Patient Housing at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Helping Families in Need with Temporary Housing During Cancer Treatment

Patients travel to Seattle seeking treatment from all 50 states and 60 countries. Many families must relocate to Seattle with its high-end housing market for several months during their cancer care. We seek to do everything possible to make their treatment successful. This includes providing a variety of social services, including housing assistance. Funding is critically needed for rent subsidies for families in financial need.

The problem of locating affordable housing in Seattle, with its high occupancy rates and competitive housing market, can be significant for patients and family members. Without safe, clean, affordable housing near campus, many patients are unable to participate in our clinical treatment, or if they do come, they may suffer financial hardship. Most families concurrently pay their own rents or mortgages at home. Hutchinson Center offers financial aid through our Family Assistance Fund, funded entirely by private donations.

The Family Assistance Fund helps families staying at Hutchinson Center's Pete Gross House, as well as elsewhere in Seattle. The beautiful new Pete Gross House opened near Hutchinson Center campus in November 1999 after a six-year, volunteer-driven fundraising campaign. The 69-unit apartment building is devoted to housing for cancer patients and their family members. Named for a long-time Seattle Seahawks announcer who died of cancer, the Pete Gross House provides common areas where patients and families can meet and support one another through sharing their unique, life-changing experiences. The Hutch School, where pediatric patients and children or siblings of patients can continue their schoolwork during treatment, is also located in the building. Although the Pete Gross House offers rents below market value, even these reduced rates will cause financial hardship for some families.

Opportunities to Help Families in Need of Housing Assistance at the Hutchinson Center

Every year, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center relies on the generosity of private donors to help provide housing for patients and family members. These contributions will touch lives significantly by easing a financial burden so that patients and their families can focus on the healing process. Those benefiting from housing assistance receive an average of $1,000 each month to help with apartment rental costs during their treatment stay in Seattle.

You can also direct your gift and donate in memory or honor of a loved one or special occasion.