Agency helping the homeless to get place of its own

Family Services helps homeless families find housing, and on Friday afternoon it started building a place of its own.

To get things started, a group of students from the nonprofit's early learning center broke ground with shovels on what will be a 35,000-square-foot support center.

By early next summer, three modern structures will line the east side of a busy stretch of Rainier Avenue South. Inside, Family Services will run a state-of-the-art child care center, parenting classes, a children's clothing store, domestic-violence intervention, housing aid and case management.

The idea is to offer homeless families one place where they can receive comprehensive help to stabilize their lives, rather than making them shuttle around Seattle from one group to another.

"We are going to change the future for thousands of kids," Family Services President Ruthann Howell said at the noontime groundbreaking ceremony.

The nonprofit has been scattered around Seattle, with its child care center on Capitol Hill, offices on the edge of Pioneer Square, housing services on Denny Way and housing around King County.

The group has already raised $9 million of the $16 million needed for the project, led by Seattle-based Weinstein AU architects, thanks in part to $4 million from the Seattle Rotary.