SEATTLE — On Friday, Chief Seattle Club opened doors to its "Sacred Medicine House," an apartment complex in Seattle's Lake City neighborhood dedicated to permanently housing people experiencing homelessness.
Every unit inside looks like a typical apartment building, until it doesn't.
James Lovell, Chief Seattle Club's development director, said the 120-unit new construction prioritizes serving residents who might be in recovery. For example, stoves have auto-shutoff features in case someone falls asleep or loses consciousness while cooking. There are floor drains in the bathroom in case a shower overflows.
"We have these floor drains in the bathroom because if you're -- especially if someone falls asleep in the shower, it overflows and we can at least get it draining," Lovell explained.
The building is also filled with murals done by Indigenous artists. Chief Seattle Club's Executive Director Derrick Belgarde said it's an intentional decision to help Native American residents feel seen. He projects the majority of their residents will be indigenous, as the Native population is disproportionately impacted by homelessness.
"We always have the highest disparities in homelessness, here in King County it's the same," Belgarde said. "We make up two percent of the population but just a few short years ago, we were 32 percent of chronic single adult homelessness. One hundred twenty units for the Native community does mean a lot."
Though permanent housing isn't the full answer to homelessness or the addiction crisis, Belgarde said it's a fundamental start to addressing it.
"We have addiction, especially now with fentanyl, we need to have more medical-type programming within our system, but permanent stable housing is the first step towards that," he added.
Chief Seattle Club said it will start welcoming its first residents at the end of April.