The steep cost of housing in California, which politicians colloquially refer to as “the housing crisis,” has come to cloud nearly all aspects of life across the state. Still, the thing that California needs to do most — build lots of housing, in particular, affordable housing accessible to middle- and lower-income households in the service economy — has proved the most difficult. Exactly how much tech companies are responsible, and how much money they could or should put toward housing, is a matter of continuous debate. Last year, a contentious ballot initiative to fund homeless services in San Francisco split the local tech community. The governor, Gavin Newsom, has called on technology companies to contribute more and asked big corporations to use their substantial cash hoards to aid state housing efforts through instruments like low-interest loans.

Source: New York Times October 22, 2019 16:21 UTC