Tag Archives: nonprofits

500-block E Pike home to Gay City, Kaladi lined up for mixed-use development

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A new generation of Capitol Hill is experiencing its Bauhaus moment this week as word spreads about plans for a new mixed-use development destined to replace the block currently home to LGBTQ+ nonprofit Gay City and the E Pike Kaladi Brothers.

Capitol Hill-based Hunters Capital confirms its is entering into an agreement to develop the property at the corner of Belmont and E Pike into a new eight-story apartment building with street-level retail. As with most developers, a spokesperson for Hunters who confirmed the plans with CHS emphasized the long-term and said construction is still years away.

But for those who consider the 500 block of E Pike a second home, once the development clock begins ticking, it’s difficult not to worry about what the future will bring. Continue reading →

Seattle’s $15.7M COVID-19 Response Fund makes first round of grants including Africatown, Lambert House

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Powered by more than 2,000 online donors plus big time help from the likes of Bill and Melinda Gates, Macklemore, and the Seattle Seahawks, the Seattle Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund has reached $15.7 million. The effort announced its first round of grants this week.

“Over the last week, the COVID-19 Response Fund made $10.175 million in grants to community-based organizations responding to the immediate needs of vulnerable workers and families in the Puget Sound region,” the foundation said in its announcement. “The grants were made to boost groups’ capabilities to provide disproportionately impacted communities with emergency assistance, such as rent support, food security, healthcare, and childcare.” Continue reading →

Seattle moving on COVID-19 economic relief including eviction ban for small biz, nonprofits, and arts orgs

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The City of Seattle is moving forward on some key initiatives including a ban on commercial evictions to support restaurants, bars, cafes, shops, nonprofits, and arts organizations paralyzed by the social distancing measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Wednesday, Mayor Jenny Durkan is expected to sign an emergency order “prohibiting the eviction of small businesses and non-profits during the COVID-19 public health crisis,” Seattle City Council Insight reports. Among its restrictions, the order will prohibit “the eviction of a small business or nonprofit tenant for non-payment of rent or because an existing lease terminated during the civil emergency period.” A small business will be defined as a business with 50 of fewer employees “per establishment or premises.”

The move follows a similar ban on residential evictions in the city.

Tuesday, Durkan announced a $1.1 Million Arts Recovery Package to “support creative workers and arts and cultural organizations impacted by COVID-19.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Housing has eight new name ideas to bounce off you

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Capitol Hill Housing’s quest for a new name to reflect its work beyond its birth neighborhood is ready for the next phase.

Through October 14th, the nonprofit developer of affordable housing communities is collecting feedback on eight options and weighing how they reflect against the organization’s key values: Continue reading →

With its work focused well beyond 12th Ave, Broadway, and Pike/Pine, Capitol Hill Housing asks for help finding new name

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Dancers at the opening of Capitol Hill Housing’s 12th Ave Arts

CHS reported earlier this year on how Capitol Hill Housing is expanding its vision for affordability beyond its home neighborhood. With the new horizons will come a new name for the 12th Ave-headquartered nonprofit developer. CHH is now asking for a little help:

It’s time! We are ready to create a new name for our organization that better reflects our geographic reach and how we’ve grown and changed. Capitol Hill Housing (CHH) has served and worked alongside generations of low- and moderate-income folks to improve their neighborhoods since 1976. While our history is rooted in Capitol Hill, today we partner with communities across the Seattle area—from the Central District to White Center to Lake City. We envision Seattle as a place where everyone—from teachers and artists to seniors on fixed incomes to young families—can set down roots and thrive. Our mission in service to that vision is to build vibrant and engaged communities.

You can add your five ideas by September 16th here. Continue reading →

After more than 400,000 meals for those in need on Capitol Hill, Don Jensen exits Community Lunch

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Don, center, with volunteers (Image: Lucas Boyle)

In 1985, a group of local Lutheran churches banded together to provide a hot meal for low-income senior citizens of Capitol Hill. Ten people showed up for the first lunch.

On a recent rainy March day, the scene at the Central Parish House of the Central Lutheran Church looks very different. A quickly-growing crowd of over 30 people huddled under and near the awning of the entrance to the church, waiting for the doors to open at noon for a warm lunch of chicken and rice casserole.

Inside, plates clatter while a group of volunteers arranges the food, including a side of vegetable salad, buffet-style, on long tables near the back of the large, high-vaulted room. Others fold napkins and add more chairs to each table. At least 150 people are expected to come through the doors in the next hour. Continue reading →

Filmmaker takes the helm at Capitol Hill’s Northwest Film Forum

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(Image: NWFF)

Writer and filmmaker Vivian Hua will take the helm as the executive director of Capitol Hill’s Northwest Film Forum.

After she assumes the role on October 11th, Hua will be in charge of the strategic direction and creative vision of NWFF, a filmmaker’s collective founded in 1995 that uses film to “incite public dialogue and creative action through collective cinematic experiences.”

“There is no more powerful medium than film,” Hua said. “I work at the intersection of using art as a means of social change and discussion.” Continue reading →

Dear Santa, SASG needs a new home for its annual Capitol Hill holiday tree lot

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It’s a Seattle holiday tradition that dates back nearly 30 years but change in the neighborhood around 15th Ave E has the annual SASG Christmas tree lot searching for a new home on Capitol Hill.

“Community engagement and support for our local neighbors is integral to our mission at Kaiser Permanente and we’re proud to support organizations working to improve health on Capitol Hill and throughout Washington,” a statement from a company representative sent to CHS reads — but here’s the bad news: Continue reading →

‘A gift’ — first look inside Capitol Hill’s new Hugo House

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Boards from the old Hugo House — complete with the graffiti encouraged at a goodbye party before its demolition — live on in the new Hugo House

The new Hugo House will be open to the public for the first time Saturday but the staff moved in Wednesday and the space has already hosted its first event — an opening preview for the more than 300 community donors and public officials responsible for the one-of-a-kind writing center across from Cal Anderson Park.

“We’re in a time right now when words really matter,” State Representative Nicole Macri said at Monday night’s pre-opening reception in the new center.

“I’m so grateful that the state came through.”

Rep. Macri inside the new Hugo House Monday night

Continue reading →

New Capitol Hill story ready to begin at Hugo House

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A rendering of the soon to open new Hugo House

Construction of the new 9,600-square-foot Hugo House writing center at 11th and E Olive St. is fully imbued with the creative process — right down to the burning spirit that drives any author, poet, or journalist: a deadline.

“Construction always take longer than they think it will and there have been some unavoidable delays,” Hugo House executive director Tree Swenson tells CHS. “They say they’ll be ready.”

Like a publisher awaiting that final draft, Swenson is planning for Saturday, September 22nd — the planned official grand opening of the new Hugo House inside the six-story mixed-use apartment building that stands at the site the old Hugo House previously called home.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/opening-celebration-new-hugo-house/

“The celebration will be a chance for everybody to explore the whole space in a design that invites creativity,” Swenson said.

Designed by the architects at NBBJ, the new Hugo House is centered around a 150-seat auditorium but Swenson said the first thing any visitor will see from the 11th Ave entrance is the front salon with built-in writing nooks, seating areas, and a small stage. Continue reading →