Name: Insights: Microsoft Champions Affordable Housing in Seattle
Uploaded: 2020-04-14
Duration: 2 min 40 s
Description: The tech giant invested $500 million to improve the community around its headquarters.

 SPEAKER 1: I have a list that I'd like to go down. And I'd like to start not with technology, but maybe with a surprising issue for some of the people in the room, which is housing. Tell everybody Microsoft's position on housing. BRAD SMITH: Well, we did something that was definitely unusual for us in January, just five months ago. We came forward and made a $500 million investment in the Seattle area to invest in affordable housing in the region. It's not all philanthropic. In fact, it's mostly not philanthropic, although in part it is. But we looked at the situation in the region. And in Seattle as in San Francisco and in some other cities, we've just seen the influx of people far outstripped the supply of housing. And as we dug into the issue, what we saw was a visible homeless population, but in many ways that's the visible tip of the iceberg. There is a shortage of low income housing, there's a shortage of middle income housing. And what we really did was focus on two things. One was bringing some capital. Obviously, you've got some tech companies, where one of them that has a very nice balance sheet. We've got capital that we can deploy in this way. And so we're putting 475 of that $500 million into loans and other investments to try to help stimulate more housing supply. But in many ways, I would say, as or even more important than that was a partnership with a local business group. We persuaded the mayors of nine cities around Seattle to sign up and pursue the kinds of public policy reforms that are going to be needed to really enhance the housing supply. And hopefully, over time, this will stimulate more action. More action will be needed to really address what has become a growing problem. And the case we made, which everyone on our board appreciated, was you can't really have a healthy company without being in a healthy community. You've got to have places for your own employees to live. But more than that, you really want a community, your employees want a community where the schoolteachers can live, the first responders can live, the nurses can live. And what we've seen in Seattle is so many of these people being pushed further and further away and enduring commutes of 90 minutes or more every day. And so the board recognized that this was something that was sensible for Microsoft to do. 

Insights: Microsoft Champions Affordable Housing in Seattle

Uncategorized

They invested $500 million to improve the community.

Microsoft Champions Affordable Housing in Seattle

The tech giant invested $500 million to improve the community around its headquarters. 

I have a list that I'd like to go down and I'd like to start not with technology, but maybe with a surprising issue for some of the people in the room, which is housing. Tell everybody Microsoft's position on housing. Well, we did something that was definitely unusual for us in January. Just five months ago, we came forward and made a $500 million investment in the Seattle area to invest in affordable housing in the region. Uh, it's not also anthropic. In fact, it's mostly not philanthropic, although in part it is. But, you know, we looked at the situation in the region and in Seattle, as in San Francisco and in some other cities, we've just seen the influx of people far outstrips the supply of housing. Ondas we dug into the issue. What we saw was visible homeless population. But in many ways that's the visible tip of the iceberg. There is a shortage of low income housing. There's a shortage of middle income housing on what we really did was focused on two things. One was bringing some capital. Obviously you've got some tech companies were one of them that has a very nice balance sheet. We've got capital that we can deploy in this way on. So we're putting 475 of that $500 million into loans and other investments to try to help stimulate more housing supply. But in many ways, I would say as or even more important than that was a partnership with AH local business group. We persuaded the mayors of nine cities around Seattle to sign up and pursue the kinds of public policy reforms that are going to be needed to really enhance the housing supply. And hopefully, over time, this will stimulate more action. More action will be needed to really address what has become a growing problem. And the case we made which everyone on our board appreciated was You can't really have a healthy company without being in a healthy community. You've got to have places for your own employees toe live. But more than that, you really want a community, your employees, what a community where the school teachers can live. The first responders can live, the nurses can live on. What we've seen in Seattle is so many of these people being pushed farther and farther away and enduring commutes of 90 minutes or more every day on. So the board recognized that this was something that was sensible for Microsoft to do.