The Blaine Center is a 30-bed men’s shelter nestled beneath the First Church parking garage on Warren and Denny. The shelter is run in partnership with Compass Housing Alliance. Please contact Compass Housing Alliance for shelter information and admissions: 206-474-1000.
More Than A Place to Sleep
Blending compassion and caring with effective programs and unique services, the people and programs at each of Compass Housing Alliance’s locations promote dignity, self esteem, and respect for self and others. One-on-one case management identifies the issues that led to an individual’s lack of housing and helps each person set their own own goals.
Life on the streets is a difficult, frightening and lonely experience. Compass Housing Alliance Shelter and Day Services are designed to help those in crisis work toward increased stability, independence and healthy community life. These services work with homeless individuals on their immediate needs, offering a place to take a shower, sleep for the night, have their mail sent, and have access to banking services. The shelter and day services are the first step for many clients towards recovery.
The Blaine Center provides temporary overnight shelter for sixty men, including case management, shelter, meals, and storage.
Population Served
The need for shelter is great–estimates of King County’s homeless population in 2019 put the number at 11,199 people. In spite of a robust system for providing emergency shelter in our area, the 2019 King County One Night Count documented 5,228 unsheltered men, women, and children spending the night on park benches, in parking garages, vehicles, doorways, alleys, and under roadways.
The number of homeless men and women in our area points to chronic and complex societal issues. For instance, nowhere in the United States does the federal minimum wage allow a working family enough financial resources to afford a fair market two-bedroom apartment.
The Blaine Center serves single, homeless men who are 18 and older. The shelter is on a harm-reduction model.
Many come to Compass Housing Alliance while navigating multiple issues including domestic abuse, mental illness, drug/alcohol dependence, poor employment histories, undeveloped employment skills, child custody or other legal issues, and poor or incomplete rental histories. Some of the clients who access the emergency services are non-sheltered, sleeping on the streets, in parks, under bridges, and without access to meals or hygiene facilities.
Most individuals have no income or very low incomes. Those served by our case management and shelter program have incomes below $7500/year. Client data indicate that 40% of the men served by Compass Housing Alliance are Veterans.
About Compass Housing Alliance
One of the premier providers of shelter in King County, Compass Housing Alliance programs in our area include:
- Shelter and day services,
- Short-term transitional housing,
- Long-term housing,
- Veterans housing,
- Family Program,
- The Church of Steadfast Love (a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
Compass Housing Alliance was founded in 1920 when a remarkable couple from Sweden began a little mission in Seattle – part chapel, part employment agency, part reading room, part language school, part soup kitchen, part crash-pad for the stranded. In some ways, Compass Housing Alliance would be almost unrecognizable to them today. But the faith of Reverend and Mrs. Alva Karlstrom was so expansive that they might not be surprised to know how many thousands of people their “Lutheran Compass Mission” would help over the years.
Blending compassion and caring with effective programs and unique services, the people and programs at each of Compass Housing Alliance’s locations promote dignity, self esteem, and respect for self and others.
Contact the Blaine Center for more information.