Facebook’s Chief Financial Officer David Wehner announced the company’s $1 billion investment to improve housing affordability in the next ten years in a Facebook Newsroom blog post on Oct. 22. The contribution follows Microsoft’s $500 million pledge to the Seattle area in January and Google’s $1 billion commitment to the bay area in June.
The statement received some criticism as CEO Mark Zuckerberg was scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee the following day after being sued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
In a March press release, the HUD claimed that Facebook was “violating the Fair Housing Act by encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination through the company’s advertising platform.” They alleged that “race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or familial status” determined which users viewed housing-related ads.
“Facebook is discriminating against people based upon who they are and where they live,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said. “Using a computer to limit a person’s housing choices can be just as discriminatory as slamming a door in someone’s face.”
In response, Zuckerberg announced the platform’s plan to combat discrimination through the formation of a Civil Rights Task Force, more comprehensively banning white supremacy “to include white nationalism and white separatism,” preventing “misinformation and interference” in future elections, and remaining vigilant in identifying content that may encourage voter suppression. Advertisers will no longer be able to target ads according to age, gender, or zip code; and users will also have the ability to access all advertisers’ current housing ads in the US.
“This has been a challenging few years for Facebook. We understand we have a lot to do to live up to people’s expectations on issues like privacy and security,” Zuckerberg said. “…We don’t think we should be tackling these issues alone, which is why I’ve called for a more active role for governments and regulators on harmful content, protecting elections, privacy, and data portability.”
The $1 billion pledge includes a $250 million partnership with the State of California for the development of mixed-income housing on state-owned land. The San Francisco Bay Area will gain $150 million for affordable housing, while $225 million is for Facebook-owned land in Menlo Park, and $25 million towards a partnership with the Santa Clara County for teacher and worker housing. The remaining $350 million will be for additional costs the stated initiatives may require in addition to more affordable housing in communities that contain Facebook offices.
“Access to more affordable housing for all families is key to addressing economic inequality and restoring social mobility in California and beyond,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “State government cannot solve housing affordability alone… progress requires partnership with the private sector and philanthropy to change the status quo and address the cost crisis our state is facing.”
According to Business Insider, the average value of a home in the San Francisco area is almost six times the national average — about $1.3 million. The New York Times explains that many tech giants are being forced to address the consequences of their expansion: namely, finding their employees either somewhere to live or means to commute.
Over the next decade, the company hopes to construct 20,000 housing units for teachers, nurses, first responders, and other part-time workers like security guards or kitchen and cleaning staff ranging from middle to lower-income households. In early October, Zuckerberg told employees in a Q&A session that Facebook is working to grow outside of the bay area as well.
