ALBION PLACE
CREATING A NEW BUT FAMILIAR HOME
Albion Place is CPC’s new addition to the Keystone residential facility, Seattle, WA
Community Psychiatric Clinic (CPC) recently opened Albion Place, one of the first apartments in the country to offer permanent independent living for persons with mental illness. CPC, which has been recognized for their innovative work in psychiatric care, found that some clients in their facilities were capable of living independently, but were frightened of regressing because of changes in where they lived. Albion Place was designed with those folks in mind. It allows persons with mental illness to live independently, yet still have a lifeline to CPC. It is located adjacent to CPC’s Keystone residential facility in Seattle.
Albion Place’s 12 units for single adults were designed by ARC Architects in Seattle and were built by Taylor Construction, with funding from the Seattle Housing Authority, Washington State Housing Trust Fund, City of Seattle, Federal Home Loan Bank /Sterling Savings Bank, Washington Mutual Foundation, the Norcliffe Foundation and the Nesholm Family Foundation
CPC provides a continuum of housing, from supervised residential facilities to semi-independent housing to permanent independent housing. They operate three 24-hour supervised residential facilities with over 60 beds. Its 22 cluster homes allow persons with mental illness to live together supportively with regular weekly visits from professional CPC staff.
CPC is one of the few nonprofit mental health agencies developing housing throughout King County. It often partners with nonprofit developers by providing service-enriched, supportive housing in a nonprofit development.One example is Columbia Court, which is owned by the Low Income Housing Institute. LIHI provides a resident manager, while CPC provides a trained child and family clinician who is on site at daily. CPC fills the units with families in transition seeking permanent housing and provides full mental health services including psychiatric care, medications, and 24-hour crisis response.
Mike Nielsen, CPC’s director of residential services, says the most pressing future housing needs for persons with mental illness include permanent housing for homeless families, young adults, those with co-occurring mental illness and chemical dependency, and specialized housing for older adults with mental illness.
Another CPC project opening in 2005 is The Willows, a transitional housing facility in White Center for homeless, mentally ill and chemically dependent, pregnant or post-partum mothers and their children.
CPC offers training about mental illness for apartment managers for a fee. To learn how your staff can be trained, contact Mike Nielsen at 206/ 545-2355 or mnielsen@cpcwa.org.
