Michael Elvin opened Bar Francis, honoring his son Miko’s middle name, in December 2012 during what Michael calls ‘the dark of night with only word-of-mouth’ to bring in customers. Today, the large, white-walled open space housing Bar Francis is not just a coffee bar, but the popular performance venue and art gallery for Northern, and Michael no longer needs a second job. The outside wall features an intricate mural by artist Jean Nagai, while the café, entered through a loading door from the parking lot beside Fish Tale Brewery, offers expansive white walls filled with art by many artists to fund the Olympia All Ages Art Project.
“I always wanted my own space to do things my way,” Michael says. “I wanted to be involved in the creative end of this business. I made coffee and cocktails around here a long time; bartending at Thekla for 8 years, opening the Water Street bar, managing it for one year, training baristas for Batdorff and Bronson, managing Dancing Goats for a while, then moving over to Olympia Coffee Roasting and Espresso Parts as general manager for four years, hiring, training, working as a barista. Now, I have my own place and I enticed my wonderful barista Fraoigh (pronounced Free) to join me after working with her at Dancing Goats and Olympia Coffee Roasters.”
Michael smiles, “I’m a huge coffee nerd, but I am not just obsessed with coffee…I love beverage. It’s my plan to add other crafted, fantastic drinks to the menu, so slowly we are adding new things, like Shrubs. Shrubs are old-timey drinks that became popular decades ago…vinegar-based beverages steeped (or not) with fruit and added syrup to make mixers or refreshing seltzers or sodas. I use the commissary at Old School Pizza to make and sell Shrubs using seasonal fruits and homemade vinegars, different blends for different fruits. I make Shrubs like blackberry with oak-cider vinegar that has a nice, crisp taste with a hint of oak, or one of my staples, a grapefruit Shrub using distilled white vinegar. I’ve got a surprising cucumber-jalapeno Shrub, a cherry tomato and basil Shrub…I’m not afraid to experiment! And, I am always open to suggestions on blends…one was the cucumber jalapeno, which turned out to be delicious, very subdued and quiet.”
One of the things one hears about Bar Francis is that it offers delicious coffee. It’s true. Michael says, “We tasted a lot of coffees for a long time, experimented in the Espresso Parts lab, narrowed choices to ten, then to five, and finally decided on the roast from Four Barrels in San Francisco. It won hands down. We sell it here in whole bean and offer blends too. We also like other single origin or guest roasts such as Roseline of Portland, Blue Beard of Tacoma, and Slate of Seattle, which just won an award in a recent barista competition. “
Michael adds, “We have music and shows happening here all the time. Go online for the lineup. It’s an all-ages performance and arts place!”
Hours 7 AM – 2 PM weekdays
8AM – 3 PM Saturday and Sunday
Next to Fish Tale Brew Pub
www.olympiaallages.org
barfrancis.com
new-biz-oly is written by Holly Graham. To suggest a new locally-owned business to be featured, please email .
New Biz Oly: Tamale Fusion
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Melanie Gary and Devon McCabe became partners in life and in tamale-making through a mutual love of good, nutritious food, great cooking, and memories from their childhoods of street tamale wagons coming through their neighborhoods in Oklahoma and California. Once she moved to Olympia, Melanie missed those homemade tamales.
“I would wish someone was doing them here,” she recalls, “and Devon and I would talk about it. Devon has wonderful cooking skills, I have a business background, and we appreciate the cooking styles of Ethiopia, India, Latin America and Thailand.”
Devon adds, “We share a love of spices and different flavors. We realized we could incorporate those flavors in to our tamales, make the tamales we remembered and sell them.”
Melanie continues, “Enterprise for Equity was a big help training us and in setting up the kitchen. At first, I went door to door with a wagon. Then we were able to set up here.”
They opened Tamale Fusion in the beautiful gardens of Fertile Ground Guesthouse in July 2013, offering an easy “grab and go” menu of delicious, unusually spiced tamales to state, office and library workers, health-conscious buyers, and other passersby. Those with a half-hour lunch time can be served and on the way in 2 minutes, enjoying the delicious, non-traditional tamales Melanie and Devon prepare.
Melanie explains, “Devon’s concerns with good health and nutrition led us to wrap our blue corn tamales in banana leaves, using seasonal fillings that are local as much as possible. We cook what we know, calling upon our natural abilities. And as much we are able, we use local, humanely rendered meats.”
“Tamale Fusion has regular offerings, seasonal favorites, and playful creations, too,” Devon says. “We create specials like Ethiopian spiced beef with ricotta and mint, or my shrimp creole with collard greens. Vegan tamales include sweet potato with green chili or spinach with artichoke. Then we have chicken with sundried tomatoes and Mascarpone cheese or sausage and wild mushroom cooked in wine sauce. One of the most important ingredients is the highly nutritious, excellent olive oil we use instead of the traditional lard.”
Melanie jokes seriously, “Our olive oil fights cancer! We each have our own recipes, and we collaborate on some creations, too. As for sales, word of mouth has been our best friend. We are part of the community effort toward sustainability and good health. We want our business to reflect that philosophy, so we are careful to offer the best.”
Devon adds, “We work hard to be local and sustainable in our offerings. Soon our outdoor space will be winter-proof and welcoming with a pavilion that includes lights and heater. Long-term, we support local producers in food and retail through the Olympia Handcraft Collective, and we soon will be growing a cash crop of our own organic Northwest heirloom corn thanks to Joanne of Pan’s Gardens, who has discovered a corn that will grow well in our climate. By next year, we will be selling this seed corn. Joanne has also offered us space for an aquaponic greenhouse to do farm-oriented, sustainable projects. The story we tell,” Devon continues, “is that we are doing good beyond doing business, using work as an agent of change towards sustainable community.”
