Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced today (June 18) that the company’s plans to invest $1 billion in housing across the Bay Area.
“Our goal is to help communities succeed over the long term, and make sure that everyone has access to opportunity, whether or not they work in tech,” Pichai wrote in his blog.
The investment plan proposes $750 million of Google-owned land to be repurposed for housing, enabling the company to support the development of at least 15,000 new homes at all income levels. An additional investment fund of $250 million is going to be established to incentivize developers to build a minimum of 5,000 affordable housing units.
Housing construction will begin immediately, and homes will be available “in the next few years,” Pichai wrote.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo was among the politicians to issue a statement in response to Google’s announcement.
“We look forward to working with Google to ensure today’s announcement manifests into housing that will benefit thousands of San Jose residents struggling under the burden of high rent,” Liccardo said.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, invited the government, businesses, housing advocates and neighbors to “work together to solve our housing emergency.”
The San Jose-based nonprofit Working Partnerships USA released a report last week that found that the city could face large rent increases as a result of Google’s planned “mega-campus” downtown if thousands of homes weren’t built.
The group’s director of public policy Jeffrey Buchanan issued a statement today saying it is “encouraging to see Google taking the concerns of local communities seriously by recognizing some responsibility for its role in our region’s housing crisis.”
— Bay City News
If big corporations such as Google and
Facebook want to add job centers, there needs to be adjacent or nearby room for more than enough new housing to cover that many employees and family members. If there is no room for the housing, there is no room for the additional employees – such as in Menlo Park. Of course, in addition to the new housing, all sorts of infrastructure is needed – including public schools if they remain the way most children are babysat, educated and socialized.
If big corporations such as Google and
Facebook want to add job centers, there needs to be adjacent or nearby room for more than enough new housing to cover that many employees and family members. Room and a plan. If there is no room for the housing, there is no room for the additional employees – such as in Menlo Park. Of course, in addition to the new housing, all sorts of infrastructure is needed – including public schools if they remain the way most children are babysat, educated and socialized.
Your article yesterday “Google: $1 Billion for housing” is interesting. The fact that Google has negotiated with San Jose, Sunnyvale and Mountain View to build housing but not Palo Alto is significant. We have discussed this at PAN (Palo Alto Neighborhoods) meetings but have been unable to get our city motivated to follow up with Google. Google owns commercial properties on East Meadow Drive, East Meadow Circle and Fabian Way in Palo Alto. Some or all of these should be rezoned residential. Meanwhile, Google please remove the dead redwood tree from in front of 935 East Meadow