LYDIA PLACE | OFFICIAL MONTHLY NEWSLETTER | MAY 2021
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Attention Lydia Place Housing Heroes Monthly Contributors
You may update or change your credit card details via our Financial Manager, Judy Wayt at 360.671.7663 ext 2003 or by filling out an online donation form with your new credit card information here.
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Thank you to the following Housing Heroes for committing to the work of Lydia Place by helping us end family homelessness with a monthly gift! |
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Mary and Jeff Anderson, Anonymous, Marissa Arbogast, Butch and Linda Arnold, Calvin Atkins, Jeanne Baker, Matthew Barrow, David James Beaumier, Judy M. Bell, Wayne Bell, Drew & Michael Betz, Katie Bonello, Brianna Brumbaugh, Michael & Mary Brunt, Debbie Burgess, Rachel Lucy Cecka, Lisa Cerezo, Lisa N Chovil, Karen & Richard Clark, Jennifer Cool, Mychel LeRae Cortese, Susan Costanzo, Sue Croft, Jayme and David Curley, Deb Currier, Shannon & Peter Day, Ana Luisa Dias, Cayla Dickens, Carey Ditton, Michelle Dohm, Morgan Dykeman, Cherish Eastwood, Danielle Elder, Kacia Emley, Pamela Eileen Englett, Graham Essex, Dixie Farthing, Rachel Garcia, Kaitlyn Gerard, Sarah Jane Gielow, Deanna Marie Ginter, Jaylin Lee Godwin, Audrey Gravley and Bill McGinnis, Mindy and Alex Gravley, Stephanie C Hadley, Greer W Hastings, Alycia Hawkins, Meredith Hayes, Roxanna Hayes, Lisa Heezen, Katie Herling, Natalie Hernandez, Shelley Higgins, Afsheen Ali, Stacy James, Karyl Jefferson, Alivia Jelinski, Jennifer M. Johns, Amy Johnson, Hank Kastner, Misty Kemp, Bill Kern & Kay Caylor, Heather Dawn Lange, Tom Laughlin, Dru Lee, Sonja Lee, Matt Lesinski, Sarah Lewis, Megan Liede, Kayla C. Litton, Abby Lollar, Nancy A Long, Rebecca Ludwig, Erin Lynch, Lynda Hinton Real Estate Inc, Katherine McDade, Kate McDonald, Megan C McGinty, Kathleen McQuaide, Heather Michel, Patti K Morgan, Marilyn Moullen, Samantha Murry, Sarah Nuanes, Talia R Nuckolls, Tammie O'Dell, Laura Ann Owens, Tierney Owens, Erin Page, Susan & Jeff Palmer, Deborah Parker, Janne Potter, Melanie S Pysden, Natalie Ransom and Ryan Wimberly, Steffany Raynes, Rice Insurance, Laura Rink, Amanda Robins, Anna Rodriguez, Kathy and Marcus Rowe-Guthrie, Lyn Salazar, Suzannah & Tyler Schroeder, Allison Sculthorp, Emily Olena Sharpe, Susie Simerl, Bethany Smith, Gail A Smith, Jessica Smith, Kathleen Smith, Jillene Snell, Kelly Spencer, Sue Staley, Delores Starcher, Sterling Rentals LLC, Lacey Stewart, Patricia McGuire Stigliani, Chara Stuart, Ryan Thramer, Pepper Tipton, Wylder Tipton, Jeffery Tom, Peter Turner, Bruce Underwood, Shawna Unger, Jamie Valenta, Yvonne Vaughn, Carrie Veldman, Trent John Vigor, Ruby Volker, Elizabeth Walukas, Terell Weg, Chelsea Williams, Adrienne Wrightson,
Tonya Yode
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Thank you the following neighbors who gave a one-time gift this month!
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Anonymous, Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship, Dick Bedlington Family Foundation, Barbara D. Douglas, The Eleanor & Henry Jansen Foundation, F.O.E. AERIE 31, Jessica N Gardner, Pat Hickey, Kroger-Fred Meyer Fund, Lummi Indian Business Council, Sheila Marshall, Adena Mooers, Jana Richter, Elizabeth Snyder, Stauffer Marketing Services, LLC, Superfeet, Veritas Massage, Myron & Paula Wlaznak
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Lydia Place is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and your donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by the law. Scroll to the bottom of this email to learn how The CARES Act impacts your 2021 charitable giving. |
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Heart House Construction is Underway!
