February 2025 Newsletter

A Note From the Board

Yesterday, I was sitting in a hair salon in Kona Hawaii relaxing while my hair was being done. I was vaguely aware of the conversations around me until I heard the word Seattle, my home city! But what came next made my heart drop, according to a recent poll, Seattle is now number 3 in the nation in terms of the number of homeless people. Only New York and Los Angeles have more.

Whenever I travel and hear the name of my home city, I’m always so eager to brag! For example, the University of Washington is the number 7 best university in the world! Not just the nation, the world! This ranking comes from the universities across 100 countries. (US News and World report)

As a more dubious honor, we also are number 9 on the list for American cities with the most $1,000,000.00 homes! This is great news if you live in one of those million dollar homes, but a huge obstacle if you’re an ordinary person just trying to survive. This is why my involvement with UCEF is so important to me. Keeping people from losing their homes, in the first place, is the best way to address our homeless problem! One person staying housed, is one less person on the street.

Recently UCEF entered all of our background information into the website Charity Navigator which compares and judges charities around the world. Our initial score on this site is 98% based on our mission, management and board. This confirms what we’ve known all along, a dollar given to UCEF is a dollar well invested in keeping someone housed.

We hope to see you at our fundraiser on March 15, 2025!

Laurel Ailie, Board Member