Smoked Salmon for Amelia: A Native Perspective on Homelessness

Town of Tacoma, Washington, now sits on what was as soon as Puyallup tribal land. Many little villages of wood longhouses as soon as sat by streams and rivers. Meals and shelter for the Puyallup got here from the land, as did their id and sense of being. They had been sure to their setting via track, story, artwork, and ritual.

The Puyallup knew nothing of homelessness. Robust kinship ties made certain everybody had a spot to remain and meals to eat. At present, that non secular tapestry is just about gone. The brand new non-Native residents of Tacoma don’t speak concerning the non secular nature of the land. As an alternative, they seek advice from it as “the streets.”

Picture by Frank Hopper.

Befriending Amelia

“Hello! I’ve one thing for you,” I mentioned, holding out a jar of home-canned smoked salmon strips.

From inside a fortress of obvious junk on a avenue nook a block from my home, a younger, homeless African American girl got here out of her makeshift shelter of tarps and took the jar.

“It’s smoked salmon,” I mentioned. “My good friend canned it. I’m Alaskan, Alaska Native. My identify’s Frank.”

“Thanks,” she mentioned in a small voice.

“How are you doing? Are you OK?” I requested.

“I’m ready for Poppy. He mentioned he’s coming again,” she mentioned, turning away however nonetheless keeping track of me.

“OK, properly, I simply need you to know individuals care about you,” I mentioned. “What’s your identify?”

“Amelia,” she mentioned.

I had first observed Amelia sooner or later final summer season once I received off the bus close to my home in South Tacoma. An enormous pile of particles on the sidewalk subsequent to the bus cease almost blocked the bus door. Tarps, containers, empty bottles, string, small damaged home equipment, and cardboard fashioned an igloo round Amelia.

The police quickly shooed Amelia away from the bus cease. She moved her camp a half-block down the road. The dwelling grew over time, and folks within the neighborhood received upset. They posted footage of her camp on social media and griped about her.

I stood up for her by posting a remark saying she’s a human being who deserves respect like anybody else. I used to be attacked viciously. One man wrote that if I cared about her a lot, I ought to let her transfer in with me. Many identified that homelessness can convey medication, crime, and unhealthy circumstances into our neighborhood.

I knew what it was like being homeless. That’s why I took the smoked salmon to Amelia. I wanted to inform her what nobody on the road ever instructed me: that she was essential and her life mattered.

The Maze of Help for the Homeless

I wished to assist Amelia, so I contacted Maureen Howard of the Tacoma Pierce County Coalition to Finish Homelessness, who had not too long ago written a transferring piece on the topic for the Tacoma Information Tribune.

“Sadly, for a single girl on her personal, there aren’t many choices,” Howard instructed me. “She might in all probability get right into a girls’s shelter, however then she’d should share residing area with different girls, and that is likely to be an issue for Amelia.”

I emailed the Tacoma Neighborhood and Group Companies workplace requesting assist for Amelia and obtained a response from the workplace’s assistant director, Allyson Griffith. She mentioned they had been properly conscious of Amelia, and that she had refused their makes an attempt to assist her.

In a later interview with Griffith, I discovered that 1,005 individuals are residing in Pierce County emergency shelters or transitional housing, in line with the county’s 2021 Homeless Level-in-Time Depend. Most dwell within the county’s largest metropolis, Tacoma. No survey of these residing outdoors was carried out in 2021 because of the pandemic, however the earlier yr counted an extra 914 unsheltered individuals residing on the streets. So a extra life like present complete of these unhoused residing in and round Tacoma at this time—a metropolis of 200,000 individuals—can be near 2,000.

In response to the survey, half of these experiencing homelessness are White, about one-fifth are Black, 18% are listed as “multi-racial,” 6% are Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 4% are Indigenous, and 1% are Asian. The highest three causes given by survey respondents for his or her homelessness had been household disaster, no reasonably priced housing, and job loss. About 41% self-reported psychological sickness as a incapacity.

Griffith mentioned town runs a number of shelters in affiliation with community- and faith-based organizations and in addition runs two tiny residence villages, which they name “micro-shelters.” The workplace additionally does common avenue outreach to homeless camps.

Assist was accessible for Amelia. However there was one main impediment: She didn’t need their assist, and town couldn’t power her to take it.

