Sacred Medicine House: A new place to call home for homeless Indigenous people

Friday was the grand opening of the Sacred Medicine House, a project spearheaded by the Chief Seattle Club, a non-profit organization supporting Urban Native and Indigenous Community members.

Sacred Medicine House is a five story, 120-bed building on Lake City Way Northeast in Seattle’s Lake City neighborhood. It will be for residents who residents who earn less than 50% of the area median income, the Puget Sound Business Journal noted.

It’s complete with around-the-clock culturally focused support for residents. The web page for facility states that the facility will provide “ground floor space for supportive and therapeutic activities.” The apartments will live on the other floors.

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The development not only offers permanent housing for its members struggling with homelessness, and/or substance abuse, there is also around-the-clock, culturally sensitive support to help them navigate any issues they may have.

Chief Seattle Club estimates there are more than 1,000 Indigenous people experiencing homelessness in King County.

“We’re going to open another building like this every year for the next five to six years and we’re going to bring that (homeless) number to zero,” Chief Seattle Club Executive Director Derrick Belgarde said.

Urban indigenous people who make up an estimated 15% of the homeless population in the community but represent just 1% of the population, according to a 2020 news release from the Washington State Department of Commerce.

This is Chief Seattle Club’s fourth permanent housing development and more are in the planning stages.

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Funding from multiple sources both public and private made this project possible. That includes $12.3 million coming from the Seattle Office of Housing and $3 million from the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Housing Trust Fund, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported. King County also contributed to the project.

“When you help in this work everyone wins. Even if they don’t see the affects of it immediately, that when we have a healthy, productive community here, we all win,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said at the event Friday.

The goal is to not only provide a safe place to live, but to provide a place to gather and pray and be part of a community where support is easily accessible.

“We’re not here to lower the Native homelessness rate. We’re not here to make mere progress. We’re here to end chronic, single adult Native Homelessness forever in this region,” Belgarde said.

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