(Image: Lavender Rights Project)

Ebo Barton outside the soon-to-open supportive housing location alongside Jaelynn Scott of LRP (Image: Lavender Rights Project)

The Lavender Rights Project and Chief Seattle Club are ready to open a permanent supportive housing location — which will provide safety, resources and shelter to Transgender and Gender Diverse People of Color — in Capitol Hill in early 2024. The two organizations will collaborate to operate and maintain the just off Broadway apartment building.

This permanent supportive housing location is part of the county’s Health Through Housing Initiative, which seeks to address the housing crisis and to assist those at risk for experiencing chronic homelessness through repurposing existing buildings in the region.

But the Lavender Rights Project hopes to do even more to grow community around the 35-unit building near Broadway Hill Park.

“We’re working with a number of organizations within the LGBTQ community, but also within the trusted Black community to provide services that are centered for Black, Gender-Diverse individuals,” Ebo Barton, director for housing services at LRP, told CHS.

With Chief Seattle Club for support, LRP focuses on elevating the power, autonomy, and leadership of the Black and Gender Diverse community. CSC will be in charge of the building and its property, including maintenance, while LRP’s work will focus on ways to care for the residents.

The location was originally built as an apartment building, and must undergo renovations—which are still in the works—to turn it into a qualified permanent supportive housing building. Ebo told CHS that the organizations plan to welcome residents during the early part of 2024.

LRP is conducting community outreach, and events that they may go to may have clients seeking shelter and safety. According to Ebo, the sign-up form for community members seeking shelter has almost already been filled.

Ebo expects most incoming residents to be single adults, since the location offers studio apartments. To provide residents with dignity and privacy, Ebo said the units will each have their own private bathrooms; washers and dryers; and the kitchens will include full-sized refrigerators, electric stoves, and microwaves.

The Health Through Housing team told CHS that the Capitol Hill location is a four-story building with 11 different plan types consisting of small efficiency dwelling units ranging from 279 to 314 square feet, and a one-bedroom unit with 388 square feet. A number of supportive housing locations and shelters for those experiencing homelessness do not allow pets—creating additional barriers—but for this location, the majority of domesticated pets will be accepted.

“In all of our different communities, animals become our families,” Barton said. “That’s a discussion that we had seriously as a staff.”

According to the Health Through Housing team, standard practice for permanent supportive housing locations consists of residents contributing 30 percent of their household income towards rent, and these rental payments will assist with supporting program operations.

“Residents are encouraged to keep housing operators apprised of any change in income so that their rent can be adjusted accordingly. Some housing operators do elect to charge very limited fees for late rent payment under the terms of their lease, though others may not—this is based on the unique organizational policies and procedures of each agency,” the team said.

As CHS has previously reported, the county and the City of Seattle redirected $16 million in funding from the jail during 2021 to go towards community-based health and housing programs, with a total of $6 million of that funding being used for the purchase of the Capitol Hill location.

The location will use QueerDoc, a telehealth provider which has a large portion of MDs on staff that identify as Transgender, to provide healthcare services to residents in a gender affirming way. The location will work with Lifelong for STI and STD testing, Barton said.

LRP is also working with Pink Moon Farm, a Transgender-owned farm in Carnation, to obtain community supported agriculture boxes to share with incoming residents for fresh produce.

A job series will also be available to the future residents, which will acknowledge the trauma that individuals experience in the workplace from being Transgender or Black. The job series will consist of resume building, interviewing skills, and job fairs with employers there in person, ready to hire.

“It does take people a long time to get acclimated to their environment, or acclimated to their neighbors even, or even to the location itself,” Barton told CHS. “None of our programs are required to be living there, but we are going to encourage folks to be part of the Tenant’s Council, in which they’ll receive more information about many of the programs that are available to them, as well as having an actual voice in the way in which the building operates in regards to what services are being provided, what are policies and procedures, and how they best meet the needs of the folks living there.”

In order for the location to be successful and beneficial for all, Barton believes that it is crucial to have close relationships with the tenants. Barton will act as the director of the facility, and there will be a program’s manager who works with the tenants, an in-house community counselor that collaborates with tenants to address mental health needs and crisis situations, as well as a “House Mother,” who will take care of tenants as whole individuals.

Throughout the process of setting up and planning for this permanent supportive housing location, Barton learned that individuals across the country have been hearing about the facility and wish to come there because there is nothing like this elsewhere in the country. Barton said he’s heard directly from individuals in the south, as well as Portland.

“It is really interesting, but it also shows something like this is necessary, probably in every major city and to be honest with you, in every city period. Not just major cities, because there are some of us living in rural areas that are just not safe and need that special home,” Barton told CHS.

Barton finds it exciting that LRP is able to provide individuals currently experiencing homelessness, and individuals who are at risk for chronic homelessness, with stable housing. Barton said this unique supportive housing location sparks the discussion of what is needed and necessary for Black Transgender and Gender Diverse communities to feel safe and get their very basic needs met.

Going forward, the Health Through Housing team told CHS that this Capitol Hill location will be a crucial affordable housing resource, as well as a permanent part of the county’s regional response to the “homelessness crisis.” King County serves as the initial owner of all Health Through Housing properties and has no plans to transfer ownership until 2028. From then, the County may elect to back out of being an owner of affordable housing locations and may transfer ownership to a nonprofit, city, or state government.

The Health Through Housing team said this Capitol Hill location signals their commitment to addressing chronic homelessness, while pairing housing with wraparound services that cater to racial-ethnic and gender-diverse communities, which are disproportionately impacted and at risk for experiencing homelessness.

“Chronic homelessness exhibits stark racial-ethnic disproportionality. Black and Indigenous members of our community are five times overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness,” the team says about the project. “This racial-ethnic disproportionality is especially pronounced for Queer, Trans, and Two Spirit People of Color and why we are working to address this disparity directly with Lavender Rights Project and Chief Seattle Club.”

In such a polarized political climate, where individuals cannot be themselves due to fear and threats of violence, rates of individuals experiencing homelessness are likely worse than reported, Barton said.

“The data that we receive as Trans folks is likely incorrect and probably higher, because folks are not being honest about who they are, because we haven’t created a society where it’s okay to say so,” Barton said.

Barton said Trans youth have disproportionately been impacted when it comes to obtaining and remaining in stable housing, and that it’s relieving in one sense that these resources are being brought forth, yet heartbreaking that it has taken so long for individuals to recognize the housing challenges that Transgender and Gender Diverse BIPOC have experienced for decades.

In addition to this Capitol Hill Health Through Housing Location, the city has been working to assist LGBTQIA+ seniors (ages 55+) with obtaining housing through the Community Roots-developed Pride Place—located at 1515 E Broadway. Construction has just been completed on this project creating “affordable, affirming housing for LGBTQIA+ seniors,” and the certificate of occupancy is expected by September 5th. The Health Through Housing team told CHS that 32 tenants are approved to move in by the end of next week.

A new rainbow landmark on Capitol Hill, application process begins for Pride Place ‘affordable, affirming housing for LGBTQIA+ seniors’

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