NASHVILLE, Tenn.–(TN Tribune)– Amazon and The Housing Fund today announced a $2.25 million donation from Amazon to help preserve homeownership for hundreds of Nashville-area residents facing housing insecurity amid the unprecedented challenges of 2020, including tornado recovery, job loss, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and tax increases. With this donation, The Housing Fund will launch the Housing Resiliency Fund and will make financial grants to help ensure that low- and moderate-income families can keep their homes and maintain critical, long-term financial stability.
“Amazon’s donation will help us keep more families in their homes, which is always our ultimate goal because homeownership is the key to long-term wealth-building,” said Marshall Crawford, CEO, The Housing Fund. “Across Middle Tennessee, there is a growing divide between wages and housing costs, forcing moderate-income families to make unprecedented decisions about the future of their living conditions. For these families, these grants will be game-changing. We hope it spurs additional local partners to step up and donate because everyone benefits when more people can pay their bills.”
The Housing Fund’s guiding mission is to provide resources and creative leadership to help individuals and communities create and maintain affordable and healthy households. Approaching its 25th Anniversary in 2021, The Housing Fund will put Amazon’s donation towards preserving long-term housing affordability for low- and moderate-income families struggling due to recent stressors. Through the new Housing Resiliency Fund, The Housing Fund will make payments on behalf of qualified residents to mortgage companies and the Metro government to help mitigate the impact of rising housing costs. Additionally, The Housing Fund will conduct community outreach, maintain strong personal relationships, and through a partnership with Citizens Savings Bank & Trust – the oldest African American bank in the country – coach and educate local residents so they can best budget and plan for the future. All of these efforts are part of The Housing Fund’s recently launched Power of 10 initiative, focused on bringing resources to residents facing housing insecurity.
“Amazon’s $2.25 million donation to The Housing Fund will immediately support hundreds of families across Nashville, a community we are now proud to call home,” said Holly Sullivan, Head of Worldwide Economic Development, Amazon. “We applaud Marshall and his team’s steadfast leadership and commitment to equitable housing solutions in this region and congratulate him on his well-deserved recognition as one of Nashville’s Most Admired CEOs.”
“My office is committed to helping working families thrive, so I commend Amazon for stepping in to provide generous support for Nashvillians who need it most,” said Nashville Mayor John Cooper. “Amazon’s timely gift of relief funds and its partnership with The Housing Fund provides working families with immediate financial relief during this trying time.”
In November 2018, Amazon announced that it would invest in a new office in Nashville, bringing more than 5,000 corporate and technology jobs to the community to support Amazon’s operations business. Amazon recently crossed the 1,000-employee milestone in Nashville. As Amazon grows in Nashville, it is committed to supporting the local community with contributions and delivery service for local food banks and funding computer science education for dozens of Metro Nashville Public Schools. This month, in addition to today’s housing announcement, Amazon is committing additional donations supporting a range of Nashville nonprofits working in areas like diversity and inclusion, child literacy, support for domestic violence survivors, assistance for musicians economically impacted by the pandemic, and the arts. Since 2010, Amazon has created more than 12,000 jobs in Tennessee and invested more than $8.9 billion across the state, including infrastructure (from fulfillment centers to delivery stations to Whole Foods Markets) and compensation. These investments have contributed an additional $8.7 billion to the Tennessee economy and have helped create 12,700 indirect jobs on top of Amazon’s direct hires—from jobs in construction and logistics to professional services.
