Facebook has committed $25 million in support of teachers' housing in the Bay Area, the Mercury News reports.

The funding will support the development of up to a hundred and twenty apartments for teachers and school employees in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Los Altos — districts where educators typically earn too much to qualify for subsidized housing but not enough to afford homes, resulting in long commutes and high teacher turnover rates. Rents in the project will be capped at 30 percent of an eligible renter's income. According to the Mercury News, the median rent for a one-room apartment in Palo Alto in September was $3,223.

"We heard direct feedback from the principals in our backyard saying they could not fill teacher positions," said Menka Sethi, Facebook's director of location strategy and site optimization. "The children they are serving do not have access to consistent teachers. And we felt like this was something where we could help."

Santa Clara County supervisor Joe Simitian said the Facebook pledge will enable the project, which local government officials have been working on for nearly two years, to move forward. To date, the county has pledged $6 million as well as a 1.5-acre parcel for the project, while the City of Palo Alto has pledged $3 million. Although county officials have requested $600,000 each from five area school districts, those commitments have not been finalized.

"It's a real game-changer," said Sarah Chaffin, founder of the housing advocacy organization Support Teacher Housing and a longtime supporter of the project. "We need tech companies like Facebook to step up, and I think they definitely have."