Amazon hosts homeless shelter
Urban Seattle campus to house 1,000 homeless per year at Mary’s Place
SEATTLE — A homeless shelter built on Amazon’s perfectly manicured urban Seattle campus is a major civic contribution that pushes the company to face the crisis and criticism in the hometown it has rapidly transformed.
Believed to be the first homeless shelter built inside a corporate office building, Amazon’s partnership housing a local nonprofit could be seen as the company’s answer to criticism that it hasn’t given back enough to the city.
But as Mary’s Place settles into its new space after opening in March, the spotlight turns to the family homeless shelter as a symbol of the long-standing disparity that advocates insist large corporations help address. For Amazon, it’s a stark display of have-and-have-nots. Some blame the tech giant’s explosive growth over the past decade for making living in Seattle too costly for a growing number of people.
When Amazon’s offices reopen post-pandemic, the tens of thousands of high-paid tech workers who helped drive up housing costs in the region will now share its pricey downtown neighborhood with vulnerable families who can’t afford any place to live.
Marty Hartman, executive director of Mary’s Place, said the shelter is a life-saving gift for the local community. The location near public transit is ideal, as is its proximity to Amazon workers who regularly volunteer and donate, she said.
“I think it’ll take everyone to help and contribute. Homelessness is a crisis that isn’t going away,” Hartman said.
Amazon estimates the new Mary’s Place building and ongoing utilities and maintenance to be a $100 million commitment to the homeless shelter program. It’s among the largest homeless shelters in the state and the company’s single largest charitable contribution to its hometown.
The company has promised to host the shelter in the gleaming eight-story facility for as long as it’s needed.
Mary’s Place offers private rooms and expects to house 1,000 people a year, while the other end is dedicated to Amazon’s cloud computing unit.