Airbnb will invest $25M in affordable housing and small businesses

Airbnb is launching a community investment program with an initial $25 million to support affordable homeownership, small businesses and the construction and preservation of affordable rental housing in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County.

The company says if the pilot program is successful it will expand to more communities throughout California and across the country.

“I want Airbnb to be a 21st-century company that serves all our stakeholders, including the communities our hosts and guests call home,” says Chesky.

“Inspired by Governor [Gavin] Newsom’s leadership, we took a look at how we could potentially deploy our resources to support the development of more affordable housing. This is just a modest first step, but we are excited to launch this pilot program, learn more and build on this work in the years ahead."

Airbnb’s Community Impact Investing program will focus on preserving or creating below-market rental housing, supporting access to homeownership for low- to moderate-income households, financing “meaningful infrastructure initiatives” and providing loans to small businesses that serve the target communities.

"Investing in affordable housing and small businesses is the right thing to do for our state and it is the right thing to do for our business,” Chesky says.

“These investments have the potential to generate solid returns for our company and make communities stronger and I expect that we will expand this program in the years ahead.”

Governor Newsom says the state’s housing crisis requires a collaborative solution and Airbnb’s investment “is a critical first step on behalf of their community, and we need more businesses to follow their lead."

Shortly after announcing this investment, Airbnb disclosed it had more than $1 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2019, and the platform now has more than seven million listings in more than 100,000 cities and more than 40,000 experiences in over 1,000 locations.