Jessica has lived in Washington state for most of her life. Born in Tacoma and raised in Puyallup, she moved to Seattle as a teenager. This happened in the mid-1990s, at the height of grunge’s popularity, and she moved to the city because she really liked the arts scene. When she arrived, she lived briefly in a recording studio, where she met a lot of musicians and got to know people in the arts community.
The arts have always been important to Jessica, who started acting when she was a kid in local theater. Now, she owns a business producing jazz concerts featuring female artists. Their next show will be a collaboration with the Seattle-Kobe Sister City Association (SKSCA). Every year, the SKSCA brings a female artist from Kobe, Japan to perform in the U.S. for the first time. Seattle Women in Jazz helps to present this artist in an international concert, that also features performances by local artists.
When not supporting Seattle’s artistic community, Jessica works in a middle school as a special education teacher. She was a substitute for several years until about a year ago, when she received her teaching certification and her master’s in education. This fall marks her beginning as a permanent, full-time teacher.
“Last year was my first year, and I did it half-time, and then the other half I subbed. So, it was a nice, gradual easing into it, because even though I was a substitute teacher, I didn’t really feel ready to do it full time after graduating. Next school year, I’ll be a full-time teacher. I’m a little bit nervous about it, but I feel like I have an idea of what to expect, since I was doing it half-time,” Jessica explains.
Jessica’s daughter Ella was born in Seattle and has lived in or around the city her whole life. She’ll start the third grade this fall. She takes after her mom in some of her interests, from singing to attending shows at the Seattle Children’s Theater. She also helps her mom out at the jazz concerts Jessica produces. Jessica likes Seattle’s abundance of parks, and she enjoys going to concerts around town. Together, the pair enjoys traveling, from trips to Disney resorts or closer stays on the Oregon coast.
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The family had been living in an apartment in Lake City, where Ella attends school, but sharing a building with a difficult neighbor escalated from uncomfortable to dangerous, and Jessica had to make a quick decision to relocate to somewhere safe. This led Jessica to move in with her mother in Puyallup, all while still commuting to Lake City so that Ella didn’t have to leave her school.
Jessica says, “When we went to live with my mom, we weren’t expecting to stay as long as we have. We started looking at different options of where we could live that might be safer. Habitat for Humanity seemed like a good option for Ella to have more permanent housing than an apartment where we may end up with someone that we don’t feel safe around.”
While Jessica was in graduate school, she started to think of different options of how to buy a home once she graduated. Ella really wanted to live in a house, so Jessica made a list and looked at different options in terms of what she could afford.
“Part of what helped me get through graduate school was the possibility of being able to have a house once I graduated,” she adds.
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Jessica applied to the Yarrow Cottages neighborhood and was accepted into Habitat SKKC’s homeownership program. She liked the neighborhood’s location in a quiet part of Seattle. Meeting the people on the other side of the unit’s shared wall before moving in helped Jessica feel comfortable with the prospect of new neighbors after her previous difficulties.
Ella drew a picture for their future neighbors, and when they found out who the couple was at a Habitat-sponsored event, Ella gave it to them. Touched by the gesture, they said they will frame it and put it up on their wall. The photo featured a house and a cat—a not so subtle message to her mom as Ella has expressed interest in owning a cat once they move into their house. She has already picked out the name Luna for her future pet.
During her time in the Habitat homeownership program, Jessica volunteered at the Southcenter Habitat Store and onsite at Yarrow Cottages helping to build her future neighbors’ homes. She simultaneously completed the required homeownership classes that addressed topics like how to budget and the costs associated with buying a house. This kind of support and engagement throughout the homebuying process helped her to already feel like part of the Yarrow Cottages—and greater Habitat for Humanity—community.
Jessica reflects, “I think one of the nice things baked into the Habitat program is how much you get to know your neighbors. You’re building community right from the start.”
To prepare for the move, Jessica has already started exploring her future neighborhood, checking out the local parks, bakeries, and library branch. She’s thinking about the family photos she wants to line the walls of her new home with and the potted plants she can grow on her front porch.
For her part, Ella is dreaming too. When asked what’s the first thing she wants to do when she moves in, she succinctly answers, “Get a cat.”
