The shortage of homes in California’s Silicon Valley has become so severe that Facebook on Friday proposed taking home construction into its own hands for the first time with a plan to build 1,500 units near its headquarters.
The growth of Facebook, Alphabet Inc. Google and other technology companies has tightened neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay area that were not prepared for an influx of tens of thousands of workers over the last decade. House prices and transfer times have increased.
Technology companies have responded with measures such as Internet-equipped buses for employees with long journeys. Facebook has offered at least $ 10,000 in incentives to workers approaching their offices.
Those steps, however, have not diminished complaints that technology companies are making communities inaccessible, and most have failed to address the housing shortage in the area.
“The problem with Silicon Valley is that you do not have enough supply to keep up with the demand,” said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist at real estate research firm CoreLogic.
With Facebook’s construction plan, the company said it wanted to invest in Menlo Park, the city about 72 miles south of San Francisco, where it moved in 2011.
The company said it wants to build a “village” that will also have 1.75 million square feet of office space and 125,000 square feet of commercial space.
“Part of our vision is to create a neighborhood center that provides much-needed community services,” said John Tenanes, vice president of global Facebook facilities, in a statement.
The 1,500 Facebook housing units would be open to anyone, not just the employees, and 15 percent of them would be offered at below-market prices, the company said.
Facebook said it hopes the review process will take two years.
Alphabet has taken a smaller step, buying 300 units of modular apartments for short-term employee housing, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
Menlo Park Mayor Kirsten Keith said in an interview that there were concerns about whether Facebook’s plan would increase traffic, a subject that the city’s planning department would study.
She said, however, that Facebook’s plan fits with the city’s own long-term development plan, and that the city was excited about additional housing.
Tenanes of Facebook said that the density of the proposed development could also attract spending on transit projects.
“The failure of the region to continue investing in our transportation infrastructure along with growth has led to congestion and delays,” he said.
