Just a month after Google announced its commitment to invest $1 billion to produce 20,000 homes across the Bay Area, the tech-giant revealed today that it will start the charge by investing $50 million to Housing Trust Silicon Valley’s TECH Fund.
The TECH Fund, which stands for Tech Equity Community Housing, launched in March of 2017 to provide affordable housing developers the financing needed for potential sites.
Companies like the Cisco Foundation, LinkedIn, NetApp and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation have all invested in the fund, which has raised $112 million to date. Google’s new investment will be the largest the TECH Fund has received thus far.
“As part of our $1 billon housing commitment, we’ve been looking for ways to address the affordable housing crisis in the Bay Area,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a press release sent out this afternoon. “Housing Trust Silicon Valley provided us with the perfect opportunity to do that through their TECH fund, which uses critical capital to break down barriers to building affordable housing.”
“We are proud to be the fund’s largest investor to date and look forward to working together to create housing for those who need it most,” he added.
Housing Trust Silicon Valley CEO Kevin Zwick said that Google’s investment would help continue the “momentum” of the fund. “Not only will Google’s investment make a real impact,” he said, “but it sends the intentional message that we’re not done and we can all do more when it comes to affordable housing.”
Moments after the announcement, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo praised Google’s investment. “Great to see Google’s first affordable housing investment from its rent $1 billion announcement—$50 million—already being put into action with the Housing Trust of Silicon Valley,” he wrote. “We look [forward] to seeing the affordable housing under construction.”
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