Vision House's Jacob's Well Moving Closer to Completion

On Sunday, May 22, executive director Susan Camerer and her husband, director of operations John Camerer of Vision House and dozens of their volunteers gathered to honor work in progress at Jacob's Well, 19610 – 20th Ave NE in Shoreline.  

When completed, 20 housing units will be available to homeless mothers and their children.  A childcare center will care for kids from birth to age twelve.  Furthermore, administrative offices will provide crisis counseling and other services to encourage and teach life skills to their clients.

Wearing a blue T-shirt that read, “Vision House. Building Hope.  Restoring Lives”  Susan Camerer said, “This is what we call a Topping Out Ceremony.  The ceremony is a religious ceremony where we thank God for the protection of the workers on the construction site and his provisions so far. The ceremony will climax with an evergreen branch being put at the very top of a wood frame structure.”  

Lunch was served and tours of the complex were given.

By using volunteers, Vision House saved an estimated $180,000 in labor costs.  In addition, on site help from volunteers making meals to feed the crews and volunteers saved another $30,000, for a total of $230,000 of cost savings.

“What we are celebrating today is the fact that we’ve had 500 volunteers who donated over 8,000 service hours to get this project built," Susan Camerer said. 

Craig Hawkins, the framing coordinator and main volunteer coordinator, praised the volunteers work ethic.

“I am proud of the people who have come out here and found a new faith in themselves," he said. "They started, thinking they didn’t know how to do things and have been incredible in helping us build this thing.”  

For roughly two decades, Vision House has provided transitional assistance and human services to single moms and their kids, according to a press release.  In addition, Vision House has come to the aid of men recovering from substance abuse by offering programs for these men to acquire independent living.  Vision House has programs in Renton, Burien and soon to be completed, Shoreline.

In 1990, The Camerers watched a movie called “God Bless the Child.”  It was a depiction of a single mother who became homeless after a series of unfortunate events.  The mother had to hand over her daughter to state custody because she couldn’t care for the daughter on the street.  Inspired by this movie, The Camerers took action.  They researched resources for homeless families, coming to a conclusion that there was a great need for affordable housing.  They started Vision House with an $800 personal check, hope and their faith.

About $1.2 million in cash contributions and in kind contributions/volunteer services has been raised with a goal of $2.3 million.

“Our dream would be to move families in for Christmas, maybe December 15th of this year," Susan Camerer said. "It would completely depend on funding.  Right now we are working on a pay-as-you-go basis.  We raise money, we build and repeat;  right now we have the resources to get the roof on,  put windows and doors in.  After this we will start raising money for the plumbing, electrical, heating and mechanical and low voltage.  It will all depend on how much resources we can raise."

If you have additional questions, please contact Vision House at (425) 228-6356 or info@vision-house.org.  Please visit their website at www.NoHomelessKids.org.