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Mary’s Place opens first permanent home in Burien

The former treatment center will be able to house 200 people, including kids with complex medical needs

By Sarah Anne Lloyd
Mary’s Place Executive Director Marty Hartman outside the new building.
Courtesy of Mary’s Place

Mary’s Place, which provides housing to women, children, and families, just bought its first permanent home in a former recovery center in Burien. In this new location, the organization will be able to sleep around 200 people in addition to providing support programs for things like employment and housing during the day.

Because of the populations Mary’s Place shelters, having private rooms is especially key—and something that the new site, located at what was formerly Lakeside Milam Recovery Center, provides. The space also includes a large, commercial kitchen and common areas.

In addition to hosting both single- and two-parent households, the facility will be able to house families that have children with complex medical needs.

Mary’s Place purchased the property for $5 million with a $1 million gift and $4 million loan from Mercer Island philanthropists Mark and Lisa Caputo. (Mark Caputo founded Liberty Dialysis.)

“This building in Burien will help us to meet the needs of the growing numbers of families that we see coming from South King County communities,” said Mary’s Place Executive Director Marty Hartman in a statement. “We are incredibly grateful to the Caputos for this partnership and opportunity.”

Since the nonprofit was founded in 1999, it’s established many of what it calls “home for now” programs in temporary spaces. Since 2010, many of Mary’s Place’s beds have been in temporary spaces awaiting development. The most famous of these was in a former Travelodge owned by Amazon. Since the site is set to become an office tower, Amazon offered another permanent shelter for Mary’s Place in the new building, which opens in 2020, and has since set the group up in a nearby former Day’s Inn that Amazon also owns.

In these temporary locations, which are converted quickly by a team of mostly volunteer building and land use professionals, Mary’s Place is able to operate about 650 beds.

Mary’s Place hopes to open the new facility in July. Those interested in helping set up the new home can email volunteer@marysplaceseattle.org for volunteer opportunities.