A combination project of a live-in treatment center for drug abusers and a furniture store are coming to Kent later this year along Central Avenue North.
A new three-story, 17,435-square-foot building under construction at 945 Central Avenue N. will serve as transitional housing and offices in conjunction with a remodeled furniture retail store at 921 Central Avenue N..
PriceCo will be the name of the store. The nonprofit, Canadian-based John Volken Foundation will operate both the store and treatment center.
Volken, a millionaire, started up Welcome Home Society treatment centers in 2005 in North Seattle and Surrey, British Columbia, after selling United Furniture Warehouse in 2004.
“It’s a faith-based rehab program for folks trying to get out of substance abuse,” said Ben Wolters, city economic and community development director. “They’ll work in the furniture store and live on site in a dorm. It’s a combination of furniture refinishing and repair, retail and housing.”
The foundation will move its separate North Seattle operations of a store and treatment center to Kent.
“For about three to five years we’ve been trying to find the appropriate campus for everything,” said Steve Dalton, chief executive officer for the U.S. side of PriceCo. “We were looking for a furniture store (it also will sell general merchandise) and on the same site have our living facility.”
The store and treatment center are expected to be fully operational by November or December, Dalton said.
The housing facility will include as many as 19 sleeping units with a television area, laundry, storage and office space, according to city permits.
“They have set up in other places as well,” Wolters said of PriceCo and Welcome Home. “They are a well-regarded service agency.”
Wolters said no special permits were needed because the treatment center and store are allowed in the city’s general commercial zone along Central Avenue.
The PriceCo store has been the site for various furniture stores since the 1970s, including Vans Furniture.
Dalton said “students” for the treatment center are thoroughly checked out before they are accepted into the facility where they will receive counseling and job therapy by working at the furniture warehouse, in a garden area or on the retail sales floor.
“We screen with a fine-tooth comb,” Dalton said. “There will be no arsonists or sex offenders. We do background checks and find out what they are being treated for or if they are on certain medications.”
Students stay in the program for a minimum of two years and it can take up to 30 to 35 months before they graduate, Dalton said. Staff also will live on site. Employees will be hired to work in the retail store as not all positions will be handled by those in the treatment program.
“We tell them they will not be monitored as closely as this since the day the doctor slapped them on the butt,” Dalton said. “We will monitor to make sure they are where they are supposed to be.”
Students accepted into the program pay a registration fee of $387. Everything else, food, housing, clothing, is covered by the Volken Foundation. Graduates of the program receive a $3,000 grant to help them get started for life on their own.
“There is no federal, state, county or city funds,” Dalton said. “We run it close to the bone. It’s not fat and sassy.”
According to his website, Volken started the treatment centers to help those in need.
“I believe that once we have provided for our families, we ought then to work for the good of all; whether it be the arts, amateur sports, public office … whatever you may choose. There are so many opportunities to make this a better world. Personally, I am motivated by Matthew chapter 25, verse 40: Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Dalton said they have no trouble finding referrals for the program. He said just recently he had been contacted by a Salt Lake City man looking for help for his 24-year-old son. Those in the program range in age from 19 to 45.
Signs for PriceCo will go up with the slogan of “Save money, change lives.”
For more information, go to www.johnvolkenfoundation.org or www.welcomehomesociety.org.
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