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Amazon To Build Homeless Shelter In Its New Seattle Headquarters (cnn.com)
Amazon is trying to do its part to help the homelessness problem in its hometown of Seattle. The company announced on Wednesday that it would donate more than 47,000 square feet of space within its newest Seattle headquarters building as a permanent location to house homeless people. CNNMoney reports: "Mary's Place does incredible, life-saving work every day for women, children, and families experiencing homelessness in the Seattle community," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. "We are lucky to count them as neighbors and thrilled to offer them a permanent home within our downtown Seattle headquarters." Amazon is partnering with local nonprofit Mary's Place to create 65 rooms, which will house more than 200 homeless people every night. The new Mary's Place shelter will open in early 2020. It will also have a resource center like those the nonprofit offers in North Seattle and White Center, where 40-plus local nonprofits and volunteers work with staff to help families obtain employment and permanent housing.
5 hobos for the price of 3 (for opening day only). Or is Bezos using them as guinea pigs for manned missions?
Didn't trump just make America great again? How can we still have homeless people?
"...life-saving work every day for women, children, and families experiencing homelessness..."
Well, at least men got included as long as they support a family. Wouldn't want all of those useless, disposable freeloading homeless men taking up a shelter slot.
Is that what they're calling employee housing nowadays?
I wonder how many of its own employees will take advantage of this.
Amazon could pay a living wage!
Good work, Amazon! Not often do we see companies supplying housing for their employees! Kudos!
They are trying to save face. If they really gave a shit, they would invest in the actual community. They are pathetic, they are clowns. See if you can find the video on youtube where they try to give a homeless guy a Windows lap top at the Apple store. That is probably closer to the truth.
amazon is running a company town, just like in days of yore
As a homeless man you're only worth something if there's a family attached to you.
Isn't male privilege great!
Some homeless are that by choice or by some psychological inability to stay put. For others it is the problem of affordability. It only makes sense to offer permanent shelter to the last category — to people, who want a permanent place, but can not pay for it.
Now, why would not Amazon suggest to and outright push those people into jobs at Amazon? Warehouse workers make about $13/hour? And how will these shelters then be different from workers' dormitories?
Personally I don't see anything wrong with it — as long as no one is forced into these shelters, but that's just what might happen, if authorities start picking up homeless pushing them into such facilities to pretty-up the streets. Which would make these people into something unnervingly close to slaves...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Hey Amazon: They need a huge one in Portland Oregon too. I visited once and haven't seen so many homeless people in my life.
Amazon is partnering with local nonprofit Mary's Place to create 65 rooms, which will house more than 200 homeless people every night. The new Mary's Place shelter will open in early 2020.
But this will have no effect on the homeless population until 2020, how does this help the homeless community today?
Ken
Amazon interns will have first hand work experience at packing homeless people into boxes for shipment as robots drag them off the streets.
It's only about using a Federal government distinction to create a city/state/Federal tax dodge.
I guess they'll only have to do deliveries during the days
cheaper than drones !
(sorry)
Already have slaves. We just call them "starving artists", and pay a pittance, plus mercilessly pirate from them.
200 people every night? Like they have to stand in line every night to get a bed? This is one reason that all the temporary shelter solutions don't work. Every evening, the homeless have to stand in line for the chance at getting a place. And every morning they get tossed back out on the street. And maybe they don't get one, so they have to find a warm doorway quickly. Pretty soon they just say, "Fuck it. Not worth the trouble." And move back under the freeway where they can stake out a (relatively) permanent campsite.
Have gnu, will travel.
I sold my soul to the company store...
We call this an insane asylum. Let's see if Bezos can come up with a workable new way of running something like this. He might surprise us.
Good one, if you got more bombs like that you have a stand-up program going. Maybe try to tie-in a routine around suggesting them paying their company taxes instead of stashing it away into tax havens.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Problem is: in Seattle, Amazon is paying way more than a living wage and even the median wage; both have sharply risen due in part to Amazon. This has been one cause of the sharp increase in homelessness in Seattle (the others being drugs and mental illness).
Problem is: in Seattle, Amazon is paying way more than a living wage and even the median wage; both have sharply risen due in part to Amazon. This has been one cause of the sharp increase in homelessness in Seattle (the others being drugs and mental illness).
WAT?!
Sig. Sig. Sputnik
I'm not sure why I have to repeat what the other AC said, unless you're just stupid.
I'll give it a try, however. They pay more than the median income, which has caused an increase in expenses.
Surely, you're not stupid enough to think their new HQ is where they have their warehouse, are you? No, you couldn't be that stupid. Hmm... Perhaps you're being intentionally obtuse? No, that would make you a shitbag. You wouldn't be a shitbag, would you?
Anyhow, Reddit is probably more your style. You should go there.
Why don't they just build or expand a fulfillment center with sleeping quarters, showers & a mess hall? Then they could give the homeless people jobs in addition to shelter.
Assuming the previous poster is referring to something real but just phrasing it awkwardly, I know what he is referring to.
