Amazon To Match Employee Donations To These 3 Alexandria Groups

ALEXANDRIA, VA—The announcement of Amazon's future headquarters in Arlington has amplified an ongoing conversation about affordable housing and homelessness in neighboring Alexandria and the region. On Tuesday, Amazon announced an employee donation matching campaign that includes three Alexandria organizations working on homelessness or affordable housing.

Amazon launched the campaign to encourage employees to donate to 20 selected nonprofits addressing housing and homelessness in the DC and Seattle regions—the company's two headquarter locations. The company will match its employees' donations one-for-one up to $5 million from June 11 through Sept. 30.

The three Alexandria organizations include Carpenter’s Shelter, Community Lodgings and Wesley Housing Development Corporation. Carpenter's Shelter, a homeless shelter in Alexandria, is currently rebuilding its home. The new building will have a shelter and affordable housing units, including 10 set aside for residents transitioning from the shelter.

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Community Lodgings aims to help homeless people become independent through transitional housing, affordable housing and youth education programs. Wesley Housing Development Corporation develops and maintains affordable housing communities in Northern Virginia and DC.

Aside from the new donation matching program, Amazon announced a $3 million donation to the Arlington Community Foundation to support affordable housing for low-income families and veterans. An additional $5 million will go to Plymouth Housing in Seattle.

The 20 nonprofits in the donation matching program include:

• Accelerator YMCA
• El Centro de la Raza
• AHC Inc.
• Facets
• Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing
• FareStart
• A-SPAN
• Friendship Place
• Bellwether Housing
• Hopelink
• Carpenter’s Shelter
• Mary’s Place
• Community Lodgings
• Plymouth Housing
• Compass Housing Alliance
• Wellspring Family Services
• Cornerstones
• Wesley Housing Development Corporation
• Doorways
• YouthCare

Amazon will invest $2.5 billion dollars and create 25,000 new full-time jobs at its new Arlington headquarters. The company has started hiring for the new headquarters and leasing space in Crystal City.