Melanie affirms, “This gives everyone the chance to vote with their dollars! Connect with us on Facebook and through our website. We encourage people to share ideas and information about food issues world-wide, and to learn about our workshops and other opportunities. We’re very happy here!”
A visit in beautiful mid-August to Sleepy Hollow Road found the hardworking women of Roseroot Herbes joyfully ‘flinging poo’ into their newly-plowed half-acre field, all in the name of furthering and restoring the ancient art and use of herbs. Claire, Vadi, Ingrid, and Sara are grads (or soon to be, in Vadi’s case) of The Evergreen State College, thanking TESC and Enterprise for Equity for fostering what Claire calls Roseroot’s ‘agripreneurial’ pursuits.
Combining a vast diversity of backgrounds, the partners bring an array of knowledge and experience to endeavors that include providing herbs and tinctures to the downtown Olympia Free Herbal Clinic, growing and developing culinary and healing herbs for the marketplace, running workshops, salvaging and saving seeds, and being part of a movement to reconnect herbal practitioners across the country.
Claire’s background in writing, social justice, and seed saving led her to create and grow herbs to support the non-profit Free Herbal Clinic she founded five years ago. Ingrid studied botany, herbology, traditional and current ethnobotany, health sciences, photochemistry, and cultural uses of herbs as food and medicines. Vadi studied field botany, specializing in ethnobotany surrounding traditional people’s uses of plants. Sara calls her area ‘ethno-agribiz’ along with being a happy ‘poo-spreader’, Spanish speaker, and PR person for Roseroot Herbes. Together, these women are a formidable, knowledgeable team.
Ingrid says, “We grow over 100 species of medicinal and culinary plants, make tinctures, dried herbs, salves, tea blends, body care products, herbal essences, and culinary blends. We have a C.S. Apothecary subscription available for seasonal boxes of herbal offerings including vinegars and flower essences. Our CSA is based upon my studies with Joyce Netishen in five-element herbalism.” Claire says, “Our share has an educational component offering workshops and a newsletter.” To this, Sara adds, “We want to provide people with knowledge for life, increasing their community involvement.”
Vadi elucidates, “The five seasons relate to five Chinese elements of spring (wood), summer (fire), late summer (earth), fall (metal), and winter (water). My work has been in wildcraft, using herbs from woods, local areas, northwest-grown, crafted and inspired medicines based upon only what you can grow or find.”
Vadi affirms, “We want to find ways to bring herbalists together because connections diminished after the loss of annual Herbal Fairs. It is important to pass knowledge along, and we are seeing now that doors are opening, connections are being made between herbalists here and the east coast. We are seeing a wave of recognition among practitioners again, so many ways of supporting community herbal medicines.”
“We will host the Second Annual Dandelion Seed Conference at Evergreen October 11-13, featuring national big-name speakers,” Sara says. “Here at Sleepy Hollow, we will soon have a greenhouse with a forest garden, starts and medicinal seeds. We work with makers of essential oils, Cascadia Terroir’s Scents of Place, too.”
“We will have seeds from salvage plants, native plant seed stock, and herbs harvested wild. We will replant and continue providing herbs direct from the farm, with pick-up and drop-off sites around town,” Ingrid says, “and we sell online, at events like Love Our Local, or in area stores.”
Vadi asserts, “Along with our deep conviction we can make this happen, we all have other jobs. We have been working on this for three years and more, and we will go on!”
Visit the Free Herbal Clinic at Suite 401 in the Security Building on 4th Avenue.
Open 5 days per week; drop-ins from 5 – 7 PM.
To volunteer and learn more, contact
www.dandelionseedcollective.org.
To access Roseroot Herbes, write to
.
new-biz-oly is written by Holly Graham. To suggest a new locally-owned business to be featured, please email .
New Biz Oly: Smiling Mo’s Cookies
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Introducing you to new locally-owned businesses…
SMILING MO’S COOKIES
Over a picture of two young wrestlers in a match, the headline in a California newspaper from 1989 reads “Monte Vista’s el Sokkary is one tough cookie.”
“It doesn’t say one tough gluten-free cookie, though,” jokes Mohamed el Sokkary, sitting in the sun outside the Westside Co-op where Smiling Mo’s Cookies are sold, “and that’s what mine are, all of them. I won the match, by the way.”
Mohamed came to the northwest to teach and coach wrestling for high schools in the Tumwater School District and later for Olympia High School. There he offered a service for youth that helped them through tough times, making sure they were supported and had basic needs met while introducing them to skills like bike repair and construction for Habitat for Humanity. “The goal,” says Mo, “was to elevate and encourage them. It was good work.”
The program ended, however, and Mo wondered what to do next. He had worked for Blue Chip Bakers in California all through school, both baking and managing a bakery. Upon meeting his wife, Gabrielle, whose diet is gluten-free, he learned that process and started experimenting making gluten-free cookies. “Then Gabrielle told me to have people taste them, so I did. People said ‘Wow!’”
Encouraged to get a kitchen, Mo found the perfect gluten-free equipment at Peace, Love and Raw on Legion, and started Smiling Mo’s Cookies in January 2013. “I’m always smiling,” smiled Mohamed, “but I called it Smiling Mo’s because all the Mo and Mohamed business names were taken. Smiling Mo’s was perfect.”
Now Mo makes a wide variety of great gluten-free goodies that include the bestselling chocolate chip, plus cranberry almond, white chocolate, vegan with everything (cranberry, almonds, dates, dark chocolate, and low-glycemic coconut palm sugar), oatmeal raisin, peanut butter chocolate, and mint chocolate chip. “Soon I will be offering scones, muffins, and cupcakes,” Mo promises.
