Ellington

UW alumnus Sinan Demirel was finishing a study on homeless families for his doctorate of philosophy in sociology eight years ago when he was hired to help expand Rising Out of the Shadows (ROOTS), a shelter for homeless youth and young adults in the U-District. Now, after years of leadership and service to the organization, Demirel has stepped down from his position as executive director to pursue new ventures.

While he is still working as a senior advisor at ROOTS, he is also the executive director at the Elizabeth Gregory Home, which provides transitional housing for women. He is working on improving funding and organization for the program.

“It seemed like a really good time to [transition], when we suddenly have some financial stability at ROOTS,” Demirel said. “There was another organization talking to me that very much needed that sort of help, so it was time to look at a new challenge.”

When he began working at ROOTS in 2002, it was financially unstable and offered few services, considering that it only opened its doors one night a week.

“I wanted to do something more meaningful to me than academia,” Demirel said about his beginnings at ROOTS. “Something where I could be making more of a tangible difference in the world.”

When he was brought on board, Demirel was the only staff member, and he was hired to increase operations. Through his hard work, ROOTS was able to increase its services to seven nights a week. He also created a number of volunteering opportunities, so people from the community can help out as well as those in certain classes at the UW that have a service learning requirement. Other UW students are also encouraged to volunteer.

While still in graduate school, Demirel also started Friday Feast, a restaurant-style soup kitchen that was voted by the homeless-organizing network Real Change as “The best of all soup kitchens.” He said that, though it began with just volunteers cooking, the homeless people who ate there also began helping with the meals.

“[Demirel’s] personality is one that’s just very engaging — he has the vision that there’s no problem bigger than the community can tackle,” said Kristine Cunningham, former program director and current acting executive director at ROOTS. “And when you have that type of vision, everybody is attracted to it. They’re like, ‘Oh, really? We could do this? We could help this? We could take this on?’”

Though many of his coworkers at the shelter are disappointed in losing what they consider to be an integral part of the organization’s success, there is a general consensus that this is the easiest time for a transition. On Feb. 4, it was announced that ROOTS would be receiving about $1.5 million from the Raynier Institute and Foundation, a donation Demirel helped to negotiate. Another organization, YouthCare, also received a sizeable grant from Raynier. The conversation between the organizations also led to a program called Catalyst, which helps lead homeless youth who show up to ROOTS into temporary housing situations.

“He did an amazing job of leaving the organization in a very good position,” Cunningham said. “[The fund] basically means that, for the next 10 years, our shelter has about a third of its operating budget met with no strings attached. Just as long as we keep providing shelter, that money’s going to keep coming in.”

ROOTS also received a challenge grant for $500,000 from Raynier, to be used for an expansion of the shelter’s facilities. Once this is underway, the organization hopes to turn away fewer young adults. As of now, ROOTS has only 25 beds and a high demand for shelter. Last year, they were forced to turn away a total of 1,761 young adults due to a lack of resources, Demirel said.

“Those are terrible statistics for me to have memorized,” he said. “We hope that helping that [problem] is one of the outcomes of the new funding; that we are able not only to provide more bed space for people, but are able to do the work we do in a way that provides more support in getting people off the streets.”

The money will not only have a direct effect on operations at the shelter, but will also serve as a way to secure even more funding.

“If you’re going out to foundations, they like to see that you have some of that money in hand already,” said Geov Parrish, a member of the ROOTS board of directors. “The fact that you’re stable means that you can take on other projects and start other services.”

The board of directors is now searching for a new executive director to fill Sinan’s seat, and the position is scheduled to be filled by June.

“Whoever we hire as executive director next, we’re not looking for another Sinan, because there won’t be another Sinan,” Parrish said. “We’re looking for someone who has their own unique set of skills and things that they can bring that can help us serve our clients.”

Reach reporter Kristen Steenbeeke at news@dailyuw.com.