{"id":97240,"date":"2019-07-25T19:10:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T19:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=433823"},"modified":"2019-07-25T19:10:29","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T19:10:29","slug":"the-stories-behind-microsofts-affordable-housing-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/07\/25\/the-stories-behind-microsofts-affordable-housing-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"The stories behind Microsoft\u2019s affordable housing initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Puget Sound region has been home to Microsoft for&nbsp;<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">more than<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&nbsp;3<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">0 years. As&nbsp;<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">the company&nbsp;<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">has grown, the area has changed. New industries have brought more jobs, fresh opportunities and greater prosperity.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">But&nbsp;<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">n<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ew housing has<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&nbsp;not kept up with&nbsp;<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">job growth<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, and th<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">e Greater Seattle area has become the sixth most expensive place to live in the United States.&nbsp;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">That means many of the workers who make a community function \u2013 such as nurses, police officers, teachers and firefighters \u2013 can no longer afford to live in the cities or suburbs where they work.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/affordable-housing\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7517\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/the-stories-behind-microsofts-affordable-housing-initiative.png\" alt=\"Chart showing Job growth compared to housing growth\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The problem is particularly acute in the suburban cities around Seattle. Low- and middle-income workers often face long commutes.<\/p>\n<p><em>[Subscribe to <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.microsoft.com\/on-the-issues\/\"><em>Microsoft on the Issues<\/em><\/a><em> for more on the topics that matter most.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Microsoft is committed to helping kick-start solutions to this crisis, and is <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.microsoft.com\/on-the-issues\/2019\/01\/16\/ensuring-a-healthy-community-the-need-for-affordable-housing\/\">&nbsp;investing $500 million to advance affordable housing solutions<\/a>. Microsoft is also advocating for changes in public policy at city and state levels to address the long-term factors affecting housing affordability.<\/p>\n<p>This commitment is about more than housing. It is about the people who make our communities places we all want to live in.<\/p>\n<p><em>For more on Microsoft\u2019s initiatives in the Puget Sound region follow @<a href=\"https:\/\/aka.ms\/AA5c3au\">MSFTIssues<\/a> on Twitter.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Puget Sound region has been home to Microsoft for&nbsp;more than&nbsp;30 years. As&nbsp;the company&nbsp;has grown, the area has changed. New industries have brought more jobs, fresh opportunities and greater prosperity.&nbsp; But&nbsp;new housing has&nbsp;not kept up with&nbsp;job growth, and the Greater Seattle area has become the sixth most expensive place to live in the United States.&nbsp;&nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[454,50],"class_list":["post-97240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-affordable-housing","tag-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}