Amazon, Metro Pledge To Build 1,000 Affordable Housing Units

WASHINGTON, DC — Amazon and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority are working together to create more than 1,000 new affordable housing units at Metro stations across the D.C. area.

Amazon is providing $125 million in below-market financing to expedite development of affordable homes so that moderate- to low-income families can afford to live in communities in the D.C. area. Amazon’s investment is part of the company’s Housing Equity Fund, a more than $2 billion commitment to preserve and create over 20,000 affordable homes in different areas across the nation through below-market loans and grants.

“This represents another return on the region’s extraordinary investment in mass transit, as the partnership with Amazon will accelerate transit-oriented development, grow ridership, and keep our region competitive with other global economic centers,” Metro Board Chair Paul Smedberg said in a statement Wednesday.

Transit-oriented development will help to preserve and create affordable housing options so moderate- to low-income families can afford to live near Metro stations, according to Amazon and Metro.

“Transit-oriented development has a proud legacy at Metro, and with this investment from Amazon we can continue to help the region tackle the challenges of housing affordability, congestion, and sustainability,” Metro General Manager and CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld said in a statement Wednesday.

“Having a philanthropic partner in this effort, along with the support of the public and private sectors, puts the region on the best path possible to meeting our shared housing, transit, equity and economic prosperity goals,” Wiedefeld added.

Through Amazon’s $125 million investment, this partnership has a goal of financing the creation of 1,000 affordable units over the next five years. The below-market financing will be available only to developers who have joint development agreements with Metro, while $25 million of the total will be exclusively available for minority-led developers to develop affordable housing on Metro’s joint development sites.

Amazon and Metro said Wednesday their partnership also will help to achieve the region’s targets for housing production, as proposed by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments in September 2019.

COG identified a need for 320,000 new housing units across the region by 2030 and recommended that at least 75 percent of all new housing units should be in activity or job centers or near high-capacity transit. The organization also recommended that at least 75 percent of all new housing units should be affordable to low- and middle-income households.

Amazon’s partnership with Metro is part of its $300 million total transit commitment for “equitable transit-oriented affordable housing development.” In January, Amazon announced the Housing Equity Fund, a more than $2 billion commitment to preserve and create over 20,000 affordable housing units in Arlington, Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington state’s Puget Sound region.

Amazon’s first Housing Equity Fund commitment in Arlington, announced earlier this year, includes below-market loans and grants to the Washington Housing Conservancy to preserve and create affordable homes on the Crystal House property in Arlington.