Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg's charity has pledged $3million to tackle the Silicon Valley housing crisis - after he spent more than $30million buying five homes in the area to stop neighbors from moving in.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, set up in 2015 by the Facebook CEO and his wife, will give $3.1million to Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto to help families who have been evicted from their homes.

The announcement was made by David Plouffe, Barack Obama's former 2008 campaign manager, who is now president of policy and advocacy for the Chan Zuckerberg foundation.

He said CLSEPA will be able to serve an additional 2,500 families in East Palo Alto, Belle Haven and North Fair Oaks with the $3million grant.

The organization is also giving $500,000 to the Terner Center for Housing & Innovation at UC Berkeley, which aims to increase the supply and lower the cost of housing in high cost regions.

Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg's charity has pledged $3million to tackle the Silicon Valley housing crisis

The foundation will pledge $3m to the Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, which provides legal services to people overwhelmed by spiraling rent payments

The news comes after Zuckerberg, who has a fortune of $54.8billion, and his wife Priscilla Chan bought four homes surrounding his mansion in Palo Alto, California in 2013 to prevent neighbors occupying them.

The $5.2million five bedroom property has heated floors and a marble deep soaking tub and was his first major purchase since becoming a billionaire.

He planned to rip down the four homes around the mansion and rebuild them as smaller homes where family and friends could stay.

However his plans were rejected by an architectural review board last September as they claimed one family using all four properties violated the city's efforts to protect single-family homes.

The news comes after Zuckerberg, who has a fortune of $54.8billion, bought four homes surrounding his mansion in Palo Alto, California in 2013

Separately, last month Zuckerberg sued owners of land on his $100million beachfront estate in Hawaii to force them to sell - so he could have more privacy.

The legal action by the Facebook founder raised eyebrows because his social networking site has frequently been accused of making it difficult for users to keep control of their own privacy online.

The 32-year-old tried to get the owners of 12 parcels of land to auction them to the highest bidder.

However he later dropped his lawsuits against hundreds of Hawaiians, admitting he 'made a mistake'.

He said: 'Upon reflection, I regret that I did not take the time to fully understand the quiet title process and its history before we moved ahead. Now that I understand the issues better, it's clear we made a mistake.'

Above, a view of the four properties surrounding Zuckerberg's primary residence that he purchased and planned to demolish - his plans were rejected by an architectural review board last September

Zuckerberg wanted to demolish the four homes surrounding and rebuild them as smaller single-family properties

Zuckerberg had already outraged his neighbours on the Hawaii island of Kauai by building a 'monstrous' wall round the estate.

Locals said the 6ft construction was 'oppressive' as it cut off the view of the road from the ocean and showed Zuckerberg felt that 'money could pay for anything'.

Zuckerberg completed the purchase of his 750-acre estate in Hawaii in 2014.

It consists of the the Kahu'aina Plantation, a 357-acre former sugarcane plantation, and Pila'a Beach, a 393-acre property with a white-sand beach.

There is also a working organic farm with crops like ginger, turmeric, and papaya.

Zuckerberg also owns another property in San Francisco worth $7.5million and residents there have been angered by his security team parking outside and blocking the street.

Zuckerberg started Facebook in 2004 whilst still a computing student at Harvard and has seen it grow to become the largest social networking site in the world with more than 1.6billion users.

He is married to his college sweetheart Priscilla and they have one child, one-year-old Maxima.

The billionaire has dismissed recent reports suggesting he is planning to run for president.

Zuckerberg fueled rumors he could run for President - possibly in 2024 - after he announced a tour spanning 30 states in the US, as part of a bid to better understand the impact of globalization and technology on communities far from Silicon Valley.

He also employed professional photographers - including White House snapper Charles Ommanney - to capture him as he travels the world, takes part in community events and meets with budding computer technology students.

Last week it emerged Zuckerberg did not run his Facebook page himself and had up to 12 people to help him write his posts and speeches.

They also are tasked with deleting harassing or offensive comments and clearing spam from his page, according to Bloomberg.

It is part of a strategy to protect Zuckerberg's brand and observers claimed it may be part of his presidential push.