In 1986, The Skagit Friendship House began with a simple belief: that compassion and community can transform lives. This year, Friendship House is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the legacy of service it has provided to the community. “We started with one shelter, and since then we’ve grown to two main campus shelters, three traditional homes, and a cafe, and we also manage the First Step Center in Burlington,” shares Executive Director Jason Wells.
Born in Hawai’i, Wells served as a pilot in the Navy for 25 years, including a stay in Anacortes. When he retired, his family decided to return to the area where he kept busy as a commissioner of the Housing Authority and as a board member for Friendship House. Wells became director in January and already has an eye on future growth.
Growing the Friendship House in Burlington
One of the most noticeable recent changes in the history of Friendship House was a few years back in 2021, when they expanded across the river to oversee the Burlington First Step Center, a low-barrier emergency shelter consisting of 45 tiny homes. People in need of a place to stay can be referred by healthcare providers as part of the Coordinated Entry program or simply walk in off the street.
The center was financed with county, state, and federal money, and the local government brought Friendship House in to manage everyday operations. Last year, it hosted nearly 600 people for stays of up to 90 days, allowing residents to find stability and enroll in programs that support a self-sufficient lifestyle.
“We also have a cold weather shelter seasonally for the winter,” Wells says. “That’s a separate program in the Burlington campus where, for four months out of the year, we can shelter 25 additional folks each night just to get them out of the freezing cold.” 169 people found warmth in the shelter in 2025.
Constantly Expanding Services in Mount Vernon
The original emergency shelter in Mount Vernon has been augmented with newer transitional facilities, with the most recent opening in 2025. While shelters help people off the street quickly, transitional housing serves as a step toward keeping them off the street permanently.
“If they’re not quite ready to get an apartment of their own, they can stay for a longer term, with the conditions of employment and sobriety,” says Wells. “It’s not a market-rate apartment or house; the hope is that people kind of move up through that to permanent housing.” In 2025, a total of 955 people found help through transitional housing Friendship House services.
Another change came to Mount Vernon when Friendship House built a commercial kitchen in what is now the Friendship House Cafe. Before then, meals for residents were prepared in the kitchen of the 110-year-old house that served as the men’s shelter.
“It was super challenging,” Wells says. “In 2013, through a lot of support from the community, the cafe really revolutionized what we could do for our residents, and now we also provide community meals. Every evening, dinner is open to anyone who needs a meal.” The cafe was able to provide nearly 68,000 meals for residents and community members alike.
Skagit Friendship House Success Stories
Jaskaran Dhatt joined the organization as Development Manager just over a year ago. Born in Bellingham, he was happy to land in Mount Vernon after attending college in Olympia. “I have younger sisters, a lot of my family’s up here, and I was gone for about five years,” he says. “As I was looking around for things to do, the job at Friendship House interested me. My family has always been really people-facing, and helping out is part of my faith, so I like the mission and the work they’re doing.”
In the short time he has been on board, Dhatt has already seen the effects a helping hand can have. “As part of our cafe’s job training programs, residents can learn skills with our cafe manager. We do a little ceremony when they finish their program, where we give them a cool ceremonial knife with their name on it, and have coffee and cake,” he says. “One of the guys wanted to say some words about going through the program, and how it gave him stability, self-confidence, and self-made skills. It was my first time hearing that from a resident who went through it, and it was something super heartwarming that I always come back to.”
Friendship House Needs Help From the Community
As with any organization looking to make positive change at the grass-roots level, Friendship House is happy to welcome support from major partners like Bank of the Pacific, as well as members of the community. Beyond cash donations, the variety of programs they offer means that Friendship House is on the lookout for a variety of gifts.
Donations are welcome for the residents, which might be clothes or personal items that can help a person search for a job. Also needed are donations for the organization, with anything from a vacuum cleaner to furniture that can help make their facilities into a home. “We’re actually starting a new program to take donations for housewarming bundles,” says Wells. “So, as folks find a place, we can assemble a package of linens, or things for the kitchen, just as a kind of starter pack.”
Volunteers also make up a substantial portion of the workforce, and opportunities range from individuals who oversee day-to-day operations to groups that might come in to cook or serve at the cafe.
Friendship House’s Future
Even as he settles into his position, Wells is already thinking about how to maintain the recent momentum the Friendship House has achieved in expanding its outreach. “Historically, we’ve provided shelter and given support, but not all the other things it takes to have employment and permanent housing. My vision is that we can certainly coordinate greater services to improve our outcome,” he says. “If you were to ask me how I judge the success of the organization, it’s by judging how many folks we are able to transition to permanent housing from our program. So, I’m thinking, how can we get better at doing what we do?”
Information for all services, including shelters, showers, laundry, and the cafe, can be found on the Skagit Friendship House website.
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