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Our top priority is keeping our residents and employees safe and healthy. We’ve taken the following steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Due to these precautions, we may have delays in responding to leasing inquiries and non-emergency maintenance requests.​ Cleaning 2x at all our buildings, focusing on high-touch surfaces Cleaning 3x a day at our buildings that serve seniors and others at higher risk (Meridian Manor, Security House, First & Vine, Tate Mason, & Genesee) Prioritizing cleaning over other operations including unit turns, unit inspections and work orders Using phone and email as preferred methods to communicate with residents Closing our administrative offices Employees who can work remotely are doing so. We will continue to monitor the situation and adjust our response accordingly.

Effective today, Bellwether Housing is closing our administrative offices in Capital Hill and South Lake Union to prevent the spread of corona virus. Employees who can work remotely are doing so.

Yesterday, The City of Seattle Office of Housing announced a $110M investment in affordable housing, its largest investment in affordable housing to date. We are thrilled that two Bellwether Housing projects were awarded funding: Rose St II and Madison/Boylston. Rose St II is our 186-apartment family-focused development in Rainier Beach, with onsite affordable child-care, community spaces, and office space for Muslim Housing Services. Madison / Boylston is a partnership with Plymouth Housing, will be home to 368 apartments - 112 for formerly homeless seniors and 256 for low-income households. We received the land for this development at no cost from Sound Transit. We're proud of these projects and grateful for the support of our funders and investors!

2018 was a year of celebration and growth for Bellwether Housing. We accomplished a lot and laid the foundation for our next phase of growth. In 2018, we celebrated: Opening two new buildings Restoring 157 homes Teeing up development of 750 new homes Community events with over 1200 attendees We served: 3,497 residents 20% of new residents moved in from homelessness 32 buildings from Rainier Beach to Northgate For a more details about what we accomplished in 2018, read our full impact report. Read the full 2018 Impact Report!

Augustin “Gus” Lee, moved to Seattle in 1980, the same year Bellwether Housing was founded. At age 17, Gus enlisted in the military. While serving overseas, he developed a drug addiction. Once in Seattle, Gus struggled to stay housed. He stayed in shelters; he slept outside. For a while, he lived in a tent village. Gus moved with the village nine times, at one point to University Christian Church’s parking lot in the U-District, the same site that was later sold to Bellwether and developed into The Arbora Court Apartments. In 2017, Gus graduated from a recovery program. “I was through,” he said. “[Drugs] took my life away from me. Now I’m getting it back.” At the same time, Bellwether was restoring the historic Cambridge Apartments with The RAFN Co. and SMR Architects. Bellwether improved the 157-unit building’s seismic safety, energy efficiency, and accessibility. After completing his recovery program, Gus discovered he was eligible for VA benefits and a housing voucher. Gus had four months to find an apartment and use the voucher. Bellwether completed the Cambridge renovation in late 2018. Natural light now floods the refreshed lobby and new resident lounge. Every apartment received new carpet, cabinets and appliances. “It was a touching moment when the manager handed me the keys,” he said. “I am really, really thankful and blessed.” -Gus Lee, Cambridge Resident In December 2018, Gus was ready for The Cambridge, and The Cambridge was ready for Gus. Bellwether quickly processed Gus’s application and waived past debt criteria. With two years of sobriety under his belt, Gus signed his lease. “It was a touching moment when the manager handed me the keys,” he said. “I am really, really thankful and blessed.” Today, Gus’s focus is maintaining his sobriety – he says it’s easier with time and a stable home. Today, he’s helping others recover, saving money, and dancing to disco music. ‘When people see me dancing, they ask, “How old is this guy?” Some people tell me, “He’s still got it after all these years.”’ When asked about his apartment at The Cambridge, Gus replies, “I love it. I really do.”

Today, Amazon announced that it will match donations made by its employees to 20 nonprofits, including Bellwether Housing. Through September 30, Amazon will match up to $5 million gifted by its employees. Amazon selected nonprofits doing meaningful work to address housing and homelessness in its two headquarter regions, Seattle and Arlington, VA. The announcement comes at an apt time for Bellwether as we launch our Building Opportunity Campaign to raise $9 million to building 750 new homes in the Seattle area by 2022. You can read more about this program here. You can donate or invest here. Both donations and impact investments from Amazonians are eligible for this match.