Ready for Poppy

I checked on Amelia each time I walked to the shop. I’d give her a bit of cash and ask if she wanted something. Understanding her was troublesome, as a result of she spoke so shortly and the site visitors was so loud. However she stored mentioning the identify Poppy, and sooner or later, she cautiously revealed a bit of extra about him.

“Poppy took my youngsters, took them to the hospital. He instructed me he’d come again and get me. I’m ready for him,” she mentioned.

“Do you actually suppose he’s coming again?” I requested.

“He higher!” she mentioned.

Amelia refused assist from town as a result of she was ready for Poppy to return again and take her to her youngsters. She had been ready since final summer season, and right here it was November. I felt like crying as I walked residence after she instructed me that.

Aerial view of the Puyallup tiny residence village, ʔay’gʷasilali, which means “place of transformation.” Picture courtesy of Sharon Lee, Low Earnings Housing Institute.

A Place of Transformation

I found the Puyallup tribe has its personal tiny residence village for the homeless known as “ʔay’gʷasilali” (pronounced Igwasilali), which is a Whulshootseed phrase which means “place of transformation.” Positioned on Puyallup belief land, the village has 30 tiny properties, every with heating and electrical energy. On-site workers from the Low Earnings Housing Institute can be found 24 hours a day, serving to residents join with social companies. Plumbing, cooking, and laundry services are positioned in a separate communal constructing.

The land was blessed final February in a ceremony by the tribe earlier than development started. Tribal members danced, drummed, and sang. Puyallup Tradition Director Connie McCloud provided a prayer that the land be a spot the place homeless tribal members are welcomed and helped to heal.

Sharon Lee, govt director of the Low Earnings Housing Institute, first got here up with the concept for tiny residence villages in 2015. Her workplace decided that constructions beneath 120 sq. ft are exempt from most constructing code necessities. They could possibly be constructed shortly and with out complicated permits. Tiny properties are an enormous enchancment over tents and tent cities. The institute now operates 16 tiny residence villages within the Puget Sound area.

“They’re a transitional housing possibility,” Lee mentioned. “Most residents sometimes keep about three weeks earlier than we’re capable of place them in additional steady housing.”

I requested Lee about my good friend Amelia. Since she’s not Puyallup, she’s not eligible for his or her tiny residence village, however Lee instructed me there are two different villages in Tacoma. She would have somebody from the institute exit with me to speak with Amelia about her choices. I used to be ecstatic.

Amelia’s camp on South 56th St. in Tacoma. Picture by Frank Hopper.

Amelia Disappears

The following day, I went to Amelia’s camp to inform her the excellent news. As I approached, I noticed three metropolis employees loading her belongings right into a dump truck. I ran as much as them and requested what occurred to the lady who was residing there.

“She received right into a resort,” one employee instructed me.

Town of Tacoma, town of Lakewood, and Pierce County had assisted the Low Earnings Housing Institute in buying the Consolation Inn positioned simply south of Tacoma in Lakewood and changing it right into a homeless shelter. The outreach individuals got here and provided Amelia housing there, and this time, she accepted.

“I assume as a result of the climate is getting chilly, or who is aware of why, however she lastly accepted assist,” the employee mentioned.

As I walked residence, I felt glad but additionally empty. Did all my concern for her do any good? She wound up getting assist all on her personal. Did I make any distinction?

I do know not all homeless individuals are like Amelia. Many various paths result in homelessness. However from a Native perspective, the last word explanation for homelessness is our non secular break with the land.

The trendy world commodifies each facet of our lives, requiring most of us to promote our labor to outlive. If we’re compelled by circumstance to dwell outdoors this financial system, we’re banished to the streets.

As soon as, love and kinship held collectively the Indigenous individuals of what’s now Tacoma. They didn’t management the land with cash. They had been the land. That’s what Indigenous means. Stability was of utmost significance. And the sight of a confused younger girl residing outdoors in squalor is one thing they might have tried to set proper as a substitute of complaining about it.

I remembered the smoked salmon. Amelia made a degree on a number of events to inform me how a lot she appreciated it. That all the time made me really feel good. The salmon was caught, smoked, and canned by Indigenous individuals, individuals of the land, and it made a giant impression on her.

I’ll by no means know if she was reunited together with her youngsters. However I do know I handled her with honor and respect. I fed her Native meals and cared about her issues. Perhaps that eased among the disaster from her thoughts. I spotted I used to be not her rescuer. I used to be her good friend. That was sufficient.