Ellen Smith sits in the kitchen of her home outside Napavine. Her home is a single-wide trailer in a park just outside the Chehalis industrial park. The home has fallen into disrepair, despite the efforts to have the roof repaired several times. Water continuously drips into the home. Ellen, who is on a fixed income, has been attempting to navigate the difficult and tumultuous housing assistance process here in Lewis County so that she can find a way to move into safe, affordable housing.
Cheery Christmas decorations don't mask the dripping insulation above the ceiling that is visible due to one of many roof leaks. The insulation has become heavy and fatigued the Sheetrock, causing it to fall into the living room of Ellen Smith's single-wide home. Black mold is obvious on the insulation backing.
Black mold is visible on insulation that has pushed through the living room ceiling of Ellen Smith's single-wide home south of Chehalis due to one of several leaks in the roof of the home. The insulation continuously drips into the home, even on sunny days, because the insulation is so severely saturated.
In a back bedroom of Ellen Smith's single-wide home, which she can no longer use, black and spongy mold is visible on the ceiling drywall and spackle. Ellen has set up an elaborate system of buckets and containers to capture water that continuously drips into the home.
Ellen Smith sits in the kitchen of her rural south Chehalis home near the only working heater in her home. The furnace that used to heat the home nearly started a fire in recent months and the repairs were too costly on Ellen's fixed income.
Ellen Smith sits in the kitchen of her home outside Napavine. Her home is a single-wide trailer in a park just outside the Chehalis industrial park. The home has fallen into disrepair, despite the efforts to have the roof repaired several times. Water continuously drips into the home. Ellen, who is on a fixed income, has been attempting to navigate the difficult and tumultuous housing assistance process here in Lewis County so that she can find a way to move into safe, affordable housing.
A few weeks before Christmas, I answered a call that came into the newsroom from a woman who was very frustrated. She had been looking for housing assistance for her sister, Ellen (age 67), who was living in a single-wide trailer that had fallen into disrepair.
She began to detail the steps they had taken as a family to help her. Her sister was spending most of her time staying with her daughter because of health concerns caused by black and spongy mold, which was growing along the ceiling that was caving into the interior of Ellen’s home. They had placed phone calls to every agency they could think of or look up in the phone book. They looked to their church. They filled out every form that had been handed and mailed to them to apply for assistance. They joined waiting lists for affordable senior housing (and many had waiting lists that were seven or eight years long).
And yet, they had come up empty.
Having worked with many local nonprofits in the Greater Lewis County area through United Way’s Community Investment (Allocation) Committee and for marketing/public relations aspects, I knew that there were resources out there — it was just a matter of finding them and connecting the agency to the recipient.
I gave Ellen and her sister several phone numbers and names of people I knew personally at some agencies and instructed her to give them my name as well in hopes that maybe that would help shake something loose. I told them that I was sure that someone, somewhere would be able to help — but to call me if they were unable to find some viable options. This was on a Friday, and I was confident that surely, they would find someone who could help, so I put it out of my mind.
However, the following Monday morning, when I sat down at my desk, I had a voicemail from Ellen telling me that they were still unable to find any help. Each agency and organization they had contacted, while sympathetic, only pointed her to other directions and gave her other phone numbers to other places that “should be able to help.”
But there they were. Still sitting at square one with no help.
Shocked, I returned her call and asked for the names of the agencies that she talked to. Initially, I was upset and I shook my proverbial fist in my head. Ellen is a sweet lady. She’s polite and kind and very soft-spoken. I wondered if she just wasn’t pushy enough or if people were just too busy in their hustle and bustle or monotony of their daily tasks to really pay any mind to her needs or if she was just being pushed aside.
So now, feeling righteously indignant, I began dialing agencies. Anywhere I could think of, those from the list Ellen gave me and otherwise. I even talked with managers, supervisors, agency presidents and public relations professionals. But I wasn’t met with calloused people or people who were unsympathetic as I had in some ways anticipated. I had jumped in with both feet to help and expecting a fight of sorts, but what I came across were agencies who wanted desperately to help … but the need they face here in Lewis County is so great that Ellen falls through some unique “cracks” in the system.
It was obvious from the waiting lists that there just isn’t enough housing assistance or even actual physical housing locations to go around. Many agency supervisors and social workers that I spoke with also mentioned that this is the hardest time of year to help people, especially when you take into account our increased unemployment rate.
Of course, the need is always high around the holidays, but also compounding the increased needs is the fact that many agencies are at the end of their fiscal cycle for funding. Some of them are operating solely on reserve funds until they have additional funding available again sometime in the first quarter of 2013.
I visited Ellen’s home this past week. On top of the issues of mold and disrepair of the home, which she had told me about over the phone previously, was the issue of the broken furnace. The furnace had nearly started a fire after being repaired and the firefighters who responded informed her that she could not use the furnace anymore. Ellen is living only in the kitchen and family room area of the single-wide home and attempting to keep it somewhat warm with a small space heater.
Speaking with her was a humbling experience. Though her home may be cold and drafty, Ellen’s heart is warm and loving. She spent more time talking about her blessings during our conversation than she did the obstacles that faced her.
And Ellen’s story is just one of many. It’s obvious that the needs remain and don’t wait for fiscal cycles and don’t slow down when waiting lists grow miles long. There are families with babies and mothers who go nights on end without a meal to get by. There are still parents who have to choose between keeping food on the table, keeping a roof over their heads or buying new socks and shoes for their children. Ellen is lucky in many regards to have her family helping her look for resources — many seniors in similar positions don’t have a supportive family surrounding them.
While I was talking with Anna at Love INC about Ellen’s situation, she had mentioned to me that they didn’t have enough people to support the needs of their “Adopt a Family” program this year — not even close. I quickly signed up and was paired to support a single mother with a 14-year-old son. My family and I fulfilled the family wish list while shopping and my Grandma and I dropped of the presents and goodies on their doorstep while the family was away at church.
Later, I would receive an unexpected phone call from a tearful mother thanking me because she didn’t know how she was going to provide a nice Christmas for her son this year. He had lost his father recently and shortly after that, the single mother had lost her job.
And, these are just the needs that I have run across in my own day-to-day life.
Please remember, though many of us give during the holidays to the bell ringers at the grocery store or pick tag off of a “gift tree,” the needs are greater still. After the holidays is the hardest time for many nonprofit agencies to provide help and resources for people. While I can’t provide a new home for Ellen or make a job materialize for the single mother, I can make phone calls. I can write to you, dear reader, and express how great the needs really are.
Don’t be intimidated if what you can give seems small. Everyone can give something — and that isn’t always a financial gift. Sometimes, it’s just making the path for another a little easier by paying attention to those around you by providing support in the way of a smile or offer of prayer.
As Mother Teresa would say: “If you can’t feed a hundred people — then just feed one.”
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we all just fed one?
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Brittany Voie is The Chronicle’s senior media developer. She welcomes correspondence from the community by email at bvoie@chronline.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BrittanyVoieTheChronicle or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/chronbvoie.