Amazon and other tech companies pay more than the region's prior wage options. The employees want to live near work rather than have a 2 hour commute. Landlords raise their rates to somewhere between what the current residents can continue to pay and what the wealthier Amazon (and other) employees are willing to pay for that location. This leads to a glut of people who are unable to afford living where they used to and unwilling to move to more affordable areas.
Considering some of the housing arrangements I had in the past to make unemployment checks and dwindling bank account numbers last long enough to get a new job, I have trouble empathizing with that kind of refusal to search for opportunities.
So that employees, customers and business contacts won't have to experience homeless people first hand.
This is how NYC real estate developers have managed requirements for affordable housing when they build developments targeted at the wealthy. A small, separate entrance with its own elevator to the floors with the few affordable rentals in the building is part of the building.
While I guess it's laudable to gesture by our e-commerce overlords, if they run the homeless people through an invisible side entrance to some otherwise deprecated space they don't use that just happens to be in the same building, it's hard not to think that there's a large amount of cynical motivation. Bezos gets to claim some kind of noble generosity, and Amazon gets a giant tax deduction on dead space in their building.
I can't help but think if it was really meant to do something about homelessness, Bezos would just outright fund a large hotel/dorm like structure that would offer long-term transitional housing for homeless people instead of temporary shelter, the kind of temporary home where they could get mail delivered, make phone calls, create resumes and do job searches, in addition to being fed and having a secure place to live.
Oh, he's close. Just missing things by a few blocks. Down the street from Amazon is the Allen Brain Institute.
Brain. Institute.
Once they take your brain (for science, of course), your only options are either the homeless shelter or politics. The vast majority of people, even after being pithed, would apparently prefer homelessness rather than politics.
There is some hope for mankind.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Most chronic homelessness is caused by mental illness and addictions. Instead of putting up shelters, why not spend a little extra and reopen public mental hospitals? Before the deinstitutionalization movement in the 70s, states had huge mental health treatment systems in place. Admittedly, part of that was because there was nothing that could be done to treat mental illness before the 50s and the only thing to do was to lock them away. But, we've seen that treatment isn't 100% effective, people relapse, they self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, etc. Why not operate facilities where people who need treatment can be placed until they're stable enough to actually live in the community?
Oh boy, I bet Amazon's lawyers and insurance carriers are throwing a tantrum over this. Imagine all that space filled with down and out folks who are going to experience "falls" and other "incidents" due to Amazon's "failure to maintain a safe environment." Seattle has a lot of personal injury lawyers who are going to enjoy a feeding frenzy. What is it they say about "best of intentions"?
This is great for the homeless population, but for those that aren't employed by high-tech. They just can't afford to live in Seattle anymore. Teachers, fire-fighters, police, food service workers, etc can't afford to pay $2000 for a 1bedroom apartment. What we all saw in SanFrancisco/Silicon Valley area, is happening in Seattle.
Hope these high tech workers don't plan on having kids, there will be nobody to teach them. Maybe Amazon can buy Khan Academy and launch Amazon-School. "Alexa, teach my child to read."
They needed more interns and this was the cheapest solution
People who are not communists?
Along with this and Paul Allen's donation to fight homelessness, the city can make homelessness and panhandling illegal and the streets of Seattle will be free of hobos once again!
Can Amazonians wear trash bags and burlap sacks to work now?
Truly stupid. Epic.
and during the day, thay can help with warehouse operations? Brilliant Bezos!
. . .we do what we must, because we can. . . .
For the good, of all of us. . .
Well, the ones that own stock. . .
Question is, when will Prime deliver via Amazon Science Portable Hand-held Portal Devices ???
Discriminating is not "equal opportunity" at all. When nationally 80% of the homeless population is men, having a program which discriminates against men is flat out evil. That you attempt to claim discrimination is fine because "bogey man" makes you evil.
Real numbers show that gender discrimination is not a problem in the workplace. 61% of all college graduates are Women who are _CHOOSING_ not to go into STEM jobs. The graduation numbers have favored women for well over a decade, and were pretty close for the prior 20 years. The wage gap has been debunked so frequently that you must be mentally handicapped to still believe it. That is not a joke. You should seek immediate psychological help and ask the doctor to consider some strong medication (Thorazine) because you simply ignore reality to support a delusion. Worse, using that delusion to discriminate against people.
Your sig makes it perfectly clear that you are a SJW troll.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
man ... who's sunning himself on a public lawn and masturbating to a magazine
And how is that bad? Yes, it is probably neither pretty, nor stimulating. But as long as he isn't harming anyone, why do you even care?
if the liberals didn't crush incomes with extortionate taxes and corruption. Funny how they cause more problems than solve them with their idiotic taxes and red tape.
Pax Vobiscum
I have played too much Shadowrun to think this can be anything good.
I think we can handle it.
Men, at least stereotypically, have better survival skills and can live in a tent somewhere while they do temp construction work to afford a shitty apartment where they can then live while they get hired on full-time at a fast-food restaurant.