The first place to carry Mo’s cookies was Mud Bay Coffee. Then he gained outlets at Traditions, Group Health, Batdorff and Bronson’s, Olympia Film Society, Yelm Coop, the East and Westside Coops, Bayview Market, The Food Nook at Fertile Ground, Dancing Goats, Capital City Espresso, Bagel Brothers, and Sound City Coffees. He’s branching out to Savvika Teas in Kirkland. Find Smiling Mo’s Cookies on Facebook, too.
“I do my own packaging in the kitchen, the bag is reusable, and shelf-life is longer,” Mo says. “I am a morning person, so I wake up early, bake, make deliveries every day and am home by noon, when I begin my second job, making pet memorials out of river stones since 1990. Visit www.sayitinstones.com to learn more.”
Enterprising Mo adds, “Olympia is a great place to start a new business, raise kids, and accept this gluten-free product. The Co-op has been great. They were my first taste-testers over a year ago. Now it’s my job, and I hope to grow!”
Smiling Mo’s Cookies
Found locally at your favorite stores
new-biz-oly is written by Holly Graham. To suggest a new locally-owned business to be featured, please email .
New Biz Oly: Marchetti Wines
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Five generations of Rich LaRosa’s paternal and maternal lines made wine in Italy. Later, when his Grandfather Joseph Merendoni immigrated to the states, they carried on making wine in Aberdeen. It’s no wonder that Rich himself followed the family tradition with his own line of Marchetti (pronounced Mar-ketti) fine Old World, unfiltered wines, available for tasting in an elegant room reminiscent of Tuscany in The New Caledonia Building’s Atrium.
Tangerine and burnt orange walls with Tuscan appointments and exposed wooden rafters lend warm Italian authenticity. A focal point above the bar is a beautiful painting of Lake Como by German artist Guido Frick. Photos of men in the family grace the walls, too, including one of a very young Rich pulling a Radio Flier wagon (invented by Italians, Rich says) filled with bottles of wine.
“The family wines were all reds,” Rich says, “and like the wines I make today, sulfite-free. That’s my grandfather’s picture on the label and a view of the seawall near the Messina Lighthouse, where my father was from.”
Coming to Olympia in 1986, Rich initially worked for the state. He was Founding Father of the Capitol Wine and Food Festival, doing events around the state, opening his wine-making business in 2001. “I brought my grapes in from Eastern Washington, and had my operation out on Wiggins Road, where I crushed and bottled, but couldn’t have a tasting room or give tours because growth management laws forbade it. I was lucky that Cheri came along. She knows what she’s doing.”
Cheri Cassedy opened the tasting room with Rich in December 2012. “I’m a Sonoma wine country girl,” Cheri affirms. “I grew up in Napa Valley surrounded by wine-making families, working in every aspect of the wine business all my life. I’ve become a connoisseur of wines. When I moved here 4½ years ago, I met Rich. I like being part of the wine industry with him!”
“Cheri is an incredible salesperson and events planner,” Rich says. “We work with other businesses in the building doing events and parties, using the entire Atrium, with The Blend Café doing food while we provide wine for tasting or to take home. It’s a great location for events, with opportunities for all the businesses here. We do pretty much what people want.”
Rich’s winemaking is a one-man operation. “My wines are aged only in French, American and Hungarian oak barrels,” Rich says, “never stainless steel. I make eight varieties – Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Barbera, Old Vine Zinfandel (using grapes from Lodi, California), Petit Verdot, a blend of Tempranillo, Cab Franc and Malbec, and Port. We sell wine by the taste – 3 tastes for $9 – or for $9 a glass. Bottles of Marchetti Wine cost $23 to $25. We’re open as needed for events.”
Cheri adds, “The people of Olympia are fabulous. We are happy to be here!”
New Caledonia Building on 5th
Summer Hours: Wednesday – Friday 2 – 7pm
Saturday 1 -7pm
Sunday 1-5pm
new-biz-oly is written by Holly Graham. To suggest a new locally-owned business to be featured, please email .
New Biz Oly: The Blend Cafe
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The Atrium Courtyard of the New Caledonia Building is a sky lit, magical entrance to what was once an elegant hotel. It is there that Jen Miller, heeding the advice of friends who encouraged her to open her own place, launched The Blend in the spot once occupied by Nona Rosa’s Tea Room.
“We opened in February. It was meant to happen,” Jen says gladly. “I’ve been a stay-at-home mom after a career in property management. I was ready for something new. People liked my management style and helped me get this space when it became available. Now, the whole family is involved, especially my sister Sandy, who puts into reality what I envision for the menu, which changes daily according to what we have on hand. I do the shopping and create 95% of the menu and Sandy, with the help of our friend Staci, prepares the food. It’s a real learning experience. I make decisions based upon what looks good and what’s in the fridge. That’s the way I have always done things. It makes for some unusual dishes!”
Indeed, Jen offers “new food” daily. “There’s chowder every Friday, but it is never clam! Today’s was Havarti cheese with Italian sausage. I’ll put a twist on Caprese salad with mozzarella cheese, greens, grapes, tomatoes, pesto and balsamic vinegar. A hot sandwich might be grilled French bread, cream cheese, artichokes, and sautéed sweet onions. A great cold sandwich might feature turkey, ham, Romaine, capers, and Dijon mayonnaise; always different, always made to order. We do specialty baked goods and we always have coconut macaroons! We offer a lunch sampler, half of everything on the menu with or without dessert.”
The setting is charming. Real China, flatware, colorful tablecloths, table runners, napkins and fresh flowers grace circular tables with comfortable upholstered chairs surrounding a thriving fig tree in a wooden planter showcasing birdhouses made by Jen’s dad. In wall cases, Jen’s mother’s handmade aprons and quilts are displayed for sale along with art offerings by locals.
