New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Amazon’s homeless shelter faces Seattle crisis, criticism
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 longstanding disparity that advocates insist large corporations help address. For Amazon, it’s a stark display of haveand-have-nots, given that 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 highpaid 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 will amount to 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 is expected to house 1,000 people a year, while the other end is
demand for mobile PCs.
“However, this uptick in mobile PC demand will not continue beyond 2020, as shipments were mainly boosted by short-term business needs due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kitagawa said.
Lenovo and HP shared the No. 1 position, as they each shipped about 16.2 million PCs. Together, they accounted for half of PC shipments in that period.
Lenovo was boosted by double-digit growth in the EMEA regions and more
than 50 percent growth in mobile PC shipments. After a major drop in the first quarter due to supplychain limits, HP recovered with particularly strong growth in EMEA and the U.S.
Dell’s worldwide shipments decreased slightly, its first year-over-year decline since the first quarter of 2016.
The U.S. PC market grew 3.5 percent year over year, recording its fifthstraight quarter of growth. Double-digit mobile PC growth was offset by a 44 percent drop in desk-based PCs.
In the U.S., HP led with
a 33 percent market share. Dell followed with a 26 percent share.
“Strong mobile PC demand in the U.S. was driven by shelter in place rules enforced as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak,” Kitagawa said. “While some states eased restrictions during the second quarter of 2020, many businesses continued to prepare for a potential resurgence of the virus, resulting in strong demand for mobile PCs as a precautionary measure.”