Mary’s Place receives retired van from King County

October 29, 2012

Summary

Van will be used to transport homeless women and children to emergency shelter

Story

Community nonprofit Mary’s Place will be helped in their mission of serving homeless women and children through a donated van secured for them by King County Councilmember Larry Phillips. The van was part of Metro Transit’s vanpool fleet, but had recently reached the end of its useful life as a commuter van and was retired from the fleet.

“Mary’s Place provides an extremely valuable public service helping homeless women and their families get back on their feet, and I’m pleased that this King County van will assist with that mission,” said Phillips, who represents a portion of Downtown Seattle on the council. “Putting retired county vans to use in the community helps extend the value of these public assets.”

Mary’s Place is an accepting community providing safety, stability, dignity, and hope to restore the lives of homeless women and their children. They provide safety and support to homeless women and their children at their day center when night shelters are closed. Women often come to Mary’s Place for hot meals, showers, laundry, and community. Mary’s Place provides information and referral, groups and classes designed to empower women on their journey out of homelessness and into more stable and productive lives. They are currently the only day center in King County to welcome homeless women with children.

Mary’s Place will use the van to transport homeless women and their children from Mary’s Place to and from emergency night shelter. Families using Mary’s Place services have an average income of $517 per month. Mary’s Place works in collaboration with area churches which provide shelter, air beds, dinner and breakfast to the families referred by Mary’s Place. The van will also be used for family outings and assisting families move into transitional and permanent housing.

Since 1995, the County Council has been donating retired vans from Metro’s Vanpool program to local nonprofit organizations to provide transportation for the disabled, low-income, young adults, and senior citizens. Governments, agencies and organizations that receive the vans must meet specific requirements:

• Capacity to support ongoing van operation, including assured funding for licensing, insuring, fueling and maintaining the van;
• Ability to provide qualified and trained drivers;
• Specific plans for use of the van to transport low-income, elderly or young people or people with disabilities, and assurance that the use shall be available to those persons without regard to affiliation with any particular organization;
• Ability to support county's public transportation function by reducing single occupancy vehicle trips, pollution and traffic congestion; supplementing services provided by the county's paratransit system and increasing the mobility for the transit-dependent for whom regular transit might not always be a convenient option.

Interested organizations can contact Councilmember Phillips for more information on applying for a vehicle.

King County Councilmember Larry Phillips (center), Mary’s Place Executive Director Marty Hartman (second from left), and the women and children who are clients of Mary’s Place, celebrate their new van.