New YWCA Shelter Opens This Week

Tamie Luchin found the card in a courthouse bathroom, imploring her to seek help to escape her abusive relationship.

Calling that hotline was the moment she says her life began to turn around.

“If I would have looked back from then to now, I never would have thought that I would be where I am,” she said Monday, tearing up as she waited to speak at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the YWCA Pierce County’s brand-new shelter.

Luchin is just one of many women who have spent months of their lives at the YWCA’s old shelter, getting back on their feet after escaping abusive relationships. Her time there was crucial to her rehabilitation after nine months of emotional, physical and mental abuse, but the old building was not designed to be a shelter and was no longer sustainable.

So two years ago, the YWCA went to work, raising more than $5 million to purchase and refurbish the old Wilsonian apartment building on St. Helens Ave.

The YWCA shelter was the first of its kind in Washington when it opened in 1976, and since then has housed up to 50 women and children at a time. The new building will house up to 80 people in 22 apartments, and features private bathrooms and kitchens for the families staying there.

The new building, staff members say, will offer the women a bit of much-needed beauty and dignity in addition to their safety.

YWCA Marketing and Events Manager Kelly McDonald said she found this was an issue that people didn’t want to say no to. All it took was a walk-through of the old shelter to let people imagine what it would mean to a woman in the most desperate of situations to have her own sink, her own bathroom, while she works to get her life restarted.

Each of the 22 apartments was adopted by a local designer, and each is completely unique. Karen Hirschman, who designed a two-bedroom unit with fellow designers Yvonne Leone and Athena Milan, said the designers all got so into the project, scouring yard sales, taking donations and putting up a hefty amount of cash themselves.

“It’s the first thing any of us had done like this,” she said. “It’s amazing what you can do when you really have to.”

Luchin too was thrilled with the new space.

“I love it. The first thing [I thought] when I walked in is that hope is there,” she said. “I felt like ‘I can do it.’”

The new shelter will be open to the public for an event this Friday and Saturday. Tour the 22 unique apartments for $10 per person.

What: Room to Dream shelter showcase
Where: 401 St. Helens (old Wilsonian Apartments building)
When: Friday, Oct. 22 from 2 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 23 from 10 to 5 p.m.
Cost: $10 (Trust us, it’s worth it.)