“We have a successful collaboration with all the businesses here,” Jen says. “We let each other know when we are having a special event so everyone can be open. The Blend offers sit-down dinners for groups from 4 – 75 people, private parties by appointment, wine and food parties in collaboration with Marchetti Wines next-door, afternoon teas either sweet or savory, from four to seven courses by appointment. And we are the dessert vendor for Olympia Brew Fest at the Port Plaza on August 3rd.”
“I am so happy here. I love to feed people…it brings me joy!” Jen affirms.
Hours Tues – Friday, 11 – 2
New Caledonia Building
5th Avenue
new-biz-oly is written by Holly Graham. To suggest a new locally-owned business to be featured, please email .
Seeking Solutions to Homelessness, Part II: Low-cost Housing Assistance and Low-barrier Shelter
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Interfaith Works
One of the prime implementers of solutions to homelessness in Thurston County is Interfaith Works, an organization comprised of local faith communities. Interfaith Works collaborates with local, county, and state agencies as well as businesses and organizations to raise and distribute funding, recruit volunteers, and support visions with real assistance to see the pieces of a coordinated entry system become a reality. These big dreamers have faith-based reasons to follow inspiration and intention with the big work it takes to make the visions real.
I reached Danny Kadden, the director of Interfaith Works, on the phone back in May.
“I want people in this community to really look with clarity at the issues and not to sentimentalize,” he said. “There are things to be done and ways we can do them.”
Danny’s inspiration for this work came out of his work as a community organizer in Chicago’s multiracial coalitions. “The big move there was toward converting rundown single room occupancy hotels, what you’d call flophouses, into homeless housing with permanent onsite staff. We don’t have single room occupancy hotels here. We have what we have, and we should be more imaginative. The question the community is asking itself is are we willing to bear the cost of the status quo, or are we willing to have the discipline, focus and wisdom to work out more humane solutions that end up costing less for the community on the whole? That’s the place we are at. Can we approach these issues more systematically to connect the different pieces that need to happen to get progress, reduce the numbers, the cost and the suffering?”
The primary obstacle, as Danny sees it, is our sense of overwhelm about the issue of homelessness. He describes the status quo as “a messy, unpleasant, confusing state of mind about homelessness in the community, one that invites people to make simplistic assumptions about the homeless, and doesn’t help move us to a more efficient system.”
“I dug up files from 20 years ago, and it was eerie,” he recalls. “There were conversations that resembled conversations we are having today that ended in failure. No single party was responsible for failure, but we failed to get lift off. Everyone was frustrated, everyone had good intentions pretty much, but the resources, staffing and infrastructure failed to come together, the county’s role was ill-defined, there was resentment about the Olympia thing. We have made leaps in our conceptions of homelessness, and what measures actually work.”
Finally, after “several generations of failure,” he is feeling a consensus in the community.
“I think there is an openness and willingness to leap forward. The consensus is toward doing … what needs to be done. This is one of the best moments in the evolution of our community’s efforts to end homelessness, to make change. I really am optimistic about the coming together of different interests, knowledge bases, and resources. We are really poised to take the leap.”
According to Danny, a key part of that leap is the development of a low-barrier shelter that can accommodate the many unsheltered adults in our community. As the Salvation Army shrinks or eliminates programs, there is a growing need for stable, year-round accessible shelter. Ideally the shelter would be located downtown, where there is access to the Olympia Transit Center and many social services. “Some people have mobility problems or really compromised health,” Danny points out, “and we have to make sure not to create physical barriers in terms of access.”
He acknowledges the importance of being sensitive to the needs of other users of downtown, and insists that a shelter must be well managed in order to meet the needs of clients while at the same time “reducing the threat and perception of violence and taking issues of cleanliness into account. With the involvement of faith community, paid professionals and trained volunteers who bring a lot of heart and skill to the job, we will succeed.”
Danny emphasizes that such a shelter would need to be a collaborative effort, and would have to offer a clear path to housing for residents. “It has to connect to housing situations, including rapid rehousing. Shelter in itself is not an end.”
A variety of stakeholders are actively participating in making this low-barrier shelter a reality, including service providers, elected officials, faith communities and volunteers. They are calling the project The People’s House.
“We have a lot of support from our elected officials right now. [They] are extraordinarily supportive and open-minded about being innovative, solution driven, and that’s part of this opening that I feel. It’s going to take a long spring and summer of hard work by [social service] agencies that are already occupied with their existing missions. This is all extra, and it’s a very diverse and dedicated group of people who are part of the conversation, the process, the brainstorming, the troubleshooting and technical stuff and expertise. That kind of dedication is a good sign.”
The collaboration among faith communities brings additional resources to the project as well.
“I can’t measure it; I can’t name it, but that special dimension is observable, because I get to see it every day. I want to share that with everyone, because I think it’s going to help put us over the top,” Danny affirmed.
SideWalk
On May 17th, the Olympia Peace Choir, of which I am a three-year member, held its annual benefit concert at The Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. As decided by the choir’s board, the proceeds went to benefit the choir and SideWalk, a project of Interfaith Works. It was there I met Phil Owen, the Program Director at SideWalk. Phil is a longtime advocate for housing and sheltering the homeless, and offered to talk about the work that SideWalk has been doing. We sat down to talk at Bread and Roses, where he first volunteered in 2001 and is now a live-in host.
“Beware of volunteering,” he jokes. “You might end up living in a homeless shelter.”
“SideWalk was founded as a place for single adults to find permanent housing,” Phil began. “That was the missing piece. Community Youth Services served the young, Family Support Center served families, and now, SideWalk serves single adults.”
