Facebook to build housing in Silicon Valley for first time

The shortage of housing in California’s Silicon Valley has gotten so severe that Facebook on Friday proposed taking homebuilding into its own hands for the first time with a plan to construct 1,500 units near its headquarters.

The growth of Facebook, Alphabet’s Google and other tech companies has strained neighbourhoods in the San Francisco Bay area that were not prepared for an influx of tens of thousands of workers during the past decade. Home prices and commute times have risen.

Tech companies have responded with measures such as internet-equipped buses for employees with long commutes. Facebook has offered at least