校友为无家可归者提供床位，寻求持久的解决方案

肖恩·卡德威尔，96年, MAT ‘98 is just one guy with limited resources up against a stubborn societal problem, 但他并不气馁.

“I think we can end homelessness in Forest Grove and Cornelius,他说, 或者至少是最大程度地削弱它.”

卡德威尔和其他美高美网络平台游戏校友, 塞莱斯特·古尔丁10岁, both are working to address houselessness in western Washington County; first by providing cold- weather shelter for people without places to live, and second by developing transitional housing that can provide a longer-term solution.

他们已经取得了进展，但现在是危险时期. The spread of the novel coronavirus has changed the way they provide shelter, 和金钱, 物资和设备似乎总是捉襟见肘.

Cardwell now is the director of the Coalition on Rural Housing Insecurity, 一文不名, Forest Grove- based coordinator of cold-weather shelters and advocate for transitional housing. 这是一个由古尔丁发起的组织, 他现在是森林格罗夫基金会的董事会成员, 支持联合政府.

Their work evolved from Washington County’s Severe Weather Shelter System, a network of three local churches — Forest Grove’s United Church of Christ, Old Town Church and Emanuel Lutheran Church in Cornelius — that offered the houseless a place to stay overnight. Since 2015 Goulding directed the severe weather shelters at United Church of Christ and Emanuel Lutheran until she had to shut their doors in March because of the dangers posed by COVID-19.

“这往往是我们vs. 他们. 我的工作就是让这个界限变得模糊.”
——肖恩·卡德威尔，96届，98届

从这个冬天开始, 新型冠状病毒不受控制, 需要庇护的人将住在该地区的酒店房间里. The new arrangement represents what Cardwell calls a shift from a congregate shelter model to a non-congregate model. 这是让人们摆脱寒冷的一种更昂贵的方式, but it avoids putting a group of strangers in close quarters in a single room.

在2019-2020年的避难季节, the churches provided cold-weather shelter for a few more than 200 people. 本赛季的方法, 有酒店房间, promises to provide fewer clients a place to stay for a longer period of time, meaning that homeless people won’t have to pack up and look for a different shelter the next night. It’s an improvement in some ways, but an unsustainable approach to the bigger problem.

卡德威尔引用了俄勒冈州尤金市正在进行的研究., and elsewhere where social workers and others are providing stable, 临时“村庄”的过渡性住房.” He thinks western Washington County could easily house a set of pods, 或者小房子, or some other way to let people shelter in place while they seek jobs or more permanent housing.

The Coalition on Rural Housing Insecurity is funded by a grant from the City of Forest Grove and by whatever additional grants Cardwell and the Forest Grove Foundation can wrangle. Both Goulding and Cardwell have employed 太平洋 University master of social work students and graduates to reach people in the places where they camp or congregate. They have learned to stretch every resource in order to provide everything from socks to meals to overnight shelter.

“很多事情都悬在边缘,古尔丁说, citing the pandemic and its attendant shutdowns of housing and public buildings, 以及将资源从一个危机转移到另一个危机. 但她指出，需求是不变的.

One of the things that makes being unhoused such a persistent societal issue, Cardwell相信, is that it’s easy to treat it as something that happens to other people — maybe people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol, 或者有过违法行为的人.

When he talks to government officials or anyone who’s interested in the problem, Cardwell tries to make it clear that homelessness isn’t a government problem, 或者是非营利组织的问题——这是我的问题.

“这些都是我的朋友，”他说. While some may have addictions that tend to keep 他们 outdoors, 对另一些人来说，可能是家人去世, 失去的工作, an expensive illness or some other catastrophe that can strike anyone, 他说.

“这往往是我们vs. 他们，”他说. “我的工作就是让这个界限变得模糊.”

Opportunity and circumstance have combined to place Goulding and Cardwell in this initiative to ease human suffering in western Washington County. Goulding was visiting Forest Grove when she came in touch with the United Church of Christ’s former pastor Jennifer Yocum, whose church was offering two nights of shelter per week for the winter months. Goulding then became the first paid staff in the Severe Weather Shelter system before stepping away from the Coalition on Rural Housing Insecurity in July. Now she primarily recruits host homes for youth experiencing housing insecurity in western Washington County for Second Home, 这是俄勒冈州基督教会的一个项目.

Cardwell, who grew up in Cornelius and recently returned to the area with his wife, 在美高美网络平台游戏做兼职数学老师. But the opportunity to take over the Coalition, with all its limitations, was irresistibly appealing.

“这是一种乐趣，”他说. ■

这个故事出现在 2020年冬季特刊 of 太平洋 的一部分 拳击手是帮手 系列. 更多报道，请访问 acpsecurity.net/magazine.