Sunday, April 24, 2022 | Special Advertising Section 1 R 22 SPONSORED CONTENT A trauma-informed model for addressing homelessness To experience homelessness is a traumatic event. If you don’t think so, put yourself in that situation and try to imagine how it feels. Try to imagine how it feels to have no shelter, no refuge, no place to go. Try to imagine living in a constant state of peril, surviving day to day unprotected and vulnerable in a realm of violence and crime. Try to imagine the emotional scars that come from being a social outcast, marginalized and stigmatized. Try to imagine the traumatic events that caused you to be homeless in the first place. The homeless condition is also linked to experiences like previous childhood abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, traumatic brain injury and a history of military service, among other circumstances. Now imagine a journey out of homelessness. Maybe you thought of friends and family offering their support, shelters or transitional housing programs. But providing housing is just one piece of the puzzle to helping someone on that journey, which is why organizations dedicated to connecting individuals with that and all the other pieces is vital. “At Bayside, we embrace a trauma-informed model of care, which provides a safe space for healing,” says Susan Keister, a co-founder and board member. “It’s a nonjudgmental method for aiding those who have experienced and may still be experiencing trauma.” According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, children bear the brunt of homelessness: • Homeless children are sick at twice the rate of other children. They suffer twice as many ear infections, have four times the rate of asthma, and have five times more stomach problems. • Homeless children go hungry twice as often as non-homeless children. • More than one-fifth of homeless preschoolers have emotional problems serious enough to require professional care, but less than one-third receive any treatment. • Homeless children are twice as likely to repeat a grade compared to nonhomeless children. • By the time homeless children are 8 years old, one in three has a major mental disorder. The Coalition for the Homeless defines traumainformed care as an overarching structure and treatment attitude that emphasizes understanding, compassion and responding to the effects of all types of trauma. Traumainformed care also looks at physical, psychological and emotional safety for both clients and providers, and provides tools to empower folks on the pathway to stability. “Trauma-informed models of care provide a safe space for clients to feel heard and supported,” Keister says. “Bayside hires and trains professionals who employ a trauma-informed approach to care, and who are equipped to understand the actions of their clients and to engage them in seeking and attaining permanent housing.” So far, here’s what’s working: Tiny homes and villages Bayside currently serves up to 12 clients in tiny homes at Peter’s Place, a Bayside Housing & Services began at the Old Alcohol Plant hotel in Port Hadlock — with a nonprofit/forprofit collaboration focused on ending homelessness. (Bayside Housing & Services) Bayside Housing & Services aims to strengthen our community through housing, advocacy and human services. We provide transitional supported housing where everyone’s dignity is respected and are working to create permanent supported housing programs in 2022 and beyond. Learn more at www. baysidehousing.org. tiny shelter healing village in Port Hadlock, and has served a total of 24 individual clients at Peter’s Place since it opened in January 2021. Most of the clients who have moved out of transitional housing at Peter’s Place have now been placed in permanent housing. They opened a second village in Port Townsend, called Pat’s Place, in February 2022 – which will transitionally house up to 22 additional people. Keeping families together Bayside also serves up to 37 clients, currently including seven families, at Bayside Tower located at the Old Alcohol Plant Inn, a social enterprise hotel and restaurant which supports Bayside’s mission. Strong housing facilities Between the two initial sites, Bayside provided more than 15,000 bed nights in 2021 and more than 45,000 bed nights since it opened in 2016. To date, and with the addition of a third site at Pat’s Place, they have now provided over 49,000 bed nights and counting. Providing meals In 2021, Bayside provided over 14,500 meals to their own clients living at Bayside Tower and Peter’s Place, and to hungry people formerly living nearby at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Access to transportation Over 500 rides for clients to access schools, medical appointments, pharmacies, grocery stores, banks and other errands have been driven by Bayside case managers. Beyond providing a safe space for clients to feel heard and supported, a trauma-informed approach that targets and addresses some of the root causes of homelessness will also be more effective in preventing recurring episodes of homelessness, Keister says. PROVIDED BY BAYSIDE HOUSING & SERVICES Read story online Bayside has expanded its housing facilities to include two tiny shelter/home villages in Jefferson County. These homes were built by local volunteers with Community Build and the Community Boat Project. (Bayside Housing & Services)
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