Happy Holidays! Your Gift Saves Lives!

Dear Friend of LIHI,

We wish you and your family Happy Holidays!

We are so grateful to you for helping homeless women, men and children access shelter, housing and friendly places to shower and wash their clothes. Thank you if you have already made a year-end gift to LIHI. We appreciate you! 

For over 30 years we have developed and implemented innovative solutions to the affordable housing and homelessness crisis. Because of your support, this year we were able to offer more than 10,000 people a safe place to sleep, access to hygiene services, a path out of homelessness, and access to affordable housing. 

We are grateful to you for helping support the Urban Rest Stops, 15 tiny house villages, and over 3,500 units of rental housing. Here is just some of the work you helped us accomplish:

❖    TINY HOUSES & SHELTERS – This year we set up a new village in Seattle in Maple Leaf and added capacity to Salmon Bay Village & Safe RV Site while helping to remove 55 dilapidated RVs from city streets. We have four new villages in the works in Seattle, Tacoma, Tukwila and Spanaway. Each tiny house is insulated and heated and costs $4,500 in materials to build. This year we expanded our successful program of turning hotels into shelters with the opening of Maureen Howard Place in Lakewood and the Oasis Inn in Tacoma.  

Between villages and shelters we have 954 beds that shelter nearly 2,000 homeless people over the course of the year. LIHI case managers help clients connect with housing, education, jobs and health care. Your donation makes this all possible! 

❖    AFFORDABLE HOUSING – We had a very busy year housing hundreds of new residents in 380 new apartments.  Here are the openings we celebrated this year:

• February: 104 apartments at John Fox Place in Green Lake

• March: 58 apartments at Jean Darsie Place in Seattle’s University District

• May: 68 apartments at Aventine Apartments in downtown Bellevue

• May: 86 apartments at Good Shepherd House in Seattle’s Central Area

• October: 64 apartments at Lotus Court in Olympia 

Plus we have more housing under construction: MLK Mixed Use in the Othello neighborhood; and Patsy Surh Place in Tacoma. We believe in longterm partnerships with other organizations doing good in the community, this includes New Hope Family Housing in the Central Area in partnership with New Hope Community Development Institute. In our pipeline we continue the successful model of using sites for tiny house villages until construction begins on multifamily housing. At 125th & Aurora on the former site of Friendship Heights Village we will build 90 units of senior housing. At 45th & Roosevelt on the former site of Rosie’s Village in the U-District we are developing 150 units of workforce housing. 

❖    SHOWERS, RESTROOMS, and LAUNDRY for homeless people at Urban Rest Stops in downtown Seattle and Ballard. Sixty percent of the homeless people we serve are working part- or full-time. The Urban Rest Stops help people keep their jobs, apply for housing, and maintain their health and dignity. While the City of Seattle is the main funder of the Urban Rest Stops, we have to raise over $200,000 in private donations each year to fund operations. Your gift helps thousands of people with critically needed hygiene services.

❖    THOUSANDS OF VOLUNTEERS have donated their time and talent in 2024 to build and paint tiny houses, set up villages, help out at the Urban Rest Stops, and collect donations of warm clothing, bedding, hygiene supplies and more. Hundreds of volunteers built tiny houses at our Hope Factory while others built them in their driveways.  

❖     YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS make LIHI’s Tiny House Villages, Urban Rest Stops, and Supportive Service programs possible. These programs help us go the extra mile: a warm shower at the Urban Rest Stop can lead to a successful job or apartment interview; a tiny house can keep a family safe and warm while looking for housing and employment; LIHI case managers can help prepare our homeless neighbors for a better life. Without your donations, these programs would not be possible.

Please consider a Holiday Gift to support life-changing programs. Your donation can be designated specifically for Urban Rest Stops, Supportive Services, Tiny Houses, Affordable Housing or Greatest Need. Let us know. Mail checks to:

LIHI Fund Development 1253 S. Jackson St., Suite A, Seattle, WA 98144 or make an online donation at www.LIHI.org

Best of the season to you and Happy New Year!