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Category: Everett Neighborhoods

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  • Meet Dr. Chemene Crawford: The EvCC President Who Believes Everett’s Workforce Future Runs Through Community College

    Q: Who is the president of Everett Community College?
    Dr. Chemene Crawford has served as president of Everett Community College since July 2023. She brings more than 30 years in higher education to the role, including a prior presidency at North Seattle College, and now leads an institution that serves more than 17,000 students a year across Snohomish County.

    Meet Dr. Chemene Crawford: The EvCC President Who Believes Everett’s Workforce Future Runs Through Community College

    If you want to understand how Everett is building its workforce for the next decade — in aerospace, healthcare, technology, and trades — you need to understand Everett Community College. And if you want to understand EvCC right now, you need to know Dr. Chemene Crawford.

    Crawford has been president of Everett Community College since July 2023. She arrived from North Seattle College, where she had served as president and CEO. Before that, she spent years in the Dallas County Community College District in Texas, one of the largest community college systems in the United States, as associate vice chancellor. In total, she brings more than 30 years of higher education experience to a campus that was founded in 1941 with 128 students and a single mission: give Everett residents a path forward.

    That mission has not changed. What’s changed is how complicated the landscape around it has become.

    What EvCC Is Today

    Everett Community College serves more than 17,000 students per year. It employs more than 800 faculty and staff across multiple locations throughout Snohomish County and online. Its main campus sits at 2000 Tower Street in the Northwest Everett neighborhood — inside the historic core of the city, near the neighborhood that defines Everett’s original identity as a civic and industrial place.

    The college offers 39 fields of study, from transfer programs that send students to four-year universities to professional-technical certificates that place graduates directly into Snohomish County’s skilled trades economy. The Advanced Manufacturing Training and Education Center — AMTEC — opened in 2014 and expanded in 2015 to 54,000 square feet, serving six aerospace and advanced manufacturing programs. It’s one of the few community college facilities in the country built specifically to supply a regional aerospace employer — Boeing — with the kind of technically trained workforce a modern production line requires.

    The EvCC campus guide covers the physical facilities in detail. What it can’t fully capture is what it’s like to run an institution at the center of everything Everett is trying to become.

    The Role Running Start Plays — And the Pressure It’s Under

    One of the programs Crawford is navigating carefully is Running Start — Washington State’s dual-credit system that allows high school students to take community college courses tuition-free, earning college credit while they’re still enrolled in high school. For Everett Public Schools families, Running Start at EvCC has long been a tangible way to reduce the cost and time of a college education.

    State budget discussions in early 2026 raised questions about the long-term funding levels for dual-credit programs statewide. The Herald reported in March 2026 that budget pressures could reduce local dual-credit program access. For a president running a college whose students include a significant number of Running Start participants from Everett, Mukilteo, and surrounding districts, that conversation is not abstract — it’s a direct threat to one of the most cost-effective tools for economic mobility that families in this part of Washington have access to.

    Crawford hasn’t commented publicly on the specifics of the legislative session outcomes — but the college’s investment in its institutional infrastructure, in its AMTEC workforce pipeline, and in its University Center (which allows students to complete bachelor’s degrees on the EvCC campus through partner universities) signals a president who is building depth, not depending on any single funding stream.

    The University Center Model: Two Degrees, One Campus

    About 45 percent of EvCC’s transfer students originally came to EvCC with a bachelor’s degree in mind — and many of them complete that degree without leaving the campus at 2000 Tower Street. The University Center brings partner institutions to the EvCC campus, allowing students to complete their final two years of a bachelor’s program locally. For South Everett and Casino Road families for whom commuting to Seattle or Bellingham represents a real barrier, that model is not a convenience — it’s the difference between a degree and not getting one.

    That’s the kind of structural thinking Crawford appears to be focused on: reducing the friction between aspiration and achievement for people who are already working, already raising families, already embedded in Everett’s communities.

    What It Means for the Neighborhoods

    EvCC’s students don’t come primarily from families with four-year university plans and college savings accounts. They come from Northwest Everett, from the Casino Road corridor, from the neighborhoods of South Everett where community organizations like LETI are building digital access infrastructure because internet access and tech literacy remain real barriers to higher education. Crawford’s institution is the post-secondary stop for the students coming out of Everett’s K-12 system — the same system that just posted a 96.3% graduation rate.

    When EPS sends more graduates across the stage, EvCC gets more enrollment applicants. When the college and career readiness tools that high school students use actually point them toward EvCC’s programs, the pipeline works. When that pipeline is disrupted — by budget cuts, by a lack of information about what’s available, or by the kind of friction that makes the process feel inaccessible — students who could have found their path don’t.

    Crawford is managing that ecosystem. It’s the job her title implies and the actual work her leadership requires.

    A Note on Verifying This Profile

    Dr. Crawford’s role and background are confirmed via EvCC’s official administration page (everettcc.edu/administration/president) and through multiple HeraldNet reports covering her appointment and her college’s programming. Her compensation of $281,000 is a matter of public record, as reported by the Herald. This profile draws only on her public role as president of a public institution — her work for the community college system is the story, and it’s a public story.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Who is the current president of Everett Community College?
    Dr. Chemene Crawford has served as EvCC president since July 2023. She previously led North Seattle College and worked in the Dallas County Community College District in Texas.

    How many students does EvCC serve?
    Everett Community College serves more than 17,000 students per year across multiple Snohomish County locations and online programs, with more than 800 faculty and staff.

    What is Running Start at EvCC?
    Running Start is Washington State’s dual-credit program that allows high school students to take EvCC courses tuition-free, earning both high school and college credits simultaneously. It’s a key pathway for EPS and Mukilteo SD families looking to reduce the cost of higher education.

    What workforce programs does EvCC offer?
    EvCC’s Advanced Manufacturing Training and Education Center (AMTEC) is a 54,000-square-foot facility offering six aerospace and manufacturing programs. The college also offers professional-technical programs in healthcare, business, IT, and the trades — designed to place graduates directly into Snohomish County jobs.

    Where is Everett Community College located?
    The main campus is at 2000 Tower Street in Everett’s Northwest neighborhood. Additional locations and online programs serve students across Snohomish County.

    What is the University Center at EvCC?
    The University Center brings partner universities to the EvCC campus, allowing students to complete bachelor’s degrees locally without transferring to a four-year school. About 45 percent of EvCC’s transfer students began with a bachelor’s degree in mind.

    How is EvCC handling state budget pressures on dual-credit programs?
    State budget discussions in early 2026 raised concerns about dual-credit program funding. EvCC has not made public announcements specific to program cuts, but the college’s investment in workforce programs, AMTEC, and the University Center signals a strategy built on institutional depth rather than dependence on any single funding stream.

  • Living in Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven: Everett’s Puget Sound View Neighborhood Most Locals Have Never Explored

    Q: What is the Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven neighborhood in Everett?
    Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven is an official City of Everett neighborhood on the northwest side of the city, about four miles from downtown. It combines three adjacent sub-communities — Harborview, Seahurst, and Glenhaven — into one neighborhood association area. It’s known for quiet streets, Puget Sound views, and one of the most consistently active neighborhood communities in Everett.

    Living in Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven: Everett’s Puget Sound View Neighborhood Most Locals Have Never Explored

    Ask most Everett residents where Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven is, and you’ll get a pause. It’s not a neighborhood that shows up in conversations the way Riverside or Silver Lake does. It doesn’t have a landmark event or a famous street. What it has is something harder to describe until you’ve been there: a view of Possession Sound that stops you mid-sentence, a quietness that still feels like a city neighborhood, and a housing market that has quietly become one of the stronger performers in Snohomish County.

    It’s also the last official City of Everett neighborhood to get its own spotlight on this desk. That ends tonight.

    Three Neighborhoods, One Community

    Harborview, Seahurst, and Glenhaven are three distinct sub-areas that the City of Everett officially groups under a single neighborhood association. They share a western edge along Puget Sound, a school pathway through Everett Unified, and a geography that sets them apart from most of Everett’s other neighborhoods: they sit high above the water, tucked into the bluffs northwest of Casino Road, with views that most visitors don’t expect to find in a working-class Pacific Northwest city.

    The neighborhood sits roughly four miles west of downtown Everett. That distance is real — most daily errands require a car, and residents know it. But the trade-off is a quieter, more residential character than you’d find in Twin Creeks or the area around Evergreen Way.

    What Makes It Feel Different

    Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven earns a B+ safety rating from neighborhood data services, which puts it among the safer areas in Everett. Residents consistently describe it using the same words: clean, peaceful, safe, dog-friendly, family-oriented. The neighborhood has a population of approximately 4,700, with an average household income above the national average at around $124,000 — a profile that reflects the mix of longtime owners and newer buyers who have discovered the neighborhood in recent years.

