The Capitol Hill Alano Club (CHAC) has announced that it will be shutting down by the end of the year. CHAC has provided a safe space for members of the LGBTQ community to meet and engage in 12-step recovery programs for over 30 years. The decision is “bittersweet,” for the volunteers at CHAC, who are proud that the organization’s original mission has been fulfilled, but have a lot of sentimental attachment to the space.

“It was a painful decision for us,” said Tim Olson, CHAC’s Meetings Liason. 

“The space has been crucial for me personally getting clean and sober, and has a special place in our volunteer’s hearts.” 

While the group has set a dissolution date for the last day of the year, the interim period also serves as an opportunity for community feedback and engagement. CHAC is welcoming the community to come up with solutions to CHAC’s space issues.

“We are open to anything,” Olson said, “if benefactors opened a space, we would look at keeping things going.”

As Seattle Gay News first reported, the decision to dissolve CHAC is the result of two separate issues: 

• The organization was forced to relocate five times throughout its history. In March of last year, its newest location on E. Madison Street was hit by a fire during a burglary. Without a home, CHAC held its recovery group meetings in various locations including Seattle University and Seattle AIDS Support Group (SASG). Facing financial issues and strapped for a viable space, CHAC “has been de facto dissolved for a year now” lacking a physical location, according to Olson. After the “Staying Alive” fundraising campaign was launched to keep the organization afloat, the “uncomfortable” question was asked about whether or not the space was needed anymore. “Because we didn’t have a space, the diaspora found new homes for meetings. It was a hard question to ask, but we had to ask it,” said Olson.
• The organization re-evaluated its mission statement and decided “analysis showed that the mission of CHAC is being fulfilled” according to the release on its website. “Our mission statement is superfluous,” Olson said. “The LGBTQ community don’t require a space from CHAC anymore. Many meeting groups have found homes elsewhere. In the zeitgeist of the 80s there weren’t any safe places for us—that’s vastly different now. We’ve come so far that we don’t need our little club anymore.” According to the organization, the original mission statement is irrelevant now, as members of the LGBTQ community and members of the straight community are mixing and going through recovery together all across the city. Alcoholics Anonymous intergroups and organizations like SASG provide opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to meet freely and without fear of discrimination—making CHAC less crucial than it used to be.

  “We made what we realize was an unpopular decision, but realistically at this point, we are like a typewriter repair shop. People just don’t need us around anymore,” Olson said.