New South End ‘HUB’ Brings Health and Community Services Closer to Affordable Homes

A White Center community center named “Hope, Unity and Belonging” – better known as “HUB” – officially opened alongside a new affordable housing complex on Jan. 24, after years of community effort. 

“White Center is deserving of this,” said Aaron Garcia, executive director of White Center Community Development Association (WCCDA). “This is a really big investment in our community that has historically not gotten resourced or invested in the ways that it should.” 

Services available at the HUB include a clinic, a coffee shop, a recording studio, and a maker space nestled among a playground and gathering areas, among other amenities. The affordable housing complex, the Canopy Apartments, offers 76 units that range from one-bedroom to four-bedroom apartments. 

The project began construction in May 2024 and finished in late 2025, but the vision for the community center began long before, Garcia said. Through surveys and outreach to residents, the WCCDA created a space near neighboring schools. The project cost $49.3 million, with significant investments from King County. 

White Center is a diverse, unincorporated area of King County with people of color making up 64% of the population. Historically, it’s been underserved and under-resourced, with a need for projects that would benefit the community, Garcia said. 

Garcia emigrated from Mexico to White Center as a child. As a first-generation college student, he initially wanted to earn his degree and move his family out of White Center, but in college, he realized there were structural reasons for the lack of investments in his community.  

“I went from wanting to leave to wanting to come back,” Garcia said. “If anybody who has this opportunity to leave White Center dips and doesn't come back and invest, then the community is never going to get what it deserves.”

Now, Garcia and others at WCCDA who have also grown up in White Center want to create more opportunities for people to stay, settle, and become rooted in the community. 

The HUB also hosts a variety of local organizations with roots in White Center, including HealthPoint, FEEST Seattle, Southwest Youth & Family Services, and the YES! Foundation. 

HealthPoint is a community-based health clinic that offers affordable medical, dental, and behavioral health services. They have 19 other locations across King County. With the clinic being co-located with the apartment complex, it allows residents to be closer to the services they need, said Aleida Thomas, a spokesperson for the HeathPoint clinic at White Center HUB. 

When the clinic opened in November, they began with 33 patients; now they’ve grown to 302 patients, with dental being the most sought-after service. 

“When you walk in here, we have all nationalities, ethnicities, languages,” Thomas said. “Our patients feel comfortable walking in and seeing someone who looks like them behind the counter or behind the mask.” Thomas said

FEEST is a youth-led community organization that focuses on supporting students across the South End. Originally, the organization addressed the lack of nutritious and culturally relevant school lunches. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group advocated for more student mental health resources. 

FEEST originally shared an office with WCCDA and has been able to move into their own space with HUB’s opening. This will allow them to increase their programming to include events such as an art and storytelling summer program, community dinners, and graduation celebrations, said Devan Rogers, the communications manager at FEEST. 

“It's really important for our young people to see the investment in their future, in their community,” Rogers said about the HUB’s opening. “We're just really excited to be in the ecosystem with all the other amazing organizations.” 

Prior to the HUB, the space was the home of the White Center Food Bank, which found a new home in 2024. A family shelter was there before that.

Along with these changes, the White Center neighborhood has also seen other changes, including the opening of the new Evergreen High School in 2025. With the new additions in the neighborhood, Garcia said he wanted to emphasize growth without displacement. 

“White Center deserves these nice things, and it shouldn't come at the cost of displacing the community that's been here for so long,” Garcia said.