Paid Time Off MattersA (slow) progress report

How Brad Smith "discovered'' the housing crisis in Bellevue/Seattle

On pages 186/190 of his book Tools and weapons, The Promise and The Peril of the Digital Age, Brad explains that it is when attending a meeting of the group Challenge Seattle in June 2018 that he and Satya Nadella took the measure of the 'affordable housing crisis', agreeing somehow that was a negative externality of Microsoft and other high tech (and highly discriminatory) companies.While he was shocked by the long commute inflicted on the bellevue Chief of Police he did not seem to realize (does he today?)  how many of the temps, suppliers employees of Microsoft had a very long commute with a much lower income., including very probably the receptionists laid off and outsourced by Bob Herbold in ... 1997.(page 251 in No Logo by Naomi Klein)

 

Microsoft and 'affordable' housing in Puget Sound

On January 16, 2019, Microsoft announced it would "commit $500 million to tackle affordable housing crisis in Puget Sound region'. That's "good" but why did it take so long for Microsoft to act? Microsoft 'temps' were/are among the ones most affected by the difficulty/impossibility to find affordable housing that would be close to the Microsoft's campuses. I remember how hard it was for most/all of my coworkers to find housing they could afford, except very far away, involving extra long and costly commuting hours. I also remember Microsoft had buses for its employees housed far away but those buses were not accessible for contractor's employees :( 

Another sad example of double standard and discrimination. What is the situation now? Has anything changed? As for the $500 million and the affordable housing crisis: how will this be monitored, what about the other big tech companies, what about the Gates and Allen Foundations?

Any connection between paid time off and affordable housing? Of course because the farther you have to live the longer you spend on commuting, the less time you have for your family or anything else. I'd be curious to know what's the average commuting time for direct employees and temps?