it announced that it will be spending more than $2 billion on affordable housing. Three regions will benefit from this and the chosen regions are where many of the company's workers reside.

In a press release, Amazon revealed the Housing Equity Fund (HEF), which is a "more than $2 billion commitment to preserve and create more than 20,000 affordable housing units." The three communities where these housing units are slated to be built include Arlington in Virginia, Nashville, Tennessee and Washington State's Puget Sound region. It is in these areas where the company expects it will be having or already have at the very least 5,000 employees.

Following the long-standing commitment of the company to help people in need, the Housing Equity Fund will be helping in the preservation of existing homes. It will also help in the creation of housing developments, specifically via below-market loans, as well as grants to housing partners.

The HEF highlights the commitment of the company to affordable housing. It will help ensure that low-income and moderate-income families will be able to afford housing in communities.

In the same press-release, Jeff Bezos, the company's founder and CEO, narrated that "Amazon has a long-standing commitment to helping people in need, including the Mary's Place family shelter we built inside our Puget Sound headquarters."

He added that at present, more than 200 women and children who are homeless are being supported by Mary's Place. He projects that the new fund will be able to preserve or create 20,000 affordable homes in the three regions where they are headquartered, particularly Arlington, Nashville, and Puget Sound. He also said that the HEF will be helping families reach long-term stability.

A New York Post report stated that Amazon initially planned to build its headquarters in Queens, NYC. However, the project came to a halt due to opposition from a number of politicians such as congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Jimmy Van Brammer, a council member of NYC.

Amazon

Recently, another tech giant, this time in the field of software development, Epic Games, also announced that it has acquired an almost one million square foot abandoned mall in Cary, North Carolina, where it will also be building its headquarters.