Amazon gives half of new office to provide shelter for homeless

The new space in Seattle will be used by the Mary’s Place charity and provide 65 rooms and shelter more than 200 homeless women children and families each night

Amazon has traditionally lost out in the US grocery market, to companies such as Wal-Mart

Half of Amazon's new office building will be a given to a shelter for the homeless women and children, the company announced on Wednesday.

The new space in Seattle will be used by the Mary’s Place charity and provide 65 rooms and shelter more than 200 homeless women children and families each night, Amazon announced on Wednesday.

In April 2016, Amazon provided Mary's Place with temporary use of a vacant building - a former Travelodge hotel.

Construction of the new permanent site will begin in Autumn and families will be housed in temporary accommodation until it is complete, Amazon said in a statement.

It will provide 47,000 sq ft of space and cost tens of millions of dollars, making it Amazon’s largest philanthropic project to date, according to The New York Times.

“To have a permanent downtown Seattle location within Amazon is a game-changer for Mary’s Place and the families we serve,” said Marty Hartman, executive director of Mary’s Place.

“We’ve loved being Amazon’s neighbour, and now the opportunity to move into their headquarters permanently is truly a dream come true. This unique, first-of-its-kind shelter will remind families that they matter and that their community wants to help them succeed.”

Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said: “Mary’s Place does incredible, life-saving work every day for women, children, and families experiencing homelessness in the Seattle community.”

“We are lucky to count them as neighbours and thrilled to offer them a permanent home within our downtown Seattle headquarters – Amazon employees and Mary’s Place residents will move in together in early 2020.”

Homelessness has become a huge problem in Seattle as rents have soared, in part because of an influx of highly-paid workers at technology companies like Amazon.

In 2015, the city of Seattle declared a state of emergency. A November 2016 homelessness report by the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness estimated that there were more than 10,000 homeless people in the city, including 4,000 who were sleeping rough.