After rapid rise, Everett's Pallet hits milestone: 100 shelter villages
Today, Al-Khalil is the customer support coordinator at Pallet, an Everett-based temporary housing manufacturer. More than 80% of Pallets employees have experienced homelessness, substance abuse or the justice system, according to the company.
CEO Amy King and her husband started Pallet to help end homelessness. They built their first shelter in Tacoma in 2017. By 2019, Pallet had built five shelter villages.
But as people searched for ways to stay quarantined in the pandemic over the next two years, the company boomed and expanded across the country: Seattle, Dallas, Boston and so on. Pallet built the shelters for its 100th site this month in Tulalip, about a half-hour drive from the company warehouse. Its largest village is in Los Angeles and is home to 200 shelters.
Locally, there is a Pallet site behind the Everett Gospel Mission, complete with raised flowerbeds outside each door and vinyl images from the Pacific Northwest wrapping the outer walls. There were 20 shelters at first, but a year after installation, the city used American Rescue Plan Act funding to double that. Now there is space for 54 people.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/after-rapid-rise-everetts-pallet-hits-milestone-100-shelter-villages/