New Arl. Va. HQ: Amazon's $2B Housing Push Has Mostly Left Out D.C. Area's Poorest

Last edited Mon Apr 11, 2022, 08:45 PM - Edit history (1)

- Crystal City area of Arlington County, VA, 2005. HQ2 Amazon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_HQ2
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- Amazon’s $2B housing push has mostly left out D.C. area’s poorest.' Wash. Post, April 11, 2022. Ed. - Of more than 4,100 units funded by the company so far, about 6% are for renters considered ‘very low-income.’ -

Amazon sought to tamp down fears about displacing residents around its new Northern Virginia headquarters with a pledge last year to create and preserve thousands of affordable housing units in the D.C. area’s notoriously tight market. But more than 14 months and $750M into that effort, the help is overwhelmingly flowing to renters with incomes on the high end of a range the company targeted, according to a Washington Post analysis of company data. Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund is a voluntary endeavor, and many local officials have praised the tech giant for committing so much money to address a long-standing shortage of affordable housing.

Others argue that Amazon can and should do more, in part because the company- which earned about $33.4B last year- stands to profit from interest on the loans it is volunteering. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post). For now, though, Amazon’s efforts will likely do little to move the needle for the region’s lowest-income residents, many of whom are already stretching their paychecks to make rent every month. Just 6% of the units secured so far under Amazon’s fund have been set aside for the poorest renters- hardly enough to address fears that they will have to move out as the company’s new office buildings go up.

“These are the people who we don’t think about until we want the handles clean or the floors swept,” said J. Walter Tejada (D), a former Arlington County Board member. “We have to consider the consequences: Do we push low-income residents and blue-collar workers further out so they can clog our streets on the way back to job centers?” Catherine Buell, director of Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund, said the company’s $2B effort is designed to address a specific “market need”: increasing the housing supply for low-to-moderate-income workers, who make between 30 and 80% of the area median income- too much to qualify for most public benefits but not enough to afford skyrocketing housing prices.

“Even an Amazon cannot solve the entire affordable housing issue,” she said. “Amazon doesn’t own the affordable housing challenges, and governments are primarily responsible for managing the housing issues in their community. We’re here to be a partner.” Yet, the company’s effort has so far committed few resources toward the lower end of its intended range. Of more than 4,100 units secured so far, just 215 will be set aside for residents who make 50% or less of the area median income. (That translates to an annual salary of up to $45,150 for an adult living alone, or up to $64,500 for a family of 4.) It’s those apartments- for home health aides, school bus drivers or construction worker- that are most needed and are most rapidly disappearing in Northern Virginia and beyond, the company’s critics say...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/04/11/amazon-affordable-housing-fund-arlington/