Amazon To Donate $3 Million To Support Affordable Housing In Arlington
Amazon is now one of the largest corporations in the world, and the company is expanding at a breakneck pace despite its current size and reach. It is still building new facilities at a breakneck pace and trying to expand as much as possible as it tries to take over the e-commerce space completely. However, the expansion also has a consequence for communities in which the company enters. In a new development, people in Virginia’s Arlington Country had expressed concerns that the establishment of Amazon’s new headquarter at Crystal City was going to drive up the costs of housing in the area.
Needless to say, the concerns are legitimate and such dynamics have often played out in other parts of the country. However, instead of refuting the claims, Amazon acted on the fears of the community and made a $3 million contribution to support affordable housing in the county. Although the company’s move has been commended by many, some critics stated that $3 million is not nearly an adequate sum of money to build a meaningful number of affordable houses. According to the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, the cost of actually building an affordable house in the suburban areas is around $350,000 on average and hence, critics believe that Amazon’s contribution is insignificant in the larger scheme of things. Local governments claim that the need for affordable housing units runs into the thousands and $3 million will make much of a dent to it.
The company has announced plans to build its second headquarter at Crystal City back in November, and since then, there had been a lot of calls to ensure that the company supported affordable housing initiatives in the area. Amazon has been facing similar troubles in its original home of Seattle as well and has announced a $5 million contribution to a charity to that end as well. In this regard, it is also important to point out that Amazon is going to hire as many as 25,000 employees at the second headquarters in Crystal City over the next decade or so. The average pay for the jobs that are going to be created is going to be $150,000.
