Amazon Builds On Its Affordable-Housing Commitment

A corporate giant is adding to affordable-housing inventory around Puget Sound. (Amazon is an online shopping and fulfillment operation headquartered in Seattle and Virginia.)

Amazon announced it will invest $124.4 million to build 1,060 affordable homes that are specifically to be constructed near four public transit sites. The online firm is partnering with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) and Sound Transit to complete the developments.

This $124.4 million is part of the $300 million commitment Amazon pledged in 2021. In total, the Amazon Housing Equity Fund will have committed more than $1.2 billion to create or preserve over 8,000 homes in its first 14 months, according to a news release.

The parameters of “affordable” for the housing means rents will be held at levels affordable for low- and moderate-income families that rise only with wage growth that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sets and distributes.

Real-people data from Amazon include: 

Based on the average rental household size in the zip codes of funded Amazon initiatives, the newly affordable homes will support an estimated 18,000 people across all three regions, nearly a quarter of whom are children.