This story is biblical: A woman is nine months pregnant and days away from her due date. She’s also homeless.
It’s a story that is happening right now in Jefferson County, in the American Legion shelter in downtown Port Townsend. But it’s also a story that happens nearly every year at the shelter and beyond, and housing services are stretched to their limit.
According to Mike Johnson, the manager of the shelter at the American Legion, they see at least one pregnant woman at the shelter every year.
“We have had one female who is pregnant living in the shelter each year for the past five years,” he said. “It’s a huge issue.”
The shelter is not ideal for newborns, he said, so he and other case workers at Olympic Community Action Programs will work with pregnant mothers to find transitional housing.
“This isn’t a healthy environment for a baby,” Johnson said. “As clean as we keep this place, it’s not baby-clean.”
There are only a few options available for emergency housing for a new mother. One option is the Haines Street Cottages, that provide year-round emergency shelter for homeless families.
The waiting list to get into the cottages is long, but giving birth pushes one up to the top.
“Do we have room? No,” said Kathy Morgan, director of housing at OlyCAP. “But we’re squeezing her in.”
While some mothers may have to share a room at the Haine’s Cottages, it’s better than the alternative: out on the street, or the dormitory-style American Legion shelter rooms.
The shelter houses both women and men, although it has more men’s beds. In the past, just like this year, OlyCAP has always been able to find housing for women who were pregnant and living in the shelter.
“One was assigned to the cabins (Haine’s Street Cottages), one was housed in transitional housing, one went back to family,” Johnson said.
If a woman goes into labor at the shelter, Johnson said they will call 911 to transfer her to the hospital.
“She will be taken to the hospital,” he said. “To my best knowledge they won’t discharge to the street.”
According to Amy Yaley, public relations director for Jefferson Healthcare, the hospital works with mothers on a case by case basis.
“Every mother who presents at Jefferson Healthcare is provided a multi-disciplinary team to provide care, evaluation and resources for the mother and child,” she said. “We aren’t a housing agency, but there are community partners who are. Our social workers work with patients to identify their needs and help put them in touch with those resources.”
But beyond giving birth, there is a lot more to deal with on top of finding housing, such as childcare if the mother wants to get a job, postpartum support from friends, family and mental health workers, and food, diapers and strollers.
“It’s hard enough to have a baby,” said Beulah Kingsolver, director of Dove House Advocacy Services, which also operates a shelter for families that is first-come-first-serve.
“Three to four moms with newborns come into our shelter every year,” Kingsolver said. “We have been successful at getting those people into more permanent housing.”
But just because there might be a Dove House room for a woman today, doesn’t mean there will be tomorrow, she said. The shelter is almost always full.
According to Kingsolver, Dove House often serves mothers who have escaped a domestic violence situation.
“Most people do wait until they’re very pregnant to leave,” she said. “But just after giving birth is one of the most dangerous times for a woman in a domestic violence situation.”
Dove House has resources for new mothers, including a volunteer doula who works with those who are preparing to give birth and who have recently given birth.
She said they also don’t have an issue outfitting new moms with baby clothes and gear such as strollers and cribs.
“We put out the ask and our community is always willing to provide,” she said.
It’s not that the services aren’t there, Kingsolver said. But it’s hard to put the burden of finding housing and help on someone who is experiencing homelessness, which is a traumatic event.
With limited public transportation, no cell phone or computer and limited understanding of how organizations like Dove House and OlyCAP operate, it can be difficult for someone experiencing homelessness to find what they need. Add pregnancy on top of that—with doctor’s appointments and the many side effects that come with it—and it seems like an insurmountable task.
“We could do way better as a community,” Kingsolver said. “One of the biggest lacks we have is a lack of interagency support. As social workers, we need to not be silos … we should not be putting the burden on people who are homeless, in my opinion.”
For Morgan, who works with hundreds in search of affordable housing at OlyCAP, the problem of pregnant women living at the shelter points to an invisible community in our community: homeless families.
“I’m trying to change the narrative of what we think of when we think of the homeless,” she said.
OlyCAP has to turn away nearly 200 families each year because housing is so sparse. Many of those include young, single moms. But it also includes single dads raising kids.
On top of that, the majority of the population at the American Legion shelter is over the age of 62.
“When you think of the people experiencing homelessness, you don’t see the families living in their cars, or their sheds, or doubled up on the couch at a friends house,” she said. “They’re very invisible.”
