According to a report by The Seattle Times, E-commerce giant Amazon has recently announced a $9 million donation toward homelessness service providers in King County. Notable, this is the second largest donation by Amazon in a single-year investment into the Mary’s Place Family Center, a 200-person family shelter downtown.
The move comes after the collapse of the private sector group ‘We Are In’ focused on homelessness, backed by Amazon and other names including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ballmer Group, and Microsoft among others.
Speaking of the development, Alice Shobe, global director of Amazon Community Impact, said,
“It signals the urgency we feel around addressing homelessness,”
“This is another step after We Are In.” Shobe added
Amazon had contributed $500,000 to ‘We Are In’, an organization founded in 2020 to be the private-sector counterpart to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
Speaking of the discontinueation of ‘We Are In’, Shobe said,
“It’s important to try new and creative solutions. And it’s important to call it quickly when it’s not working,” Shobe said. “I think we came together as a region and realized that the investment wasn’t producing the results that we had hoped collectively, and we didn’t belabor the point.” Shobe added
Besides Amazon, all other former funders of ‘We Are In’ said that they are assessing where to put their money next. Ballmer Group said it may consider funding the Regional Homelessness Authority’s budget directly.
