First Shift: ROOTS Young Adult Shelter
...337 days to go...
Three years ago on a Friday afternoon in November, 10 year old Natalie bit down hard on a Starburst candy that was part of her Halloween haul. Her tooth splintered like a smartphone screen meeting pavement.
Fortunately, super dad was on hand and sprang into action, dialing the dentist. He’d gone home for the weekend, but I left a message and was able to convince him to come into the office on Saturday morning to cap her tooth. Aside from sporting a visible silver cap for a few months until it fell out (it was her last baby tooth), Natalie was no worse for the wear.
During my first shift at ROOTS Young Adult Emergency Shelter in the U District, I met a young woman who also had a tooth emergency, but otherwise had a very different situation. The woman, who I’ll call Sara for privacy, was in her early 20s (ROOTS only serves youth between 18-25 years old). “My tooth is killing me,” she informed me at breakfast. “There’s something really wrong with it. I’ve been managing the pain with Tylenol and Advil but it’s unbearable. I’m thinking about ripping it out myself.” Apparently she had visited Swedish hospital and gotten a big dose of judgment but no treatment, and didn’t know where else she could turn.
Another volunteer and I tried to talk her out of ripping the tooth out herself, and I hope we were successful. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the vast difference between how Natalie’s and Sara’s dental emergencies were handled. While it’s easy to take high-quality dental care for granted, when it’s not there it’s definitely all you think about.
The demographics of ROOTS’ guests reveal that there are a few circumstances that dramatically increase a young adult’s odds of ending up in Sara’s (rather than Natalie’s) situation:
33% of ROOTS guests are former foster kids, in comparison to just 0.65% of WA HS grads overall. This shockingly implies that a former foster kid is about 50 times more likely to end up in a shelter than your average Washingtonian!
66% of ROOTS guests are people of color (i.e., non-white), in comparison to just 30% of Seattleites overall
33% of ROOTS guests are LGBTQIA+, in comparison to just 17% of Seattleites overall
I’m grateful ROOTS is there for these kids. In the terminology of King County’s Point in Time Count of homelessness, they are “sheltered” rather than “unsheltered” homeless. But it’s not exactly a comfortable existence. Guests are not allowed into the shelter until 9pm, and if there are more applicants that night than the 45 available beds, there’s a lottery to determine who will be denied entry. Guests sleep in bunk beds with no walls or privacy of any kind, other than a locker in the kitchen area where they can keep their belongings. Using a bathroom at ROOTS requires being checked in and checked out (apparently sometimes people disappear there for long periods of time).
By 630am (the start of my shift), we volunteers are making a fair amount of noise preparing breakfast and doing other tasks, which I imagine makes it fairly difficult for guests to sleep in. Lights come on at 7am, and breakfast, which consists of unlimited cereal, coffee, and whole fruit plus two hot Eggo waffles or breakfast burritos, is pretty good (I say this with some pride, since this is my shift’s responsibility). But guests must be out of the shelter by 8am so we can sweep, do laundry, and close down the building.
Throughout my shift, I found myself wondering: what if Natalie had been born into foster care? What if she’d aged out at 18 with no family support? What if she’d been transgender and struggling with gender dysphoria? What if she’d been Black, or Native American, or Latina?
Natalie is an accomplished kid in many ways: She is a black diamond skier, a choir soloist with an incredible voice, a top athlete on her basketball and ultimate frisbee teams. She’s an engaged and caring older sister to Rosie, a good friend, and much smarter than her old man. But would any of that have been enough to avoid needing ROOTS? I’m not sure.
Consider taking a few moments this week to think about the safety nets in your own lives and in the lives of your kids. Gold-plated medical or dental insurance? Connections that could lead to internships or job opportunities? A resume with Amazon or Microsoft on it? A debt-free college education? Involved, supportive parents? Think about what might have happened if all of that was taken away.
If you’re inspired, you could consider volunteering at ROOTS, though there’s a minimum 6 month commitment and a fair amount of training required. It might be easier to consider purchasing something from ROOTS’ Amazon wish list. Or, if you want to make a direct financial donation, go here (ROOTS’ annual operating budget is only $1.5M, or about $4K a day, so they make a big difference on a small budget). Please share in the comments if you do.
I have really enjoyed reading your substack. One thing that I think would be really interesting for you to dig into and then see how it informs your volunteering and efforts throughout the year is the understanding of the different populations of unhoused people and then the specific / unique drivers that underlie the issue.
I say this because I remember speaking with a candidate for supervisor here in San Francisco, and she seemed to really understand the breakdown. For example ~7-8K homeless in San Francisco, ~30-40% homeless for at least a year or repeatedly homeless. Of that population, some portion is mental illness, some is drug use, some is a mix of both, some portion is "choice" (though that may be a poor choice of words). And in this group, particularly the mental ill, addicted tend to be the very visible part of the population that is viewed as a blight on society.
The balance (and majority) of the homeless population is transiently homeless (e.g., lost job, domestic violence). The family in the NYT article "A Migrant Family Struggles for a Year in San Francisco - The New York Times" lived in my neighborhood. The school they were living in for over a year is one that I considered sending my oldest child to. The photos of their kids at the park is the park my kids go to all the time. We are in the community with people from all walks of life and while I'm not religious, I do see this and think "where but for the grace of God go I."
Most candidate talking points don't address these factors...the pareto so to speak...because the general population doesn't really care. They just want "a solution" when truly it's hundreds of solutions. I feel like this is the type of data that you and I, as part of our training, rely on to inform action. But also it's a prompt to say - where can we influence policy or get at the root cause issue. Anyway - I love what you're doing. Can't wait to see your next posts.