Apple has spent $1.5 billion to help relieve California's housing crisis
As part of its continuing support of affordable housing, Apple says that it has now deployed nearly $1.5 billion to help 40,000 Californians find a home.
The Kelsey in San Francisco is one of the developments Apple is funding. (Source: Apple)
Apple has been supporting affordable housing in its home state since 2019, and right from the launch of the project has committed to investing $2.5 billion. Following 2020's $400 million, and how in 2021 the total spent rose to over $1 billion, Apple has today announced how it has continued to support still more people and organizations.
"We are proud to be working side by side with organizations across the state to help ensure communities and families here can thrive," Kristina Raspe, Apple's vice president for Global Real Estate and Facilities, said in a statement. "Our partnerships have helped many across the community move into new homes, and are helping keep many more families in housing."
Apple has previously also helped launch the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) Bond Recycling Program. This financing program also helps affordable housing tenants, and Apple says it means CalHFA has been able to access hundreds of millions of dollars above and beyond Apple's direct investment.
So far Apple says that over 40,000 Californians have received housing support through the various projects it backs. It is also behind creating new homes in 22 developments for close to 20,000 individuals, and another 24,000 have been saved from losing their housing.
Cedar Grove resident Linda Smith (left) with her granddaughter
One of the people benefiting from the new housing developments is Linda Smith who, with her husband, saw their home of 28 years foreclosed on them. Now the couple live in Apple's Cedar Grove Apartments in Santa Rosa, California.
"I'm really happy -- I feel blessed that we got into this new apartment," says Smith, aged 75. "The people at Cedar Grove have just been so beautiful to work with."
"They kept us posted so we could get in quickly," she continued. "We ended up being one of the first people to move in once it was built."
"I've gotten involved here -- I started the community garden with my granddaughter, who I babysit," she says. "When we're out there working on it, all the kids gather around and get excited."
"I hurt my leg a few weeks ago and couldn't get out to water it, and my neighbors noticed and have been watering it for me," continues Smith. "I didn't have to ask; they just started helping."
Apple has also continued its now years-long collaboration with Destination: Home, which has now created homes in the Bay Area.
"We know that if people don't stay housed, everything worsens, right?" said Destination: Home initiatives officer Ingrid Granados. "Their outcomes, the cost on society, the kids' educational impact -- all of it."
"The federal money our organization received had to go to help people pay rent, but we knew that was only one part of the equation," she continued. "Apple really allowed us to have flexible funding for not only rental assistance, but other necessities to help families meet their individual needs."
Fernando Cortes (pictured with his son) was helped by Apple and is now on an advisory board for Destination: Home
One individual and his family who benefited from Apple's efforts in 2021 is Fernando Cortes. Together with Destination: Home, Apple helped defray the cost of his rental payments that were threatening to see him lose his home.
"I wouldn't have been able to continue living in my home without that support," he says. "I think it's really important for people to know that there are organizations like this where they can go to get help."
Cortes is now contributing to Destination: Home, working on an advisory board.
"Even though things are going much better now and I'm not in that situation anymore, it means a lot to be able to give back," Cortes continues. "I want to make sure other people know that when they go get help, there's somebody there listening to them and working to improve things."
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I WORKED for years and THIS is what your tax dollars is buying with the CALIF., a license to steal!
My son just got me the new MacBook Air 15 inch! After I cried reading this, I almost want to take back my MacBook...oh, and I can't move! I am literally a prisoner here at 61 if I need the help, which I do, I am not rich. So, um, yeah! I am a senior citizen who worked hard, put inot the system and when I needed help...I am now a prisoner. Thanks CALIF, Finance
People need to realize that the business practice of externalizing labor costs is the least efficient, most government-intensive way to operate. If, instead, government enacted and enforced minimum wages based on actual costs of living, the housing crisis would be significantly abated.
Think about it. The most efficient economic structure would have the cost of labor fully included in the price of goods made with that labor. Employers would pay their employees enough to go home and pay their own rent or mortgage. Homebuilders would would build based on clearly evident market demand for units and types of housing, because renters and homebuyers would be showing up with their own money (or mortgages based on their actual income). The only government intervention in this scenario is the prevention of corporate wage theft.
Instead, we currently allow and even encourage businesses of all types to pay workers less than it costs them to pay for their own housing plus other basic needs. For that low-wage worker to show up to work, they must depend on charity or, mostly, government programs to cover the difference. (Stay with me. Those government subsidies look like they're directed at the low-income folks to pay their rent, but in reality those subsidies are directed at the businesses to pay for part of their labor costs. Don't be fooled.)
These programs naturally have administrative overhead, adding a premium to the cost of subsidizing all these business' labor costs. Those costs in turn are covered by the collection of taxes, inordinately from all the people in the middle who make enough to pay taxes but lack the resources and political power to avoid them. (Many of whom are fooled into directing their dissatisfaction at the low-income workers who need the rent subsidy, instead of at the high-income execs and shareholders who are the actual beneficiaries of those subsidies. Follow the money. That misdirected anger then tricks those folks in the middle into aligning with the people who are actually taking their money and to vote for the politicians who enact the legal structure to perpetuate the process.)
Of course, the most common response to calls for implementation of a meaningful minimum wage is that it will raise prices of goods and therefore cause inflation. The first part is true, but the second is not. Requiring businesses to pay for their own actual labor costs will undoubtedly result in an increase in the price of their products, but that would not cause inflation because those costs are already being paid, through taxes, inefficiently and at a premium.
So if conservatives and liberals alike would just follow the money, they'd agree to support the implementation of a cost-of-living-based minimum wage. It would decrease poverty and taxpayer-funded government programs at the same time, while reducing the distortion of the housing market that's causing the current affordable housing crisis.