It's been a hectic time for the Jubilee Women's Center, a Capitol Hill women's shelter that provides long-term, supportive housing for women making the transition from homelessness and unemployment to permanent housing and a steady job. The center- long housed in a former convent next door to St. Joseph Catholic Church on 18th Avenue East-will undergo this month a much-needed renovation that currently has staff moving into a temporary headquarters.
"We're at the very tail-end of a $5-million capital and endowment campaign," said Andrea Johnson, Jubilee's development director, adding that the project signals a pair of first-evers: it's the non-profit's first large-scale fundraising effort, and it's the first time the building-nearly a half-century old-has had any sort of serious rehaul. "The building... has never received a major upgrade," Johnson explained. "In order for Jubilee to continue serving women, we really need to make sure that the building is able to be occupied for the next 50 years."
Jubilee is not a shelter, Johnson stressed:
"We're really that critical piece in between a shelter and permanent housing." Women can stay at Jubilee for up to two years, she added, paying rent of anywhere between $200 and $250; while there, they also must have a job, be partaking of community service or be enrolled in school.
Johnson said the two-year window "really gives them the time to transition into permanent housing, and to work on several goals and objectives to figure out their situation," she added. "We take a positive approach to ending homelessness, which I think is one of the primary reasons we've been so successful with our residents."
Renovating the facility, which could take anywhere from six to nine months, will serve several purposes. First, the safety and longevity of the building will be ensured by earthquake retrofitting as well as improvements to such basics as plumbing and the roof.
"There's a lot of areas that will benefit," Johnson said. "The women will have a safer, more secure building, and it'll be a more dignified space."
The nearly 13,000-square-foot building will also be restructured, upping the capacity from 20 to 27 residential rooms. Previously, Jubilee housed up to seven additional women in another property leased by the organization; that house, however, is being sold, and in order to maintain current levels of service, some spatial reconfig-uration in the main facility was necessary. The kitchen will be remodeled, as well. Now "the women can cook together," Johnson said, pointing out that such activities help foster a sense of belonging. "That encourages a stronger sense of community."
Jubilee's capital campaign was conceived when the Archdiocese of Seattle, which owns the organization's main building, extended the center's lease for another 50 years. That sparked a fundraising campaign anchored by a pair of substantial donations: one from the city for $1.65 million, and another from King County for $123,000. A donation of $400,000 by the Fortune Family Foundation covered the administrative costs of running the campaign.
The largest private donation came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for half a million dollars, though Johnson pointed out that without the support of the surrounding community, the upgrade wouldn't have been possible. "They really have rallied behind this program," she said. "We've had everything from donations of $5 to $250,000." Johnson added that St. Joseph's next door provided "an incredible amount of support," as did the Capitol Hill community as a whole. "It's a real testament to the community that we're able to complete this campaign," she said.
Beyond the material benefits derived from this large-scale capital campaign, Johnson said the organization's recent fundraising efforts have had a positive effect on public perception of what Jubilee does. "I think also the overall awareness of the problem of homelessness has increased just by this campaign," she said. "We'll emerge a stronger and more stable long-term supportive housing program for women."
That's important, Johnson explained, because Jubilee provides an essential way station and stopping-off point in women's transition from homelessness to fully socialized and productive members of the community. "This is a critical piece of transitional housing," she said, adding that the "link" is maintained and improved by this $5-million renovation, which goes a long way toward preserving Jubilee for the next half century.
And, because Jubilee is away from what Johnson called "the traffic shelter downtown"-and all the pitfalls and obstacles that might offer to women trying to recover their lives-the new digs will provide the more intangible element of belonging, of being a productive part of a greater community. "It's an amazing place for a woman to stabilize and really get back up on her feet," Johnson said.
For more information or to contact Jubilee (620 18th Ave. E.), call (206) 324-1244, send an email to info@jwcenter.org or visit the Web site at www.jwcenter.org.
Pacific Publishing Inc. associate editor Rick Levin can be reached at editor@capitolhilltimes.com.
