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Homeless
Continued from Page 1A
single-parent households are headed by
women, according to U.S. Census data.
Women also tend to defy other demo-
graphic stereotypes for homelessness.
According to the homeless data for
Marion and Polk counties, the majority of
the local women surveyed were between
the ages of 35 and 44 and white. More
than 1,100 reported having a disabling
condition.
Of the women surveyed, about 37%
identified as chronically homeless — de-
fined by the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development as a person with
a disabling condition who has been con-
tinuously homeless for a year or more, or
who had at least four episodes of home-
lessness in the past three years.
Multiple factors can thrust people into
homelessness. Local homelessness ex-
perts point to a lack of affordable housing,
mental health, substance abuse or addic-
tion and loss of a job due to the COVID-19
pandemic as some of the reasons.
But when asked, they were unable to
say why homeless women outnumber
their male counterparts in this area of the
country. Local homeless advocates did
say they believe women, in general, may
be more likely than men to report that
they need assistance.
“The road from sheltered to homeless
has never been shorter. There are so
many different variables that could thrust
somebody into homelessness just like
that,” Robert Marshall, program manager
for ARCHES, said.
‘I was just scared’
After leaving an abusive home as a
teenager, Nickole Diaz struggled with
drug addiction for more than a decade.
She lost her home and her relationship
with her kids.
“I just hit rock bottom, and I was stay-
ing on the streets in my car,” she said.
Born and raised in Salem, Diaz kept
working while she was homeless.
As a woman, she felt particularly vul-
nerable to violence while homeless.
When she slept, she parked outside Sa-
lem Hospital, surrounded by other cars so
she felt safer. Other times, she tried to
stay in groups.
“There were times where I would put
myself in dangerous situations because
of not wanting to be alone,” she said. “Be-
cause I was just scared, there were many
nights where I was around people I
shouldn’t have been around. The fact
was, there was a group of people and it
was better than being alone in my car, es-
pecially at night for a female.”
While the exact reasons why homeless
women outnumber men in the area re-
main unclear, there is broad agreement
that domestic violence is a significant
contributor. According to the homeless
survey, 67% of women in their coordinat-
ed entry system are domestic violence
survivors.Of those, 18% are actively flee-
ing domestic violence.
“One of the leading causes of home-
lessness for women and children is do-
mestic violence,” Jayne Downing, execu-
tive director of Center for Hope and Safe-
ty, Salem’s only domestic violence shel-
ter, said. “Unfortunately, that has been
true for many, many years.”
Breezy Aguirre, ARCHES associate di-
rector, said this group also tends to expe-
rience longer lengths of homelessness,
possibly because leaving domestic vio-
lence often also means leaving friends
and other individuals in their support
network.
Abuse from partners, parents and oth-
er family members can leave massive
trauma. And those leaving abusive
households are often left with nothing.
Every year, hundreds of people, mostly
women but not entirely, seek refuge at
Center for Hope and Safety.
The center doesn’t solely offer shelter
services, but most people seeking help
need temporary or permanent housing.
Downing said those recovering and
fleeing from violence are often part of the
invisible homeless community. Some are
staying with family and friends. Some are
sleeping in cars. Others return to their
abusers after struggling on their own.
Last year, they had more than 33,000
contacts to their program. The need in-
creased during the pandemic, when clo-
sures trapped some people at home with
their abusers. Downing said in the early
days of the pandemic, they saw an 83%
increase in requests for shelter.Every bed
was full, and some families doubled up.
The center itself has about 40 beds.
They do not have a waiting list system
and use motels in emergency situations.
“We have filled up quickly, even with
the motel, and have been at capacity re-
cently,” Downing said. “We always try and
figure out a safe option with survivors,
even if our shelters are at capacity.”
Downing said abuse can also leave
lasting emotional trauma, leading some
to struggle to stabilize enough to move out
of homelessness. It also puts women at
increased risk of being abused again.
Homeless and targeted
Living outside can make people tar-
gets of violence.
“Women are especially vulnerable to
sexual assault if they are homeless,”
Downing said. “They are even being
recruited for trafficking — trading food or
lodging for sex.”
Aguirre said they are seeing a lot more
aggression towards women who attempt
to live outside in the larger encamp-
ments. Unsheltered women have report-
ed being sexually assaulted, robbed and
attacked.
