Housing advocate for county's homeless

Many people don’t know there are homeless in Wahkiakum County, Mental Health Director Chris Holmes said. But in the year beginning in July 2009, Wahkiakum Health and Human Services sheltered 13 households, or 15 individuals--including two children--with a total of 964 bed-nights in a variety of units, Coordinator Mary Vik said. Dawn Hampton is one person who credits the shelter program for helping save her life.

Hampton was someone who had never been homeless before she came to Cathlamet over seven years ago. The 51-year-old artist, who creates furniture and found art objects, lived in one of the county’s shelter units for three months.

“I’ve never felt so safe,” she said. She received a combination of services that helped her gain sobriety and stability. Now in a mobile home of her own, she’s created a chic environ, filled with affirmations, like the design with the word Joy and stars painted on one wall.

Hampton admits, “I was drinking myself to death.” She had been to two inpatient treatment centers and said, “I couldn’t get sober for more than two-three weeks at a time.”

When her husband asked her to leave because of her drinking and she wasn’t getting along with her parents, Hampton ended up in the psychiatric hospital at St. John. A counselor from Health and Human Services talked to her about a local homeless shelter and Hampton said she was terrified.

“I’m from the city. I pictured a big empty room with 15 cots lined up, screaming kids and people coming off drugs.” What she found was an apartment that was clean and a feeling of safety that she said she hadn’t had for “a long time.”

The shelter residents receive case management and other services they need. Hampton worked with counselors to manage her mental health and chemical dependency issues.

Since then she’s become an advocate for others dealing with similar problems, serving on the Wahkiakum Continuum of Care Housing Advisory Group and she’s into her sixth year of sobriety. Hampton said Cathlamet has a lack of low -cost housing. She noted that the county is leasing two of the smallest, lowest cost units that had been available to those with low income.

Human services administers a combination of federal and state grants for transitional housing, tenant based rental assistance and shelter support, including case manager and homeless prevention for people who are in danger of being evicted.

The county has three shelter units, one two-bedroom unit and two-studio apartments, which it uses for mental health transitional housing and which include case management services. Domestic Violence services are provided through The Charlotte House Domestic Violence Shelter. There is a six year waiting list for subsidized housing through Longview Housing, Vik said.

“The homeless people we serve are often sleeping in their cars, and a smaller number are in a tent in the woods,” she said.