Interview with Amy King, CEO & Founder at Pallet

Amy King started out as a child psychologist and transitioned through several other jobs before choosing what she terms as “work that gives you life and purpose.” That job is that of the CEO of Pallet, and the purpose — to end unsheltered homelessness and give people a fair chance at employment.

King and her cofounder Brady King derived seeds of their idea after watching the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 Atlantic storm as far back as 2005. About 1.25 million people were forcibly evacuated from their homes, as the hurricane claimed over 1,800 lives and cost economic damage estimated at $125 billion. Thousands of evacuated people were housed temporarily in the Superdome football stadium, but King believed that such victims deserved better options. Over a decade later, when King put together her plan for Pallet, she sought to address not just broad homelessness crisis but also transitional housing for victims of natural and other disasters.

Interview questions:

Introduction | Can you provide an introduction to Pallet? What do you mean by “fighting homelessness at scale”?

Impact | What is the impact to date? Ie. 63 shelter villages, 4,073 people helped, 1,764 cabins…

Emergency | Is homelessness an emergency? Please explain why you describe it as a “poverty hurricane”.

Data | Can you share some of the data on homelessness? Ie. new homeless in LA – 273 per day, 600K per night sleeping homeless.

Public Benefit Company | How was the decision to make it a public benefit company rather than a non-profit organization?

Shelter Village Model | What is involved in building shelter village? How do you integrate social services?

Workforce Model| Your commitment includes employees who have experienced homelessness. Tell us about your workforce and how you are creating a culture of inclusion.

Scale | What is the strategy for scaling Pallet?

Case Study | One of your recent customers was Sonoma County. Please share this story.

Story | Can you share Tim’s story? https://palletshelter.com/blog/tims-story-from-a-pallet-shelter-village-to-housing/

Series A | Earlier this year, Pallet closed on a Series A including Citi Impact Fund and DBL Partners. How has Pallet been funded? https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/pallet/company_financials

Growth | What are the growth plans for Pallet?

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn

Pallet™ is the national leader in rapid-response shelter villages. The Everett, Washington-based company is addressing the homeless crisis with speed, at scale. Pallet shelter villages provide the dignity and security of private units within a community. A resource net of on-site social services, as well as food, showers, laundry, and more helps people transition to permanent housing. The majority of employees who build these shelters have experienced homelessness, addiction, or incarceration.