Phil explains that there are essentially two separate populations within the category ‘single homeless adults.’ Eighty-five percent are low-to-medium risk, meaning they are unlikely to become homeless again. A small amount of temporary rental assistance (around $1000 total per person) is usually enough to get them back into housing.
“They might find roommates, single rooms, or other ways. They leverage the skills they have gained surviving homelessness.”
The other 15% are at higher risk for becoming homeless again, and require ongoing support in the form of permanent supportive housing.
Last November, SideWalk launched its 100 Homes Campaign, with the goal of moving 100 people out of homelessness and into housing in one year. Six months in, they were halfway to meeting their goal. According to Phil, SideWalk’s success is based on two major factors: research-driven program design, and dedicated volunteers.
“We identified [rapid rehousing as] the most efficient path to housing, and our volunteers are the most dedicated, highly trained, and results-hungry people working in the local homeless service system - bar none.”
Phil added, “SideWalk is a volunteer-operated ‘one stop shop’ for shelter and housing services for homeless adults. Our mission is to end homelessness through community engagement and coordination of resources. It’s a coordinated entry system and it is 90% there. There’s a federal mandate requiring counties to have a comprehensive coordinated entry system in place by the end of 2014 in order to continue to receive any federal or state funding for homeless services.”
“We are trying to work ourselves out of a job,” Phil says. SideWalk’s impact on local shelters is clearly evident at Bread & Roses. “Before SideWalk, the length of stay there was one year or more. Guests would get on waiting lists for housing and just get stuck waiting. Now the average stay at B&R is one to two months.”
“As for men’s shelters, so far Drexel House is it,” Phil says. “As for daytime needs like showers and laundry, that’s beyond the scope of SideWalk. We have The People’s House, a program of Interfaith Works, stepping up to carry on with this. Our mission is focused: end homelessness!”
“People at the most risk need the best foundations. The People’s House hopes to open in November. We want to provide day and night shelter and respite,” said Meg. “Helping those who are the hardest to help is where we want to be active. Our mission is to advance the social inclusion and empowerment of the homeless through innovative practices of sheltering, with basic mental health and emergency needs coordinated. We hope to transform the entire community through empowerment of its most vulnerable members.”
The People’s House will host at least 40 beds, adding 10,950 bednights a year to the existing shelter capacity. The low-barrier shelter model will increase shelter utilization and decrease the number of illegal encampments, street violence, and weather related deaths and illnesses within the homeless community. In coordination with SideWalk and Capital Recovery Center, The People’s House will work to connect eligible individuals with housing resources and mental health services.
The People’s House will also host a 24 hour public restroom, alleviating pressure on downtown businesses and decreasing rates of public urination. Through a 24 hour hotline, community outreach, and a partnership with The Downtown Ambassador Program, The People’s House will provide business owners an alternative to calling 911 when issues arise, greatly decreasing pressure on the Olympia Police Department in responding to nuisance calls.
Meg told me, “Until now, the churches have been bottom-lining the individual men’s and women’s’ shelters … but complicated mental health issues can’t be dealt with by church volunteers, so the shelter projects are hard for the churches to deal with. The People’s House will become the piece that’s missing here.”
Right now, according to The People’s House online information, there are about 237* homeless people in Thurston County, and the “day shelters” are the library, the overhangs of local businesses, Sylvester Park, Heritage Park, Intercity Transit, and the Artesian Well Site. The People’s House intends to change that, with funding coming from Thurston County, Interfaith Works, St. Mike’s Church, the HOME Consortium, The City of Olympia, corporate funding and private donations. “We need to diversify our funding,” Meg declares. “With Interfaith Works acting as our fiscal agent, we will. We are all working together.”
Wow. The whole thing is coming together! Danny Kaden was not just dreaming when he predicted success creating a working, useful, effective coordinated entry system covering all the bases this time around. The committed, expert people are on hand, and one I had not yet met was Selena Kilmoyer, Bread and Roses stalwart and partner in The People’s House Shelter Project. So, as Phil Owen had suggested, I met with Selena on June 30th at Traditions Fair Trade Café.
Selena moved to Olympia in 2001. “I came to Olympia,” she confided, “because I saw a website that mentioned Bread and Roses, a women’s guest house, a soup kitchen and shelter. That was what I wanted. Olympia’s Bread and Roses is 32 years old. Phil, Meta, and I have lived at the house off and on for 12 years. Bread and Roses owns a duplex next door so we have three dwellings that house 12 women who share rooms. We will take the overflow from Interfaith Works’ church housing for women on a two week rotating basis starting in July to take pressure off the churches. Getting The People’s House going is so important. It will be the missing piece.”
“When I started at Bread and Roses, one thing I realized right away was that many homeless people didn’t know about Social Security’s disability programs, so Phil took a man over to the Social Security office. His success started our first year of advocacy. Phil got a grant from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2003 to open the Advocacy Center. He and Meta rounded up volunteers and took over running it,” Selena recalled.
“Now SideWalk and rapid rehousing serves numbers of people effectively, but those who need supportive help are still being left behind. We need to find ways to deal with them and their issues – aging, mental illness, addiction, and prescription drug abuse.
“What is really important is not getting trapped in numbers and data. The work is spiritually rewarding and it allows us to share with the poor and marginalized, to open our hearts to others, and it is such a privilege to help. ‘Them are us’ is truer now than ever before with the ‘new homelessness’ we see everywhere. Middle class families show up wondering how they got where they are, suddenly homeless,” she said.
“What I’ve learned the most is how to listen authentically. That’s a skill. People know if you’re B-S-ing them! It is our call as people to do for others and to be with others. As a community we can do something,” said Selena calmly, “and we must.”
