Tech giant tackles housing shortage
SAN FRANCISCO The shortage of housing in California’s Silicon Valley has become so severe that Facebook is proposing taking home building into its own hands for the first time, with a plan to construct 1500 units near its headquarters.
The growth of Facebook, Google and other tech companies has strained neighbourhoods in the San Francisco Bay area that were not prepared for an influx of tens of thousands of workers during the past decade.
Home prices and commute times have risen markedly.
Tech companies have responded with measures such as internet-equipped buses for employees with long commutes. Facebook has offered at least US$10,000 in incentives to workers who move closer to its offices.
Those steps, though, have not reduced complaints that tech companies are making Bay area communities unaffordable, and they have mostly failed to address the area’s housing shortage.
‘‘The problem with Silicon Valley is you don’t have enough supply to keep up with the demand,’’ said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist at real estate research firm CoreLogic.
Facebook announced yesterday that it wanted to invest in Menlo Park, the city about 72 kilometres south of San Francisco where it moved in 2011.
The company said it wanted to build a ‘‘village’’ called Willow Campus that would also have 163,000 square metres of office space and 12,000 sqm of retail space.
‘‘Part of our vision is to create a neighbourhood centre that provides long-needed community services,’’ said John Tenanes, Facebook’s vice-president for global facilities.
The 1500 Facebook housing units would be open to anyone, not just employees, and 15 per cent of them would be offered at below market rates, the company said.
Facebook said it expected the review process to take about two years.
Alphabet, which owns Google, has taken a smaller step, buying 300 modular apartment units for short-term employee housing, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.
Menlo Park Mayor Kirsten Keith said there were concerns about whether the Facebook plan REUTERS would increase traffic.
She said, though, that the plan fitted with the city’s own longterm plan for development, and that the city was excited about the additional housing. Reuters