Arbora Court, Bellwether's 133-apartment building in the U-District, received an Award of Merit in the Best Affordable Housing Community category at PCBC's Gold Nugget Awards on May 31. The award honors Weber Thompson, the architect, Walsh Construction, the general contractor, and Bellwether Housing as the developer and owner. Arbora Court opened in May 2018. Today many families, including 40 who were experiencing homelessness prior to moving in, call the building home. Arbora Court has many features catered to families including 53 two and three bedroom apartments, an enclosed outdoor courtyard and playground, a community room and kitchen, and top-floor roof deck with views of Olympics.

A girl glances away from her laptop’s screen just long enough to see what level her friend seated next to her has made it to. Another girl dances in her seat to pop music playing out of her laptop. A boy across the table leans away from his computer, throws his arms up in the air, and shouts, “Yes! I beat the game!” Based on their enthusiastic reactions and intense focus, you might think these kids are playing video games. But this group of 12 third through sixth graders is gathered in Arbora Court’s community room not to play games but to create them by learning to code. These young residents are participating in a Coding with Kids class sponsored by Amazon’s Future Engineer program. In the six-week course, students are learning fundamental coding skills in hands-on classes taught by instructors from Coding with Kids, a Redmond based organization that brings coding education to schools and communities. Support from Amazon’s Future Engineer program made it possible for 12 kids at Arbora Court to participate in the onsite afterschool class for free. Every few minutes throughout the session, a different pop song rings out from a computer as students use code to choreograph dance moves for the moose, sharks, dogs, and robots on their screens. Linus, one of the Coding with Kids instructors, explains that the students have advanced from moving their characters up and down on the screen to looping dancing moves. “I’m making the character dance,” explains Nayele, age nine, as she adjusts blocks of code to make the dog on her screen do different steps. Across the room, eleven year-old Marcel jumps out of his chair and does the same moves as the moose on his screen, whose dance steps he coded. These young Arbora Court residents and the staff who support them are thinking about how coding can help them do more than just advance to the next level in the dance game. Liliana, age nine, thinks coding could help her in all kinds of careers. “If I was a teacher, I could code to help my students learn,” says Liliana, giving an example. “I like coding because I can do all sorts of things with it,” says Ethan, age thirteen, who adds that he would take more coding classes if they were available to him in school. “The most valuable aspect is that the class offers the students some basic coding skills and knowledge that is fun, creative, and can lead to a future career that pays well,” said Nefertari I, a Housing Stability Specialist with Wellspring Family Services, who works with families at Arbora Court. As the class session winds down, instructors Gabe and Linus have to warn students, “Two more minutes, then it’s time to shut down your computers.” Fingers continue to fly across keyboards. Heads bob back and forth to the beat of the music. Hands waive in the air with questions for the teachers. Finally, at a couple minutes past the hour, laptop screens close and the students skip out of the room, one step closer to potential careers in computer science.

