Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen has pledged $30 million to Seattle’s homeless. The money will be used by the city of Seattle to build a facility housing homeless families.
The city of Seattle is also pledging $5 million for the maintenance of the facility, according to the Seattle Mayor’s office.
Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates, has a long history of charitable donations, especially in the Pacific Northwest where he is involved in being part of the ownership groups of the Blazers, Seahawks, and Seattle Sounders of the MLS.
The Blazers were just eliminated in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, just two days before Allen’s announcement.
According to Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, the project will aid many of the 1,684 homeless families in the Seattle area:
“Paul Allen understands the homelessness crisis requires everyone in our community, particularly our business leaders, to help,” said Mayor Murray. “This partnership with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation will build permanent supportive housing for vulnerable homeless families with children and help the City leverage our affordable housing funds 6-to-1. This commitment is an example of the incredible difference our philanthropic and business leaders can make in our community, as I called on others to do during my State of the City speech this year. Thank you to Paul Allen, his family, and the foundation for making this incredibly generous investment to address this crisis.”
