New YWCA apartments a crowning achievement for one woman, a godsend for many others
Kimberly Mann remembers walking around the Tacoma neighborhood where she now lives and allowing herself to dream.
Homeless at the time, Mann asked herself: “If I could live anywhere, what would it be like?”
Then she looked toward the sky, if not literally, certainly figuratively.
From a downtown sidewalk shaded by towering condos, Mann pictured residing on a top floor, with a view of the mountains and the water. She thought about the sense of security it would bring, and the calm. She imagined closing the door behind her, the carpet under her feet and the warmth.
Like most fantasies, it seemed like a fanciful delusion. But it helped to distract Mann from the bleakness of uncertainty and desperation, she said, and the trauma of being on the street.
This week, Mann’s dream became a reality. On Monday, the 54-year-old got the keys — her keys — to a studio apartment in the newly finished $23 million YWCA Pierce County Dorothy Height Apartments affordable housing development on Broadway, a few blocks from Wright Park. On a clear day, the seventh floor view includes Mount Rainier on the horizon and Commencement Bay glistening below.
Mann survives on her monthly Social Security disability payments and had been searching for a place to live since first becoming homeless roughly five years ago. The feeling of relief and gratitude, she said, are hard to put into words.
“I really can’t deny that there’s a God,” Mann said with tears flowing. “Because how does this happen?”
For YWCA Pierce County, the possibility of divine influence is only the start. CEO Miriam Barnett said she first envisioned what became known as the Home At Last project more than a decade ago. Steering it to completion took work and persistence.
Over the years, as the YWCA worked to remake its nearby domestic violence shelter and its headquarters across the street, she always knew that building a place where the clients the agency serves could call a permanent home would be the final piece of the puzzle.
The development — which broke ground in 2019 and welcomed its first family in late February — features 54 units of low-cost housing. Seventy-five percent are reserved for individuals and families exiting homelessness, with the remainder allocated to low-income families or those with disabilities and other barriers to permanent housing. Thirty of the units are tied to Section 8 housing vouchers, Barnett said.
With the building now fully leased and new residents moving in every day, Barnett has been blown away by the impact. For new tenants — many of whom, like Mann, thought they might never find a safe place to sleep at night — having a home of their own is a life-altering event, she said.
That’s the point.
“Nothing else can happen on a healing journey until you feel safe,” Barnett said. “Everyone deserves a home, and you just can’t get on with your life if you don’t have one.”
While YWCA Pierce County’s work is synonymous with providing help to survivors of domestic violence, the new affordable housing development will serve a broader base of clients, expanding on the nonprofit’s commitment, Barnett believes. Whether someone is escaping an abusive partner or homelessness, what they need is safety, she said.
That’s why Barnett — who underwent emergency open-heart surgery three years ago and is now planning her retirement at the behest of her family — said she couldn’t leave until the project was finished. It wasn’t always easy, she acknowledged, including times when the development’s funding was threatened or the momentum felt stalled.
The experience also underscored the incredible need, Barnett said. Even after whittling down a list of initial applicants, more than 300 preliminary interviews were conducted with people desperate to find a place to live in a region with skyrocketing housing costs and too few resources. She still gets calls every day, she said, which breaks her heart.
Today, Barnett views the new building as the culmination of her 16-year career at YWCA, though she’s also quick to mention this isn’t about her.
It’s about the building’s new residents, including the children. Of the 31 units that are already occupied, more than 40 kids now have a permanent address, with more to come, Barnett said.
Danielle, who got word that she’d been accepted into the building this week and asked to be identified by first name only, said her three young daughters will soon be included in that total.
After finally ending a toxic relationship, Danielle said, she’s spent roughly a year staying with friends or in a single bedroom at her mother’s house, searching for a home where she could start building the future her daughters deserve. Sometimes, the family was forced to sleep in the car.
When she got the good news, Danielle said, she screamed and cried. Her oldest, who will soon turn 8, still hasn’t stopped smiling, she said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her as happy as she was,” Danielle said, expressing her immense gratitude to the YWCA.
“Something good was finally happening to us.”
On Thursday, Mann said she already had big plans for her new home.
Instead of dreaming what it might be like, she’s now deciding how she wants to make it her own.
“I’m really into interior design, so I’m going to make this place just look even more beautiful. But it already is,” Mann said. “I mean, it’s spectacular. I’m still in shock. I still have to pinch myself.
“I don’t ever want to move from here.”
This story was originally published April 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