    What drives people here, more than anything, is the water. Stand at Harborview Park on a clear morning and you’re looking at Possession Sound, the Olympic Mountains across the water, and Mount Baker to the northeast. That view is not incidental — it’s the defining feature of this part of Everett, and it explains why a neighborhood that requires a car for most errands has held value the way it has.

    Harborview Park: The Neighborhood’s Anchor

    Harborview Park sits at 1621 W. Mukilteo Blvd. and is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Admission is free. The park is small — a few grassy areas, benches, dirt walking paths, and a viewpoint — but what it offers is disproportionate to its size. On a clear day, you can see across to Whidbey Island, watch ferries cutting through the sound, and, if the timing is right, catch a sunset that lights up the Olympic Range in pink. Dog owners treat it like a local secret, and on weekend mornings it functions as an informal neighborhood gathering point.

    The paths are accessible to walkers and, where maintained, to wheelchairs. It’s not a destination park the way Howarth Park is — but that’s part of its appeal. Harborview Park is for the people who live near it, not for the people driving across town to visit.

    Howarth Park: Your Other Backyard

    Residents of Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven are close enough to Howarth Park to claim it as a second neighborhood park. Howarth is a 28-acre park on the bluff above the sound with a playground, picnic tables, a tennis court, trails, and a viewpoint. It’s also where the neighborhood holds its National Night Out Against Crime celebration each August — a picnic with law enforcement that draws families from across the neighborhood association. If you’ve only ever seen Howarth Park driving by on Beverly Boulevard, you’ve missed it. The local’s guide to Howarth Park is worth reading before your first visit.

    Schools: A Complete K–12 Path

    Students who grow up in Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven move through Everett Public Schools on a consistent pathway. Elementary students attend View Ridge Elementary, which earns a B+ from Niche and serves kindergarten through fifth grade. Middle school continues at Evergreen Middle School, a B-rated school that offers nine sports teams for seventh and eighth graders. High school diplomas come from Everett High School, which earns a B rating overall.

    This is the same school pipeline that serves much of western Everett, and it’s one of the reasons families with children in elementary school have been drawn to the area. For families considering the neighborhood, the Everett School District’s record 96.3% graduation rate and its range of career and technical programs make the district itself a draw, not just the neighborhood.

    Community Life: Events That Actually Happen

    The Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven neighborhood association puts on three annual events that have become genuine community anchors. In the spring, there’s an Easter Egg Hunt and scramble. In August, the National Night Out Against Crime celebration at Howarth Park brings neighbors together with a picnic and law enforcement engagement. And in the winter, there’s an annual holiday potluck at the local fire station.

    These aren’t large-scale events. They’re the kind of neighborhood programming that happens because people know each other’s names and decide to keep showing up. For a neighborhood of under 5,000 residents, three consistent annual events is a meaningful sign of community health.

    The neighborhood association also receives notification support from the City of Everett’s neighborhood alert system, meaning residents get city communications specific to their area — construction notices, utility work, public meetings that affect the bluff.

    The Housing Market in 2026

    The median sale price for homes in Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven over the last 12 months is approximately $775,000, up about 10% from the prior year. That’s a significant number in the context of Everett’s overall market — and it reflects what happens when a neighborhood with views, safety, and good schools starts getting attention from buyers who have already been priced out of waterfront markets further south.

    Homes here tend to be mid-century to late-century builds — not the new construction you’d find in Twin Creeks or the townhouses going up near Cascade View. The inventory is tighter because turnover is lower. Residents tend to stay.

    If you’re comparing this neighborhood to its neighbors: Pinehurst-Beverly Park to the south has more transit access and is closer to Casino Road’s amenities. Boulevard Bluffs to the north is more isolated but commands similar views. Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven sits between them in price and character.

    Who Belongs Here — And What to Expect

    This neighborhood is for people who want quiet without leaving the city. It’s for dog owners, for families with elementary-age kids who want to stay in the EPS district without being on a major arterial, for retired couples who moved here for the views and never left. It is not for people who need walkability for daily errands — there’s no grocery store you can reach on foot from most of the neighborhood, and the bus routes are limited.

    What it gives you instead is a neighborhood that feels settled. The streets are maintained, the neighbors know each other, and on a clear evening you can stand at Harborview Park and watch the light go down over the Olympics while the sound turns silver below you. There’s no marketing language that makes that sound better than it is.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Where exactly is Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven in Everett?
    It’s on the northwest side of Everett, roughly four miles west of downtown. The neighborhood sits on the bluffs above Possession Sound, northwest of Casino Road and north of Pinehurst-Beverly Park.

    Is Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven safe?
    The neighborhood earns a B+ safety rating, which is higher than much of Everett. Residents consistently describe it as peaceful, quiet, and family-friendly.

    What schools serve Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven?
    Students attend View Ridge Elementary (K-5), Evergreen Middle School (6-8), and Everett High School (9-12), all part of Everett Public Schools.

    What is Harborview Park like?
    Harborview Park at 1621 W. Mukilteo Blvd. is a free, dog-friendly park open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. It features walking trails, picnic areas, benches, and views of Possession Sound, the Olympic Mountains, and Mount Baker.

    What is the median home price in Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven?
    The median sale price over the last 12 months is approximately $775,000, up about 10% year-over-year.

    Does the neighborhood have an active community organization?
    Yes — the Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven neighborhood association holds three annual events (Easter Egg Hunt, National Night Out in August, and a holiday potluck) and is recognized by the City of Everett’s neighborhood association program.

    How does Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven compare to other Everett neighborhoods?
    It’s quieter and more car-dependent than central Everett neighborhoods, but has stronger views, higher safety ratings, and a more settled housing stock than most of the city. Compared to Boulevard Bluffs to the north and Pinehurst-Beverly Park to the south, it’s a middle-ground in price and character.

  • For Navy Families at NAVSTA Everett: What Everett’s New VOAWW Shelter Means for Military Spouses Facing Housing Crisis

    For Navy Families at NAVSTA Everett: What Everett’s New VOAWW Shelter Means for Military Spouses Facing Housing Crisis

    For NAVSTA Everett families: The new VOAWW Pallet Shelter Village on Sievers-Duecy Boulevard — 20 units for women and children, opened April 27, 2026 — is part of a growing Snohomish County civilian safety net that Navy spouses and dependents should know exists. Military families experience housing crises at rates above the civilian average, often triggered by PCS transitions, deployment, separation, or financial hardship. The civilian resources described here do not require active-duty status, rank, or command referral to access.

    Military families understand housing pressure in ways the civilian world rarely talks about openly. PCS orders arrive with 30 days notice. Base housing waitlists run months long. A deployment can change the calculus of whether a family stays in Everett or moves back to extended family. A separation — whether from the military or from a spouse — can leave a Navy wife with children in a city she didn’t choose, navigating a rental market where Snohomish County’s April 2026 median home price is $750,000 and rental vacancies are tight.

    Everett’s civilian safety net has grown significantly in the past two years. The newest addition — VOAWW’s 20-unit Pallet Shelter Village for women and children, which opened April 27, 2026, off Sievers-Duecy Boulevard — is the piece most military families haven’t heard about yet. This guide maps the full picture. For the complete guide to the shelter itself, see the VOAWW Pallet Shelter complete guide.

    The VOAWW Pallet Shelter: What It Is

    VOAWW operates the new Pallet Shelter Village on city-owned land off Sievers-Duecy Boulevard in west Everett. Twenty units, each housing one woman and up to three children, opened April 27, 2026. Each unit has a lockable door, climate control, and secure storage. The surrounding village has a community kitchen, showers, restrooms, and a playground. Stays are up to 12 months, with wraparound recovery and job support from VOAWW. Funding came from City of Everett ARPA dollars and a $250,000 Snohomish County match — total project cost $2.7 million.

    Who can access it: any woman with children experiencing homelessness in Snohomish County. There is no military-specific restriction, but also no military-preference track. Referrals through VOAWW or 211.

    Why Navy Families Should Know This Exists

    The NAVSTA Everett Family Support ecosystem — Fleet and Family Support Center (FFSC) at 425-304-3735, the Command Financial Specialist program, unit ombudsmen, and Military Family Life Counselors (MFLCs) available without referral — is the first-line support system. Use it. But when a Navy spouse finds herself in a housing crisis that extends beyond what the military support chain can resolve — particularly if a marriage has ended, if a sailor is deployed and the family’s housing situation has collapsed, or if financial crisis has made the current arrangement unworkable — civilian resources become the path forward.

