Amazon this week announced a new donation of $9 million in grants to six local organizations addressing the urgent needs of people experiencing homelessness in the Puget Sound region, including $6 million to Mary’s Place in Burien.
In addition, recipients include Plymouth Housing, with additional funding to support The YMCA of Greater Seattle, YWCA Seattle | King | Snohomish, YouthCare, and Friends of Youth.
The $6 million donation to Mary’s Place will support its ongoing operations and provide funding toward a new development of co-located affordable housing and family shelter and services in Burien. The project will use the funds to replace an existing shelter and provide more than 200 beds of emergency family shelter, housing, outreach, and prevention services for families, along with 90 units of permanently affordable housing to be developed by Mercy Housing Northwest.
Since 2016, Amazon has committed more than $100 million in cash and in-kind donations to support Mary’s Place’s work to address family homelessness in King County.
The Burien City Council first supported this project with the South King Housing & Homelessness Partners (SKHHP) allocation in Feb 2023, then approved the project and fast tracked it on Sept. 20, 2023.
“As the number of people experiencing homelessness in our region continues to grow, it is important to support the organizations directly helping youth, families, and individuals,” said Alice Shobe, Global Director of Amazon Community Impact. “From providing cash donations to local nonprofits to address soaring costs and increased demand, to investing more than $550 million to add over 5,500 affordable homes in the Puget Sound, we are committed to helping tackle these challenges.”
The $9 million in grants will go to the following organizations:
- Mary’s Place is a nonprofit in Seattle and King County addressing family homelessness through a three-pronged approach that includes providing beds of emergency family shelter, mobile outreach services, and rental assistance and stability support. Mary’s Place has been a valuable partner to Amazon for several years and continues to be an important part of Amazon’s HQ1 community investments and impact. In 2020, Amazon and Mary’s Place united to open the Mary’s Place Family Center in The Regrade – a first-of-its-kind permanent family shelter built inside one of Amazon’s office buildings in its Seattle headquarters.
“Our partnership with Amazon has brought hope and housing to hundreds of women and families in our community,” said Dominique Alex, CEO of Mary’s Place. “From a permanent home in an Amazon office building that opened just as the pandemic caused us to close smaller shelters, to pro bono legal support that removes barriers to housing for families and so many volunteer groups and drives – the love and support from Amazonians is life changing. Today’s generous gift will help us increase critical shelter capacity and realize our big dream of making affordable housing more accessible for our guests and neighbors in South King County. We are so grateful to our incredible Amazon neighbors!” - Plymouth Housing is a nonprofit that works to eliminate homelessness and address its causes by preserving, developing, and operating safe, quality, supportive housing. It also provides adults experiencing homelessness with opportunities to stabilize and improve their lives. Amazon is donating $2 million to Plymouth Housing to support the recent spike in demand for the organization’s services. Amazon has supported Plymouth Housing in multiple annual fundraising events, and in 2019 Amazon donated $5 million to their PROOF campaign, which helped create 600 new affordable homes.
“This incredible investment from Amazon allows Plymouth Housing to bring even more of our neighbors from life on the streets into the dignity of a permanent home,” said Karen Lee, CEO of Plymouth Housing. “Last year, we served more than 2,200 people —1,200 through permanent supportive housing, and 1,000 through housing voucher programs. We look forward to our continued partnership with Amazon and working together to ensure that our most vulnerable neighbors receive the housing and supportive services that they need to thrive and leave homelessness behind for good.” - The YMCA is a leading nonprofit committed to strengthening individuals and communities across the country, with 13 locations across the Puget Sound. Amazon is donating $250,000 to YMCA to support youth homelessness programs through the organization’s Y Social Impact Center, which offers same day drop-in shelters and transitional housing.
- The YWCA is one of the oldest and largest women’s organizations in the nation and aims to eliminate racism, empower women, stand up for social justice, help families, and strengthen communities. The YWCA serves over 1 million women, girls, and their families. Amazon is donating $250,000 to support the YWCA’s ongoing interventions, including emergency shelter and temporary housing, permanent housing, and housing support services.
- YouthCare is a Seattle-based organization that works to end youth homelessness and to ensure that young people are valued for who they are, empowering them to achieve their potential. Amazon is donating $250,000 to support the organization’s ongoing housing programs, including community living, shelter, and independent living.
- Friends of Youth is a nonprofit that envisions that all youth have every opportunity to succeed. With Amazon’s $250,000 donation, Friends of Youth will be able to bolster ongoing services in and around the organization’s 7,000-square-foot space in Kirkland, which will replace the current young adult emergency shelter known as “The Landing” in Redmond.
The donations announced are the latest effort from Amazon to help address homelessness across the Puget Sound. In addition to supporting the work of these organizations, Amazon is also investing in increasing the number of affordable homes in the region. To learn more about Amazon’s community impact efforts, please click here.
