Report: Amazon offers one of its Seattle buildings to house more than 200 homeless for a year

This building at 2213 8th Ave, an old Travelodge that's now a Cornish dorm ,will be converted into homeless housing for families by Amazon, starting Monday. (Photo: Alan Berner/The Seattle Times)





SEATTLE -- Amazon.com is offering a building it owns as a temporary shelter for more than 200 homeless people, The Seattle Times reported Wednesday night.

The company, in collaboration with the nonprofit Mary’s Place, plans to house the homeless for a year in what used to be a Travelodge hotel and most recently was a dormitory for Cornish College of the Arts students.

The 34,500-square-foot building, at 2213 Eighth Ave., is part of a lot the company acquired in 2014 as part of its new corporate campus.

The Times said construction in that lot won’t start for a year so Mary’s Place can run the building as a shelter, rent-free, during that time. Families are expected to start moving in Monday, the newspaper said.