Some men of course have mental illness and/or addiction and that is relevant.
I think we need more money for men's rehabilitative services...well all aspects of homeless services need more money, but men are more likely to be street addicts or homeless metally ill and that needs to be addressed
Thank you Dave Raggett
Original AC here. Yes, you are correct. My vaguely worded post, written prior to caffeination, seemed to blame solely Amazon for the homeless problem, which is not accurate.
Rather, it's like you said: Amazon and other tech (and non tech) companies have been paying above the median wage. As more people come in and get paid the higher wage, the median wage (and livable wage) goes up; currently in Seattle, $60k is livable, $80k is median, unheard of even 5 years ago. With the higher median wage, landlords charge more (supply and demand, albeit with a badly suppressed supply due to the remnants of "Lesser Seattlites"). Meanwhile, the people who were at the median wage are no longer median wage or even livable wage anymore.
The people at the bottom are getting pushed out of their housing and have nowhere to go. Most leave; some to other cities, some to other states. A small, but significant portion stay and try to keep their jobs (mostly service industry: cooks, bartenders, etc), while maintaining a homeless life in RVs and a few in tents. For these people, their job is all they have. Some can't afford to move to a cheaper city and hope they get a job there quickly so they can afford housing.
Unfortunately, these people get unfairly lumped into the homeless drug addicts and mentally ill and shit all over by everyone.
Amazon's homeless shelter won't make a dent in the homeless problem, but it's a step in the right direction. And I never thought I'd say this, but: good on Amazon. I hope this is a trend in Seattle. Next step is to start providing mental health and drug addiction services for the remainder of the homeless. We may just keep up with the rest of the first world.
Problem is: in Seattle, Amazon is paying way more than a living wage and even the median wage; both have sharply risen due in part to Amazon. This has been one cause of the sharp increase in homelessness in Seattle (the others being drugs and mental illness).
So, your theory is: a company paying its employees more causes poverty. Really? That's what you're going with?
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
All of your employees will have a place to live now.
Wrong. That's not what "feminism" is...and it's not what progressive policies are based on.
Well, I'll grant you that if you are a GOPer/Conservative who willfully misrepresents what "feminism" is then your definition is the approved definition from your overlords.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Free bananas too?
Most of the homeless, including the mentally ill, would be happy to live in free housing, otherwise they wouldn't be going to shelters. Let's not throw up our hands and say "There's nothing to be done for these people short of locking them up!"
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
So, your theory is: a company paying its employees more causes poverty. Really?
No, he said it caused homelessness. If the cost of housing goes up because landlords/sellers can charge more because Amazon pays a premium, and your salary doesn't go up too, eventually you reach a point where you cannot afford to rent or buy a house and you become homeless. Your salary doesn't go down, but the amount of house you can get for that money drops drastically.
Of not taking care of the welfare of ALL our citizenry.
In California the majority of mentally ill homeless were in fact evicted as a result of defunding by Reagan in the 70s before he made it to the whitehouse, and then helped push similiar work across the country.
Go read up, it is an interesting and fucked up read.
Repeat the myth, yet again.
When Reagan closed the loonie bins they were already empty as a result of the ACLU making the commitment procedures of the day, illegal. Not that I disagree with the ACLU. When government has the power to use the nut houses as political jails, it does.
Now please ignore this post and go on repeating some more mythology on another thread.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
If you're masturbating, you're not doing anything else.
Or, you know, you commute from farther away, like the rest of us, and look for a job close to where you now have to live.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
There are truly needy homeless people who want to have a home. Yes. Society should help elevate those who want to achieve.
But, most of the people you all are discussing are living their chosen lifestyle. So instead of feeling guilty about not doing enough to help them find shelter, realize that you are being played. Vagabonds, Bums, Travellers...all olde world words used to describe this manner of living since time immemorial.
Stop the flow of these losers by enforcing laws we already have on the books. And run them out to the city limits, or put them in the empty former jails where all the marijuana users were kept. If you eliminate these sponges, there will be plenty of resources to help the much smaller number of actual homeless people, and especially children.
You know, it is really easy to tell from the comments here, which people understood calculus and which didn't.
The latter group doesn't seem to recognize second order affects. If a large group seeks a scarce resource (downtown housing), they can't all get it. Some have to settle for marginal substitutes. Uptown, or the town over.
That drives prices up in those areas too, not as much as in downtown, but there is still a ripple affect, each of which have their own ripples
And the result is: life gets better for everyone. That's what happens when successful companies pay their employees more. Life is not a zero-sum game.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
That would be what a rational person would do, but Seattle is home to liberal thinking. If people can't afford to live there, charge the wealthy people building apartments more so you can build affordable housing. Never mind that this means higher building costs and less housing being built.
Building a homeless shelter means nothing. When they have numbers that show that they're contributing to the good of society *through* said homeless shelter, then we'll have reason to praise them.
They'll be annoyed at how many times they have to specify "I do not want free shipping" before they get their meals.