BELLEVUE, WA —The Bellevue Downtown Association (BDA) recently announced that the winner of its 2022 Placemaking Award is Mary’s Place, a safe shelter for women, children and families coming out of homelessness.

According to the BDA, the Placemaking Award recognizes individuals and organizations that have helped make downtown Bellevue a more vibrant urban environment. The award will be presented to Mary’s Place on April 21, during the BDA’s Downtown Forward event at Meydenbauer Center.

Mary’s Place was chosen due to the organization’s “innovative solution” to combating the issue of homelessness.

This past December, Mary’s Place converted the former Silver Cloud Inn hotel, located at 10621 NE 12th St in downtown Bellevue, into a temporary shelter. The facility supports 200 family members with roughly 90 rooms.

The shelter has since started providing employment services, as well.

According to Mary’s Place, the former hotel was made available to the organization rent-free through a partnership with SRM Development LLC.

Mary Hartman, the executive director of Mary’s Place, said the shelter was of critical importance because in 2020, the organization had to close four smaller shelters due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in the loss of 300 beds for families in the community.

“Before the pandemic hit, we were so close to achieving our goal of ‘No Child Sleeps Outside,'” Hartman said when the new shelter opened last December. “We know that we can get there again! This new space is a lifesaving gift that is getting us closer to our goal of bringing all children inside to warmth, safety and stability.”

Previous winners of the BDA’s Placemaking Award include: the city of Bellevue (for Meydenbauer Bay Park), the Bellevue Farmers Market and the Rotary Club of Bellevue (for Inspiration Playground).