Anacortes
ABLE Housing Initiative

What We Are Doing

• As of December, 2024, AAHI was granted Federal 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Status, allowing us to begin fundraising.
• In January, 2025, AAHI retained Parkview Services to act as our Development Consultant, to assist with grant-writing and project creation.
• In February, 2025, AAHI is applying for a grant from the City of Anacortes as well as seeking private donations to purchase at least two existing homes and retrofit them to ADA standards, or buy land and build those homes.
• Beyond our one-year goal, AAHI will look at multiple options–from more single-family homes, duplexes, apartments, etc–to accommodate the large number of IDD adults’ needs, now and in the future.
• Our goal is to create a supported housing community that will far outlive us parents, as well as our IDD children, becoming a perpetual, sustainable resource for these individuals, their families and caretakers.

Why We are Doing It

• Anacortes Able Housing Initiative (AAHI) was formed by a group of parents of adult children with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities (IDD) living in or near Anacortes, Washington.
• So far, 45 IDD adults have been identified as living here. Most dwell with their families and/or caregivers. A few are independent enough to live in apartments, but all 45 require some types of support to thrive.
• There are currently ZERO supported living homes in Anacortes, as well as ZERO caregiving agencies based here. This is attributable to the high cost of living on Fidalgo Island.
• The parents and caregivers of these IDD adults are aging themselves, and if and when they can no longer care for them, these IDD adults are at extreme risk of being placed by the State of Washington in any available bed, away from their home, friends, community, jobs, routines and medical, dental and mental health support systems.
• There is also the sudden and very real urgency that if the sitting Federal Government slashes IDD funding sources, most of these adults could be very quickly faced with a crisis of lack of support and again, becoming wards of the State of Washington.
• Due to their spectrum of needs, these adults are in severe danger of slipping through the cracks of Federal and State systems, becoming homeless and existing outside of the loving structured community they have here in Anacortes.

How You Can Support Us

You can help AAHI protect and nurture these IDD adults by:

• Donating money via our website;
• Donating land or homes to our foundation;
• Volunteering to share your skills with the myriad needs of AAHI;
• Spreading the word to others about AAHI and our vision.

A Story of Volunteers with a Shared Vision: In just one year, from January 2024 to January 2025, a handful of parents with adult disabled children volunteered their time and various skills to go from no group at all to federally recognized non-profit organization, Anacortes Able Housing Initiative (AAHI).
Who’s to say how your particular skills and resources can help AAHI grow and keep its promise to the 45 IDD adults currently in Anacortes, and well as to those untold numbers in the future?