Heading to Angeline's

One of the reasons many women cited choosing Tent City 3 over a shelter revolved around having a space for her belongings, a sense of privacy, and while not quite a Virginia Woolf-ian Room of One’s Own, a place to belong throughout the day and night without being kicked out. As a result, shelters were often unappealing specifically because many do not offer privacy or a space to stay during the daytime. Rather, they are most often a sleeping-only safe space, asking the homeless to rise at 6 or 7 in the morning, head off for the day with their belongings, and then return at 7 or 8 at night to line up for a bed for the night. As a result, many are left without daytime spaces.

Angeline's, located in downtown Seattle in a recently renovated building.

There are, however, spaces to serve those intermediary needs. One is Angeline's.

My next round of interviews will be with women who reside or use the day facilities at Angeline’s, a YWCA-run center for homeless women. Here’s a terrific article explaining some of Angeline’s work and the relentless cyclical shuffling one living in poverty encounters on a daily basis. It's old (2002) but I think captures many of the sentiments I heard expressed by TC3 women.

I’ll be curious, more specifically, to learn about how access to health care differs for these women compared to TC3 residents. Angeline’s has public health nurses, health care professionals and resources regularly available.I'm headed there tomorrow for a tour and then will hopefully begin round 2 of interviews shortly thereafter.