“I normally would have fruits and vegetables the first few weeks of the month, but by the end of the month, I didn’t have the resources to get more,” said Theresa, a Bellwether Housing resident. Things changed for Theresa last November when she began to receive Fresh Bucks Vouchers in the mail. The Fresh Bucks Vouchers allowed Theresa to go buy fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables at farmers markets, Safeway stores, and some neighborhood grocers around Seattle. She and the vast majority of other Bellwether resident households received $60 in Fresh Bucks Vouchers monthly from November 2018 to February 2019. Bellwether’s Resident Services Coordination staff helped ensure that all eligible Bellwether households received vouchers. Altogether over those four months, Bellwether residents received $477,600 for purchasing fruits and vegetables. The vouchers compliment the of the City of Seattle’s seven year-old Fresh Bucks Match program, which matches SNAP recipients’ food stamps dollar-for-dollar at farmers markets with Fresh Bucks for purchasing fruits and vegetables. The voucher portion of the program debuted in 2018 as a result of revenue from the City’s Sweetened Beverage Tax. “Many of our residents, especially our older residents and large families, rely on local food banks and meal delivery services every month,” explains Elliot Swanson, Bellwether’s Resident Services Manager. “The Fresh Bucks program made it much easier for our residents to get nutritious food without having to visit multiple food banks or worry about spending more they can afford at the grocery store.” Deanna, a Bellwether resident, couldn’t afford to buy many fresh fruits and vegetables prior to receiving Fresh Bucks. She estimates that her typically monthly food budget is $132. “I’d been living sparsely due to spending most of my income on medical bills,” Deanna said. Receiving $60 for fruits and vegetables completely changed what Deanna could cook and eat. “It was a delight to have such a variety of things. I made kimchi, fermented vegetables, and chutney. I loved the smell of fresh vegetables in my home,” Deanna said, noting that before receiving Fresh Bucks she never thought she would make her signature chutney recipe again. For Theresa, the vouchers not only helped her afford fruits and vegetables throughout the month, but they allowed her to buy some of her favorite fruits like grapes, avocados, and Honey Crisp apples that she typically forgoes due to their higher price tags. Both Theresa and Deanna noted benefits of receiving the Fresh Bucks Vouchers beyond simply what foods they could buy and eat. “I have felt better since having Fresh Bucks. I’ve gone through some pretty devastating things, and by having fresh fruits and vegetables, I was more up to the task of handling them,” Deanna said. For Theresa, Fresh Bucks made it easier to afford other essentials. “Seattle is an expensive city to live in, so for people like me without much wiggle room [in our budgets], $60 a month for food takes the pressure off and frees up money for other things,” Theresa said. After the four-month trial for the Fresh Bucks Vouchers, Seattle opened an online lottery in early March for 2,000 households to receive $40 a month in vouchers for produce. Both Deanna and Theresa applied. Theresa was placed on the waitlist, and Deanna was awaiting word about whether or not she’d keep receiving vouchers at the time of publishing this article. Both residents would love to see the City make the program available to more than 2,000 Seattleites in the future since they believe it offers a tremendous benefit to lower income households. “Receiving Fresh Bucks was such an unexpected treat. It was like, “Someone cares.” It was really nurturing and special,” Deanna said. Updated 3/26/19: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that 2,500 households would receive Fresh Bucks Vouchers through a City of Seattle lottery. The previous version also incorrectly stated that these households will receive $60 per month. They will receive $40 per month in Fresh Bucks Vouchers. #FreshBucks #Hunger #FoodInsecurity #ResidentServicesCoordinator #AffordableHousing #Seattle