    The Full Snohomish County Resource Map for Military Families in Crisis

    VOAWW Pallet Shelter Village (Sievers-Duecy) — Women with children, transitional, up to 12 months. Referrals through VOAWW (voaww.org) or 211.

    Everett Gospel Mission — West Everett, with a $30 million expansion underway adding 172 shelter beds. Emergency shelter, meals, recovery support, transitional housing. See the complete Gospel Mission guide.

    211 Snohomish County — Dial 2-1-1 or text your zip code to 898-211. 24 hours, multilingual. Real-time referrals to all housing resources in the county.

    Snohomish County Veterans Assistance Program — 3000 Rockefeller Avenue, Everett. Emergency financial assistance for veterans and families, including rent and utilities. County-funded, not VA benefits. Does not require service-connected disability.

    Everett Vet Center — 3311 Wetmore Avenue, Everett. Counseling, readjustment support, and referrals. Specific expertise helping veterans and military families navigate civilian systems after separation or during family crises.

    HousingHope — Snohomish County’s largest homeless services and affordable housing nonprofit. Family housing programs, rapid rehousing assistance, transitional units. No military restriction.

    FFSC Everett (Fleet and Family Support Center) — 425-304-3735 at NAVSTA Everett. Financial counseling, crisis intervention, relocation support, and civilian resource referrals. Works with Navy spouses even during deployment. No command referral required.

    For the broader 2026 NAVSTA mental health resource map, see Mental Health Awareness Month at NAVSTA Everett 2026.

    A Note on Privacy

    Military families sometimes hesitate to access civilian resources out of concern it will be visible to the chain of command or affect a service member’s career. Civilian resources — VOAWW, Everett Gospel Mission, 211, Snohomish County Veterans Assistance, HousingHope — have no connection to the military reporting chain. Accessing them is confidential. The FFSC also operates under client confidentiality rules and does not report to command except in specific safety situations. If you are unsure, ask the FFSC intake counselor about their confidentiality policy before sharing information.

    Frequently Asked Questions for Navy Families at NAVSTA Everett

    Can a Navy spouse access the VOAWW Pallet Shelter if her service member is deployed?

    Yes. The shelter serves women with children experiencing homelessness regardless of military status. Deployment status of a spouse does not affect eligibility.

    Does accessing civilian housing resources affect a service member’s security clearance?

    Accessing civilian homelessness resources is not a reportable event for security clearance purposes. Consult with a JAG officer or legal assistance attorney if you have specific clearance concerns.

    How long can a family stay at the VOAWW Pallet Shelter?

    Up to 12 months, with wraparound services from VOAWW. This is a transitional shelter, not emergency overnight housing.

    What if the shelter doesn’t have availability?

    Contact 211 (dial 2-1-1) for real-time referrals to other available resources in Snohomish County. The FFSC can also assist with emergency housing referrals.

    Does the Snohomish County Veterans Assistance Program serve active-duty families?

    The program primarily serves veterans. Active-duty family members in crisis should start with FFSC, which can facilitate access to emergency funds and make civilian resource referrals.

    Is the FFSC confidential?

    The FFSC operates under client confidentiality rules and does not report to command except in specific safety situations. Ask the intake counselor directly about their confidentiality policy.

  • Everett’s VOAWW Pallet Shelter for Mothers and Children: The Complete 2026 Guide to the Sievers-Duecy Village, Who It Serves, and How to Access It

    Everett’s VOAWW Pallet Shelter for Mothers and Children: The Complete 2026 Guide to the Sievers-Duecy Village, Who It Serves, and How to Access It

    Quick facts: On April 27, 2026, the City of Everett and Volunteers of America Western Washington (VOAWW) opened a 20-unit Pallet Shelter Village for women experiencing homelessness with their children, on city-owned land off Sievers-Duecy Boulevard in west Everett. Each unit houses one mother and up to three children. Residents can stay up to 12 months with wraparound recovery and job support. Funding: City of Everett ARPA dollars plus a $250,000 match from Snohomish County. Total capital and grant operational expenses: $2.7 million. This is Everett’s third Pallet shelter project and the first built specifically for families with children.

    On April 27, 2026, a ribbon was cut on a piece of city-owned land off Sievers-Duecy Boulevard in west Everett, and 20 addresses came into existence. Not mailing addresses. Living addresses — places where a mother and her children now have a lockable door, a bed, a community kitchen a short walk away, and up to 12 months to work on what comes next.

    This is VOAWW’s third Pallet shelter project in Everett. It is the first one built specifically for women and their children. Here is what is on site, how a family qualifies, who paid for it, and what this means for Everett’s broader effort to address homelessness among the most vulnerable households in Snohomish County.

    What Is On Site at Sievers-Duecy

    Twenty Pallet structures are installed on the enclosed, managed site. Each unit is a modular shelter built by Pallet Shelter, the Everett-based company whose structures have been deployed in more than 70 cities. Each unit is designed for one mother and up to three children — a sleeping space with climate control, secure storage, and a lockable door. The lock matters more than it might seem: most emergency shelter beds available to families in Snohomish County prior to this opening were in congregate settings with no private door.

    • Detached restrooms and a separate shower facility — enclosed, year-round
    • A community kitchen and gathering space — hard-walled, where residents can cook and meet with case workers
    • A playground — the feature that signals most clearly who this village is for

    The site is enclosed and access-controlled. VOAWW manages the site and provides on-site services.

    Who It Serves and How Long Residents Can Stay

    The shelter is for women and their children. Residents can stay up to 12 months — transitional, not emergency. The distinction matters: emergency shelter is measured in days or weeks. Transitional shelter at 12 months gives VOAWW’s case managers enough time to work with a family on housing search, employment, recovery support, and the practical paperwork that reconnects people to stable housing.

    VOAWW provides wraparound services including recovery assistance and job support. Their 2026 service footprint includes more than 315,000 service requests annually across their full program portfolio. Referrals go through VOAWW directly or through the 211 system. For a broader look at VOAWW’s full Everett service map, see Where to Get Help in Everett in 2026.

    Who Paid For It

    Funded through City of Everett American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, with a $250,000 match from Snohomish County. Total capital and grant operational expenses as of end of 2025: $2.7 million. The city provided the land — city-owned property off Sievers-Duecy Boulevard. The ribbon cutting was attended by Everett City Council President Don Schwab, VOAWW Executive Director of Housing Services Galina Volchkova, VOAWW CEO Brian Smith, and Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin.

    Everett’s Third Pallet Shelter: The Full Picture

    Everett has now opened three Pallet shelter projects. The Sievers-Duecy village is the first built specifically for women and children. The Pallet company itself is an Everett story: founded here, with structures deployed in more than 70 cities nationally. The Pallet model — modular structures, enclosed sites, transitional time frames, wraparound services — has become a consistent component of Everett’s homelessness response strategy.

    The Sievers-Duecy location matters geographically. West Everett — the corridor around Casino Road, Sievers-Duecy Boulevard, and the neighborhoods running toward Merrill Creek — has a significant concentration of low-income households and historically has had the highest demand for human services access in the city.

    What This Means for Snohomish County’s Homelessness Response

    Single mothers with children are among the most difficult households to serve in the existing shelter system. Congregate shelters frequently can’t accommodate families. Hotel diversion programs are expensive. Rapid rehousing requires affordable rental vacancy — which Snohomish County’s market, with its $750,000 April 2026 median and tight supply, frequently doesn’t offer. A 20-unit transitional village gives 20 families a stable enough platform to work on the next step.

    For the broader network, the $30 million Everett Gospel Mission expansion underway adds 172 additional shelter beds. For NAVSTA Everett military families who may need these resources, see the Navy family housing resource guide. Also see the complete Everett Gospel Mission guide.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Where is the VOAWW Pallet Shelter in Everett?

    On city-owned land off Sievers-Duecy Boulevard in west Everett. The site opened April 27, 2026.

    Who is eligible for the VOAWW Pallet Shelter?

    Women experiencing homelessness with their children. Each unit accommodates one mother and up to three children.

    How long can families stay?

    Up to 12 months, in a transitional model with wraparound recovery and employment support provided by VOAWW.

    How do families get referred to the shelter?

    Through VOAWW directly (voaww.org) or through the 211 system — dial 2-1-1 or text your zip code to 898-211.

    How was the shelter funded?

    City of Everett ARPA dollars plus a $250,000 match from Snohomish County, on city-owned land. Total capital and grant operational expenses: $2.7 million as of end of 2025.

    What is the Pallet Shelter company?

