Home Alive—the self-defense education group founded 16 years ago in response to the rape and murder of Mia Zapata—is $25,000 in debt. Self-defense classes will cease, and employees, who haven’t been paid in months, will lock the doors of the Capitol Hill offices at the end of the month.

“I knew we were a scrappy organization and I embraced it,” says Cait Alexander, who started as the nonprofit’s interim program director at the beginning of January. “But I was not prepared for the severe financial crises that we're in.”

“There was no planned income, and I knew I wouldn’t get paid for the foreseeable future. And nobody from the board had talked to me about it,” Alexander says. So along with the board of directors, she made the call to cease operation—at least temporarily—and call a community meeting this Sunday to try and salvage the group.

So where did Home Alive go wrong?

The organization would pay bills and accept money, Alexander says, without accounting to make sure that the expenses balanced with income. “People love to throw fundraising events for us. But a lot times, we don’t even know it’s happening and a check will just show up. Income like that should be icing on the cake but instead it’s been the cake for so long.”

The group pays two staff members, class instructors, office utilities, and $1,500 a month rent for the office—which the group has recently received past-due notices. "I knew I wasn’t getting my paycheck, but I didn’t realize it was $25,000 of not having a paycheck," says Addie Candib, a Home Alive instructor. "I think for the last six months or so, [paychecks] have generally been late."

Last year, tuition from 120 self-defense and boundary-setting classes went toward the group’s annual $90,000 budget. About 1,100 people attended classes, paying on a sliding scale from nothing up to $75. The average contribution is around $25. But requiring fees for classes would “never fly” with the organization’s leaders, Alexander says. The remainder of the organization's funding comes from online donations and a set of benefit CDs.

Alexander says she doesn’t have access to detailed financial records, so she can’t determine if income has dropped or expenses have increased over the years. But she says that about six years ago, Home Alive laid off its entire staff, and for a couple years the group had only two board members.

“It’s pretty shitty,” says Maria Carney, an outreach coordinator. “We can be passionate and have amazing events but ... the technical details can fall by the wayside.”

Alexander concurs: “I just don’t think we have had the skills on the board to meet all the needs of the organization.” Board members have not returned calls to comment; however, they will likely attend a meeting this Sunday to decide how to rescue Home Alive.

Clearly, Alexander—or someone with an accountant’s mind—is necessary if the organization is to survive in this economic weather. She speculates that the group can maintain classes by using a desk and phone line in another office, or operating as a subsidiary of a larger nonprofit. “I think that if someone just handed me $50,000 and said, ‘Pay off your debt and we need you to continue on,’ we're still going to stop scheduling new classes and think about restructuring so we are not having this conversation again in the future.”

The meeting is Sunday, February 8, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at 1415 10th Avenue, office #3.

Seattle Police shut down traffic at Boylston and Howell on Capitol Hill minutes ago after receiving a call about shots fired.

The shots apparently came from a 3rd floor apartment.

While officers were investigating, they heard several shots fired. Police have contacted a man in a 3rd floor apartment and have recovered a gun.

Initially, police believed someone had fired a .22 caliber weapon, but a witness at the scene told officers they'd seen a man firing BB rounds from an apartment balcony.

Over the weekend, a resident at another apartment building near the scene reported that someone had shot out their windows with a BB gun.

Update: SPD confirms the man arrested was in possession of a "high-powered air rifle" capable of shooting BBs and pellets.

Despite the fact that I, an absentminded wackadoodle, have left my bike on Metro buses no fewer than three times now, the nice folks at Bikestation Seattle (run by the Bicycle Alliance of Washington) were, once again, utterly pleasant and prompt in letting me know that they have my bike in storage at their facility in Pioneer Square. I've said it before, but these folks provide an awesome service—not just storing the bikes people abandon on buses (an estimated 200 at any given time), but providing secure bike parking, promoting biker-friendly legislation, and lobbying the city and state for funding for bike infrastructure.

In fact, it's also thanks to the Bicycle Alliance that I just learned Metro is amending its ridiculous policy prohibiting cyclists from loading or unloading their bikes on buses in the downtown Ride Free Area (AKA the "chase the bus" rule). From now on, bikes will only be barred from loading between 6 and 9 am and from 3 to 7 pm on weekdays.

If you want more info on the Bicycle Alliance and its programs, you can visit their web site or email them here.

It appears the cyclist involved in a collision with a van in Ballard earlier this morning was seriously injured.

According to Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Dana Vander Houwen, medics performed CPR on a 39-year-old man at the scene, who was taken to Harborview with life-threatening injuries.

The King County Medical Examiner's office says they've received notification that a cyclist died at Harborview earlier today, but could not confirm whether it was the cyclist involved in this morning's accident.

Seattle Police are still investigating the cause of the accident, but Slogtipper Ric, who witnesses the accident, says:

My guess is...that the van moved right in order to execute a u-turn to the left, and didn't see the bike; while at the same time the bike went left to go around the van and didn't anticipate the u-turn. Splat.

The guy looked the part of a serious biker— all lycra & helmet. As we came down the hill, he was easily going 35.

Update: The cyclist died at Harborview earlier today.