Bridgeview hopes for $1.69M more in help

If you win the lottery, Bridgeview’s executive director Jan Wichert has an idea for how to spend the winnings.

About $1.69 million is needed to start construction on a new education and employment resource center in March. If funding isn’t pieced together in time, then the project could get prohibitively expensive, said Roy Johnson, executive director of Vancouver Housing Authority.

The 8,500-square-foot center would house, or at least be a touch point for, such agencies as WorkSource, Clark College and the Clark County Food Bank. The idea is that resources needed to get out of poverty are easier to access and navigate if they’re concentrated in one place.

“All of us want the same thing: stable families, good jobs, healthy kids, an environment where high school graduation and post-secondary education isn’t a hurdle but rather a reasonable expectation,” Wichert said during a reception Wednesday. “For that to happen, parents need long-term, stable employment. Children need to come home to a family that can plan for the future, pay their bills, encourage success.”

The center is part of the revitalization plan for Skyline Crest, a 20-acre subsidized housing community in the Vancouver Heights neighborhood. The plans include classrooms, offices, a computer lab and teaching kitchen at Bridgeview Education and Employment Resource Center, which would share a wall with the recently-opened Heights O.K. 2 Clubhouse run by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Washington.

So far, $2.21 million has been raised for the center:

• Vancouver Housing Authority committed $1 million.

• The Washington state Legislature committed $750,000 as part of the capital funding bill passed during the special session.

• Community Development Block Grants from the county and city total $250,000.

• The Community Foundation for Southwest Washington is giving $50,000.

• Other donations, including $25,000 from Divine Consign, total $160,000.

Ideally, Bridgeview would like to get another $1.25 million from the state Legislature and possibly a $250,000 grant from the Firstenburg Foundation, which would leave $190,000 left to raise through a community campaign.

That’s the dream scenario. As the legislators who support the project are aware, state money is not a guarantee — and if Bridgeview does get money, it could be less than expected.

“Over the last 25 years, a lot of the funds that were used to help people out of poverty came from the federal government, and they dried up. At the same time as those funds have dried up, we’ve learned a lot about what are best practices and how you really get people out of poverty,” said Rep. Sharon Wylie, D-Vancouver. “The data shows that if you provide these wrap-around services, if you look at the family as a unit, and if you help people help themselves. It works.”

Bipartisan support

Support for the Bridgeview Education and Employment Resource Center has been bipartisan despite the divisive campaign season.

Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, said the project reminded him of Fred Meyer — where his mother used to work decades ago — which is hailed as one-stop shopping. The Bridgeview Education and Employment Resource Center would be a one-stop shop for social services.

“I think what this project does to me is make me reflect on how blessed I am as an individual,” Harris said. “I’ve gone through difficult times in my life, but not really what some of these people go through.”

Since 2012, Bridgeview has worked on behalf of Vancouver Housing Authority to refer people to resources, education and employment needed to become more independent.

“Housing is very important, but so are the services to make sure that they flourish once they are in housing,” Johnson said.

On Thursday, the housing authority’s board of directors approved a continuation of pre-development activities for the resource center, with construction intended to start March 2017.

Vancouver Housing Authority’s planned 25-unit apartment complex called Caples Terrace hinges on the resource center getting funded and built in a timely manner. Caples Terrace is supposed to be built at the current site of Rise & Stars Community Center at 500 Omaha Way, which won’t be torn down until Bridgeview opens. Johnson hopes to begin on Caples Terrace in early 2018. The complex will house unaccompanied youth and youth aging out of foster care.

Johnson said if the start of Bridgeview construction gets stretched beyond the spring, the resource center and the apartment complex will become more expensive and less viable.

A steering committee was formed to assist in raising the remaining money needed for Bridgeview.