The company often blamed for the rising housing costs contributing to Seattle's homelessness crisis is offering a small bit of help. Amazon will allow the nonprofit Mary's Place to house 60 to 70 homeless families and some pets in an empty former hotel near Amazon's campus, the Seattle Times reports.
The 34,500-square-foot building, at 2213 Eighth Ave., is part of a lot the company acquired in 2014 as part of its new corporate campus.
Construction in that lot wonât start for a year â so Maryâs Place can run the building as a shelter, rent-free, during that time (it will pay for the utilities). Families are expected to start moving in Monday.
Here's how Marty Hartman, executive director of Maryâs Place, described the setup to the Times:
Each family will have its own room with a bathroom, and there will be a kidsâ playroom, a couple of common rooms, and a kitchen. Families will be able to stay in the center from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weekdays, although their things can remain in their room while theyâre gone. On weekends, the center will be open 24 hours so âkids can stay in their jammies,â Hartman said.
âThis will become their home for now,â she said.
(Emphasis mine.)
It's a small step. This building will help about 200 people for just one year. This year's one-night count found nearly 3,000 people sleeping on the streets of Seattle.
Amazon, meanwhile, is essentially building its employees their own neighborhood in downtown/South Lake Union. They've reportedly spent $4 billion building offices in Seattle. And, as the Times has written before, even while the company has transformed Seattle, it has offered little in the way of philanthropy or civic engagement. One attempt Amazon did make to help the homelessâoffering them seasonal warehouse jobsâbackfired.
So, this is a welcome shift, if a small one.
âWe had a building thatâs not being utilized and we had a crisis in our city,â Amazonâs director of global real estate and facilities, John Schoettler, told the Times. âItâs an opportunity for Amazon to be a good neighbor and do the right thing.â