Many seek out places like the ARCHES
day center and SafeSleep United shelter,
for protection from both the outside ele-
ments — rain, snow and cold — and vio-
lence.
The ARCHES Project, part of the Mid-
Willamette Valley Community Action
Agency, offers referrals, housing place-
ments and basic services to individuals
experiencing homelessness and housing
instability.
SafeSleep United, part of United Way
of the Mid-Willamette Valley, is an over-
night shelter that provides a secure place
for women to sleep and eat. The shelter
partners with Inside Out Ministries and is
open every night from 6 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.
The shelter can accommodate up to 19
women. As of April 13, 18 women were at
the shelter. Beds are available on a first-
come, first-served basis.
“They’re seeking out services such as
ARCHES as safe-havens,” Aguirre said.
ARCHES has seen an uptick in the
number of women they serve, a trend she
partially attributed to their outreach ef-
forts.
By diversifying their staff and putting
more women, BIPOC and bilingual staff
out in the field, they are able to connect
with people they never would have
reached before, she said.
“Fear has paralyzed this population,
fear of being vulnerable, fear of being vic-
timized, fear of the unknown,” Aguirre
said.
Diaz remembered hearing about Si-
monka Place, the Union Gospel Mission’s
women’s shelter in Keizer, from someone
she was using drugs with. When she first
got there, she still had a job and her drug
addiction. She shrugged off suggestions
to enroll in Simonka’s recovery program.
But when she lost her job, staff ques-
tioned her: Now that you’ve lost your job,
what’s holding you back?
She didn’t have an answer. She en-
rolled in counseling, fellowship and other
classes to help her move past addiction
and homelessness.
Diaz found a job providing adult and
mental health care. She lived at Simonka
for another year to pay off $18,000 in
debt. She’s been sober for three years and
is almost entirely debt-free, and moved
into an apartment in March.
“From the day I walked into this place, I
felt seen,” Diaz said. “People call me by my
name. Not many people on the streets
knew my name.”
‘We have older and older women
becoming homeless’
Lynelle Wilcox, who manages SafeS-
leep United, said women who end up
homeless due to an illness, mental dis-
abilities, injury or death of a loved one
also often go unnoticed in the communi-
ty. And in many cases, these are older
women.
“Any of these could happen to any of us
… and if you don’t have the means to earn
enough money to get a room or a place of
your own and the support you need, you
just end up in this gap,” Wilcox said. “If a
woman is often struggling to make ends
meet, any little thing, like a car repair, sets
you back.”
Pennie Vandewarkerhansen lost her
part-time job at Intel in Hillsboro after
breaking her arm. She moved into a 55
and older mobile home community in
Beaverton.
Vandewarkerhansen
is
deaf.Her
daughter, Jeana, moved in to take care of
her after her arm injury. But the pair were
kicked out due to Jeana’s age and struggle
with a methamphetamine addiction.
With no prospects for affordable hous-
ing, Vandewarkerhansen, 62, shuffled be-
tween friends’ couches and living in her
car before ARCHES rented her a room at
the Shilo Inn Suites Hotel in Salem in Feb-
ruary 2021.
Vandewarkerhansen transitioned to
SafeSleep in June when a bed became
available.
Vandewarkerhansen eats breakfast at
the shelter and is out by 7:30 a.m. During
the day, she goes to Riverfront Park or
Fred Meyer grocery store. And when it
gets cold, she spends time at her friend
Barbara’s house in northeast Salem. She
spends much of the day video chatting
from her phone with friends who also use
sign language.
Vandewarkerhansen typically packs
her own lunch: lunch meats, yogurt and
apple sauce. She feeds her service dog,
Ricki, dog food from a collapsible Tupper-
ware container and returns to the shelter
by 6 p.m. for dinner.
In early April, Vandewarkerhansen
temporarily moved out of the shelter and
into her car because of a struggle to
breathe due to a cat allergy. SafeSleep al-
lows pets. But she returned to the shelter
about a week later because of the cold
spell in the Mid-Valley.
Vandewarkerhansen said all she
wants is a place to call her own — a home
to take care of Ricki and work on beading
projects, a hobby she’s been doing since
age 17.
“That’s my dream,” she said. “I want a
place to live very badly so I can do my fa-
vorite craft again.”
