After the demolishing of Vallco Shopping Mall, a bid was submitted to construct 2,400 apartments on that site. Half of the houses are bankrolled to put payments below the market ratio. The city reluctantly approved the plan, which a community group has contested in a US federal court. The project is trapped in court. The tech hub has a dire lack of reasonably priced housing, a problem that has dominated California’s life and politics. According to CBS News, to help solve the problem, Apple on Monday announced a 2.5-billion-dollar pledge in form of crypto. A few weeks before, Facebook announced 1 billion dollars on the same program. These pledges come just months after Google made a similar plan.
In January, Microsoft dedicated 500 million dollars in crypto currency for cheap housing in the Seattle region. Afar public affairs, the moves aggregate to a report from some of the tech firm’s major employers. They are beginning to take a more active role in addressing this prolonged housing problem, which has made their growth difficult. The effect isn’t just on their employees but the society at large. However, the contributions will not impact housing in California significantly. Furthermore, there are a few unaddressed questions on how, where, and when the funds will be used. The Vallco brawl also raises concerns on how to address this problem given the protest from proprietors and the administration.
Carol Galante, a faculty executive at the University of California, said that though the big tech’s money will make a difference, only of the donors and the legislature work as one. The funds for housing programs by these tech giants are not charity. Instead, they are profitable investments in the form of commercial land and payment. Each firm said it would permit housing expansion on their already held land while issuing loans with more affordable interest rates than banks offer to developers. However, no one knows their actual cost.
A usual inexpensive-housing contract can have a variety of funding sources such as bank loans and equity investments. Tech firms are somehow positioning themselves in that pool to help build all level housing. Apple, Google, and Facebook money combined would build 10,000 single-unit houses in California that would cost approximately $450,000 each. A 2016 McKinsey Global Institute report says that by 2025, California needs to construct 3.5 million housing units. The hypothetical cost is 1.6 trillion dollars. California cities have made it hard to build housing. The problem should have been dealt with years ago.
