Author: Nick Visser / Source: HuffPost
Microsoft announced Wednesday it would loan up to $500 million to address homelessness and help build affordable housing in the Seattle area, which has been plagued by skyrocketing real estate prices as tech companies have taken over the Emerald City.
The software giant, which isn’t based in Seattle but nearby Redmond, said it would work to open up housing options for low- and middle-income workers almost immediately, with plans to invest the money within the next three years.
It’s the largest pledge in the company’s history and comes on the heels of gangbuster profits for Microsoft under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella.“We believe everybody has a role to play, and everybody needs to play their role,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, told The New York Times.
Smith told The Seattle Times the effort will benefit working families who “teach our kids in schools, and put out the fires in our houses and keep us alive in the hospital.” Officials told the newspaper that it was too early to say how many affordable units could be built with the funding, but Smith noted he hoped it would…
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