Allison Flicker/Amazon
A view of the new Mary's Place Family Center, under construction, from the street.
- Amazon is building a homeless shelter on its Seattle campus.
- The shelter will be run by Mary's Place, a nonprofit that has worked with the company for years.
- It's expected to be the largest family shelter in Washington state. Amazon employees will have opportunities to volunteer there.
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Two years ago, Marty Hartman, the executive director of Mary's Place homeless shelter in Seattle, received a package from Amazon: The company presented her with a golden key symbolizing access to eight floors of a building in its Seattle headquarters.
At the time, Mary's Place had been operating a homeless shelters out of a Travelodge hotel on Amazon's campus. Amazon had always planned to renovate the hotel for its own use. So, in 2017, the company offered Hartman a permanent space in one of Amazon's corporate offices. Now, that space is almost finished.
When the new shelter opens in 2020, it will have the capacity to serve 275 people per night. That's a small portion of the city's homeless population - around 12,500 people in King County, where Seattle located - but it's expected to be the largest family shelter in Washington state.
Take a look at how the construction is coming along.
