A Space Where Everyone is Welcomed
The 2019 White Center Community Survey Report asked White Center community members, “What should community organizations focus on to improve White Center?” and the top community priorities were affordable housing, safety and health.
The White Center Community Development Association and partners thought of a solution: "Hope, Unity, and Belonging." This phrase was adopted as the name of a new building that will break ground in 2022. The White Center H.U.B. will sit on the former KC Public Health Center at 10821 8th Ave SW in White Center, in unincorporated King County, and current location of the White Center Food Bank.
The H.U.B.'s future site is approximately 122,000 square feet (2.8 acres) and is located adjacent to Dick Thurnau Memorial Park. This is a prime location thanks to its walking distance to Evergreen H.S., Cascade Middle School and Mt. View Elementary, public transit, the White Center commercial core, and located within the White Center community.
The H.U.B. is a place of learning, sharing, the future site of quality homes for working families, and is a place created by and for White Center, where efforts to create a more resilient community are centered.
The building is part of, Rise Together, a collaborative capital campaign uniting six nonprofit organizations across the Seattle area to support equitable and inclusive development projects in the Central District, Capitol Hill, and White Center. To date, the campaign has raised over $7 M towards the H.U.B.
Up until 2020, WCCDA's H.U.B. Project Manager, Aaron Garcia, lead door-to-door outreach, community design workshops, and other public learning sessions. Community engagement and preliminary design were ongoing through 2020. In 2021 community open house, submitted building permits, finalized design development, recipient of the KC Green Globe Award, 2022 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). The WCCDA is still meeting with partners, funders and community members.
Community members in White Center had the following visions:
Self-determination and community ownership: Develop the site in partnership with the people who live and work in White Center and make sure it reflects community priorities
Center of learning: Create a hub for education and lifelong learning, including opportunities such as work force training, small business incubation, satellite community college classes, youth tutoring, computer labs, alternative education and child care
Integrated health services: Behavioral and physical health services integrated through SWYFS’
Counseling Center and HealthPoint’s medical clinic operating in partnership for seamless support of the whole person
Quality homes for working families: Build 76 quality homes affordable to individuals and working families earning between 30% and 60% of the Area Median Income
Welcoming to all: Provide inclusive, open and diverse services and offer spaces for celebrating all cultures through art, music, traditions and events. Create a place open to all ages and generations
Garcia said the White Center CDA is growing their capacity to lead equitable development and that the H.U.B. Project centers this vision of leading with racial and social equity that create healthy vibrant communities. He said that development that creates economic mobility and builds generational wealth for White Center families.
“Our vision for equitable development is grounded in the principles of community stewardship of land which transforms land into a shared resource that generates community prosperity,” Garcia said. “Land is a resource to be shared and cared for, used to heal and transform the legacies and ongoing impacts of colonization, genocide, and racism.”
For more information on the HUB project, please visit our page.