    An Everett-based company that manufactures modular shelter units deployed in more than 70 cities nationwide. The Sievers-Duecy units were built by Pallet Shelter and installed on the city-owned site.

    Is this Everett’s only shelter for families with children?

    It is the first Pallet shelter village in Everett built specifically for mothers and children. Other resources for families in Snohomish County include Everett Gospel Mission, Cocoon House (youth), and 211 for referrals to all available resources.

  • Everett’s New 20-Unit Pallet Shelter for Mothers and Children Opens at Sievers-Duecy — VOAWW Ribbon Cutting April 2026

    Quick answer: On Monday, April 27, 2026, the City of Everett and Volunteers of America Western Washington (VOAWW) opened a 20-unit Pallet Shelter Village for women experiencing homelessness with their children. The village is built on city-owned land off Sievers-Duecy Boulevard, includes a community kitchen, playground, showers, and detached restrooms, and offers up to 12 months of transitional stays with wraparound recovery and job support — funded by City of Everett American Rescue Plan Act dollars and a $250,000 match from Snohomish County.

    There is a quiet, specific moment at a ribbon cutting that does not show up in the photo op. It is the moment a city council member, a CEO, and a mayor walk away from the cameras and the contractors start moving keys to a coordinator’s office. After that moment, the building is no longer a project. It is somebody’s address.

    That moment happened in Everett on April 27, 2026, on a parcel of city-owned land off Sievers-Duecy Boulevard in the west end of town. The City of Everett and Volunteers of America Western Washington — the organization most longtime Everett residents know simply as VOAWW — cut the ribbon on a 20-unit Pallet Shelter Village. It is the city’s third Pallet shelter project. It is the first one in Everett built specifically for women and their children. And it is, by far, the cleanest answer the city has produced to a question Casino Road and Pinehurst-Beverly Park families have been asking for years: where can a mother go with her kids when she does not have anywhere to go?

    Here is what is on site, how to qualify, who paid for it, and why this matters for Everett’s broader homelessness response in 2026.

    What’s Actually On The Site

    Twenty pallet structures sit on the lot. Each unit is designed to house one mother and up to three children — a sleeping space plus secure storage, climate control, and a lockable door. That is a different physical reality than the bunkhouse and emergency-shelter setups that most homeless families in Snohomish County had access to before this opening.

    Around the units, the village has the infrastructure that makes a temporary home livable for a family with kids. There are detached restrooms. There is a separate shower facility. There is a community kitchen and gathering place — a hard-walled, year-round space, not a tent — where residents can cook, eat, and meet with case workers without leaving the village. And there is a playground, the single feature that signals more about who this village is for than any other piece of the build.

    The Pallet structures themselves were built by Pallet Shelter, the Everett-based company whose modular units have been deployed across more than 70 cities. The site is enclosed and managed; access is controlled.

    Who It’s For And How Long Residents Can Stay

    The shelter is for women and their children, full stop. Residents can stay for up to 12 months while they work toward permanent housing.

    That 12-month window is the critical difference between an emergency shelter and what VOAWW is operating here. Emergency shelters typically run on 30-, 60-, or 90-day stays — barely enough time to stabilize, let alone rebuild a life. A 12-month transitional stay is long enough for a mother to get into substance use treatment if she needs it, hold a job for long enough to build a rental history, save a damage deposit, get her kids into a stable school routine, and apply for the permanent housing programs whose waiting lists run six months and longer.

    That is the math behind transitional housing as a model, and it is the math that the new village was built around.

    Wraparound Services — The Part That Actually Determines Outcomes

    VOAWW will be providing the wraparound services at the village. That word — wraparound — is one that gets used loosely in nonprofit-speak, but in this case it means something specific.

    Recovery assistance is on the list. So is job assistance. VOAWW already operates a portfolio of programs across Snohomish County that touch substance use disorder services, behavioral health, employment readiness, and family-stabilization case management. That is the same machinery that gets connected to a Pallet shelter resident from the day she moves in. It is the part of the model that determines whether 20 units become a revolving door or become 20 successful exits to permanent housing every 12 months.

    Brian Smith, the CEO of Volunteers of America Western Washington, said at the ribbon cutting on April 27 that “It’s about dignity. It’s about stability.” That language is plain on purpose. The model is not built around innovation theater. It is built around the boring, durable work of giving a mother a stable address long enough that she can put a kid in the same school for a full year.

    Where The Money Came From

    The City of Everett allocated American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to the project. ARPA is the federal pandemic-recovery funding stream that gave municipalities one-time capital to spend on community resilience — and Everett’s allocation of it toward a Pallet shelter for mothers is one of the clearer uses of ARPA dollars in Snohomish County to date.

    Snohomish County contributed $250,000 to the project, which the City of Everett matched. The combined county-city contribution closed the funding gap that had kept the project moving through planning and into construction over roughly two years.

    The site itself is on city-owned land. That detail matters because it shortcuts one of the costliest line items in any shelter project — the land acquisition — and it gives the city long-term control over how the parcel is used.

    Why This Site, Why Now

    This is Everett’s third Pallet shelter project. The first two are well-known in the community — the Phil Johnson Ballfields site, which broke ground in 2023, and the South Everett site that opened earlier in the timeline. Each shelter targets a slightly different population because that is how Pallet’s modular shelter model works in practice: same structural footprint, different operator, different intake criteria.

    The Sievers-Duecy site fills the gap in Everett’s shelter portfolio that had been there since the first two opened. There was emergency shelter capacity for single adults. There was capacity for families through other agencies. There was no Everett-operated Pallet shelter that was set up specifically for the configuration that had become the fastest-growing slice of Snohomish County’s homelessness data — a mother with children, fleeing or recovering from something specific (a domestic situation, a substance use crisis, a sudden housing loss), and needing both privacy and structure.

    The 20-unit village answers that gap, in that geography, with that model. It is the answer to a question that residents on Casino Road, in Pinehurst-Beverly Park, and in the South Forest Park area had been raising at neighborhood meetings for the last 18 months.

    Who Showed Up On April 27

    The ribbon cutting was attended by Everett City Council President Don Schwab, VOAWW Executive Director of Housing Services Galina Volchkova, VOAWW CEO Brian Smith, and Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin. Each spoke in their public role; each represents a part of the partnership chain that produced the village.

    The mayor’s office has been signaling pallet-shelter expansion as a multi-year priority since 2022, when the third site at Glenwood and Sievers-Duecy was first proposed in a public neighborhood meeting. The city council allocated the ARPA dollars. VOAWW is operating it. The county made the match. That kind of layered partnership is not a typical accomplishment, and it is worth naming the structure that produced it.

    What Comes Next

    Two things, mainly.

    First, intake. VOAWW will be working through its case management pipeline to identify the first cohort of residents — women with children who are currently sheltered in less stable arrangements (couch-surfing, vehicles, emergency shelter, fleeing domestic violence) and who meet the program’s transitional-housing eligibility. The first wave of move-ins will follow the ribbon cutting by a matter of weeks.

    Second, outcomes tracking. A 20-unit village with a 12-month maximum stay should be producing roughly 20 successful exits to permanent housing per year if the model works. That is the metric that determines whether Everett gets a fourth and a fifth Pallet shelter, or whether the program plateaus. Both the city and VOAWW have been clear that the data on transitional success is part of how they will be evaluating the model.

    How To Help

    VOAWW’s main support channels are listed at voaww.org, including the donation page that funds the wraparound services side of the operation (recovery support, job assistance, family case management). Snohomish County donors who want to support the Sievers-Duecy site specifically can contact VOAWW’s development office through the same site.

    For volunteer involvement, VOAWW operates an extensive volunteer program across its housing, food, and family services lines. The volunteer page on voaww.org is the central intake.

    For neighborhood residents in the immediate vicinity who want to be part of welcoming the new community in — donations of children’s books, school supplies, kitchen basics, and bedding are routinely needed when a transitional shelter opens. Contact VOAWW for the current list and drop-off instructions.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Who is eligible to stay at the new Pallet shelter village? Women who are experiencing homelessness with their children, working toward permanent housing. Each unit houses one mother and up to three children. Intake is managed by VOAWW.

    How long can a resident stay? Up to 12 months. The site is designed as transitional housing — a stabilizing stop, not an indefinite shelter.

    Where exactly is the village located? On city-owned land off Sievers-Duecy Boulevard in west Everett. The site was originally proposed at Glenwood and Sievers-Duecy in 2022.

    Who funded the project? The City of Everett allocated American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars. Snohomish County contributed $250,000, which the City of Everett matched.

