Amazon, the e-commerce giant establishing a second headquarters in Northern Virginia, is contributing $8 million to two homeless-relief organizations after joining Seattle corporations to fight a city tax that would have raised $47 million a year for the same goal.
The donation will be split between Plymouth Housing in Seattle, which is receiving $5 million, and the Arlington Community Foundation in Virginia, which is getting $3 million, Amazon said. Through Sept. 30, the company will also match employee donations to charities in the two areas.
“Homelessness and affordable housing are real concerns in Seattle and the Washington, D.C. region,” Jay Carney, the company’s senior vice president for global corporate affairs, said in a statement. Around the country, urban areas have grappled with a surge in homeless people since the 2008 recession, with tent cities, or encampments, mushrooming from 19 in 2007 to 274 in 2016, according to the National Law Center for Homeless & Poverty.
Neither Amazon, Starbucks, nor the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce disputed the need in Seattle — whose homeless population topped 11,000 in 2017 — when they battled a tax of $275 per employee last year. Instead, they argued that the city spends tax revenue irresponsibly and has proved unable even to shelter children sleeping outside.
Amazon and Starbucks each contributed $25,000 to a referendum intended to repeal the tax, an effort that garnered more than $470,000 in contributions and prompted the City Council to rescind its initial approval. Amazon also temporarily stopped planning for its 17-story Block 18 complex in Seattle’s Denny Triangle, a move that occurred amid a nationwide search for a second headquarters site.
Still, the company co-founded by Jeff Bezos pointed out Tuesday that it has made cash and in-kind donations worth $130 million over the years to combat homelessness. Those include a 47,000 square-foot family shelter for Mary’s Place inside an Amazon building in Seattle slated to open in 2020 and classroom and restaurant space for FareStart’s job-training initiative, the company said.
At Plymouth Housing, which offered more than 1,000 apartments for homeless adults as of 2017, Amazon’s latest donation will “help us meet the immediate needs of thousands of people in the coming years,” said Paul Lambros, the organization’s head. “Chronic homelessness is a disabling condition and a complex issue requiring the attention and support of the whole community.”
In Virginia, the Arlington Community Foundation will use Amazon’s gift to establish a fund supporting low-cost options in a county where more than 9,000 households live on $35,000 or less per year. Arlington County, where Amazon is establishing corporate offices that will eventually employ 25,000 people, has lost 90% of its affordable homes over the past 19 years, said Jennifer Owens, foundation president.
The donation “comes at a critical time for our community and will help us respond in a nimble way to support those who need it most,” Owens said. “Housing prices in our region have steadily increased, leading to fewer housing options for all income levels and placing a disproportionate burden on our community’s lowest-income residents.”
