Amazon is teaming up with local developers to create hundreds of affordable housing units in the Washington, D.C., region.
The mega retailer has hired a dozen local developers to provide more than 1,500 units of housing, mostly in the District.
Many of them will be close to Metro stations. One such development is near the Congress Heights station in Southeast.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser joined Amazon officials Wednesday to announce that the company will provide more than
$160 million in funding for the housing developments.
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"Make no mistake that our partnership with Amazon is important. We spent a lot of time trying to attract Amazon
to this region, well, actually, to D.C., but we’ll take it," Bowser said.
Not all units will be for low-income families, according to Catherine Buell, director of the Amazon Housing Equity Fund.
"Across the portfolio, we do have approximatley 50% of the units we’re announcing today will be for low-income families.
Buell said.
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Buell said 360 of the 1,500 units will be available to people earning minimum wage.
The announcemet is part of a larger investment Amazon is making in housing across the area.
"We have invested and committed at least $992 million dollars in the Capital region alone. That is almost a billion dollars of investments in affordable housing," Buell said. "This will bring our new regional total for the Capital region, our HQ2 home, to 6,200 affordable housing units created and preserved since we launched the Amazon Housing Equity Fund."
Buell said Amazon is looking to create housing in all eight of D.C.'s wards.
Amazon has also funded housing projects in Prince George's and Montgomery counties in Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia.
