Lambert House ready to reopen renovated Capitol Hill LGBTQ+ youth center after two-year overhaul

Setting up for a past Lambert House Pink Prom (Image: Lambert House)

By Brenna Gauchat

On August 31st, the Lambert House LGBTQ+ Youth Center will reopen its Capitol Hill headquarters on 15th Ave, resuming daily programming and hosting a housewarming family-style dinner in its renovated dining room. The reopening expands space for Seattle’s marginalized youth and marks a major milestone for LGBTQ+ youth centers nationwide.

“For youth who are growing up, hearing in news sources and news feeds every single day that they are the subject of tremendous public controversy and there’s a lot of people in the world that want them to disappear and not exist,” executive director Ken Shulman said. “Having a place like this as a refuge really matters.”

Leadership this summer completed a comprehensive renovation to update the century-old building, featuring a foundation rebuild, earthquake retrofitting, complete utility system updates, new bathrooms, and expanded spaces for the kitchen, dining room, art studio, and recreation areas.

For the past two years, the center operated out of temporary space at St. Mark’s on 10th Ave while the original building underwent these structural repairs and expansions. Despite the relocation, Lambert House maintained its full schedule of nightly dinners, support groups, game nights, and community activities. With renovations complete, Shulman announced it is time to return to their permanent home, where the upgrades directly serve the more than 700 youth who visit annually.

The physical improvements are critical to providing safety and security for visitors. Lambert House purchased its 15th Ave property in 2016, joining a select few independent LGBTQ+ youth centers that own their facilities.

“When [nonprofits] get far enough to the outskirts, their clients stop following them,” Shulman said.

“Having a space that’s only theirs [for LGBTQ+ youth] is part of providing them with the psychological and emotional safety that they need in order to get over all the stressors and the increased risks,” Shulman said.

Lambert House was founded in 1981 by Dr. Bob Deisher, a pediatrician who observed how social isolation harmed his LGBTQ+ patients’ health. After meeting in church basements and clinics for a decade, Lambert House leased the Victorian on Capitol Hill, creating the nation’s first community-based drop-in center for LGBTQ+ youth.

A decade ago, when the building’s landlords intended to sell, a longtime donor provided a zero-percent interest loan, enabling the organization to buy it. Through fundraising, corporate matching programs, and grants, Lambert House fully paid off its $2 million mortgage in 2024, clearing the way to complete the extensive structural upgrades. Revenue related to the Convention Center even went to help foot the bill.

“We’re going to be settling in for a while,” Shulman said about their quiet reopening, referring to setting up detailed areas like the new art studio. “I don’t mean in a general, big picture way … I mean the specifics,” he added. “Where do the shelves go and what goes on what shelf? That level of detail.”

Lambert House exclusively serves youth ages 10 to 22. Visitors under the age of 12 require parent or guardian permission.

The house was raised for foundation work (Image: Lambert House)

Shulman describes it as a controlled space where visitors interact only with vetted, trained volunteers. During orientation, new visitors share their goals; Shulman noted that 92 out of 100 kids write, “to make friends.” The newly enlarged recreational spaces and dedicated activity rooms were redesigned specifically to foster these social connections.

“Making friends during adolescence is preventive for depression that can lead to suicide and for using alcohol and other drugs as a coping mechanism for social isolation,” Shulman said about the “minority stress” many LGBTQ+ youth face when they are being bullied in school or experience fear and anxiety about coming out.

For everybody — LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ youth alike — teenage years are typically a time when kids find “self awareness”, Shulman said.

While the center provides essential sexual safety resources, Shulman notes that youth often gain their most meaningful insights into relationships and self-awareness through natural, open conversations with their peers.

“They’re talking about ‘who do you think is cute, who do you want to date, who are you dating, who is so-and-so dating,’” Shulman said. “Some people start earlier, some people start a little older. But that’s part of that time in life and it’s very important for them to be able to talk to each other about that.”

“We want kids to be able to educate each other and be able to talk openly with each other in frank, explicit, helpful ways to keep each other safe and healthy.”

There are also simpler conversations — like what’s for dinner.

A key area of improvement in the renovated house is the expanded dining room, which now doubles its previous seating capacity for weekday evening meals at 6 PM, where visitors serve themselves buffet-style and sit around one big dining table.

“The dining table is a very special place here,” Shulman said about the youth center’s community meals.

“We have kids from different backgrounds, different economic class backgrounds, different educational backgrounds, different religious backgrounds, who would never sit at the same table in the cafeteria at school,” Shulman said.

You can learn more about Lambert House at lamberthouse.org.

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