Apple Launches Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund to TackLe California Housing Crisis
TapTechNews July 17th news, Apple has announced the launch of a new Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund aimed at helping to increase the supply of affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding regions. This is Apple's latest move in its years-long commitment to addressing the California housing crisis. Due to the soaring rents and home purchase costs, and the supply of affordable housing not keeping up with the regional development speed, many local residents are forced to leave the places where they grew up.
Apple had already announced in 2019 that it would invest $2.5 billion (TapTechNews note: currently about 18.201 billion yuan) to comprehensively address the housing crisis. Among them, $150 million will be used for the Bay Area Housing Fund, and now, the specific plan of the first batch of $50 million has been announced. Apple is collaborating with experts in the field of affordable housing development such as the San Francisco Housing Acceleration Fund, the Sobrato Philanthropies, and Destination: Home to launch the new Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund. The fund will provide targeted concessional loans to drive the development of affordable housing.
The first batch of $50 million in investment will support the construction of four projects in the Bay Area, expected to build more than 400 housing units in the next two years. This plan will adopt a proven approach to help overcome the obstacles typically faced in affordable housing development.
Apple's CEO Tim Cook has previously stated that the company has a responsibility to help its location. Cook said, Before Silicon Valley became famous around the world and technology products became widespread, Apple was rooted here, and we feel a great responsibility to ensure that this remains a vibrant place where people can live, work, and contribute to the community. Affordable housing means stability and dignity, opportunity and pride. When these things are out of reach for too many people, we know this path is not sustainable, and Apple is committed to being part of the solution.