200 volunteers prepare Rainier House for new residents

When Nancy Parker volunteered last year to outfit a new apartment along Rainier Avenue South that would become a permanent home to a homeless stranger, she couldn't have known she'd be out of work when it came time to buy the supplies.

In December, she was among thousands of Washington Mutual employees who were told they would be laid off as a result of the bank's failure.

But Parker didn't budge from her commitment. With news of the layoff still fresh, she went holiday shopping — buying linen and dishes for her "adopted" Seattle apartment alongside the Christmas gifts she was purchasing for her family.

And on Sunday, three of her friends joined her at Rainier House to put the finishing touches on Apartment 315 — stacking dishes into cabinets, putting linen on the twin-size bed, hanging a shower curtain in the bathroom.

"They gave us a list, but I bought some extras," she said. "I thought about the things that I had in my own home, in my kitchen, and figure the new resident would appreciate that, too."

Parker and the others were among 200 volunteers — children and grandparents, men and women, most of them associated with Seattle's Plymouth Church — who showed up for a work party, preparing the 50 units at Rainier House for their occupants.

Eventually, it will be home to 50 men and women — all of them formerly homeless and diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness.

Rainier House is the Downtown Emergency Service Center's (DESC) latest residential development, a modern four-story building sprouting from a once-overgrown lot along Rainier Avenue South where the Columbia City and Hillman City neighborhoods meet.

On Sunday, the property sparkled with a certain newness. It's surrounded by fresh landscaping.

Residents will begin moving in today, and at the rate of about 10 people a week, said Nicole Macri, director of administrative services with the DESC.

"This project and the community have become engaged in a way that we never have been before," Macri said. "We've never been in such a heavily residential area or encountered such resistance."

Volunteers

From the beginning, some neighbors in Columbia City and Hillman City worried the facility would damage the progress the community has made in recent years. Scores of meetings were held — some of them in neighbors' homes.

Other residents, however, set about welcoming Rainier House, offering to volunteer with the building's residents, teaching art classes and gardening.

DESC said it runs a criminal-background check on all potential tenants before they are offered an apartment. The agency has pledged to screen out anyone convicted of a violent felony, including sex offenders.

The tenants will be in their early to mid-40s, with long histories of living in DESC shelters. Each will be required to pay 30 percent of their income as rent.

Barbara Campbell, coordinator from Plymouth Church, said all 50 apartments were adopted either by groups or individuals within the church or by Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts who also participated in Sunday's "work party."

They spent several hours Sunday making the units move-in ready.

A natural

Parker, who lives on First Hill, moved to Seattle four years ago to work at WaMu, and she regularly attends Plymouth Church. She also volunteers throughout the community. When the church invited members to adopt an apartment in Rainier House, it seemed natural.

Even after she learned she would lose her job (she was eventually laid off last month), she said, she never thought of backing out. "I figured anything that would help the homeless is a worthwhile project," she said.

"I wanted to get things I thought might make someone comfortable."

She purchased most of the supplies for the apartment while doing her Christmas shopping, and in the past few weeks asked three of her friends to join her because she thought it would be more fun.

Francesca Mabon, who lives in Parker's building, said she is always awed by her friend's generosity.

"At a time when the economy is really bad, a lot of people are losing their jobs, it's uplifting to see so many giving of their time and money," she said.

"And Nancy. She lost her job and there has to be this uncertainty. Yet in spite of that, she went above and beyond."

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com