On February 28th, Catherine, a resident at Bellwether’s Security House Apartments, joined a group of Bellwether Housing staff and board members at Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day 2019. Organized by the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, Advocacy Day brought 700 people from around Washington State together in Olympia to ask their representatives to prioritize solutions to the affordable housing and homelessness crises this legislative session. This year’s legislative priorities include securing $600 million for affordable homes, enacting eviction reform, and expanding the Housing and Essential Needs voucher program. We sat down with Catherine shortly after Advocacy Day to hear about her experience and why she was motivated to become an advocate. Bellwether: In a few words tell us how Housing and Homeless Advocacy Day was for you? Catherine: It was awesome! I had never been on the Capitol grounds before, so I was excited to be down there and see what it was like. B: Before we hear more about Advocacy Day, please tell us a little bit about yourself. C: I have lived at Security House for 12 years, and I’ve lived in the Belltown neighborhood for 22 years. I stay active in the community through two intensive volunteer jobs. I volunteer for Bloodworks Northwest as a donor register and monitor. I volunteer for Providence Mt. St. Vincent’s “No One Dies Alone” team, so sitting with people who are in hospice. I also work with patients who are in the transitional care unit after operations like hip replacements at Providence. I love to read and am currently studying Buddhism and meditation, which I got into by attending weekly meditation sessions at the Frye Art Museum. B: How did you decide to attend Advocacy Day? What motivated you to go? C: One day I was having a conversation with my building manager, Taylor, and we got to talking about Microsoft’s recent big investment into affordable housing in our area. Then Taylor said, “You know, you might be interested in attending Housing Advocacy Day.” She went to her computer and printed off a flyer. I looked at the flyer, and I thought about how I’ve appreciated having my stable apartment for so long, so now is the time to advocate for housing. I’ve done advocacy for other issues before, but never housing. Housing always seemed so complicated to me, but I stepped outside that concern and tried to educate myself about what’s going on. B: A key part of Advocacy Day is constituents meeting with their districts’ representatives. Did you speak at any of your legislative meetings, and if so, what did you say? C: I did speak at one meeting. The Housing Alliance’s agenda is all about enabling communities to build safe, healthy, affordable homes, so I said what a safe, healthy, affordable home has meant to me and what makes my building safe: having a level-headed manager, a good, trusted, reliable maintenance staff, and a nice community room where I can socialize with my neighbors. B: What were a few things you enjoyed about attending Advocacy Day? C: One thing I enjoyed was seeing people I knew down there. That helped me feel a sense of support for my own story and ideas. I loved meeting people and working together to try to accomplish something through the legislative process. I was learning from other members of my legislative district. The Chief Seattle Club was in my legislative district, so they were talking a lot about housing or lack of housing among native populations and historic trauma. B: What’s one thing from Advocacy Day that will stick with you? C: There were a few phrases that I learned at Housing Advocacy Day that I thought were interesting. One was, “We are looking for a robust response”. I really like that phrase, having a robust response, because this is a housing crisis. Seattle has changed rapidly. The income levels have risen dramatically for some people, but you’ve got the other side, income levels that have not risen or stayed flat. At the same time, housing prices have risen so high, and now our neighbors are out on the sidewalk without an apartment, or have moved to other states, or are sharing housing with people who may not be the best solution for them. Action is needed now. We have plans. It’s time to do something. B: Describe the impact you think having 700 housing advocates at the Capitol on the same day made. C: For us to all be walking around in red scarves, we were the reminder that while all this other big stuff is going on, housing is a critical issue and we’re still here. Definitely we were seen. We had a rally on the steps. We were seen. We were heard. I felt valued. My perspective felt valued. Learn more about housing policy and funding at the state level and how you can get involved in housing advocacy from our partners at the Housing Alliance. Learn more about advocating for affordable housing in Seattle and King County here. #advocacy #WashingtonLegislature #legislation #residentstory #Seattle #homelessness

Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington has recognized Rafn Company with a merit award for their work as the general contractor on Bellwether's Anchor Flats Apartments. Built on a steeply sloping site in South Lake Union, Anchor Flats features a roof deck, large community room, and live-work units along Dexter Avenue. Anchor Flats opened in June 2018. Runberg Architecture Group designed Anchor Flats and Michael Nouwens Consultants served as the engineer.

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington (ABC) awarded The Cambridge Apartments the Eagle of Excellence Award and the Excellence in Construction Award in the Historical Restoration/Renovation $10- $25 million category. The Eagle of Excellence Award is the highest honor ABC offers. The award recognizes four pillars of distinction: excellence, design, integrity, and safety. The Puget Sound Business Journal featured the win. For more than two years, Rafn Company served as the general contractor for the major renovation of Bellwether Housing’s historic Cambridge Apartments on First Hill. Rafn, alongside SMR Architects and I.L. Gross Structural Engineers, made seismic and life safety upgrades, restored a historic lobby and radio room, and brought the building up to the Evergreen Sustainable Development Standard. All 157 apartments received new carpet, cabinets, windows, and energy efficient appliances. Rafn renovated several apartments to be accessible to people who use wheelchairs or have other physical disabilities. Rafn also received the ABC Excellence in Construction Award in recognition of their work on The Cambridge restoration. ABC commended Rafn for minimizing impacts to the nearly one-third of Cambridge tenants who lived in the building throughout the renovation. After this award winning restoration, The Cambridge will continue to provide safe, comfortable, and affordable homes near downtown to its 100th anniversary in 2023 and beyond.