Cyber market giant Amazon has created a permanent homeless shelter inside one of its buildings at its Seattle headquarters.
The facility is home to 50 families in private rooms and is slated to double that number in the near future, per media website Deadline. Officials at the shelter say they aim to help 1,000 families per year.
Amazon partnered with Seattle nonprofit Mary’s Place to created the family shelter, which will be known as Mary’s Place Family Center in the Regrade.
“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.”
The eight-floor, 63,000-square-foot zone 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, recreation spaces for children and teens and community rooms for meetings.
Amazon will make on-site health care available for people with medical conditions, Deadline reported.
The shelter will be kept separate from Amazon offices through private entrances and acoustic isolation.
