CONTINUED...
WHEN THE HOMELESS GET A HOME
St. Charles Hotel Renovation
Nicole Brodeur / Times staff columnist
The Plymouth Housing Group thinks it has the answers. With the opening of the St. Charles last week, Plymouth marked its 12th property dedicated to permanently ending homelessness.
Since 1980, Plymouth has taken the homeless off the streets and offered them low rents, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, medical supervision, job skills and a community.
Rents are paid with 30 percent of the resident's income (most are mentally disabled and receive disability), as well as vouchers from the Seattle Housing Authority. The balance and services are paid by federal and private grants.
Tara Connor, one of the program coordinators, will start to place the 65 residents over the next two months, choosing from a waiting list of 925. Only one person will move in per day. Any faster, Connor said, and it can be overwhelming.
The simple act of being handed a room key can unlock a flood of emotions. Many of the residents haven't closed a door behind them in years. They don't know what it's like to shower or eat without first standing in line.
"It's not unusual for them to cry, or stare at the key for a while," Connor told me.
I hope to unlock some new perspective at the St. Charles by following one or two residents over the course of a year, and offering monthly dispatches from Third and Cherry.
It will be unvarnished, unromantic and unvictimized. My subjects may disappear, or disappoint; I have no expectations.
But the hope is to show how the homeless are like us, how they're not, what they're up against and where the rest of us come in beyond the brief street encounters.
I walked the halls of the St. Charles before the opening the other day. Then I sat in one of the rooms and took in the bed, the table, the microwave and the towels, wondering who would get the key, close the door and call this home.
The smell of paint hit me as it always does: a fresh start.