More information about these programs is available at their websites:
www.oly-wa.us/interfaith
www.walkthurston.org
www.thepeopleshouseolympia.blogspot.com
www.breadandrosesolympia.org
* UPDATE/CORRECTION: “This is actually the number of “unsheltered homeless” in Thurston. The total number, according to the census report, which is negatively skewed, is closer to 800. Of course not every homeless person takes part in the count, so it can be safely assumed, as corroborated by Anna Schlecht to me, that there are actually closer to double that number. Anyway, just thought you would want to know. The 300 or so unsheltered homeless citizens are definitely the ones of most concern.” [thanks to the reader who sent in this information!]
New Biz Oly: Mystical Remnants
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Gerald Blanchard’s mother, Cheryl, taught him jewelry-making and then encouraged him to open a store to showcase their creations. At last October’s ArtsWalk, Mystical Remnants began, selling memorabilia, collage art, and SteamPunk jewelry.
Gerald says, “The term SteamPunk comes out of fiction and refers to the world as it might have been if steam ruled the developing world. It refers to an alternative historical setting like that in H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine.” Gerald’s business partner, Alicia Jolley, adds, “More metal, less plastic!” The word was coined in 1987 by K.W. Jeter to posit ‘what the past would look like if the future had happened sooner’ and the Blanchard’s jewelry exuberantly reflects this style in a wide variety of necklaces and earrings. “My mother has been collecting vintage material for the last five years,” Gerald adds, “and that’s what I work with.”
The store features unique, scene-stealing SteamPunk jewelry assemblages, Gerald’s collages, Cheryl’s whimsical gear topiary stands, re-purposed display racks made from fallen branches, a Mason jar lamp, several unusual floor and standard lamps, period pocket watches, compasses, and vintage glass perfume bottles. Also prominent are sheepskin maps of mythical places painted by Gerald on hides hand-tanned by Alicia, who will one day run the cafe the two are planning for the store.
The pleasant shop is narrow but roomy, with homemade gear-shaped tables, comfortable tall black stools, walls lined with Gerald’s art, lit lamps, a low sofa, a pleasant window nook, and in the back, behind the wall Alicia and Gerald plan to open up, a large room that will someday house the kitchen for the café.
“We’ll call it The Becoming Café, because it’s in the process of becoming. I just might do performance art in costume as I cook,” Alicia smiles. “It will be a whimsical kitchen, filled with old, useful, interesting things. We want people to have fun with food, to make it affordable, in a great atmosphere. It’s about context and setting.”
“We’ll have locally-produced, in-season foods, vegan pie bars and raw veggie burritos, fries, smoothies, things like that,” Gerald adds, “We just may add cotton candy! I expect the café will be open by the end of August. We want it to be right.”
“Things have really picked up since April’s ArtsWalk,” Gerald says gladly. “We’re becoming something of a conversation piece for Olympians. This location is great, because there’s always something going on around here. I love this work. I’m so glad my mother encouraged me to leave a job I hated to open here, and Alicia is a creative professional with great ideas to bring into the world. Mystical Remnants is a place where we remember the past.”
416 ½ Washington Street SE
Between 4th and 5th
Hours Monday – Saturday 11AM -6PM
Seeking Solutions to Local Homelessness, Part I: Coordinating the System
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It was during a mid-March phone conversation with community activist and friend, Alex Daye, that I realized how truly uninformed I have been about the issue of homelessness in my community.
Sure, I knew about Camp Quixote, and I celebrated the recent groundbreaking for their village of small, permanent dwellings.
I was aware of the work being done by Interfaith Works along with city and county agencies to ameliorate the homeless situation, and I’ve seen the denizens of tent encampments not just in the woods on the Westside but under freeways and along railroad tracks from here to California.
I’ve seen and talked with homeless people in downtown Olympia. I have given money as I could to assuage my ignorance and increase my sense of ‘doing something’ for them in their plight, and I have my opinions about ordinances passed by our city council and those in other towns aimed at keeping the blight of homelessness off downtown streets for ‘stakeholders’ who own businesses there, knowing the reasons for those ordinances are extremely complicated.
But it was Alex – who had just come through a grueling period of trying to help the people he called “criminalized for their homelessness” by the newest city ordinance, and whom I had seen tirelessly working with Occupy Olympia to provide medical care and safety for the Occupiers – who brought me face-to-face with how little I knew of the issue of homelessness in Olympia. I had called him to ask his opinion of said ordinance. I got it and a whole lot more.
It was a friendly conversation, mind you, but on Alex’s side it was fierce, heartfelt and informed. That conversation started me on a series of interviews with public officials and nonprofit leaders about the state of homeless services in our community. They all shared a sense that, after years of planning, an effective and coordinated system is taking shape that will address the issue far into the future. It has been a heartening journey speaking with informed professionals who are dedicated to enacting plans that have been on the table for decades.
In late March I spoke with Olympia Mayor Stephen Buxbaum. He emphasized that the issue is broad and complicated, involving many disparate groups.
“There are no broad-brush solutions,” he pointed out, “because these lead to stereotypes. In our community, we are not dealing with a ‘perfect answer’. We have situations ranging from bad to really, really bad.”
Buxbaum has worked on the issue of affordable housing for years. Before being elected mayor, he worked as Director of Housing for Washington State, managing the Housing Trust Fund and Community Development Block Grants. Governor Gregoire appointed him Chair of The Interagency Council on Homelessness. He helped pass the Homeless Housing Act of 2005 to set up a stable source of revenue to enable counties to collect data and reduce homelessness.
“We need a system in place to address homelessness on a county-wide basis. It’s a priority. Sidewalk is a good example of creating a referral system. [We need to] actually get people around the table to recognize that theirs is not the only perspective.”
