Church basements aren’t what they used to be.
For Books to Prisoners, a Seattle-based nonprofit that sends—well—books to prisoners, churches have been their go-to spot for whenever they have to relocate, which happens more often than not. Last year, Books to Prisoners found out that the University Christian Church, their home for nearly a decade, was being sold because of “an ongoing decline in membership and inability to financially support operations and maintenance of the large, seismically-fragile facility.”
Now, six months after they’ve moved into their new home with the Crown Hill United Methodists (CHUM), Books to Prisoners has had the rug swept out under their feet again. CHUM will be moving because they, too, are facing membership decline.
“We figured the church is going to be around,” Michelle Dillon, a volunteer and board member with Books to Prisoners told The Stranger. “We’ve already moved in. Look at all the work we did to put this shelving in,” she said as she gripped one of the handmade bookshelves that they had just finished organizing.
“Clearly, we thought,” Dillon continued, “there’s not going to be a problem and if there is it’s going to be like the University Christian Church where we have a year and have plenty of time to find a new place.”
That wasn’t the case.
“We learned about two weeks ago that we would have to be out at the end of September,” Dillon said.
That gives the organization, which has an annual operating budget of about $70,000, three months find at least 800 square feet on an accessible transit line in Seattle. There are other requirements but the biggest is having affordable space for their books and volunteers.
Books to Prisoners provides a vital service to inmates not only in Washington but across the country. They do everything in the space they have. Currently, that’s the slightly-dank-but-otherwise-cozy basement just west of Aurora Avenue. They receive around 14,000 requests annually from prisoners. From that basement, they process those letters, pick out the books, pack them up, and ship about 12,000 packages a year.
Most of that $70,000 budget goes to shipping costs. A package can cost between $4 to $5 from just the weight of the book, so Books to Prisoners says they are spending nearly $50,000 just on sending books. The rest goes to utilities and whatever is leftover is for rent.
“It’s been getting worse lately as land has been getting more scarce,” Dillon said, “and, unfortunately, our income has not matched the increases in rents.”
Rent increases and our increasingly secular society (Washington is the sixth least religious state in the country!) means that churches are getting displaced more rapidly. Two more churches in the University District have been sold off for redevelopment. They will be able to “combine facilities and retain an ownership stake in a high rise,” according to a report by Daily Journal of Commerce.
The nonprofits they housed like ROOTs Young Adult Shelter will be forced to relocate by the end of next year.
“A lot of the churches who have been our allies for a long time are shrinking and selling off their churches,” Dillon said, “so the spaces we’ve been accustomed to being in like church basements are slowly going away and not leaving a lot of other options.”
Dillon reiterated that they had just finalized the layout of their space six months after moving. It’s intentionally laid out to have the most-requested books close at hand. That’s why the dictionaries are in the same room the volunteers work in.
The rest of the books are in the book room. The western and thriller sections are picked bare. They’re escapist, Dillon explained, high-fantasy tales of good against evil where people take “justice into their own hands” which is “something people who feel powerless can really resonate with.” The classics and travel books remain dusty.
While all of this is happening, Books to Prisoners is still keeping an eye on the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC). Earlier this year, the DOC tried to ban all donated books to Washington prisons. Because of Books to Prisoners’ community organizing, the DOC reversed the ban. Similar things are happening across the country.
“We need to have space for our volunteers, for our onsite library,” Dillon said. For Books to Prisoners, 800 square feet is ideal. “Anything less means that we’re going to have to cut out so many of our books. We have a wide variety of tastes and we’d like to have the books on hand to be able to respond to the most esoteric kind of requests.”
