Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Paul Allen will donate $30 million toward a permanent housing facility for as many as 100 low-income and homeless families in Seattle.
The donation will help cover design and construction, and Mayor Ed Murray announced Wednesday the city will contribute an additional $5 million.
Mercy Housing Northwest, a local nonprofit, will operate the facility.
The facility will include a service center open to residents and the wider community, said Bill Rumpf, Mercy Housing Northwest president.
Mercy Housing will seek public funding to help defray the cost of running the facility, Rumpf said.
Residents of permanent housing such as this generally pay no more than 30 percent of their income for rent.
“Our vision right now is that it’s in a location where there is access to services and public transit,” said Paul Butler, who oversees homelessness programs for the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. »