EVERETT — For more than a year now, Jasmine Donahue has been treading water.
Her organization, Hope ‘N Wellness, has operated in downtown Everett since 2020. It provides a place for those in need — particularly people experiencing homelessness or addiction — to warm up, keep track of appointments and store personal belongings.
Now, though, it’s at risk of shutting down for good. Since it opened, the organization has been violating a city code, initially passed in 2006 and expanded in 2018, which prohibits social services from operating on the ground floor on certain streets within “Metro Everett.” That area encompasses the city’s downtown business district, Everett station, parts of the Broadway corridor and some surrounding commercial and residential areas.
Donahue first learned of the code when the city notified her of the violation in December 2023. Since then, she’s met with city staff to try and find a solution, but little progress has been made, she said. The city first ordered her to cease operations by October 2024. That has since been delayed to the end of this February.
If the organization located at 3021 Rucker Ave. moved just a few blocks away, or was on the second floor of a building in the downtown area, it could continue to operate as a social service facility. As it stands, however, the city says it must enforce its code, which limits downtown storefronts to retail and dining to “create lively clusters of businesses that will positively activate our downtown core,” Everett’s mayor Cassie Franklin said in a recorded statement on Jan. 8.
The city has stressed the issue is solely with Hope ‘N Wellness’ zoning noncompliance, not the services it provides.
But the organization is doing much-needed work, Donahue said, at a time when homelessness is on the rise and other places where people could stay warm, like Everett’s public libraries, are seeing their hours cut. Hope ‘N Wellness — which serves an average of 521 people a month, Donahue said — does not receive any money from the city and its location is one of the reasons it’s able to operate in the first place.
“It’s super frustrating to see everybody talk about solutions and talk about things,” Donahue said on Jan. 6. “We may not be the cookie-cutter service, but what we’re doing is working, and it really does make an impact.”
‘No drugs, no drama, no violence’
Donahue opened Hope ‘N Wellness to serve as a zero-barrier community peer center allowing anybody in need, with a home or otherwise, to access its services.
People can use the physical address as a place to send their mail. They can grab donated winter clothing to stay warm, take a quick nap on a couch, or pick up clean clothes and wash themselves before a court appearance. There are only a few rules inside: no drugs, no drama, no violence.
“You hear it over and over that people are frustrated, they don’t know what to do about it, there’s homeless people everywhere,” Donahue said. “If we give people a safe place to be at, to choose to engage in services or choose to just come in and get their thoughts straight, that’s a bonus for the entire community.”
The building used by Hope ‘N Wellness is a former coffee shop, located alongside an abandoned building and across the street from the Snohomish County Health Department. Donahue pays no rent, only covering utility costs, she said. The building’s owner supports the work Donahue is doing and wants to see the building put to productive use.
If Hope ‘N Wellness was forced to move, finding a comparable location for the same costs would be nearly impossible.
“It’s perfect for what we’re doing and who we serve, and it’s completely not perfect for the city and their plans,” Donahue said.
The benefits of the location aren’t just limited to low costs either. Located in the heart of Snohomish County, not just the city, the building is close to bus lines, government agencies and the county court system. That accessibility is a major benefit to Donahue’s work, said Angela Di Filippo, the vice chair of the Snohomish County Human Rights Commission. She has 10 years of experience as a social worker.
“She [Donahue] chose the location she is currently at with that accessibility in mind,” Di Filippo said. “Moving forward, she might not be able to operate in Everett anymore, and that would be a huge loss to the community because these homeless individuals who are utilizing these services, they will be abandoned again. They will have to start at square one, which will not help them get off the street. It will perpetuate the issue that people are saying is a problem.”
‘We’re not resolving any underlying issues’
Everett first restricted a number of uses on the ground floor downtown via a 2006 ordinance, which prohibited food banks, arcades, pawn shops, tattoo parlors as well as social service agencies on the first floor of certain streets. That ordinance was limited to a small section of the downtown area.
In 2018, those restrictions were expanded upon by a number of laws outlining land use within Metro Everett. The laws prevented social services on the ground floor of all pedestrian or transit oriented development streets in the Metro Everett area, which make up most of the city’s downtown core west of Broadway. That includes the section of Rucker Avenue Hope ‘N Wellness is located on.
In total, the restricted streets make up about 9% of the total land Hope ‘N Wellness could occupy within city limits, Everett’s Planning Director Yorik Stevens-Wajda said at the Jan. 8 City Council meeting.
The City Council passed the Metro Everett plan after more than two years of planning and community input. Before the plan was passed, the city’s planning commission recommended imposing no limitations to the placement of clinics and social services on the ground floor of Metro Everett, according to a July 2018 memo to council.
