Mary's Place Shelter Updates



Dear neighbors!
We hope you are well and safe during these challenging times.

We want to let you know about some changes at Mary's Place. As we continue to address the safety and health needs of our guests and staff and respond to guidance from Public Health - Seattle & King County, we have been moving families from our smaller shelters to the new downtown family center and other sites with more space for social distancing and isolation if needed. Over the last few weeks, we have reduced the number of families at many of our congregate shelters, temporarily closed our Shoreline shelter at 160th & Aurora, permanently closed our shelter at 3rd & Bell, as well as one of our very first overnight emergency family shelters, Julia's Place in Madrona. Yesterday, we closed our first-ever 24/7 family center at 130th & Aurora, the Pi Bank building on loan from the City of Seattle.

We have some exciting news to share! We've signed a lease for a former senior care facility in Seattle's Central District. The building is 62,388 s/f on two levels and a finished basement with 48 private rooms and restrooms, wings that can be closed off to provide isolation space if needed, a commercial kitchen, large common areas, medical facilities, parking, laundry, and fenced outdoor areas. Importantly, this building will give us the tools we need to better keep our staff and families safe and healthy. It's a nearly move-in-ready location for a Mary's Place family center! We plan to begin making a few minor repairs to the building soon and be able to start moving families in by the end of the month.
Though we have closed several locations, please know that no families have been returned to homelessness. We have been helping families move into their own homes, and both the new Regrade shelter in the Amazon building downtown and the new Yesler facility will provide 275 beds each. Overall, we will have a net gain of just over 100 beds to help families in their time of need.

Thank you for being caring and compassionate neighbors! We moved into the Pi Bank building in 2015, thinking we'd only be there a few years. It has been lifesaving, providing more than 174,500 bed nights, and helping nearly 800 families, including 1,378 children!

We have enjoyed our time in the neighborhood and will miss it here. Many of you have volunteered at our North Seattle site over the years, and we hope that you'll continue to visit when we get past this virus and volunteer with us at one of our new locations!

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