Anacortes Community Shelter Project

After several years of fund raising and work with the comunity the Anacortes Community Shelter  Project has broken ground and building has begun. The project, lead by Eric Johnson, has raised 2.2 million and has another $200,000 to go. While I think it’s an outstanding project, and a much needed one for Anacortes, I don’t understand the need to build. There are currently two 13 unit apartment buildings for sale in Anacortes, both in the mid to upper 1.4’s, meaning the project could have been up and running long ago, with no builiding needed and they’d end up with more units than their current design allows. But that’s just my Realtor mind at work. And yes, this was pitched to either the board, or memebers of the board more than once.

In any case, the project has started and I think it’s a great thing for our community. Homes are being torn down on 27th street just off Commercial and work will begin soon, Nels of Strandberg Construction has been contracted to build. Eric has done a great job getting this going and our suprising amount of homeless here in the community will benefit. One of the draws to this project is that they do not just house homeless, they have to subscribe to a program to get themselves back on thier feet if they want to live in the Shelter and I think that treating the cause rather than just solving the problem is important. This is just one of the reasons I’ve joined with those in my companty to donate over $5,000 to the project over the last few years, with more to come.
Well done Eric and crew!

-Nate