This story appears in the Environmental Works Community Design Center July 2021 Newsletter
Read the EW July Newsletter that includes the Environmental Works Interview with Chris.
Chris Szala joined Community House Mental House Agency in 1990, seeking to do meaningful work that would benefit society. At that time, Community House had one permanent supportive housing project in process – the 9-unit George B.
Today, Community House owns more than 300 units in several locations in the City of Seattle, and serves a wide range of housing and behavioral health needs. Chris spoke with us about the evolution of Community House’s work, and how its innovative development at 23rd and Jackson (designed by EW) supports the whole community’s well-being.”
To work on critical issues such as recovery, people need a place to put their head at night and not worry.
Chris Szala, CHMHA Executive Director
How has Community House evolved during your 31 years with the organization?
Community House began operating informally in 1969, when church volunteers came together to help people experiencing homelessness and mental health issues. It launched as a nonprofit in 1976, and became a licensed mental health provider in 1986.
Years ago, several of us who had been in Seattle for a while came to recognize that housing was the major thing that made a difference in the lives of the people we served. To work on critical issues such as recovery, people need a place to put their head at night and not worry. We started a big push to obtain more stable housing for people in need in ’95, when we started purchasing and leasing group homes from the private sector as the profit margin was becoming too low for them, but fit the nonprofit mode. Over time, we developed new projects on these old sites. At all times, we would keep some properties free and clear, so we could leverage our equity to buy other property and develop housing on it. Today, we have around 320 units at 12 different sites.
How did Community House’s development at 23rd and Jackson come into being?
We purchased our first property at this corner when the market dropped after the 2008 Great Recession, with this project in mind (though we weren’t 100% sure what would transpire). We held onto the property – which had an old coal chute easement over the vacant lots behind it – until we could purchase the adjacent lots as well, in order to maximize the number of units we could build.
The Board and I talked a lot about how to develop this. We wanted to create a permanent home for our offices and mental health services, and more housing for people experiencing homelessness. We could have built more housing units for homeless people on this property. However, to best serve our clients and the greater community, we prefer smaller buildings. Gigantic projects like Cabrini Green in Chicago decades ago ended up isolating their residents, to everyone’s detriment.
A more integrated community supports healthy neighborhoods, and creates a more tolerant community and attitudes about people with behavioral health issues. So we decided to build Patricia K., with 53 supportive housing units and offices; and Jackson Heights, 74 units of affordable workforce housing for households earning 60% of AMI or below. The need for affordable housing for middle-class people in our city drove us to develop Jackson Heights. Our two buildings are across the street from the Vulcan development, which is mainly 500 units of market-rate housing. We think our project adds to the whole neighborhood in a positive way.
Tell us about Community House’s innovations in recruiting residential and commercial tenants for Jackson Heights.
The Community House mission is one of social justice in broadest sense for the clients we serve. Jackson Heights provided us with an opportunity to further put some real money into social justice and equity in new ways. We developed open lines of communication with several community partners, including Africatown and the Central Area Collaborative, for recruiting and outreach to local people for tenancy and commercial ventures. We set aside about half the units in Jackson Heights for people with a historical connection to the Central District – the first time this has been done in Seattle. Africatown was instrumental in getting the word out to people who had deep historical connections to the neighborhood, but had been forced out by gentrification.
For the commercial spaces, we really wanted to lease to legacy businesses from the Central District. I recruited Catfish Corner, which had been in the neighborhood since 1985; and the Central Area Collaborative recommended A4 Apple Learning Center [a childcare program], which had also been operating in the neighborhood for years. Community House invested a large part of our development fee in tenant improvements for both: about $300,000 for the day care, and $475,000 for the restaurant. The tenants’ leases are 15 years, and we will not raise their base rent – we’re just looking to cover the mortgage cost of their space. They have an option to renew for 5-year leases after that term. They will be very secure. We believe this is how you build wealth in the Black community, or any minority community.
There was no model of this kind of collaboration anywhere else. But it could be replicated anywhere that city- or county-funded projects are developed – the International District, Beacon Hill, etc. Engage the local community, and good things can happen.
What advice do you have for organizations that want to take a similar approach with facilities they’re developing?
Organizations should think about the scope of their commitment to this kind of work, and if they have the capacity to use some of their development fee for it. It’s important to have these conversations with your board. The overall health of the community matters most, though this work definitely takes extra effort.
We are always willing to sit down and talk with people about our experiences – what worked, what didn’t, and the pitfalls in the process.