Vanderwarkerhansen is working with
ARCHES on housing options and is cur-
rently on a waiting list to get connected to
potential housing programs in the area.
She lives off her social security, pen-
sion, as well as her deceased spouse’s-
benefits. But with costs, including her
phone bill, storage and bills from when
she was hospitalized with COVID-19 last
November, she said it’s hard to get ahead.
According to the homeless survey, an
estimated 266 women living unsheltered
in the Mid-Willamette Valley are over the
age of 55 — about 20% of the total pop-
ulation of homeless women in the area.
Wilcox sees many of these women at
the shelter.
The goal of SafeSleep is to give women
a place to sleep safely without being
afraid of getting assaulted. The shelter
also offers some additional assistance,
including helping women get IDs, birth
certificates and write resumes.
But Wilcox said there is not enough
support for aging women in the commu-
nity, particularly caregivers or other sup-
port to help them live independently.
“We have older and older women be-
coming homeless,” she said. “It’s under-
standable if your loved one dies and they
were the breadwinner, if violence hap-
pens and you can’t stay anymore. That
can happen at any age.”
Living on the brink of homelessness
The rising cost of living can push those
on the fringes into homeless — and keep
those living unsheltered from moving out
of it.
Multiple service providers pointed to
the region’s housing crisis as a hurdle to
women facing homelessness.
The tight housing market has pushed
up rents to record highs. Rents and home
prices are increasing faster than wages.
In the past decade, Salem has climbed
from being the 85th most affordable
housing market nationally to the bottom
of the ranking — 213 out of 238 cities.
When comparing home prices to wages,
Salem has become less affordable than
even Portland.
Most landlords require tenants to earn
three times their rent, plus pay significant
deposits and application fees. Women
may face additional barriers coming up
with that money.
The gender wage gap has remained
steady for the past decade. According to
Pew Research Center analysis, women
earned 84% of what men earned in 2020.
Child care continues to be scarce and
expensive. Marion and Polk counties are
child care deserts, with more than three
children for every child care slot. Infant
and toddler care can cost more than col-
lege tuition.
Abusive partners can leave survivors
addicted to drugs, with criminal records,
eviction histories or obliterated finances.
This means even once people leave, they
can struggle to qualify and afford their
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own apartment.
Even those with government assis-
tance like disability or social security can
struggle to make ends meet. Marshall
said people over 55 who don’t have sav-
ings typically get $800 to $1,200 a month
in social security. When rent averages
about $1,000, those funds won’t cover the
cost of living.
“People who are on a fixed income, it’s
almost impossible for them to get ahead,”
he said.
Almost 4,000 people are waiting for
affordable one-bedroom apartments
with the Salem Housing Authority, and
many more linger on similar waitlists for
housing in the city.
The wait time for these lists range from
18 months to eight years.
More services, like rental assistance
and affordable housing, are becoming
available, Downing said. The Center for
Hope and Safety is set to break ground
later in April on a 20-apartment Hope
Plaza affordable housing complex in
downtown Salem.
“I think we’re moving in the right di-
rection, but there’s just not enough yet,”
she said.
Staff at St. Francis Family Housing,
which provides shelter, transitional hous-
ing and rental assistance for families with
children under age 18 in Marion and Polk
counties, said the pandemic highlighted
how close to the brink of homelessness
many families were. The pandemic led to
losses in income, shuttered businesses
and unreliable and unaffordable child-
care that could quickly spiral into unpaid
rent and eviction.
“Once that disruption is there, it cre-
ates this gap,” Jill Tucker, St. Francis’s de-
velopment director, said. “They really are
never able close that gap. They hold on as
long as they can. But once the gap really
becomes an unreachable chasm, they’re
unable to make that jump and fall into
homelessness.”
The tents people see downtown, Tuck-
er said, are a systemic failure by federal,
state and local governments 40 years in
the making. And the people camped out-
side are only a more visible sign of the
homelessness crisis.
“I think it’s important to mention that
the women with children, you don’t see
them,” Tucker said. “They’re the invisible
homeless. They’re not on the corner with
a sign. They’re not pushing a cart.”
They are doubled up, sometimes in
unsafe places, doing what they have to do
to keep their kids indoors at night, she
said. They are working and sleeping in
their cars. They are waiting for a housing
voucher or shelter space.
Kim Lemman, St. Francis’s executive
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