For Portia MacDonald, the Aloha Inn represented a whole new beginning.
The budding entrepreneur spent about five months at the transitional housing program located on the northeast side of Queen Anne in the former Aloha hotel on Highway 99.
The thousands of commuters who pass it by each day probably rarely notice this small, somewhat nondescript building run by the Catholic Community Services of King County. But for the past 20 years, it has been performing miracles.
More than 2,500 homeless men and women have graduated from this program and gotten new starts in the world and program administrators estimate that 75 percent of these graduates have gone on to stay off the streets and keep private housing.
At a recent 20th Anniversary celebration, MacDonald said the Aloha has made all the difference for her. During her short stint at the facility, she enrolled in the Washington CASH program, which gives micro-loans of a few hundred dollars to small business owners. Today she owns a storefront shop named LovLee Creations in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle, where she sells custom-made beaded jewelry, oils and fragrances. Her husband, Ray MacDonald, is also a graduate of the program, although the newlyweds (they married in 2010) didn’t meet through the program.
As a successful graduate, MacDonald said she is trying to give back to the program as much as she can and hopes to spend more time with the current members.
“For people who need some help, this place is excellent,” MacDonald said. “But you have to want it. Nothing here is given to you. This is a good place to work on your issues, whatever they are.”
The Aloha is a unique operation from many perspectives. The 66 people who live in the building stay for an average of eight months. During that time, they are required to find work, contribute 15 hours a week to the daily operations the facility. They also must start planning for their new life off the streets. They are required to save money; take classes; work on their personal recovery program, which may include substance abuse, alcoholism or mental health. And while all this is going on, they need to help run the Aloha.
The residents do everything from answering the phone, to maintaining security, and deciding who gets accepted and who has to leave. Once a week there is a General Assembly meeting where residents elect leaders and vote on house rules. The Aloha also offers services that help people rebuild their lives, including: housing search assistance, recovery support, vision and dental care, and mental health counseling. Staff members assist residents in creating resumes, submitting housing applications, and preparing budgets. The idea is for residents to work, save their money, and find an apartment or house to call home. There are even lawyers who will help residents with legal issues that they may not understand.
“Residents here have a lot of authority to run this facility,” said Dan Wise, division director for Catholic Community Services. “There is an executive committee that mediates disputes and a screen committee that interviews applicants for the program and makes sure they are saving money and contributing to the facility.”
Wise, who has been working at the facility for 12 years, said there are times when members have their differences, but they all really care about helping each other succeed.
“The community aspect of this place is really amazing,” Wise said.
Despite its successes, the idea of resident management of the facility was not popular when it was launched 20 years ago.
According to Catholic Community Services, the Seattle Housing and Resources Effort, SHARE, organized a tent city to provide safe shelter for homeless men and women. In just a few weeks there were over 150 people democratically running a tent city on the vacant lot where the new baseball stadium is now. The Tent City residents were eventually allowed to move into the former Metro Bus Barn in lower Queen Anne. As that shelter was scheduled to close, the vacant Aloha Inn Motor Hotel was chosen as the site to develop transitional housing for the people of the Bus Barn. Catholic Community Services, the Low Income Housing Institute, SHARE, and the City of Seattle came together to negotiate the program.
In the early days of the Aloha, there was strong opposition from some residents of the Queen Anne neighborhood. Over time, the Aloha Inn demonstrated to the Queen Anne community that homeless people could be good neighbors. The residents took direct responsibility for the building and the surrounding property. Today resident management is a nationally recognized model for shelters and housing, and the Queen Anne neighborhood recognizes the Aloha Inn as an asset to the community.
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