    Is this the only Pallet shelter in Everett? No. This is Everett’s third Pallet shelter project. The first sites at Phil Johnson Ballfields and South Everett serve different populations.

    Who is operating the shelter day-to-day? Volunteers of America Western Washington (VOAWW) is the operator. VOAWW provides wraparound services including recovery assistance and job assistance.

    Who built the pallet units? The structures were built by Pallet Shelter, the Everett-based company whose modular shelter units have been deployed across the country.

    How can I support the new shelter? Donate through voaww.org, volunteer through VOAWW’s volunteer program, or contact VOAWW for the in-kind donation list (children’s books, school supplies, bedding, kitchen basics) when the first cohort moves in.

    Related Reading From Exploring Everett

    For context on Everett’s homelessness response, the Everett Gospel Mission shelter expansion piece on Exploring Everett covers the parallel growth of the city’s largest shelter provider; the Volunteers of America Western Washington complete guide details every program in VOAWW’s Everett-area portfolio; the Stations Unidos profile covers the anti-displacement work happening on Casino Road; and the Cocoon House youth-homelessness profile covers the part of the population this Pallet village will not directly serve.

    The Sievers-Duecy village is one piece of a multi-organization response. The other pieces, taken together, are how Everett actually moves families out of homelessness — one address at a time.

    🏠 Exploring Everett Deep Coverage — VOAWW Pallet Shelter

  • LETI’s New Telehealth Hub in South Everett: 25 Free Computers for Snohomish County Latino Families

    Quick answer: The Latino Educational Training Institute (LETI) in Everett has launched a new telehealth space stocked with 25 Wi-Fi-enabled computers, blood pressure monitors, and infrared thermometers — all donated by UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Washington. The hub is free for anyone in Snohomish County who needs to take a doctor’s video visit but doesn’t have the device, the connection, or the private space to do it from home.

    If you have ever tried to take a video appointment from a kitchen table while two kids did homework on either side of you, you already know why this matters.

    Latino Educational Training Institute — most people just call it LETI — has spent twenty-seven years building the kind of community center that does more than fit one purpose. Computer classes. GED prep. Microentrepreneurship training for landscapers and house cleaners who want to formalize their businesses. Vocational coursework. A space where families could come, in Spanish, in English, and ask the question that had been worrying them all week. The roof above all of that, since 2026, now also covers a telehealth hub — and that hub is one of the cleanest pieces of community-organization infrastructure to land in south Everett in a long time.

    Here is what is inside, who built it, and why families in the Casino Road corridor and across Snohomish County should know it exists.

    What the Telehealth Hub Actually Is

    The space is exactly what the name suggests: a room at LETI’s Everett training center stocked with everything you need to take a telehealth appointment.

    UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Washington donated 25 Wi-Fi-enabled computers to the room. They also donated the kind of medical equipment that makes a video visit useful instead of theatrical — blood pressure monitors, infrared thermometers, and the basic tools a clinician on the other side of the screen can actually ask you to use during the appointment so they have a real reading to work with.

    The point is that residents can use the donated equipment for both physical and behavioral health telehealth appointments. The computers are free for everyone — not means-tested, not credentialed, not gated by membership.

    That last detail is the one that matters most. Free for everyone is a different rule than free for clients. It means a grandmother who walked over from her apartment can come in. It means a working mom on her lunch break can come in. It means a teenager who needs a behavioral health visit and doesn’t want to take it in the room they share with two siblings can come in.

    Why LETI Is the Right Place For This

    LETI was founded in 1998 to provide general educational enrichment, skills development, and community service to the growing Hispanic community of Snohomish County. Twenty-seven years later, that mission has stretched into roughly every direction a community center can stretch.

    Founder and CEO Rosario Reyes framed the telehealth space this way: “This new telehealth space helps remove barriers that too often stand between people and the care they need.” That is a CEO talking about her own organization, in her own public role, in a quote distributed to local press — and it lands cleaner than most institutional statements because the barrier she is describing is specific. It is not philosophical. It is the wall that goes up when your phone is old, your internet is unreliable, and the appointment your insurance offers you is by video.

    LETI has been a trusted community partner in Snohomish County for years. The organization runs vocational classes — office assistance, bookkeeping, professional licensing — that have helped families turn informal work into licensed independent businesses. A landscaper who has been taking cash work for a decade can use the classes to formalize, get an EIN, and put a real business name on the side of a truck. That is the same population for whom a free telehealth room is not a luxury but a missing piece of infrastructure.

    The New 15,000-Square-Foot Facility — Context for Why This Matters Right Now

    The telehealth hub didn’t appear in isolation. LETI received a $3.8 million state allocation in 2024 to build out a new 15,000-square-foot facility in south Everett — a project that has been progressing toward a fully operational building with a commercial kitchen, several classrooms, a child care center, and a large multipurpose space for events like quinceañeras.

    The 2026 facility plan reads like a long list of needs the Casino Road and Pinehurst-Beverly Park families had been telling the city for years. A commercial kitchen so the food-truck entrepreneurs in the area have a licensed prep space. Classrooms for adult education that runs in the evening when shifts end. A child care center for parents in those classes. An event space large enough for the celebrations that hold the community together — quinceañeras, weddings, graduations — without forcing families to rent at hotel-banquet prices.

    The telehealth room slotted into that build as one more piece of the puzzle. The 2026 State of the City address by Mayor Cassie Franklin specifically called out LETI as one of the immigrant-community-serving organizations the city plans to strengthen ties with over the next year. Read that one way, and it is standard mayoral-speech language. Read it another way, and it is the city signaling that LETI is now part of how south Everett delivers services that the city itself cannot run alone.

    What This Means For The Latino Community On Casino Road

    Casino Road is the spine of the most diverse part of Everett. Latino families, Cambodian families, Filipino families, families from across East Africa, and longtime English-speaking families share this corridor — and the health-equity gap that runs through it is the kind of gap that telehealth was specifically designed to close, if anybody actually made the technology accessible.

    The catch is that telehealth was sold to America as a 2020 innovation that would democratize care, and then it quietly stratified along the same lines as every other piece of digital infrastructure. If you had broadband, a recent laptop, and a quiet room, telehealth was a gift. If you didn’t have one of those three, telehealth was just another appointment your insurance had moved farther out of reach.

    LETI’s hub is the answer to that stratification. Twenty-five computers. Donated, working, available, free. Equipment to make the visit clinically meaningful. A space that already feels familiar to the families who would benefit most from it. The combination is what makes it real instead of symbolic.

    How To Use The Hub

    If you live in south Everett and want to use LETI’s telehealth space, here is what you need to know.

    LETI’s Everett training center is reachable at 425-775-2688. The organization’s website is letiwa.org, where the about page lays out the founding history, the program list, and current locations. Walk-in availability for the telehealth space is being managed at the center itself — call ahead if you want to confirm a specific computer slot for an appointment you already have scheduled, particularly if you need the blood pressure cuff or thermometer during your visit.

    If you do not yet have a telehealth appointment but want to set one up, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Washington members can call their plan’s member services line to get started; other insurance plans have their own telehealth scheduling rules.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Is LETI’s telehealth hub only for UnitedHealthcare members?
    No. UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Washington donated the equipment, but the computers are free for everyone to use. The hub is not means-tested or restricted to specific insurance plans.

    Can I use the hub for behavioral health visits?
    Yes. The space is set up for both physical and behavioral health telehealth appointments. A private computer station can be used for therapy or counseling visits.

    Where is LETI located in Everett?
    LETI operates training programs in Everett with a connected presence in Lynnwood. The main Everett contact number is 425-775-2688. The 2026 new facility build-out in south Everett is the larger 15,000-square-foot space the organization is moving toward operating fully.

    Do I need to speak Spanish to use LETI’s services?
    No. LETI serves the Latino community as its founding mission, but services are open to anyone. Bilingual staff support is available.

    What other services does LETI offer beyond telehealth?
    Vocational training (office assistance, bookkeeping, microentrepreneurship), GED preparation, professional licensing pathways, and microloan information for small business owners.

    Is there a cost for using the computers or equipment?
    No. The 25 computers and the donated medical equipment are free to use.

    Related Reading From Exploring Everett

    LETI’s telehealth hub sits inside a much larger story about how south Everett’s institutions are being rebuilt around the families who actually live there. The Casino Road neighborhood guide on Exploring Everett lays out the full corridor; the Stations Unidos profile covers the anti-displacement community development corporation working in the same geography; and the Volunteers of America Western Washington guide covers the wraparound services many LETI clients also rely on.

    This is the part of Everett where the community organizations are the institutions. LETI is one of them, and the telehealth hub is one of the reasons why.

