Seattle Foundation makes $800,000 in new grants

February 13, 2009 by Prakash Dhawan · Leave a Comment
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Medical bills from a high-risk pregnancy left the parents of two young children buried in debt and on the verge of losing their split-level home. A housing counselor at Solid Ground, a Seattle-based nonprofit, talked the bank into giving the couple more time and worked with them toward meeting their payments. The man took a second job. The woman started earning extra money stuffing envelopes from home, and they were able to avoid foreclosure.

Solid Ground is one of five housing and human-service agencies that will receive part of more than $800,000 in grants announced Monday by the Seattle Foundation. Money from the foundation’s Building Resilience Fund is expected to help about 350 Puget Sound-area families and 800 others who are losing traction in an increasingly dismal economy.

Solid Ground plans to use its $100,000 grant to pay for an additional housing counselor, who will work with 150 to 200 families who are facing the threat of mortgage foreclosure. The number of calls the agency receives from desperate people each week has doubled in recent months.

“The people who come to us have nowhere else to go,” development director Paul Haas said. The Seattle Foundation awarded the money to local agencies that help people facing homelessness, unemployment or domestic violence.

A $210,00 grant will go to Neighborhood House, $255,000 to YWCA, $150,000 to Catholic Community Services and $90,000 to Hopelink. The foundation encourages charitable giving from local philanthropists and corporations, including The Boeing Co., Microsoft Corp., Starbucks and Safeco. Leaders hope to raise more than $6 million for the fund over the next three years.

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