I told Buxbaum that, in the 80s, I was part of a group envisioning the still functioning and expanded Friendship House in Skagit Valley, an ecumenically funded shelter, kitchen and clothing bank run by volunteers in downtown Mount Vernon. I asked if this model was possible here.
He responded thoughtfully, “What you have just described is something that has been proposed for years. Friendship House is a great example of what has worked well in one community. Whenever anybody gets their interest piqued on an issue of homelessness, they are brought to the table and bring up things such as you just did, like Friendship House, and ask why don’t we do that here.
“Basically, we have many parts of the puzzle but they are all working separately, and people come in and out of the conversation. [What we’re] trying to do is invest in a systems approach, where instead of people just contributing to their favorite charity of the year, we really insist on a coordinated and collaborative approach between the service providers who are struggling to make progress on this big issue called homelessness.
Thurston County currently has an accumulated $1.2 million set aside for homeless services. The county has issued an RFP this summer for just under $1 million total to be spent on homeless services. This might seem like a lot of money, but it could be quickly squandered by the usual everybody-gets-a-piece funding approach.
“What I would like to see us do is very carefully and strategically invest that money,” says Buxbaum, “because it’s not near enough to address the issue of homelessness.”
One recent step toward streamlining the system is the creation of a contracted county-level Homeless Services Coordinator position. Theresa Slusher, former Community Services Division Manager at the county Housing Authority, was hired to the position last year.
“Theresa Slusher’s work coordinating Thurston County’s Homeless Project is highly critical,” says Buxbaum. “We do need to address this from a systems level…. The county has approved Theresa’s position for another year, and she has made substantial progress. We have accomplished quite a bit lining up the elements we need to have in a service system.
“So, what’s the most important part of this story to tell?” he continues. “People who truly want to make a difference are all dealing with the same thing: where do you start? If we are committed to doing things in an issue as big as homelessness, we must focus on areas where we have community agreement. The key to all of this is getting people to listen to one another and to collaborate,” Buxbaum concluded. He advised me to speak with Theresa Slusher, which I did via phone the following day.
Slusher echoes Buxbaum’s comments, “We can get things done by bringing everybody together and seeing where we can agree.”
“My first year’s focus [as Coordinator] was to get an idea of what the homeless system looks like currently – how many are homeless, what are their needs, where are the gaps, and what do we need to do to meet those needs? I spent a lot of time working with stakeholders. I talked with everybody interested in the subject. I don’t think I missed anybody. My process is inclusive, from all perspectives, and vetted through many groups.”
In mid-April, Slusher presented an overview of her findings and progress to Thurston County Commissioners. In it, she identified the top ten things that need to be done, but conceded, “It’s helpful if all elected officials know at least the top five.”
She identified these as 1) a youth shelter, 2) a low-barrier shelter for single adults and couples, 3) a youth bridge program that carries them from homelessness to permanent housing, 4) a rapid rehousing program for families and 5) permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless adults.
“We especially need a coordinated intake system, which is under development, making it clear where the front door is, where is the one place they go, instead of sending them to 4 or 5 agencies. We need to make it very clear they go to one organization, with one phone number, one address. We are going to finish that job over the next year.”
I asked about the possibility of day-centers, addressing safety issues, providing lockers and showers.
Slusher responded, “My hope is to get a low-barrier shelter up that fills those needs as well. We have identified the need for bathrooms downtown 24-7, for some kind of day center where people can come in and look for a job, get mail, and make phone calls. My hope is to have low-barrier shelter with a day center and include a restroom. It would cost $50,000 to get a restroom alone, so why not incorporate that into a shelter at the same time?”
I mentioned Alex Daye’s comment, “It’s just tiring to be homeless.” He told me when he opened an emergency (quickly shut-down) shelter at the artesian well site in March, people came to his large tent and slept 18 hours straight.
Slusher knows. She listens to what people say. ”It is easy to not feel a sense of urgency, because we don’t live that way,” she said. “But the situation is urgent.”
What does she think of the city’s recent ordinance against camping and sleeping downtown?
“I understand the city needs to protect its liability and protect itself. I think the city council, with the mayor’s leadership, has really pushed funds out there, and that kind of action resulted in Sidewalk. Now it’s there, with coordinated entry for single people! That was the intent of that program and there it is. They are doing a good job. It’s not fully funded, and they aren’t stable yet, but that was a great move the city made, to put that money out there and say, ‘We need to fund coordinated entry and do coordinated work on the problem of homelessness, so here’s some money.’
“Then they followed up with CDBG funding last year, and the Smith building was funded for family support and supportive housing, using city money. One may not be a fan of an ordinance, but the city is taking positive action and putting money out there, showing leadership in that way,” she reasoned.
The Thurston Homeless System 2012 is comprised of many players, including Catholic Community Services, Community Action Council, Community Youth Services, Family Support Center, the Housing Authority, Interfaith Works, the Low-income Housing Institute, Mercy Housing, Bread & Roses, Safeplace, Behavioral Health Resources, Union Gospel Mission, and the Salvation Army, as well as agencies such as Yelm Community Services and Rochester Organization of Families (ROOF) which serve rural Thurston communities.
The Thurston County Homeless System Plan, drafted by county staff and the Citizen Advisory Committee to the HOME Consortium in April of this year, envisions Thurston’s homeless services as ‘well-coordinated and efficient, provides a pathway to housing stability, reduces length and frequency of homeless episodes, and helps the most vulnerable be safe.’
“As an outside contractor,” Slusher adds, “I don’t choose what gets funded, but in my second year we are looking at strategies and next steps, fostering the development of projects like low-barrier shelters. The county’s funds are collected at rate of 1.1 to 1.3 million dollars per year. As coordinator, I focus on the problem of homelessness, and I am filling the commissioners in so they can release a Request for Funding Proposal to include further funding.”
