MICROSOFT: $250M MORE FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN SEATTLE AREA

One year after Microsoft announced it was committing $500 million toward affordable housing in the Seattle area, it’s upping that by half. The additional $250 million will provide a line of credit to help the Washington State Finance Commission finance about 3,000 additional units of affordable housing, Jane Broom, the company’s senior director of philanthropies, said in a blog post.

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Microsoft’s own success has helped the region boom economically, with Amazon and other tech companies expanding. But as it has, the cost of housing has skyrocketed. Homelessness is a severe concern, and even people with good middle-income jobs, such as teachers and nurses, have been priced out of the cities where they work. Microsoft announced its $500 million commitment a year ago, saying that much of the money would provide market-rate or below-market-rate loans to developers who want to build affordable housing. Some was also to go toward grants to address homelessness, such as by providing legal help to those facing eviction.

In her blog post, Broom wrote that Microsoft is encouraged by the momentum for