SL Start Co., a Spokane for-profit company working largely in markets dominated by nonprofits and government agencies, is growing at an aggressive clip and quietly has emerged as a significant employer here.


The company places disadvantaged people in jobs and housing, and also works with developers to build and operate market-rate retirement communities.


The 25-year-old company is on pace to have $43 million in revenue this year, and employs 1,100 people, 400 of whom work in the Spokane area.


Referring to the companys work in finding homes and jobs for the disadvantaged, SL Start founder and majority owner Stephen Start says, I believe were the largest for-profit company in Washington state and possibly in the Northwest. I dont know of a nonprofit thats as big as we are either.


Rick Colliton, the companys president, says SL Starts revenues have grown 15 percent to 20 percent annually in recent years. He expects revenues to grow another 15 percent next year, which would put those figures between $49 million and $50 million.


The companys 1,100 employees are spread out in Washington state, Idaho, and California, and their ranks are likely to increase by about 100 in 2005, Colliton says.


The company expects each division to grow next year and is looking to expand geographically, but hasnt determined yet what additional markets it might enter, Colliton says.


SL Start operates three divisions: StartWorks, which provides job-training and job-placement services for disabled and disadvantaged individuals; StartLiving, which helps developmentally disabled people live independently; and StartCommunities, a retirement-home developer and operator.


Which division is largest depends upon how size is measured, Start says. StartCommunities is the largest in terms of total revenue and is on target to bring in $20.5 million this year. Meanwhile, about 530 of the companys employees work in the StartLiving division, making it the biggest employer of the three. StartWorks has the largest number of customers, or people served.


Both StartWorks and StartLiving derive revenue largely through government contracts.


The company started in 1979 to provide job training and placement for people with disabilities.


Since then, the company has expanded its mission to include what Start refers to as all people with barriers to employment. That might include people who are transitioning to the work force from the welfare rolls, people who speak English as a second language, or people who are recovering from drug and alcohol addictions.


StartWorks is on pace to work with about 8,500 people this year, providing job counseling and job training programs. Of those, the company is projected to place about 1,100 people in jobs, Colliton says. Current average wage for those placed workers is $8.25 an hour.


In addition to two offices in Spokane, StartWorks has 10 offices in Idaho and three offices in southwest Washington.


Inland Northwest companies with which SL Start has placed workers include Avista Corp., WestCoast Hospitality Corp., Dave Smith Motors, and salad-dressing maker Litehouse Inc.


Weve worked with virtually every major employer in Spokane, Start says.


StartWorks has about 190 employees of its own and is expected to bring in about $6.75 million this year.


StartLiving


The companys StartLiving division helps developmentally disabled people find housing within a communityrather than in an institutionand gives them support to remain in such housing. That division, which started in the early 1980s, has about 530 employees and should have revenues of about $15.75 million this year.


SL Start doesnt own the housing where those it assists live. Rather, it works.


The supported-living work is labor intensive, because the degree of assistance needed can be extensive, Start says. Some people with developmental disabilities need round-the-clock supervision. Others need only to be visited once a day.


StartLiving currently provides living assistance to more than 500 developmentally disabled people in Washington and Idaho. In addition, the division has three offices in Western Washington, two in North Idaho, and two in southern Idaho.


StartCommunities


StartCommunities, the newest of the three divisions, started in the mid-1990s as a way for the company to diversify and grow its operations.


Through it, the company currently owns an interest in and manages five retirement communities with a total of 640 residents.


Two of those are Northpointe Retirement Community, and Harbor Crest at Cedar Canyon Estates, in Spokane. Two others are in Southern California, and one is in Yakima, Wash.


Each of those communities includes a mix of independent-living, assisted-living, and dementia-care living units.


SL Start has partnered with Spokane developers to develop three additional retirement communities that it later sold, and it had management contracts for two other complexes elsewhere.


Colliton says the company initially planned to develop retirement communities and sell them shortly after getting them up and running, but later decided to keep and operate some.


Now, SL Start is looking for development opportunities in communities with barriers to entry, Colliton says. Such obstacles might involve sites where bare land is expensive or where regulatory approval is difficult to obtain.


In such areas, he says, Once you get a project entitled, you have something thats special.


Starts influence


In addition to building a company based largely on providing care and services to others, SL Start and its founder have become leaders in their field.


Start says the company has participated in national and statewide pilot programs and initiatives to bring disabled people into the communityrather than having them live in institutions and work in sheltered workshops.


When Start first established the company, virtually all disabled people worked in sheltered workshops, where they worked typically in assembly jobs with others with disabilities.


Early on, he says, the company began participating in pilot projects in Washington that worked to place disabled people in jobs within a community.


Now, in Washington state, about 80 percent of disabled people work in jobs within the community, while 20 percentmostly those with developmental disabilitieswork in sheltered workshops. Nationally, those percentages are reversed, with only about 20 percent of disabled people working in the community.


The state of Washington is so far ahead of the rest of the country, its unbelievable, Start says.


Gail Kogle is a manager at Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest, a nonprofit organization that provides job-training and job-placement services similar to those provided by SL Start.


She agrees with Starts assessment that Washington state is well ahead of most other parts of the country in terms of integrating its disabled into the community.


For a lot of that you can thank people like Steve Start, says Kogle, who is immediate past president of the National Rehabilitation Association.


With a bachelors degree in psychology from Washington State University, Start worked as a program coordinator at Pre-Vocational Training Center in Spokane for five years before deciding to start his own company.


He says he mulled establishing a nonprofit organization of his own rather than a for-profit venture, but, I was afraid that if I started a nonprofit, Id be controlled by a board that wasnt as energetic or forward looking or risk taking as I am.