Group works to ensure Seattle’s homeless families get stimulus payment ‘lifeline’

With stimulus payments beginning to go out over the weekend across the country, Seattle nonprofit Mary’s Place is helping ensure that their residents get their money too.

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Mary’s Place, which helps provide shelter and services for women, children, and families, is doing everything it can to make sure at-risk families in shelter with them have current addresses with the IRS, allowing them to receive their $1,400 checks to cover crucial life expenses.

“It’s been a key factor in helping them get housing again, and for many that are living outside, it’s just a lifeline to food, clothing, and the housing that they’re looking for,” Mary’s Place Executive Director Marty Hartman told KIRO Radio.

The money has provided at least some modicum of temporary relief to many of the city’s unhoused families. And while it hasn’t completely erased those families’ problems, it’s still proving to be vital.

“I wouldn’t say that (the payments) are lifting them out of poverty, but they’re keeping them afloat,” Hartman said.

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That’s seen some families that have been sleeping in their cars use that money to get them into a hotel to at least “give them a break.” Others are setting the money aside to eventually help relocate them in more stable housing.

And for others still, the money has been enough to get them into permanent housing for good (with a little help from Mary’s Place).

“We’ve had a couple families pay down their debt with that stimulus check, and then we helped pay their move-in costs and make a successful move into permanent housing again,” Hartman described.

You can learn more about the work Mary’s Place does for Seattle’s homeless women, children, and families here.