YWCA Yakima celebrates kickoff of work to transform building into emergency shelter

A small shrine near YWCA Yakima honors the life of Rocio Ramos-Martinez, who was killed by the father of her child. She died three days after he attacked her outside the YWCA on Jan 1, 2021.

Many people have paused there, some leaving flowers, candles, rocks and keepsakes. Nearby, work has begun on a new YWCA domestic violence shelter that will be named Rocio’s Place, nonprofit officials announced Wednesday.

The announcement came at a celebratory kickoff of renovations that will transform the former St. Elizabeth Nursing School building into an additional emergency shelter. It will include 41 units with up to 112 beds for women and children, along with a separate men’s suite of eight beds.

It will triple YWCA Yakima’s emergency shelter capacity and serve more than 400 domestic violence victims annually who otherwise have nowhere else to go, YWCA officials have said. Work by G.H. Moen construction will continue through 2025 with completion by February 2026, according to a YWCA timeline.

The shelter, which is near the current YWCA building at 818 W. Yakima Ave., is expected to open in June 2026.

“Our resident, Rocio, was murdered basically at the front door of this building and that is really also one of the driving forces of loving this building — wanting to be close to her memory,” Cheri Kilty, chief executive officer of YWCA Yakima, said at the Wednesday event. “We also know that in 2020, Emily Harris also lost her life. There’s been a lot of conversation about both of those women.”

Harris, a Selah mother of two, was killed by her husband in January 2020. Her parents, Brian and Fran Harris, created a foundation in her memory that has raised and donated more than $500,000 to YWCA Yakima.

“As a part of this project, we have kept them at the forefront of our mind of trying to make sure that we honor them and every other woman we know. This building we are naming after Rocio,” Kilty said. “We also in this spirit decided that our current building — why not go ahead and give our emergency shelter a name? And so it’s going to be called Emily’s Place.”

Ramos-Martinez’ family in Mexico and Emily Harris’ parents approved of the namings in honor of their loved ones.

“We are so excited and honored that Emily would be remembered in such a way to have her name on the YWCA original building,” Brian Harris said in an email. “I know Emily is humbled and happy that she’s involved and tied to the YWCA Yakima. That organization is a class act and we care and love all those ladies.

“Domestic violence is real.”

Four-year journey

The historic brick nursing school building was constructed in 1929. It has three floors, an attic and a small auditorium. The $17.5 million renovation will include asbestos, lead paint and mold mitigation; a new entrance addition and masonry repairs; and demolition of flooring, ceiling tiles and more.

The YWCA has operated in Yakima for more than 100 years and has had several locations. It runs the only domestic violence shelter within city limits. Its current shelter is almost always at capacity, Kilty said.

Over time more people have reached out for emergency shelter “that we were not able to accommodate on their first call, which is sometimes the most dangerous time for someone to leave,” she added.

In a county where the domestic violence rate is nearly double the statewide average, YWCA Yakima takes more than 1,000 calls per month on its 24/7 hotline.

Former City Manager City Manager Bob Harrison and former police Chief Matt Murray called Kilty in 2021 to discuss the crisis of domestic violence in Yakima and possible solutions. She suggested additional emergency shelter was a crucial need. YWCA staff started looking for potential locations.

“More people are coming forward. They do want to interrupt that abuse in their lives,” she said. “We as a community need to be ready in all our various ways to help them do that, and one of those is having a safe place to go when your home is not a safe place to be.”

YWCA officials learned the old nursing school was available and toured it. They “fell in love with this building for so many reasons,” Kilty said. Not only was it a place of health and healing for decades, the building’s layout and location were ideal.

Hogback Development Company had acquired the historic nursing school structure and a neighboring medical office building. The 33,000-square-foot nursing school was part of the Astria Yakima medical campus and had been empty for some time.

“We approached (Chris Waddle of Hogback) and his partners about using this building and developing it into an additional emergency shelter,” Kilty said.

Hogback committed to donating the building to the YWCA. As officials began fundraising for the renovation, Hogback continued to maintain the structure, with a few challenges. They included water pouring into the structure’s vestibule on Christmas Day 2021.

“If I said it’s been a ride over the last four years, I would characterize it more like a wild ride,” Waddle said Wednesday.

Waddle thanked the Hogback team, its property management and maintenance crews “for everything they’ve done for the last four years of holding onto this facility,” he said, so it could be useful again in an important new way. He also thanked several specific partners in the property.

Funding and support

The new emergency shelter figures prominently in meetings of the Yakima Domestic Violence Coalition. The organization, spurred by discussions about the crisis and led by Lt. Chad Janis of the Yakima Police Department, began meeting in the summer of 2021. Its monthly meetings are open to the public.

“I am so proud to live and work in a community that hears the call to action, puts the effort and the money into important projects like this,” he said.

Funding for the emergency shelter expansion comes from private donors along with city, state and federal resources. In early 2023, the Yakima City Council approved $2 million to support the YWCA’s plans for a new domestic violence emergency shelter. The city’s contribution came from Yakima American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The YWCA also received $1 million in ARPA funds from Yakima County and $8.845 million in direct allocations from Washington state. Funding also included a $1.6 million capital campaign and Heritage Bank financing of $4 million.

Among those speaking Wednesday were former longtime state Rep. Gina Mosbrucker and state Sen. Curtis King. They worked together to secure state funding for the shelter and mentioned why it was so important.

King remembered meeting a woman at YWCA Yakima’s previous shelter near 16th and Lincoln avenues who suffered multiple cigarette burns.

“Lives are on the line,” Mosbrucker said.