In 2017, Amazon announced that it will build an eight-story homeless shelter in downtown Seattle.
Now, online retail is fulfilling its promises and spending millions of dollars to design and construct a homeless shelter.
Amazon has partnered with the non-profit Mary’s Place and trying to transform one of its urban campuses into a home for the homeless people. The new shelter will open in 2020 and it will have the capacity to serve 275 people per night.
It will be the largest in the state of Washington. John Schoettler, Amazon’s vice president for global real estate and facilities, said that the company wanted to come forward to help city’s homelessness crisis, which was declared as a state of emergency in 2015 by Mayor Ed Murray.
He released a statement two years ago saying, ”As we grow in Seattle, we recognize the importance of investing in our hometown in ways that benefit our neighbors and our employees.”
”When Seattle Mayor Ed Murray declared a civil state of emergency on homelessness we wanted to help out in a time of great need.”
The plans display a large cafeteria like dining room, a playroom for children and personal bedrooms, which Hartman said will help ‘families to maintain their individual dignity’.
”Every single one of them will feel loved, safe, and invited in,” Hartman said in a video about the project.
”It’s a place where their kids will be able to be kids, and their parents can work on the tough stuff.”
There will be 30 rooms for families to stay in and they will have to access to health and legal clinics. Also, people living in the shelter will share the new building with Amazon employees.
”Maybe someday, if homelessness in Seattle is resolved, we can turn that back into space for ourselves,’ John Schoettler, an Amazon real estate executive, told the Seattle Times. ‘As far as I’m concerned, it’s theirs as long as they need it.”
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