Located in the White Center neighborhood of southwest King County, the primary goal of the Willows is to fill a gap in availability of suitable housing and related services for these homeless families.

The Grand Opening for The Willows was held on April 26, with an amazing crowd of over 200 funders, supporters, community members and others. The keynote speech was provided by King County Executive Ron Sims, who said "The Willows gives homeless women access to housing and treatment services and supports so that they can get back on the road to recovery and build more stable and healthier lives for themselves and their children. Working together, it is projects like the Willows that will help us achieve our goal of ending homelessness in King County."

The security and stability of housing fulfills our most basic and profound needs. This holds especially true for persons with mental illness and chemical dependency, who, without housing stability, historically relapse, perpetuating a cycle of treatment and failure and the repeated use of expensive community services. For the children, or yet to be born children of such individuals, the results can be catastrophic, including fetal alcohol syndrome or a life filled with chaotic parenting. Experience has taught us that disabled persons are not only more motivated to participate in their recovery efforts when they have a place to call home, they are significantly more successful.

This project provides a model of service enriched housing that simply does not exist elsewhere in King County, combining supported housing, psychiatric treatment, substance abuse treatment, specialized children’s services, long term advocacy, access to vocational opportunities and many other services. The Willows will assist families in a way that will assure continuity of services before, during and after their stay in residence. It will provide help for mothers to manage their mental illness, engage in recovery, learn parenting skills and prepare for independent living. The program will help prevent fetal alcohol births, will promote family reunification and will support children who have been victimized by their chaotic circumstances. Families will receive highly integrated and continuously seamless care that will assure coordination and continuity of all aspects of their housing, services and treatment while in residence in the project and into the future. A highly unique facility design will assure family security, facilitate services, and create flexible unit size to accommodate changes in family composition due to family reunification.

The Willows was developed with funding support from the Washington State Housing Trust Fund, the King County Housing Finance Program, The King County Housing Authority and the Gates Foundation Sound Families Initiative, with additional funding provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Medina Foundation, the Seattle Foundation and The Stocker Foundation. Ongoing service funding will be provided by King County Housing Authority, the Nesholm Family Foundation, the Northwest Children's Fund and the Gates Foundation Sound Families Initiative.