Amazon is ready to move homeless families in-house, donating space in new building to Mary's Place



SEATTLE -- In the heart of its headquarters for technology and innovation, Amazon is making room for homeless families. The technology giant is donating six stories and almost 50,000 square feet of space in a building under construction in downtown Seattle to Mary’s Place. It will provide a permanent shelter for more than 200 people.

"This is life-saving. This is a gift everybody would dream of having, to have a home for now, when you don’t have one,” says Marty Hartman, the Executive Director of Mary's Place.

Construction crews are in the process of building the new Amazon tower, across 7th Avenue in Seattle from the new spheres. Inside, six floors will be dedicated to the shelter featuring 65 rooms for families. Rent free. Utilities covered. Here's the must-watch moment when Amazon's Director of Real Estate John Schoettler delivered the life-changing news in a box to Hartman.



“We just said, what if, what if we could do something like this, and here we are talking about it today,” Schoettler said.

Today, Amazon doubled down at a fundraising luncheon for Mary’s Place, matching donations up to one million dollars.  It comes at a time when the number of homeless families just keeps growing.

Hartman saying of Amazon's commitment, “These families will be stable, and we know, we’ll be able to serve more and more families in that building over time. So there's a lot of hope, a lot of happiness, and a lot of help is on the way.”