A permanent homeless shelter has been created by Amazon inside one of its headquarters buildings in downtown Seattle.
Amazon partnered with nonprofit organization Mary’s Place to open the Mary’s Place Family Center in The Regrade. The family shelter was built inside one of Amazon’s office buildings. The facility is kept separate from Amazon offices through priate entrances and acoustical isolation. The family shelter is an eight-floor, 63,000-square-foot facility.
The space has a large dining room, an industrial kitchen with commercial cooking equipment, office space for Amazon’s legal team to provide support to shelter residents, and recreation spaces for children and teens.
Plazas and other public spaces surrounding the building were built to accommodate employees and shelter families.
For those with medical conditions, Amazon will make on-site healthcare available. There are also community rooms available for meetings. The shelter is housing 50 families in private rooms, but eventually will accommodate up to 100 families at the facility, with an anticipated 1,000 families per year being helped.
“This new shelter, opening when it did, has been our saving grace,” said Mary’s Place executive director Marty Hartman in a statement. ” It was our neighbors at Amazon who recognized what we needed before we ever realized it, and this space ensures we don’t have to return families to homelessness during this unprecedented and trying time.”
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos posted pictures of the new space on his Instagram account.
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