Apple pledges $2.5 billion to fight California housing crisis

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last updated 5 November 2019

Apple announced on Monday it is committing $2.5 billion to combat the housing crisis in California.

This is a pledge of "unparalleled financial commitment to affordable housing," Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said. There is not enough affordable housing throughout the state, but the Bay Area is especially unaffordable thanks largely to the highly paid tech workers driving up the price of the limited number of homes on the market. Earlier this year, Google and Facebook said they will each give $1 billion to the effort.

Apple said $1 billion will go to a fund creating an "open line of credit" for the state to construct new homes for low- to moderate-income households, The Associated Press reports. An additional $1 billion is slated for a mortgage assistance fund for first-time homebuyers, and $50 million will go to fight homelessness in the Bay Area. Apple also owns land in San Jose that it will make available for an estimated 3,600 affordable housing units.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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