This north Seattle hotel will house people who have been chronically homeless

The Mary Pilgrim Inn in north Seattle looks like a hotel on the outside. But on the inside, it’s a place to help people struggling with chronic homelessness that’s opening this week, with the first 15 residents moving in Thursday.

The Mary Pilgrim Inn is one of eight properties being repurposed for emergency housing. It’s named after a former nurse who worked with Seattle’s Downtown emergency shelter for more than two decades until she retired in 2017.

Nicole Macri is deputy director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, a Seattle nonprofit where “Nurse Mary” was known to many clients.

“Mary was a lifeline to so many people who were struggling,” said Macri. “But Mary knew, and she often would say, what these clients need, what these folks need is a place to live.”

Macri said the shelter and the services it provides embodies Nurse Mary’s vision.

King County bought the former Holiday Inn this summer, as part of its Health through Housing initiative.

In partnership with a Seattle nonprofit, the hotel has been repurposed for housing and social services under one roof.

County Executive Dow Constantine says Health through Housing is focused on giving people the tools they need to get back on their feet.

“We know that when people have a place of their own, they can rest, they can feel safe, they can heal,” said Constantine. “They can begin to take charge of their lives to regain their dignity, to regain their self-determination to move forward.”

The county purchased the building with funding from a sales tax of one tenth of a cent. Constantine said the money was initially going to be spent to build emergency shelters.

“To do that takes several years to acquire a site, get the permits, build it, etc. and costs upwards of $400,000 a unit,” he said.

Then several hotels closed due to the pandemic, and they were sitting empty. Constantine said buying existing buildings allowed them to launch these programs sooner, and for less money.