A number of complaints from surrounding businesses in 2022 led to the city investigating Hope ‘N Wellness, Everett’s Community Development Director Julie Willie said in an interview Jan. 8. City staff worked to connect people to services and thanked Hope ‘N Wellness for its work, she said, but also raised concerns over nearby “trespassing, loitering, defecation, and open-air drug use.”
In a letter the city wrote to Donahue in December 2023, Stevens-Wajda said Hope ‘N Wellness was not compliant with city code and its services had “contributed to increased street-level issues related to encampments, discarded garbage and drug loitering.” That assessment was based on reports from nearby businesses, as well as from the city’s social workers and its homeless coordinator who observe the downtown area, he said in an interview Jan. 8.
Between April and August 2024, there were twenty “qualifying offenses” reported by police in a 200-foot area around Hope ‘N Wellness which contributed to the city creating a new “no-sit, no-lie” buffer zone in the area last November. Those offenses mostly included drug use, loitering and trespassing, with one incident of theft.
Sitting, lying down or providing services to people on public property in a buffer zone is classified as a misdemeanor. After a warning, those in violation could face up to 90 days in jail and fines up to $500.
Demi Chatters, current chair of Everett’s planning commission, said the city’s zoning policy of clustering businesses downtown is a strong strategy to create cohesive spaces which support economic development. But the choice to place limits on social services in the area impacts some of the most vulnerable people in Everett, she said.
“Where’s the evidence that it’s actually achieving anything?” Chatters said. “We have not seen a reduction in these types of core problems, homelessness, crimes of opportunity, vandalism. We’re not resolving any underlying issues. Our small businesses are not having an easier time with this. So what are we achieving by further restricting access to services for this population that we really need to support, instead of make things harder for?”
‘This is my first rodeo’
Since Donahue received notice of her code violation in 2023, she and the city have met multiple times and exchanged a number of emails. In September 2024, the city issued a corrective action notice, giving Donahue a month to cease operations or relocate Hope ‘N Wellness by Oct. 21. The city later extended that deadline to Feb. 28 of this year.
Donahue is not familiar with city codes, and acknowledges it’s not the city’s job to educate her on the law. But she also felt the communication between her and the city was not productive.
“This is my first rodeo in this type of arena,” Donahue said. “I don’t know what to expect.”
City staff, on the other hand, say they’ve worked with Hope ‘N Wellness to find a solution to the problem. Staff have kept lines of communication open and extended deadlines multiple times, Willie said.
It’s also unusual for a business to continue operating in violation of city code more than a year after being notified, Stevens-Wajda said.
“I could call this extenuating circumstances,” he said. “Our goal is never to be punitive, but just to achieve the compliance and legal operations.”
In response to the city’s notices, Donahue has reduced her open hours to one day per week and has continued to search for a new location. With a few more months of cold weather still to come, she’s not confident she’ll be able to find a place to go.
“I very much am not here to cause waves or be disrespectful or think that I’m some exception to the rules, because I know better than all of that,” Donahue said. “But there’s a very big need out here. It’s trying to balance standing up for what is right without being disrespectful.”
It’s unlikely the City Council could change the code before the Feb. 28 deadline, council member Liz Vogeli said in an email. For the code to be changed, legislation would have to be drafted by the city’s legal department before the planning commission would meet, discuss and deliver a recommendation. The ordinance would then be added to the City Council’s agenda and have three readings. It would likely be April before the law could be amended, even if it had the backing of the majority of council members.
“I am disturbed that the City of Everett is working so diligently to shut down Hope and Wellness,” Vogeli wrote. “I understand there is a code violation but instead of working with Jasmine to come into compliance, the City is bending over backward to remove her business from its current space.”
At the Jan. 8 meeting, council member Mary Fosse suggested finding a time for Donahue, city staff and the council to meet and work toward a solution. City staff reached out to Donahue a week later, Mayor Franklin said at Wednesday’s council meeting, but a meeting date has not been set.
“The Metro Everett plan was developed with significant public input and reflects our community’s vision for a revitalized downtown,” Franklin said in a recorded statement Jan. 8. “A true destination, with robust amenities and much more housing to help add density and address our region’s housing crisis in a very smart way.”
Di Filippo also wants a revitalized downtown. She fell in love with Everett after moving from North Carolina more than a decade ago. She wants to see progress, economic development and a booming city too. But, she said, “you can’t put the cart before the horse.”
“We cannot have that city if we are completely dismissing those in the most vulnerable positions, those that are elderly, immigrant communities, homeless individuals. All those groups matter,” Di Filippo said. “If we leave them behind, we are ultimately saying there is a line somewhere, and if you’re below that line, you are not worthy of existing in our city. Is that really a place any of us want to live?”
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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