After much anticipation and delay due to Covid-19, we are thrilled to announce the construction of Heart House at our Gladstone Campus is officially underway! Stay tuned to our monthly newsletter to hear more about this latest project at Lydia Place.
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The Lydia Place team is expanding! |
We are seeking driven individuals to join our mission. We are in recruitment for a variety of positions including Financial Manager, Outreach Manager, Case Manager, and Maintenance Intern.
In order to continue social distancing practices, we've established new hiring procedures to ensure future applicants and our team stay safe and healthy during the application process.
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Your overwhelming support and contributions helped us raise $58,000 for Lydia Place programs and services! That's nearly triple the amount from last year!
We recognize that the impact this pandemic has had goes beyond the families we serve. Therefore, we are eternally grateful for every contribution and sacrifice made to help make this year's Art for Housing a huge success. This event was a community effort and we are so thankful we get to do this work alongside such compassionate humans like you.
A special thank you to our 2021 Art for Housing Sponsors!
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Cleaning Supplies Needed!
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We are looking for any and all cleaning supplies to help support our on-going need of Welcome Home Essentials we give to our families when they move into their new home.
You can find a full list of supplies needed by downloading our donation guide below or in the Welcome Home Essentials section of our support page on our website. |
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BUSINESS PARTNER GRATITUDE |
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Our gratitude for Haggen continues to grow by the day! Upon hearing that we were looking for new Direct Service Program Partners to help us support monthly celebrations and gatherings for families in our Campus Housing Program, Haggen chose to step up yet again!
Please join us in giving a GIANT THANK YOU to Haggen for generously providing a year's worth of meals to ensure food security and enhance community connection within our multi-family living spaces. Their steadfast compassion and commitment to truly #cultivatingcommunitytogether continues to humble and amaze us!
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Thank you, Veritas Massage!
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Please join us in showing gratitude to Veritas Massage for generously donating a percentage of their profits to support our agency through their Community Love Project this spring! With services focused on healing, wellness, and peace and a vision rooted in compassion, their business is an asset to our community, and we are beyond thankful for their partnership. Thank you, Veritas Massage! |
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Interested in hearing more about this opportunity? Please contact our Business Partnership Coordinator, Rita Thames at ritat@lydiaplace.org.
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COMMUNITY CHAMPION GRATITUDE |
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Thank you,
Ferndale Girl Scouts!
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We want to extend a huge thank you to the Ferndale Girl Scouts for their extremely generous donation of some much-needed goods and some delicious cookies for our clients. This donation could not have come at a better time!
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A huge thank you to Madelyn, a student at WWU, for including us in her donation drive as part of her Introduction to Leadership Studies college course. Thank you for so generously and creatively giving back to your community!
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Hyeshqe,
Children of the Setting Sun Productions!
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We want to extend our sincerest gratitude to ChildrenSSP's Executive Director, Darrell Hillaire and Assistant to the Executive Director, Santana Rabang for offering guidance and support in the development of Lydia Place's land acknowledgement.
Thank you for reminding us that our indigenous communities continue to provide opportunities for our whole community to come together to begin healing- and that we can become better allies just by showing up, listening and learning.
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DONATION PARTNER SPOTLIGHT |
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Flip Premier Kids & Maternity Consignment Shop
Did you know you can support hundreds of Lydia Place families by shopping at and consigning your children's items on behalf of LP at Flip Kids & Maternity in Bellingham?
As an official Donation Partner Location, Flip has opened their shop to allow people in our community, like you, to easily donate new and gently used items on behalf of Lydia Place. All you have to do is mention us during your donation process. Your donations and purchases with FLIP builds up our store credit-something we heavily rely on in order to provide our families with continued access to the items every child and family needs.
Your partnership means the world to us Flip!
Thank you for consistently standing with us to support the children in our county!
Flip Premier Kids & Maternity Consignment Shop
1512 Ellis Street, Bellingham, WA 98225
360.671.0954
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DONATE NEW/GENTLY USED ITEMS |
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Looking to donate your new or gently used items to Lydia Place? You can read about which items we are currently accepting and where to drop them off on our website at www.lydiaplace.org/support or by downloading our handy donation guide below. |
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Ongoing donation needs are also listed on Amazon!
