Rick Steves just spent $2.25 million—and not on travels in a far-flung land but on something much closer to home. The travel writer and TV host has been unmasked as the previously anonymous buyer who swooped in to keep the Lynnwood Hygiene Center, north of Seattle, from shutting down. The center, which has operated rent-free on a property since 2020, helps roughly 700 people experiencing homelessness, providing laundry and around 16,000 meals and 10,000 showers each year. It announced in November it was slated to close after the property owner announced plans to put the site up for sale.
Though Steves lives nearby, he says he only discovered the place—and the concept of a "hygiene center"—thanks to a local online newspaper article about the planned closure. "I realized, oh my goodness, there's an invisible community with an invisible center helping invisible people. And it's not right. It needs to be kept alive," he told NPR. He bought the property for $2.25 million, while community members kicked in another $400,000, which the Jean Kim Foundation, the nonprofit that runs the site, will use for upgrades and expanded services.
Steves calls the purchase money well spent but stresses that private rescues shouldn't dictate which essential services survive. "If we don't have [$2.25 million] for a whole county to give homeless people a shower and a place to get out of the rain and a place to wash their clothes, what kind of society are we?" Steves said. As one of the center's users told KING 5, "Rick Steves is a community treasure, not just for Snohomish County, but for all of Washington."
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