Apple Gives $400 in Midst of Housing Crisis

The Apple Multinational Technology Company, formerly the Apple Computer Company, was started in the 1970s and was one of the first big companies to arrive on the Silicon Valley scene. In today's modern market, Apple averages around $250 billion in annual revenue, selling computers, tablets, watches, smartphones, and much more. For many years now, Apple has been known as a generous company, especially when it comes to its home state of California. Just recently, Apple announced a four-year initiative that would see them spend $2.5 billion on the poor and homeless of the state, with the first $400 million to be given this year to fight the housing crisis in California.

While no one knows the exact numbers of homeless people in the state, it was around 140,000 in 2018, making California far and away the state with the most homeless. After the Covid crisis, and the political unrest stemming from the Black Lives Matter movement, however, many experts claim that an additional 100,000 or more may be homeless, either through losing their homes or just taking to the streets. The gist is that Californians need help. The state is a hotbed of homelessness, and many of the homeless are war veterans, drug addicted individuals, and teenage runaways.

Unfortunately for the state's homeless population, many politicians in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco haven't helped so much as enabled the problem. In San Fran, for instance, the county decriminalized drugs, offered needle exchanges, and ceded more territory to its homeless population, rather than enforcing any types of laws against the people. This, the city and county hoped, would help show homeless people that they were not being targeted and would make them feel as if they were part of society again. However, these measures drastically backfired, and drug addiction and diseases ran rampant, with fecal matter and diseases piling up in unprecedented fashion. The issues in California seem far too much for government alone to handle, so Apple stepped up in a big way with their $2.5 billion pledge.

Apple isn't simply throwing this money out there in hopes it lands well, though. They are partnering up with both the affordable housing projects and the homeowner assistance program. What is essentially happening here is that Apple is helping to fund existing government programs. Rather than California having to eat more of a deficit, Apple is helping by offering money for the government to spend.

Critics of government have more than displayed their distaste for a move like this, however. After all, the critics claim, these government programs have existed for a long time and have always spent billions of dollars, and the problems just gets worse and worse. So, how will another $400 billion help? It\'s not as if the government doesn't add $400 billion any time it wants, claim the critics. Though proponents of the program point out how extra money, on top of what government allocates annually, is desperately needed and might just be the push these programs need to make real change.

Apple Commits Even After Homeless Shelter Receives Backlash

The $2.5 billion pledged and the $400 million this year aren’t the only ways Apple has tried to help. In Seattle, Washington, Apple helped to fund a very large homeless shelter for the many people in the city suffering through homelessness. Apple got the okay from the government there to create a giant homeless shelter in an eight-story building. The issue, however, is that Apple was going to build this shelter inside of a commercial district. Instead of taking it downtown where the homeless people are at, the company decided that the shelter should be built in an area of commerce, that is nice and pristine and doesn’t look anything at all like the downtown areas where homeless gather.

Though, ironically enough, the people in Seattle who shout the loudest for change and helping the homeless are the first to line up to shout at Apple, “No, not like this!” What’s the problem? Progressive activists in the city claim that building a homeless shelter in such an area of commerce and wealth highlights the disparities between rich and poor. They’re basically saying that homeless people, who get a warm bed, safe shelter and hot meals, might feel bad living around other people who are working. So, apparently, these activists only want homeless shelters built in areas where homeless gather; perhaps so the activists won’t be the ones who have to see them.

Apple is trying to help, but it’s the people who claim they’re the most compassionate that won’t let them.