At Lydia Place, we value our community and that means we shop local whenever possible. Due to our inability to accept most donations in-person, we've had to find alternative ways to continue to provide essential items to our families in need. One of the ways we're doing that is through Amazon Wish Lists in order to limit person-to-person contact as much as possible.
These lists can also be used as a reference if you wish to shop locally. We just ask that if you aren't purchasing items from Amazon that they are mailed directly to Lydia Place. If you'd like to discuss on-going donation needs or delivery please contact us at joellepw@lydiaplace.org.
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Don't forget you can support Lydia Place with each purchase you make on Amazon! |
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AmazonSmile in the Shopping App
You can now support your favorite charity through the Amazon app on your iPhone and Android Phones. By turning on the AmazonSmile feature, Amazon will donate 0.5% of all eligible purchases to Lydia Place every time you shop- no additional cost to you.
As of November 2020, AmazonSmile shoppers have generated $1,137.24 for Lydia Place programs and services!
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Celebrating Pride
ACLU Washington-The Washington ACLU works for equal rights and legal protections against discrimination and harassment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in our state.
Human Rights Campaign (HRC)- The largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans, the Human Rights Campaign represents a force of more than 3 million members and supporters nationwide — all committed to making HRC's vision a reality.
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Government Housing Vouchers Are Hard To Get, And Hard To Use
The Biden administration is preparing to release $5 billion in new housing vouchers, approved in the latest COVID relief bill. The goal is to help 70,000 low-income families at risk of homelessness due to the pandemic.
Read more
www.npr.org
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Celebrating Victories
Over the last year we've shared several of Washington Low Income Housing Alliance's action alerts. For our readers who participated in these efforts, we wanted to share the HUGE successes and wins your small action helped make happen!
A new permanent fund source for rental assistance and efforts to prevent and end homelessness: House Bill 1277 adds a fee on real estate transactions like buying or refinancing a home and will raise almost $300 million over the next two years.
Right to counsel: The Governor signed this last week, making Washington the first state to guarantee a lawyer for tenants in eviction court who are low-income or otherwise can’t afford one. The bill also requires repayment plans, bars landlords from refusing to rent to tenants who fell behind during the pandemic, and provides an opportunity for mediation.
Just cause: House Bill 1236 requires that landlords have a legitimate business reason to make someone move, ending the practice of giving tenants 20 day “no cause” notices. This closes a loophole in fair housing laws and will ensure that rental assistance doesn’t just pay back landlords but keeps people in their homes.
Over $1 BILLION to address the housing needs of people in Washington, including:
- $350 million in the capital budget to build and preserve affordable homes, (including $175m for the Housing Trust Fund and $120m to acquire properties that can be quickly converted to housing or shelter)
- $658 million for rental assistance
- $187 million for foreclosure prevention
- $72 million for shelter and housing for people experiencing homelessness
- $27 million increase to the Housing and Essential Needs rental assistance program
House bill 1220 (Future-wise was the lead) prevents cities from banning shelters, transitional housing, or permanent supportive housing and requires jurisdictions planning under the Growth Management Act to identify policies that create racially disparate impacts, displacement, and exclusion – and to identify and implement policies to undo that harm.
Capital gains: The legislature passed a 7% excise tax on extraordinary profits from the sale of financial assets of over $250,000 per year. This tax would be paid almost exclusively by the richest 1% of Washingtonians and would generate more than $500 million per year. We participated in this coalition effort – lead by the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, Balance our Tax Code Coalition, and Invest in Washington Now.
Stay tuned for more action opportunities in next month's newsletter!
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How the CARES Act Impacts Charitable Giving for 2021
New Deduction Available: Non-itemizer taxpayers can write off up to $300 per tax return (up to $600 for married couples filing jointly) in charitable cash contributions for 2021. This is available only to people who take the standard deduction, not for people who can itemize their deductions on Schedule A. It is an “above the line” deduction from income that will reduce a donor’s adjusted gross income (AGI), and thereby reduce taxable income.
This information is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor. References to tax rates include federal taxes only and are subject to change. State law may further impact your individual results.
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