Seattle’s only day center for women and children, Mary’s Place, may have to close its doors. The reasons include an apparent snafu by a city employee; an ugly impasse with its previous landlord; and the fact that its current landlord, Denny Park Lutheran Church, may sell the building where it is located.
The loss of Mary’s Place would leave Seattle without an emergency day shelter housing women and children. Most shelters and day centers (even those, like the YWCA’s downtown Angeline’s Day Center, that are aimed at homeless women) will not accept women with children because of liability issues; additionally, men are not allowed at shelters that accept homeless women with children.
For 14 years, Mary’s Place—run by the Church of Mary Magdalene—was housed in the downtown Seattle First United Methodist Church. In 2007, however, the church sold the sanctuary to developer Nitze-Stagen because it couldn’t afford to fix up the landmark building, which was also too big for its shrinking congregation. As part of the deal, Nitze-Stagen agreed to restore the building (it’s currently being used as a concert hall) and the city and King County each pledged to give the church $500,000 to provide services to the homeless.
Mary’s Place (as well as many at the city) assumed that that funding for "services to the homeless" would pay for a new shelter for the organization, board member JJ McKay says. According to both sides, the church was open to that possibility—as long as the group agreed to give up its independent 501(c)3 status and become a program of the church, something Mary’s Place was not willing to do. So, in March, McKay says, "We were told that we were not invited back, period." Instead, First United Methodist would use the money to pay for its own, 24-hour shelter and day center—this one open only to men.
In response to the church’s decision, Mary’s Place has begun asking the city and county to give Mary’s Place half the money the two governments pledged to First United Methodist. "The best-case scenario is that the city [or county] would come up with some money for us… to buy a new facility," McKay says. County council president Dow Constantine’s office says it’s unlikely that the county can come up with much of the money in its current budget crisis, and certainly not on a fast track basis; the city, similarly, is facing a budget shortfall of $72 million this year and next.
First United Methodist Church pastor Sandy Brown, a longtime advocate for the homeless, says the church wanted to run its own program as part of its mission "to be involved in the care of the community." He says the church didn’t want to have "a comfortable suburban church upstairs and a gritty homeless street ministry downstairs, and the two never interact. I wanted it to become all one ministry where people who are in fancy hats and fur coats sitting are next to people who are homeless."
The reasons the church wanted to host a shelter for men, Brown says, were twofold: First, 80 percent of the people who are homeless are men; and second, splitting the shelter into a day center for women and a night shelter for men, as they would have if the church had taken Mary’s Place over, is less than ideal. "We’re not helping them when we provide space for 12 hours and they’re homeless half the day."
Ironically, the downturn in the economy means that First United Methodist may not secure the $300,000 it needs from the city annually to operate its shelter, and so they could potentially house the Mary’s Place program now—if their relationship hadn’t turned so ugly that, according to Brown, McKay and others associated with Mary’s Place won’t return his calls. "It’s conceivable that we’ll have space available for a program starting in January of 2010, but what’s also kind of sad is that our relationship with the Church of Mary Magdalene has really soured over the last few months. We are very sad that they have not answered our request to meet with us or to meet with a mediator."
He adds, "We were surprised and shocked and hurt that our partner of 14 years would go after our funding like that. It’s just been a very painful relationship as they attempted to get our money from the city and the county."
Mary’s Place moved to Denny Park Lutheran, a couple of miles away on Dexter Avenue, a few months ago. However, the building they’re currently using is on the market, and McKay says it’s only a matter of time before the shelter will have to move.
McKay says he made that clear to the city: "We told [city human services manager Marilyn Littlejohn] that they’re trying to sell the building and we have a month-to-month lease [that's renewable] for two years. If they don’t sell the building, we have a lease. If they do, we have to get out."
However, in a letter to city council members, Littlejohn said the shelter had secured a location "for the next couple of years. Denny Park Lutheran Church voted last Tuesday to offer Mary’s Place a two year lease extension, which will be reviewed at the end of one year. … This agreement will allow Mary’s Place more time to continue its search for a larger space for its programs and services."
"We know they’re in active talks to sell the building, we told her that, and she told the council something very different," McKay says.
Although McKay believes Littlejohn (a First United Methodist congregant) intentionally misrepresented the shelter’s situation, city insiders say the error seems to be an example of wishful thinking, not intentional harm. (Littlejohn was out of the office last week and has not returned a message). At any rate, council members were relieved at the "good news," and unwittingly stopped serving as a go-between with the shelter and the church for several days—time that could have been spent trying to hammer out a compromise.
Complicating matters further, McKay says the shelter has been asked to leave by December, but Denny Park Lutheran Church pastor Douglas Lindsay says that isn’t true. "We’re studying different possibilities for it, but we haven’t sold it," Lindsay says. "That’s pretty far in the future." He notes that the shelter’s current site isn’t ideal—it’s small and requires the shelter to share space with several other groups—but adds, "we’re really happy that the space is getting used and helping people."
Despite all that, McKay sent out a letter last Wednesday saying the day center plans to close on February 26, 2010—at which point, he says, his church will start referring women to shelters elsewhere in the region or directing them to inexpensive hotels. "We have decided that with Denny Park in good faith talks [to sell its building] and [there] being little hope of funding before January, we have been given no choice."
