Amazon set to open homeless shelter inside its Seattle HQ

Online retail giant Amazon is about to open a homeless shelter inside its Seattle headquarters that is expected to become the largest such facility in the state of Washington, the media reported.

Scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2020, the initiative is part of Amazon’s long-term partnership with a nonprofit called Mary’s Place, TechCrunch reported on Monday, citing the Business Insider.

The shelter home, which will offer individual, private rooms for families, will be able to accommodate 275 people each night. Families will be allowed to bring their pets.

Featuring an industrial kitchen, the facility is expected to serve 600,000 meals per year, according to the report.

While other tech giants such as Facebook and Microsoft have also pledged similar initiatives to fund housing facilities for the needy, Amazon’s homeless shelter is unique in the sense that it is being opened inside the company’s headquarters.

In September 2018, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pledged $2 billion to combat homelessness and to fund a network of „Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities“.