  • Walter E. Hall Park: Everett’s 137-Acre South-End Recreation Complex With a Public Golf Course, a Skate Park, and the Quiet Best Soccer Fields in Town

    Walter E. Hall Park: Everett’s 137-Acre South-End Recreation Complex With a Public Golf Course, a Skate Park, and the Quiet Best Soccer Fields in Town

    **What is Walter E. Hall Park in Everett?** Walter E. Hall Park is a 137-acre City of Everett park at 1226 W. Casino Road, anchoring south Everett with a full 18-hole public golf course, a multi-field soccer and baseball complex, a skate park, a playground, and the Olympic View Banquet Room overlooking the 18th hole. It is open from 6 a.m. to dusk daily and serves as the main recreation hub for the Westmont, Holly, and Casino Road area.

    If Forest Park is the neighborhood park Everett brags about and Grand Avenue Park is the neighborhood park Everett forgets to brag about, Walter E. Hall Park is the south-end park Everett uses. Quietly, constantly, weekday and weekend. The youth soccer brackets that fill it on a Saturday morning are reason enough. The 18-hole public golf course is another. The skate park has its own following. The fact that all three of those things sit on the same 137-acre footprint at 1226 W. Casino Road is one of the most underrated facts about south Everett.

    The Footprint

    Walter E. Hall Park is 137 acres — making it the second-largest city park in Everett behind only Forest Park’s 197. The park is shaped roughly like a wide rectangle, with the soccer and baseball fields occupying the north edge along Casino Road and the Walter E. Hall Golf Course filling the southern majority of the park. The skate park, playground, and central restrooms sit roughly between the two halves.

    The park’s address is 1226 W. Casino Road, Everett, WA 98204 — meaning if you have ever driven west on Casino Road from Evergreen Way, you have driven directly past the soccer fields. Most people who do not have a kid playing youth soccer or a regular tee time do not realize how big it is.

    The park is open from 6 a.m. to dusk every day of the year. There is no parking fee. The golf course operates on its own schedule and pricing.

    The Golf Course Most South Everett Doesn’t Know Is Public

    Walter E. Hall Golf Course is an 18-hole, par-71 public course operated by the City of Everett. It is one of three publicly accessible Everett-area courses (the others being Legion Memorial in north Everett and Harbour Pointe in Mukilteo) and has long been the most affordable of the three.

    At the north edge of the golf course, you’ll find the clubhouse complex — pro shop, café, driving mat, and a long-chip-and-putt area that is free to use. The Olympic View Banquet Room sits inside the same building, looking out over the 18th hole and, on a clear day, the Olympic Mountains beyond Port Gardner. The room is one of Everett’s most underbooked event spaces — it gets weddings, golf tournament dinners, and the occasional retirement party, but it is usually wide open in the middle of the week.

    The course’s pace and profile fit south Everett: it is friendly, walkable, and priced for the neighborhood that surrounds it. It is also the rare Everett park amenity where the surrounding Westmont-Holly and Casino Road residents have a quietly proprietary relationship — many regulars have been playing the course for decades.

    The Soccer Complex Casino Road Built Its Saturdays Around

    The northern half of the park is, on most spring and fall Saturdays, the busiest single piece of grass in Everett. The fields host overlapping youth soccer matches throughout the season, alongside baseball and softball games on the dedicated diamonds. League play overlaps with pickup play overlaps with practice — and on a sunny Saturday in April, the parking lot fills before 9 a.m.

    The fields are large enough to host multiple soccer matches simultaneously, which is why Walter E. Hall has become the de facto home for youth soccer leagues in south Everett. For a neighborhood like Casino Road — where many families do not have backyards big enough to kick a ball in — Walter E. Hall has functioned as the shared backyard for decades.

    The fields are paired with restrooms, a playground, and shaded picnic areas, which is what separates a park families actually use from one that just looks like it on the map. Walter E. Hall is firmly in the first category.

    The Skate Park

    The Walter E. Hall skate park is the kind of in-park amenity that Everett quietly does well. It is open to all skill levels, it is concrete (not the cheaper wood ramps that don’t survive Pacific Northwest winters), and on a typical afternoon it pulls a mix of preschool-age scooter kids, middle schoolers learning their first ollies, and adults relearning skills they had at sixteen.

    It is not the fanciest skate park in Snohomish County — that title still belongs to a few of the newer purpose-built facilities elsewhere — but it is one of the most consistently used. For families on Casino Road and in Westmont-Holly, it functions as one of the most accessible public skating venues in south Everett, period.

    What’s Within Walking Distance

    Walter E. Hall Park sits at the geographic and recreational center of south Everett. Casino Road runs along the north edge. Westmont-Holly is immediately to the south. Holly Drive borders the park on the west. The Boys & Girls Club of Snohomish County, profiled in our 80th-anniversary guide, is a short drive east. The Mukilteo School District serves the elementary and middle schools whose families use the park most.

    For most south Everett families, Walter E. Hall is the closest substantial park — closer than Forest Park, closer than Kasch Park, and easier to reach on foot than either. That accessibility is part of why the park’s parking lots and fields stay so busy.

    The Practical Stuff

    Address: 1226 W. Casino Road, Everett, WA 98204

    Hours: 6 a.m. to dusk, daily, year-round

    Park entrance: free

    Golf course: paid (City of Everett rates)

    Field reservations: through Everett Parks and Recreation

    Olympic View Banquet Room: bookable through the city’s facility reservation system

    Restrooms: yes

    ADA-accessible parking and paved paths: yes

    The park does not have a dedicated dog area, so leashes are required throughout the grounds. The skate park does not require a permit — first come, first served. The golf course recommends advance tee times during peak season; walk-ons depend on the day.

    A South-End Park That Earns Its Keep

    It is fair to say Walter E. Hall Park does not get the marketing love that Howarth Park or Grand Avenue Park gets in this city. The waterfront parks photograph better. The downtown overlooks photograph better. Walter E. Hall is a working-class south Everett park, and it photographs like one.

    But on a Saturday morning, when the parking lot is full at 8:55 a.m. and three parallel youth soccer games are kicking off and the skate park is already humming and a foursome is teeing off on the first hole — Walter E. Hall is doing more for more Everett families per acre than almost any park in the city. That is the test for a park, and Walter E. Hall passes it.

    If you live anywhere south of Mukilteo Boulevard and you have a kid in cleats, a friend who golfs, or a teenager with a board — you have probably already been there. If you have not been yet, drive west on Casino Road and turn in.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Where is Walter E. Hall Park in Everett? Walter E. Hall Park is at 1226 W. Casino Road, Everett, WA 98204, anchoring south Everett between Casino Road on the north and the Westmont-Holly neighborhood on the south.

    How big is Walter E. Hall Park? The park is 137 acres, making it the second-largest city park in Everett after Forest Park (197 acres).

    Does Walter E. Hall Park have a public golf course? Yes. Walter E. Hall Golf Course is an 18-hole public course operated by the City of Everett, located on the southern half of the park footprint.

    What are the hours at Walter E. Hall Park? The park is open daily from 6 a.m. to dusk, year-round. The golf course operates on its own posted hours.

    Is the Walter E. Hall skate park free to use? Yes. The skate park is open to the public during park hours on a first-come, first-served basis. No permit is required.

    Can you reserve fields or rooms at Walter E. Hall Park? Yes. Soccer and baseball fields can be reserved through Everett Parks and Recreation. The Olympic View Banquet Room overlooking the 18th hole is bookable through the city’s facility reservation system.

    Is Walter E. Hall Park dog-friendly? Leashed dogs are welcome on park grounds. There is no dedicated off-leash area at this park.

    Why is it called Walter E. Hall Park? The park is named for Walter E. Hall, a longtime Everett civic figure for whom both the park and adjacent golf course were named.

  • Living in South Forest Park: Everett’s Most Heavily Forested Neighborhood Has 2,499 Residents and a Quiet Center at 47th & Alger

    Living in South Forest Park: Everett’s Most Heavily Forested Neighborhood Has 2,499 Residents and a Quiet Center of Gravity at 47th & Alger

    **What is South Forest Park in Everett?** South Forest Park is one of the City of Everett’s 19 official neighborhoods, located between Casino Road to the south and Glacier View to the east. It is one of Everett’s smallest neighborhoods by population — roughly 2,499 residents — and one of the most heavily forested, anchored by 197-acre Forest Park itself. Its neighborhood association meets the second Tuesday of most months at Zion Lutheran Church at 47th & Alger.

