One of UUC's strongest social justice legacies is in the area of affordable and supportive housing. University Unitarian Church purchased and opened the first group housing for AIDS patients in Seattle. The church also owns three other properties that house individuals with mental illness. Our congregation has helped to build three houses through Habitat for Humanity.

Affordable Housing Programs

Housing for the Mentally Ill 

UUC owns three residential homes which provide affordable, supportive group housing for adults experiencing mental illness. The church works in partnership with Community Psychiatric Clinic, which places residents and provides mental health and case management services.

DeWolfe House

UUC also owns DeWolfe House, which is operated by Rosehedge/Multifaith Works, a community organization specializing in services to people living with HIV/AIDS. In 1985, the UUC congregation formed a study group to look at the needs of people suffering from HIV/AIDS, and what the church might be called to do to help with this emerging epidemic. In 1988 UUC purchased a house on Capital Hill which was to become the first AIDS housing in the city of Seattle. For many years it was operated directly by a group of UUC volunteers, and in 1995 it was re-named DeWolfe House, after the first UU minister to die of AIDS, and leased to Rosehedge.

Unitarian Housing Group

The Unitarian Housing Group is an independent nonprofit organization, established by UUC in the 1980s, that develops and provides affordable, community-based housing and supportive services to low-income people with special needs in the greater Seattle area.  To get involved with UHG, contact Sarajane Siegfriedt.

UUC's History with Habitat for Humanity

One aspect of UUC's commitment to affordable housing has been an longtime partnership with Habitat for Humanity.

In 2005, UUC took the lead congregational role in an interfaith build in partnership with Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, and Jewish organizations. That house was dedicated and the keys turned over to a Vietnamese family in December, 2005. In June, 2006, we raised $20,000 toward a second house at High Point in West Seattle. This was another interfaith build, led by University Congregational Church and dedicated in August, 2007.

In November 2009 we proudly dedicated our third Habitat house, this one built in partnership with the East Shore and Westside UU congregations. Located in the High Point neighborhood of West Seattle, it is now home to a single father from Somalia and his five children.