Facebook is trying to show up other big tech companies once again in terms of corporate citizenship as the company announces the creation of a fund to back the building of affordable housing in Silicon Valley, as well as smaller sums devoted to job training and job placement services for the local community, and legal support for tenants threatened with displacement. "The region — this community — is our home," reads a statement from the company. We want the region to remain strong and vibrant and continue a long tradition of helping to build technologies that transform the future and improve the lives of people around the world, and also in our extended neighborhood."

As the Business Times notes, Facebook's $20 million total commitment is "one of the largest such concessions from a tech company as it prepares to add 6,500 more jobs in its next campus expansion." And the pledge is meant, they say, to be a catalyst with the "hope to attract more contributions and partners," since $20 million — let's be honest — isn't going to go far to solve the Bay Area's housing crisis.

According to the statement, $18.5 million will be earmarked for "pursu[ing] innovative and scalable ways to increase the production and protection of affordable housing," with a focus it seems on the communities that surround Facebook's Menlo Park campus, like East Palo Alto. There will also be a $625,000 fund set up for job training in math, science, technology, and engineering, focused on the communities of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, with a dedicated community liaison who will then assist in placing local residents in jobs at Facebook when they become available. Additionally, funds will go to the organization Rebuilding Together Peninsula to help rebuild and maintain existing affordable housing, and a half million dollars will go toward tenant help to combat "landlord abuse."

The pledge apparently came following meetings the company had with a coalition of community groups dubbed Envision Transform Build East Palo Alto. Facebook's statement mentions working with the local governments of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, as well as the organizations Youth United for Community Action, Faith in Action Bay Area, Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, and Comité de Vecinos del Lado Oeste - East Palo Alto.

In a separate statement, Facebook's vice president of public policy and communication Elliot Schrage says, "We hope to build on today’s announcement and add other partners from the community, private sector and government to create viable regional solutions to the affordable housing crisis and the lack of economic opportunities for local residents."

This latest philanthropic effort follows on major donations that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously made to San Francisco General Hospital ($75 million), toward bringing internet to more US schools ($20 million), a 2014 donation to Bay Area schools ($120 million), as well as a 2010 gift to public schools in Newark, New Jersey ($100 million). The 2014 gift to local schools was part of a larger pledge of $1.1 billion in Facebook stock to the nonprofit Silicon Valley Community Fund.

Previously: Zuckerberg Gives $120 Million To Bay Area Schools