    If you have driven Mukilteo Boulevard between downtown Everett and Boeing’s south end, you have already been to the edge of South Forest Park without knowing it. The neighborhood does not announce itself with a sign or a commercial strip. It does not have a “main drag.” What it has, instead, is canopy. South Forest Park is one of the most heavily wooded residential neighborhoods inside Everett city limits, and the people who live there tend to like it that way.

    It is also, quietly, one of Everett’s most stable.

    Where South Forest Park Actually Is

    The neighborhood sits in south-central Everett, bordered roughly by Mukilteo Boulevard on the north, Casino Road on the south, the western edge of Forest Park on the west, and the rough alignment of Glacier View on the east. The City of Everett’s official neighborhood map shows the boundaries in detail; locals usually describe it more simply as “the streets between Forest Park and Casino Road that aren’t on Casino Road yet.”

    The neighborhood is named for its most defining feature. Forest Park — Everett’s oldest and largest park at 197 acres — sits at the western edge of the neighborhood at 802 East Mukilteo Boulevard. South Forest Park is, literally, the neighborhood south of Forest Park.

    It is also adjacent to two of the projects we have covered before. To the south, the Casino Road corridor is in the middle of a long-running anti-displacement and community investment cycle. To the west, the Pinehurst-Beverly Park neighborhood sits across Mukilteo Boulevard. Long-timers in South Forest Park tend to think of themselves as a buffer between the activity on Casino Road and the quieter, older residential streets to the north — and the geography backs them up.

    The Numbers That Define the Neighborhood

    South Forest Park is small. Population estimates from neighborhood data aggregators put the resident count at approximately 2,499 — making it one of the smaller of Everett’s 19 official neighborhoods. The household size averages about 2.6 people. Owner-occupancy runs at roughly 66 percent, which is high for an Everett neighborhood that mixes single-family homes with multifamily housing.

    Real estate listings put the typical home price between roughly $450,000 for a smaller ranch and $800,000 for a larger or remodeled house. Median sale prices over the last twelve months have been clustered around $675,000. By comparison, Valley View-Sylvan Crest just east of here is reaching for higher numbers, and Casino Road just south of here is doing something different again. South Forest Park sits in the middle — established, wooded, mostly single-family.

    If you want a quick mental model: this is one of the Everett neighborhoods where a 1970s-era ranch on a wooded lot is still the dominant housing type, where most blocks have a tree canopy that hides the rooflines from the street, and where the streets are quieter at 5 p.m. than they are at 8 a.m.

    The Neighborhood Association — and Where It Meets

    South Forest Park has an active neighborhood association recognized by the City of Everett. The association meets the second Tuesday of most months at 7 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 47th & Alger. It is one of about a dozen Everett neighborhood associations that meet regularly enough to maintain a continuous voice in city processes — neighborhood plan updates, capital projects, parks programming, traffic comments.

    The host venue is part of the story. Zion Lutheran was founded in 1901 in downtown Everett and moved to its current South Forest Park location in 1962. The church is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and has been a community service hub since its founding — food bank, AA meetings, community meals, and the kind of standing-room-only basement that every working neighborhood needs somewhere. The neighborhood association rents the room, but the relationship has lasted because the building has always been used for things bigger than worship.

    The association also collaborates regularly with View Ridge-Madison just to the north, and supports a community garden — the kind of low-cost, high-trust civic infrastructure that does not show up in city budgets but does show up on a Saturday in May.

    What’s Inside the Boundaries

    A few features inside the neighborhood are worth knowing if you are new:

    Forest Park (197 acres) at the northwest edge — Everett’s oldest park, with a Swim Center, picnic shelters, wooded trails, the Parks and Recreation Department’s administrative offices, and (as of a 2026 buildout) refreshed pickleball courts opening at the southeast corner of the park complex. The park alone is reason enough to live in this neighborhood.

    Woodlawn Gardens — the older multifamily/garden apartments that anchor the eastern side of the neighborhood, built when the canopy was already mature.

    Pigeon Creek — one of Everett’s named streams runs along the park edge and through the western side of the neighborhood. Pigeon Creek and its restoration history is part of why the city’s Critical Areas Update matters here.

    Zion Lutheran Church (47th & Alger) — the de facto neighborhood center.

    What Long-Timers Say

    The thing long-time residents say most often is “we are the people who chose the trees.” South Forest Park is small enough that homes don’t turn over often, and the people who do move in tend to be people who explicitly wanted the canopy. The neighborhood’s modest housing stock and stable owner-occupancy rate reflect that.

    The thing they say second most often is “we are not Casino Road, but we care about Casino Road.” The neighborhood has long taken a quiet but clear interest in what is happening to the south — most recently the 2026 Community Transit Goodwill site acquisition and the slower investments through Stations Unidos. South Forest Park residents commute through Casino Road, send kids to Mukilteo School District schools to the south, and read the neighborhood plan updates carefully.

    Schools and Daily Life

    South Forest Park sits at the edge of two school district boundaries — Everett Public Schools serves the northern portion, while Mukilteo School District serves much of the southern portion. Families in the neighborhood often say the boundary line runs through a backyard fence somewhere on their block — and they are not wrong. Anyone shopping for a house here should verify the specific school assignments for that exact address before they commit.

    For groceries, residents drift to either the Casino Road corridor to the south or the West Casino Road QFC. For coffee and quick meals, the closest options are along Mukilteo Boulevard and Evergreen Way. There is no in-neighborhood retail strip, and that is by design.

    A Quiet Verdict

    South Forest Park is not the neighborhood that makes the Tygart Media headlines, and that is the highest compliment Everett can pay a neighborhood. It is small. It is forested. It owns its own homes. It meets at a 64-year-old Lutheran church basement and runs a community garden. It has a neighborhood association that shows up to plan updates and stays on topic.

    If your version of “moving to Everett” includes a tree canopy, an established association, and a short walk to one of the largest urban parks in Snohomish County, South Forest Park is the neighborhood you should look at first.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Where exactly is South Forest Park in Everett? South Forest Park is in south-central Everett, bordered by Mukilteo Boulevard to the north, Casino Road to the south, Forest Park to the west, and the western edge of Glacier View to the east. The official City of Everett neighborhood map confirms the boundaries.

    How many people live in South Forest Park? Roughly 2,499 residents according to neighborhood-level data aggregators, making it one of Everett’s smaller neighborhoods.

    What is the median home price in South Forest Park? Recent twelve-month median sale prices cluster around $675,000, with smaller homes starting near $450,000 and larger or remodeled homes reaching toward $800,000.

    When does the South Forest Park neighborhood association meet? The association meets the second Tuesday of most months at 7 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 47th & Alger.

    What schools serve South Forest Park? The neighborhood spans the Everett Public Schools / Mukilteo School District boundary. School assignments are address-specific — verify with the appropriate district before purchasing.

    Is Forest Park inside the South Forest Park neighborhood? The 197-acre Forest Park is at the northwest edge of the neighborhood at 802 East Mukilteo Boulevard. The neighborhood is named for its proximity to the park.

    How is South Forest Park different from Pinehurst-Beverly Park? They are separate neighborhoods on the City of Everett’s official 19-neighborhood map. Pinehurst-Beverly Park sits to the west; South Forest Park sits to the east of Forest Park. They share some character but are governed by separate neighborhood associations.

  • For Military Families at NAVSTA Everett: Your 2026 Guide to Everett Gospel Mission Services When a Family Member Needs Emergency Help

    For Military Families at NAVSTA Everett: Your 2026 Guide to Everett Gospel Mission Services When a Family Member Needs Emergency Help

    For military families at NAVSTA Everett: Everett Gospel Mission at 3711 Smith Ave is the county’s essential emergency resource — the only men’s shelter in Snohomish County, with women’s shelter and a family option in Lowell. A $30 million expansion starting fall 2026 will nearly double capacity to 172 beds. If a family member is in crisis, here is how EGM fits into the NAVSTA Everett support landscape — and when to go there first versus when to call FFSC.

    The Resource Map for Military Families in Crisis

    NAVSTA Everett’s Fleet and Family Support Center at (425) 304-3735 is the first call for most family emergencies — financial crisis, food insecurity, housing instability, mental health needs. FFSC can make warm referrals to community resources and can connect families with Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society emergency funds, which provide interest-free loans and grants specifically for military families. FFSC is the on-ramp.

    But FFSC isn’t a shelter. It isn’t a food bank. When the crisis is immediate — a family member needs a bed tonight, a meal today, a place to go right now — the community infrastructure picks up where the installation leaves off. Everett Gospel Mission is the most significant part of that community infrastructure for families facing acute housing or food emergency.

