The skanner., August 17, 2011, Image 9

WWW . THESkANNEr . COM
A uguST 17, 2011
S EATTLE , W ASHiNgTON
V OLuME XXXiii, N O . 42
25
CENTS
i nSide
Economy
page 4
Movies
page 3
Water Safety
C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
page 8
TaToo Expo
Practice
SAT at
Library
Study for the SAT with
the Seattle Public
Library
By alicia a. Halberg
uW news Lab
PHOTO BY SuSan Fried
A
San Francisco tattoo artist Henry Lewis joined dozens of other artists from all over the country and around the world
Aug. 12 through 14 at the 2011 Seattle Tattoo Expo. Thousands of fans showed up to get tattoos and see the work
of the talented artists at Seattle center.
Medical respite Center Opens
King County Executive Dow Constantine made it official
atia Musazay
Special To The Skanner
News
H
omeless people in King
County will now have a
safe place to recuperate
after a hospital visit. A new
medical respite center is open-
ing in September and will pro-
vide facilities for those needing
a place off the streets to heal.
The respite center is the result
of a collaborative effort between
seven hospitals in the region and
Public Health-Seattle & King
County.
Seattle
Housing
Authority, United Way of King
County and other county depart-
ments are also partners in this
joint venture.
“A couple of hospitals
approached us over five years
ago with the problem of needing
a place, or additional capacity,
for homeless people when they
get out of the hospital,” said
Katie Ross of the public health
department.
A respite center is essential to
King County’s health system
because of the number of home-
indeX
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less
people
in
Seattle.
According to the public health
department, “It is a more cost-
effective and appropriate setting
for patients who no longer need
hospital-level care.” It will ben-
efit taxpayers as well.
“A hospital can’t just dis-
charge somebody to the streets,”
said Virginia Felton, director of
communications and strategic
planning for Seattle Housing
Authority. “That’s not necessar-
ily good for those (patients) and
it’s also very costly for the hos-
pital.”
It costs about $200 a day for a
patient to stay in the center,
compared to an average of
$1,500 for inpatient hospital
care.
The respite center is located
on the seventh floor of the
Jefferson Terrace building, a
high-rise that provides housing
for the low-income population.
Seattle’s
Public
Housing
Authority is leasing the floor to
the public health department so
they can work with hospitals to
run this center.
pplying for college is expensive, but
one Seattle Public Library program
can help prospective students
improve their SAT scores while reducing
the costs.
The library has partnered with Kaplan
Test Prep to offer the preliminary SAT
(PSAT) for free to 300 students on Sept. 17.
“We have a lot of teen-services librarians
also who are telling us that academic sup-
port for students is really needed, especially
with budget cuts in schools and in other
organizations,” said Amy Twito, the pro-
gram manager for Seattle Public Library’s
youth services.
Taking the PSAT can help students find
their strengths and weaknesses as well as
become more familiar with the test format
and questions before taking the actual test.
Other SAT preparation classes offered by
Kaplan can cost sometimes over $300, with
private tutors running $100 per hour.
Other application-related fees can really
stack up against students. The SAT, required
for many college applications, costs $49.
The University of Washington’s nonrefund-
able application costs $60. Luckily, fee
waivers are sometimes available for those
who are eligible. Information about SAT
fee waivers can be found on the College
Board website.
Katey Houck is a University of
Washington student working with the
Dream Project, a group of students who pro-
vide outreach and network with high school
students to help achieve their college
dreams. She says application costs are more
of a mental burden rather than an actual bur-
den on prospective students.
“[The fees] impact whether they think
they can apply to college or not. Most of
them qualify for [aid] and don’t have to pay
anyways—that’s often a surprise to our stu-
dents,” she said. “I think it is an issue, but I
See reSPiTe on page 3
See SaT on page 3
Seattle Stand Down event aims to help
Seattle Stand Down event aims to help veterans
By Janelle Wetzstein
uW news Lab
O
ffering a helping hand will be the
focus of the First Annual Seattle
Stand Down for Homeless Veterans.
The event, scheduled for Sept. 15 from 9
a.m. to 3 p.m., will be held at Seattle Central
Community College and is expected to con-
nect over 500 homeless veterans and their
families to a variety of services.
Event organizer Samuel Barrett said that
Stand Down will target veterans who have
returned to civilian life, but have lacked the
proper support to successfully reintegrate
into society.
“Some of the vets who attend these events
may not have had the support network they
needed when they got out,” he said. “We
are going to have a whole host of services
for these veterans to take advantage of, and
hopefully get themselves into better circum-
stances.”
The Stand Down event began in 1988 in
San Diego and focused on veterans who
were homeless or at risk of being homeless.
It was modeled after the Stand Down con-
cept used during the Vietnam War, which
See VeTeranS on page 3