Breaking the cycle of poverty by living, growing in community

CCS initiative focuses on helping traditionally impoverished groups move toward ownership

Staffers at the First Nations Housing & Recovery Project have much in common with the Native American residents they serve. They, too, are Native Americans, and like them, they have battled the bottle before embarking on recovery.

Monte Twin stands at the sweat lodge frame he built in the backyard of one of the houses of the First Nations Housing & Recovery Project, of which he is director. Photo: Terry McGuire

“I think all the staff has been on Skid Road, including myself,” said project director Monte Twin. “So because of that, we have a special relationship with the people that we’re working with. We’re role models for them to show that they don’t have to die on the streets.”

The relationship spawns a level of trust with residents that a non-Indian staffer would be unable to achieve on the spiritual and emotional levels, Twin said. “There’s an underlying understanding that they know that we’ve been there.”

The Catholic Community Services project provides housing, guidance and support to up to 15 men and women in two Seattle houses, separated by gender. Its overall success rate of 75 percent demonstrates its effectiveness, said Twin, who notes, “A lot of people have tried to help this specific population, and have failed.”

The two-year-old project is among CCS’ “Communities of Concern,” an initiative focused on helping urban Native American, Latino/Chicano and African American communities to break the cycle of poverty through the development of affordable housing, transformative services and asset acquisition.

Owning rather than renting
Since these communities traditionally lack leverage in their own neighborhoods because they live as renters rather than as landowners, “Communities of Concern” is designed to help them eventually build, manage and own their facilities.

CCS President Michael Reichert said the agency is not stepping back from its long-time commitment in the area of housing and related services, but is building on its past success to help “proportionately underserved communities” own and operate their own projects.

“The [CCS] role in this is to act as advocate, to be a respectful and supportive partner but to continue its own work the church’s work in direct care for communities of concern,” he said. We also want “to work with them as we make our way to the next stages of funding, to begin to see them own and manage and build their own facilities.”

“There aren’t many dioceses in the country that are as involved as we are, and that have the leadership and insight of a pastoral leader like Archbishop Brunett,” he added.  Reichert also credited the Washington State Catholic Conference for its affordable-housing advocacy, including assistance in securing a $5 million set aside for “Communities of Concern” in the Legislature this year.

A key concept of the program is building community within the facility.

Reichert recalled how the Seattle Housing Authority opened Leschi House about 25 years ago to serve Native Americans. Because it was owned by SHA rather than by an Indian organization, it failed in its original mission, he said.

“What happened was they had no particular commitment to keeping it Native or making it Native in culture,” he said. Over time, it became a predominantly Asian community after many Asians got on the waiting list, he said. The only Native American element left was a lunch program for Indian elders, who had to be bused in.

“You have to tailor the facility to the population you’re serving,” Reichert said.

Monica’s Village Place I
Although it will continue to be owned and operated by CCS and the Archdiocesan Housing Authority, Monica’s Village Place I, a 51-unit affordable housing project currently under construction in Seattle’s Central District was developed with to fulfill that vision.

Designed for African-American families making 30 to 50 percent of the area’s median household income, Monica’s Place will be connected to community resources such as health clinics, food banks and other organizations that have long served the Black community. Among other things, CCS will provide counseling services, life skills training, parenting, job preparedness and conflict resolution classes.

“They can do it themselves with our help,” said Reichert.

The key is to “meet families where they are; get them into safe, stable housing with the case management and services around them to help them cope with that transition,” said Evelyn Allen, director of the CCS/AHA Village Spirit Center for Community Change and Healing, a housing, services and community economic development initiative focused on the black community that will oversee Monica’s Village Place.

Having staffers of the same culture gives residents someone they can relate to immediately, she said. And she said the building can be designed to serve its specific population, such as with kitchen facilities and community rooms able to accommodate the family gatherings of black and Latino cultures. Health issues of particular concern among African Americans also can be targeted.

At First Nations, Twin asks his residents to focus on their recovery and on their spiritual walk of life. He advises them not to work, at least in full-time jobs, because “chasing money” only dilutes their focus. That’s why the program’s fees are set at a low $300 per month.
“In the weekly meeting I ask them, ‘Are you praying? And if you’re not, start praying or find somewhere else to live.’

“And I tell them it’s important to find their own spiritual walk, whatever that may be.”

Traditional smudge ceremonies and a sweat lodge also are available for those wishing to participate.