    What EGM Offers Military Families Specifically

    EGM serves anyone in Snohomish County — military family status is not a eligibility requirement, and it is not a disqualifier. A sailor’s spouse facing housing crisis during a deployment can walk into EGM. A veteran family member struggling with addiction can access EGM’s recovery programming. A family with children can be referred to EGM’s Lowell neighborhood family shelter.

    The three resources military families most often need from EGM: emergency shelter for a family member in crisis, meals during a financial emergency, and recovery support for a veteran or family member dealing with addiction. All three are available at 3711 Smith Ave, (425) 740-2500, egmission.org.

    During Deployment: When You Need Community Resources

    Deployment is when community infrastructure matters most for military families. FFSC provides pre-deployment financial planning workshops specifically to help families avoid crisis during extended separations. But emergencies happen. If a deployment-season crisis requires resources beyond what FFSC can provide directly, EGM is one of the closest and most comprehensive community options in Everett’s south side — less than four miles from the main gate.

    For food specifically: EGM’s meal service is available without proof of military status or crisis documentation. If a family is going through a tight month — a delayed LES, an unexpected car repair — the meal resource is there without paperwork. The VOAWW food bank in Everett operates similarly. The 2026 resident resource guide covers both in detail.

    The $30 Million Expansion and What It Means

    EGM’s expansion — 172 beds in a facility three times the current size, construction starting fall 2026, first phase complete for the 2027 cold season — increases the county’s crisis infrastructure capacity at a moment when demand is rising. For military families, a more robust community safety net means there is more buffer between a deployment-season emergency and a genuine crisis that requires installation resources.

    The expansion also adds surge capacity: up to 64 additional beds during severe weather events. That surge capacity is specifically designed for moments when the baseline shelter system is overwhelmed. For families of sailors deployed during Everett winters, knowing that community shelter capacity is increasing is direct practical news.

    Additional Family Support Resources in Everett

    The Boys & Girls Club of Snohomish County serves military kids during deployment. The BGC military family guide covers after-school care, Power Hour homework help, and summer programming for children of deployed parents. The VA claims resources guide — updated for the 2026 Vet Center change — covers healthcare access for veterans in the household.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Can military families use EGM services?

    Yes. EGM serves anyone in Snohomish County. Military status is not required and does not exclude. Call (425) 740-2500 or walk in at 3711 Smith Ave.

    Who do I call first in a family crisis?

    Fleet and Family Support Center: (425) 304-3735. They make warm referrals to EGM and other community resources and connect families with Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society emergency funds.

    Is there emergency shelter for families with children near NAVSTA Everett?

    EGM’s family shelter in Everett’s Lowell neighborhood. Contact (425) 740-2500 for current availability and intake process.

    Does EGM serve women?

    Yes. Women’s shelter is on the Smith Ave campus, separate from the men’s shelter. Contact the main number: (425) 740-2500.

    Is emergency food available without documentation?

    Yes. EGM’s meal service does not require military ID, proof of residency, or documentation. Walk in or call first.

    Related coverage: EGM $30M Expansion Complete Guide | BGC Guide for Military Kids | VA Claims Guide for NAVSTA Families

  • Everett Gospel Mission’s $30 Million Expansion: The Complete 2026 Guide to Every Service, How to Get Help, and What 172 Beds Means for Snohomish County

    Everett Gospel Mission’s $30 Million Expansion: The Complete 2026 Guide to Every Service, How to Get Help, and What 172 Beds Means for Snohomish County

    Quick Answer: Everett Gospel Mission at 3711 Smith Ave is expanding from approximately 90 beds to 172 beds in a $30 million project starting fall 2026. It is the only emergency men’s shelter in Snohomish County. Construction connects two existing warehouses into one contiguous building three times the size of the current shelter, with a first-phase completion target for the 2027 cold weather season. Here is the complete guide to every service EGM provides, how to get help, how to give help, and what the expansion means for the county.

    What Everett Gospel Mission Does

    Everett Gospel Mission is a Christ-centered nonprofit that has operated on Smith Avenue in Everett’s south side for decades. Its mission is practical and daily: emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness, meals for anyone who needs them, and recovery support for people working to rebuild their lives. EGM is not a last resort — it is a first-available resource, operating seven days a week.

    The organization’s current facility at 3711 Smith Ave houses separate emergency shelters for men and women, a family shelter nearby in Everett’s Lowell neighborhood, a day center, and staff offices. The main number is (425) 740-2500. The full resource guide is at egmission.org.

    The One Fact That Defines EGM’s County-Level Importance

    Everett Gospel Mission operates the only emergency shelter for men without families in Snohomish County. This is not a local distinction — it is a county-level infrastructure fact. When a man experiencing homelessness in Snohomish County needs a bed tonight, EGM is the option. There is no backup. A $30 million expansion of this facility is not just a nonprofit story. It is a county infrastructure story.

    Services: What EGM Provides in 2026

    Emergency Shelter: Separate shelters for men and women at the Smith Ave main campus. The men’s shelter is the only such facility in the county. Women’s shelter serves women experiencing homelessness. Both operate nightly.

    Family Shelter: EGM operates a family shelter in the Lowell neighborhood of Everett, providing emergency housing for families with children. The Smith Ave expansion will free additional capacity at the Lowell family shelter as resources are consolidated.

    Meals: EGM serves meals to people experiencing homelessness throughout the week. Holiday meals — Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and other occasions — are open to community volunteers who want to serve alongside staff. These are not closed events; faith groups and individuals regularly participate.

    Day Center: The day center on Smith Ave provides daytime space for guests to access services, connect with case managers, and work toward longer-term housing and employment goals.

    Recovery Support: EGM provides programming for men and women working through addiction and rebuilding their lives. This includes structured programming, accountability support, and connections to community resources including employment and housing placement.

    The $30 Million Expansion: What’s Actually Being Built

    The expansion connects two existing warehouses on Smith Avenue with the current shelter building by adding new structures between them. The result is one contiguous building — permit documents filed with the City of Everett show a structure approximately three times the size of the existing shelter. The expanded facility will provide 172 beds with separate spaces for men and women, plus surge capacity for up to 64 additional beds during severe weather events. That surge capacity number matters: Everett’s winters can produce demand spikes that overwhelm fixed-bed facilities.

    Construction is scheduled to begin in October or November 2026. The work will not interrupt the current shelter service — EGM remains operational throughout. The goal is to have the first phase completed in time for the cold weather season in 2027.

    How the Expansion Is Funded

    The $30 million total includes grants from the City of Everett, Snohomish County, a state budget allocation approved by the Legislature, and philanthropic donations. The Snohomish County Council’s $23 million housing and behavioral health award in April 2026 contributed $5.8 million to EGM specifically. The project has already secured significant portions of its funding — it is not a proposal waiting on money. Construction is starting in fall 2026.

    How to Get Help

    Walk-in at 3711 Smith Ave, Everett. Call (425) 740-2500. Visit egmission.org. EGM does not turn away people in crisis based on sobriety status — the organization serves people where they are. For families, the Lowell neighborhood family shelter can be accessed through the main number. For women, the women’s shelter is accessible through the same contact points. For men, the Smith Ave men’s shelter is the direct resource.

    If you are helping someone else find resources in Everett, the 2026 Everett resident guide to VOA Western Washington services and the Cocoon House guide for youth cover additional organizations serving different populations.

    How to Volunteer or Donate

    Volunteer opportunities include meal service throughout the year, holiday meal events, and skills-based support roles. Faith groups and community organizations regularly serve alongside EGM staff. Contact (425) 740-2500 or visit egmission.org to coordinate. Donations can be made at egmission.org/donate. The capital campaign for the expansion is active — this is the highest-impact moment to give if supporting the infrastructure build-out is the goal.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Where is Everett Gospel Mission?

    3711 Smith Ave, Everett, WA. Phone: (425) 740-2500. Website: egmission.org.

    Is EGM the only men’s shelter in Snohomish County?

    Yes. EGM operates the only emergency shelter for men without families in Snohomish County.

    When does construction start?

    Fall 2026 — October or November. Service continues without interruption during construction.

    How many beds after expansion?

    172 beds, plus surge capacity for 64 additional beds during severe weather.

    How is the expansion funded?

    $30M total from City of Everett grants, Snohomish County (including $5.8M from the April 2026 housing award), state Legislature allocation, and private philanthropy.

    Does EGM require sobriety to access shelter?

    EGM serves people where they are. Contact them directly at (425) 740-2500 for current intake requirements.

    Related coverage: VOAWW Complete 2026 Guide | Cocoon House Youth Services Guide | Snohomish County $23M Housing Award