By Julian White-Davis, Director of Photography
For many, the homeless population on the island is sort of a mystery. Few people converse with those wearing ragged clothes on the side of the street. Many think that it’s their choice to be homeless, and that they simply don’t want to live in the “normal” society.
“People say, ‘Oh well those people just want to be homeless,’” said Nancy Vanderpool, the Board Treasurer of an island social service called the Interfaith Council, “and I can tell you that they do not want to be homeless.”
Some people find ways of fitting in and hiding their homelessness to maintain their dignity; others, however, are less fortunate and are pushed away from civilization.
“[Being homeless is] living in a tent, and living around dirt and filth,” said Greg Garcia, a local homeless man. “At times, we had a public bathroom that [King County] was nice enough to put in, but they locked it up, because too many people were doing drugs inside.”
While sitting in the Village Green, smoking a cigarette and wearing shoddy cargo pants with a bright red vest, Garcia talked about the hardest parts about being homeless.
“With all of the different things that go on on the island, I’m around [for] a large majority of it,” said Garcia. “I spend more time in town than anyone else, more time than the cops, more time than the store keepers. I’m here until like eleven, twelve, one, two. It depends whether it’s getting weird or being normal. I just get to see what’s going on.”
Garcia then described how he was recently attacked by a mentally ill man homeless man who put him in a headlock. The man then bit a chunk out of his hand and the side of his face. Garcia holds his hand up to show the deep gash on his palm that had barely scabbed over.
He went on to tell stories about how he recently watched a man pick up his young daughter and swing her violently around in anger and how the man almost hit her. Garcia said that one of the worst parts about being homeless is being a witness to so much crime and sadness.
“There’s highs and lows,” said Garcia. “Youth and Family Services helps out and so does the Interfaith Council… At times I didn’t have anything to cook with, and then I got a stove. I’m surprised how much stuff I can just put together in a pot and a pan.”
There are numerous organizations who help homeless people like Garcia obtain what they need to get by. One of these island social service associations is the Interfaith Council.
“Our biggest mission is to help people, through resources and finances, secure housing,” said Vanderpool, “and then, if they’re in housing and they have some kind of emergency… doing what we can to help them through that period of time so they don’t lose their housing.”
The Interfaith Council works with those in need individually and tries to provide resource information and support. They also help out with utilities, communication, transportation, car repair, food, showers, and financial support.
Vanderpool has attended various conferences in the area to try to find better ways of supporting the island’s homeless population, so she has a very educated perspective on how Vashon’s homeless population lives are compared to other places in the region.
“It’s good and bad,” said Vanderpool. “When you see the kind of environment we live in, it’s not easy, but it’s easier to find a place in the ‘wild’ on Vashon to pitch a tent than it would be in the city. We’ve seen all of this really negative stuff with the tent cities and people sleeping under the viaducts and really bad stuff. So it’s much safer on Vashon.”
However, Vashon can be a hard place to live for people with low incomes because there’s no homeless shelter and it’s difficult to find affordable housing.
“The biggest challenge is, last year and this year, the rents have gone very, very high,” said Vanderpool. “So where people used to be able to find a place to rent a room for five-hundred dollars… that’s just not available anymore. The other thing that is happening is that people have stopped renting their houses and started selling their houses because the real estate market is so high right now.”
Another local organization that helps out the homeless population is the Vashon Maury Community Food Bank.
“Three times a week we have grocery shopping hours,” said Emily Scott, the volunteer program manager of the Food Bank. “And those are for anyone on the island who feels like they need it, so the qualifications are really low.”
However, even with all of these resources, it is still difficult for many of the homeless to get by.
Some people have found ways of hiding the fact that they don’t have a house and manage to live in society without anyone knowing. There are even homeless students at the Vashon High School (VHS). In spite of the close social situation at the school, very few people are aware that there are homeless attending the school.
“I cannot give exact numbers,” said Tara Vanselow, a counselor at VHS, “but I can tell you… I think you would be surprised [by] how many we do have. It is rarely obvious when a student is homeless. Homeless students are often very resourceful and go to great lengths to take care of themselves so that people don’t know they are homeless.”
The Riptide has done an anonymous survey of VHS and has found that about 2 percent of the student population do not have a house and or home address.
The school is very careful about keeping the identity of these students confidential and giving them as many ways of getting equal opportunities as the rest of the school as possible.
“As soon as we are aware that a student is, or may be, homeless, we connect them with what are called McKinney-Vento services,” said Vanselow.
The McKinney-Vento services assist with food, transportation, enrollment in school, and various other services.
Those interested in getting involved can donate money to or volunteer at a social service organization, give homeless organizations any information about possible cheep housing, or just be friendly.
“[Helping out] can be in a big regular way, or it can be in a financial way, or it can just be treating another human being as an equal,” said Vanderpool. “Just getting to know them a little better.”