SEATTLE — Dagmawi Haile-Leul left the King County Jail on foot, carrying his belongings in a plastic bag, making an attempt to maintain his authorized paperwork from getting soaked within the October rain.
He was launched later within the day than anticipated and by the point he arrived at Africatown Group Land Belief’s Benu Group House — the one shelter in Seattle centered on serving Black males — he was too late to verify in.
So, he stayed up all evening, strolling round Seattle’s downtown, hoping to keep away from bother that would ship him again to jail. He hid out within the nook of a Starbucks within the early morning till he made the trek up First Hill, again to the Central District shelter.
When Haile-Leul arrived, worn out and moist, he mentioned he may inform from the welcoming music enjoying and the employees member who smiled at him when he crossed by way of the entrance door that this was a spot that wouldn’t decide him.
“They made me feel secure, really,” Haile-Leul mentioned. “They wanted to know authentically what I was experiencing in a way that made me feel like I no longer needed to have my defenses up.”
Now, as a employees member at Benu, Haile-Leul is offering that very same help to others. He is aware of firsthand what a distinction having folks in his nook made when he was making an attempt to exit homelessness.
In its first two years in operation, Benu sheltered 256 males, of whom 71 p.c recognized as Black.
Benu is exclusive not solely in specializing in a inhabitants that’s disproportionately impacted by homelessness, but in addition in that it’s run by a corporation with few tentacles within the homelessness companies system.
“We’re just getting started,” mentioned Ashé Ricketts, this system assistant at Benu.
Practically three years in the past, Africatown Group Land Belief launched its first and solely shelter, and residents and employees say that by way of swift studying and evolution they’ve been capable of meaningfully serve their company — a few of whom grew up in Seattle’s Central District neighborhood. About 37 p.c, of Benu company have transitioned into secure housing from the shelter and 123 have been related to a job, in keeping with a two-year impression report launched earlier this 12 months. Its 125 beds stay full or close to capability more often than not, in keeping with Clenna Brooks-Pope, Benu’s program supervisor.
“We kind of push for all of them to have the same success rate and obtain that permanent housing or transitional housing or whatever fits their situation best,” Brooks-Pope mentioned.
There’s a bulletin board on one ground of the shelter that includes cutout images of grinning males who have been lately housed.
Africatown Group Land Belief is thought for its work to amass and develop inexpensive housing and neighborhood areas within the traditionally Black Central District in an effort to battle gentrification and honor Seattle’s Black neighborhood legacy.
Africatown acquired in 2021 the previous Keiro Northwest Rehabilitation & Care Middle, which used to serve Seattle’s Japanese American neighborhood as a nursing dwelling, after neighborhood advocates fought to stop it from turning into market-rate housing and retail area.
The constructing covers a complete block alongside East Yesler Approach, just a few blocks away from Yesler Terrace Park.
The shelter acquired funding by way of the federal American Rescue Plan Act, which is anticipated to expire subsequent month. However Mayor Bruce Harrell’s 2025-26 finances proposal consists of $2.2 million for the shelter to permit it to proceed working on the similar scale. Seattle’s Metropolis Council authorised the finances request final week.
Africatown leaders plan to ultimately convert the constructing into inexpensive housing, however for now company keep in giant personal and shared rooms that include their very own personal area and a rest room, reminiscent extra of hospital rooms than a conventional shelter.
There’s a pingpong desk, a pool desk and a barber store within the constructing, geared up with hair-washing sinks, the place males with barber expertise provide their abilities to others.
“Recognizing the urgent need for a safe haven, Africatown envisioned a place where men could find respite from the struggles of daily life,” mentioned Muammar Hermanstyne, Africatown’s actual property and growth marketing consultant.
Shelter employees have taken benefit of the 76,000-square-foot constructing to supply companies and enrichment alternatives in light-filled areas with expansive views of Seattle’s stadiums and Puget Sound.
In response to the shelter’s impression report, 78 p.c of employees recognized as Black, which isn’t any accident.
Black males are disproportionately represented in King County’s homeless inhabitants. In response to this 12 months’s point-in-time depend carried out by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, folks figuring out as Black, African American or African represented 19 p.c of the county’s 16,385 homeless inhabitants. However they make up 7 p.c of the county’s complete inhabitants.
Nate Jeffcoat grew up in Seattle’s Central District, and mentioned he grew to become homeless as a younger grownup whereas fighting substance-use dysfunction.
“I know exactly what it’s like to be on the other side of the fence,” Jeffcoat mentioned. He’s sober now, and on his restoration journey, he’s centered on paying it ahead.
Benu is a low-barrier shelter, which implies company aren’t required to be sober to stay there, however it doesn’t enable drug or alcohol use on the property. The shelter hosts a Narcotics Nameless assembly thrice a day.
“(There are) so many guys that come through here that are broken mentally, broken spiritually,” Jeffcoat mentioned. “And then once we gain your trust, we hold on to it.”
James Bess gave up utilizing medication and alcohol in 1964 on the age of 19, however the tall and skinny grandfather exhibits as much as the morning and night Narcotics Nameless assembly day-after-day to assist create area for his fellow company to open up.
“Many of them are shy about admitting it,” Bess mentioned. “They in denial, they usually kind of are in want of any person that has had the expertise that’s keen to speak about it freely.
“So I do that to help improve the situation for them.”
Most of Benu’s shelter company are working or on the lookout for jobs, mentioned program supervisor Brooks-Pope, however for his or her down time, the shelter presents quite a lot of courses and actions.
It’s hosted a poetry class up to now and held expertise exhibits. Males take pleasure in gathering within the giant eating corridor to observe soccer on Sundays. It hosts a weekly help group known as “Guy Talk.”
Bess, the shelter’s oldest visitor, hosts a e book membership, the place company learn the identical e book and meet to debate it. They began with James Allen’s 1903 “As a Man Thinketh.”
“We talk about what we get out of it that we can use to help transform our circumstances,” Bess mentioned.
His circumstances are one thing he by no means thought would occur to him.
After serving 23 years in a California jail, Bess returned to Seattle in the course of the pandemic to stay along with his daughter when his parole ended. His roots run deep right here. He used to work on the all-white Seattle Tennis Membership and raised a household in West Seattle.
However in February, Bess wanted to rapidly exit his residing scenario.
So at 79-years-old, Bess grew to become homeless for the primary time. He’s lived on the shelter for practically a 12 months now, sharing a room.
Bess attends a number of different courses, one in every of which taught him “the basis of all relationships is a good relationship with yourself.”
Bess is on a housing ready checklist, he mentioned. Whereas he’s ready for one thing to open up, he’s sticking to his every day routine at Benu, providing what he can to his fellow shelter company and employees.
“I’m grateful for them extending their hand out to me,” Bess mentioned, “to help me at the time that they did.”