“What we need to do in the next year is work with schools, churches, food banks and the cities themselves and see what we can do in each community to provide assistance. EGYHOP (The Emma Goldman Youth and Homeless Outreach Project) has been working alone in downtown Olympia and doing great work, but they are feeling the need to see more happen. Then we have the interfaith community, and the Olympia police department, with the aid of Police Chief Ronnie Roberts, who is devoted to solving homelessness, even convening meetings about it, something that hasn’t happened before.”
What about the Union Gospel Mission and the Salvation Army?
Slusher responded, “We did meet with Salvation Army back in January to try to get an agreement for getting their shelters full… but that ended with the organization saying they really didn’t want to work with anybody…. We need to make sure that we are not funding shelters that are running at half-capacity.”
Performance standards haven’t play a big role in past funding strategies, but that’s about to change. Slusher and others have been pushing for a more results-based approach to shelter and homeless services, setting up guidelines for outcomes and convening a “feedback group” to ensure funding applicants meet certain benchmarks.
“We must get this resolved now and not end up in the same place 20 years from now. The way homeless programs have been funded has never forced agencies to look at what they are producing, what’s not working…. It’s never come to these groups the way it will this year and in future. It’s been a faith-based model, but now it will be based upon results…and that’s going to cause the change.
“Heading into my second year, I am hopeful we have done enough study and now we can enter into a year of action.”
Stay tuned! We will explore coordinated entry, low-barrier shelter, and other aspects of the homeless services system in Part II.
New Biz Oly: Saigon Rendezvous (redux)
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Lovers of great Vietnamese cuisine know that Saigon Rendezvous is not new. It’s been in downtown Olympia since 1989, the year Mui Nguyen opened it. She sold the place in 2001. What’s new is that, now retired from a successful 36-year career with the state’s Department of Health and Social Services, Mui is back as owner and hostess of the Rendezvous. This time, she has a partner, Mike Shanahan.
The two have been friends for decades. Mike, in Olympia since 1977, was a car salesman whose ability over the years to sell Mui and her family good reliable cars forged their mutual trust. Both found retirement boring, so they talked it over. Returning to the restaurant business filled the bill, because as Mike puts it, “The idea was to spend the day visiting with friends.” They opened in March.
Mike sets up early, and Mui comes in to oversee some cooking and be a gracious hostess to diners. She loves to recommend dishes, and encourages customers to eat in the traditional way, wrapping crispy vegetarian eggrolls in lettuce, for example, before dipping them in sauce.
Mui says, “I brought many items back to the menu with original ingredients, too. We offer two menus, one completely vegetarian, the other with meats and fish, all of it traditional Vietnamese and Pan Asian food. Everything is fresh and local, all food is prepared to order and to taste, and we have many Thai dishes. Custom orders are our specialty. We also cater for all occasions.”
A small statue of the luck-bringing Beckoning Cat graces the counter and the décor, newly renovated, is bright and personal. Fans and pictures of scenes from Viet Nam grace the walls along with a large photograph of Mui and her youngest daughter taken shortly before the fall of Saigon, where she had worked for the US military. Mui, her husband and four children made it out on one of the last planes to leave at the end of the war. Arriving in the states, Mui held down 2 or 3 jobs at a time while going to school to learn accounting, all the while raising children and ultimately providing them with excellent educations that have helped make them successful today.
“We are workaholics,” Mui admits. “I have three cooks in the kitchen, one full time. I make sure things are the way I want them. So many people come in with joy to welcome me back. It is thrilling. I am happy and grateful. I want old friends to know we are here and new customers to come in. Mike and I welcome them all. It’s not a long day when it is spent with friends.”
Hours: Monday – Thursday 11 – 9 PM
Friday – Saturday 11 – 10 PM
Sunday – noon – 9 PM
117 West 5th Avenue,
NewBizOly is written by Holly Graham. To suggest a new business to be featured, write to
Introducing you to new locally-owned businesses…
Melanie Gary and Devon McCabe became partners in life and in tamale-making through a mutual love of good, nutritious food, great cooking, and memories from their childhoods of street tamale wagons coming through their neighborhoods in Oklahoma and California. Once she moved to Olympia, Melanie missed those homemade tamales.
Introducing you to new locally-owned businesses…
Five generations of Rich LaRosa’s paternal and maternal lines made wine in Italy. Later, when his Grandfather Joseph Merendoni immigrated to the states, they carried on making wine in Aberdeen. It’s no wonder that Rich himself followed the family tradition with his own line of Marchetti (pronounced Mar-ketti) fine Old World, unfiltered wines, available for tasting in an elegant room reminiscent of Tuscany in The New Caledonia Building’s Atrium.
The Atrium Courtyard of the New Caledonia Building is a sky lit, magical entrance to what was once an elegant hotel. It is there that Jen Miller, heeding the advice of friends who encouraged her to open her own place, launched The Blend in the spot once occupied by Nona Rosa’s Tea Room.
Gerald Blanchard’s mother, Cheryl, taught him jewelry-making and then encouraged him to open a store to showcase their creations. At last October’s ArtsWalk, Mystical Remnants began, selling memorabilia, collage art, and SteamPunk jewelry.
Lovers of great Vietnamese cuisine know that Saigon Rendezvous is not new. It’s been in downtown Olympia since 1989, the year Mui Nguyen opened it. She sold the place in 2001. What’s new is that, now retired from a successful 36-year career with the state’s Department of Health and Social Services, Mui is back as owner and hostess of the Rendezvous. This time, she has a partner, Mike Shanahan.