Over half of the unhoused population in Salem are women

Over half of the homeless community in Salem is made up of women. According to the Homeless Management Information System, there are 1,309 unhoused women, 1,219 men and 52 individuals who chose not to report their gender. Cindel Mikesell is a woman experiencing homelessness and Lynelle Wilcox is the Safe Sleep United program manager. They both join us to share what they’ve seen in Salem.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. As a Salem reporter noted recently, women make up more than half of the homeless population in Salem. It’s significantly higher than state or national numbers, yet there aren’t very many women-only shelter options in Salem. Safe Sleep is one of them. It’s a women’s night shelter run by the United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley. Lynelle Wilcox is the program manager for Safe Sleep.

She joins us now along with Cindel Mikesell. She is one of the women who currently sleeps there. She works as a residential assistant at Redwood Crossing. It’s a supportive housing development run by the Salem Housing Authority. Lynelle and Cindel welcome to Think Out Loud.  Lynelle you, as I noted, you’re a night shelter. What does it mean to be a night shelter?

Lynelle Wilcox: Safe Sleep United started because Diane Rush was an elder at Inside Out ministries. They own our building and offer us extremely low rent. Inside Out had started to reach out to homeless individuals because nobody else does.  As they were hearing more and more stories, especially from women, Diane just felt very strongly that women need a safe place to sleep. There’s so much trauma on the street, so much unsafety, so much risk of being attacked,  robbed, beaten, raped, sex-trafficked and as she was hearing the stories, something had to be done. She was looking for somebody to help her open Safe Sleep United. It wasn’t United at the time, but trying to find a partner that would support this, and United Way has very shared values about building community, meeting basic needs, providing for housing, strengthening children and families. When Diane talked to United Way, it was just such a fit.

The vision is to enable ladies to sleep safely. It means we open at 6:00 p.m., we welcome ladies in with a hot meal, they can check their property in so they don’t have to lug their property around all day. We give them pajamas, some ladies have actually been in tears as we hand them pajamas because it’s been a while since they’ve had something cozy and warm and safe. Then they can hang out, we do knitting, crocheting, whatever hobbies people might have, and then sleep safely. Then in the morning we hope that they can have some peace, some healing, some safety, some respite from being on the streets. Then, hopefully they feel better positioned to be able to go out in the world and do the things they need to do.

Miller:  But they, for the most part, can’t stay there, right? That’s part of the deal. At what time do they have to leave?

Wilcox: The vision was a nighttime shelter specifically, to give safe sleep. In the morning we have a continental breakfast, people can help themselves to it at about 5 a.m. and by 7:30 most ladies are out. Everybody does a chore. If you have a chore that needs to be done after most people are gone, then you’re out of there by about 8:00. So between 7:30 and 8:00, ladies are out.

Miller: And do you have a sense - I imagine there’s a real diversity of destinations, but where do the women go every morning when they can’t stay there?

Wilcox: I’ll back up a little bit. We’re a low-barrier shelter, which means we’re meeting ladies where they’re at. That means that we welcome property, we welcome pets. We don’t do a criminal background check. We don’t require people to be clean and sober as long as they can behave appropriately. The reason I’m going to that is: number one, there’s so few low-barrier shelters for women. But the other reason I’m going there is because being a low-barrier shelter means we have a very diverse type of guests. Some ladies are going to be going out to jobs. When I first started doing this work, I didn’t think homeless people worked and many, many of them do. Some ladies are going out to jobs, some ladies are going out job hunting. Some ladies are not at that point yet so they might go to ARCHES to take a shower, or to get some laundry or some meals. They might go to UGM, because UGM does offer showers for ladies. They might go to Hope, which has a day center, and so does ARCHES. They might go to the Rock. There’s different day centers that offer different services and support. Some of them have computers, so you can look things up and try to find resources that are going to enable you to get job ready.

Other places that other people will go to is Helping Hands and get clothing, or go to ARCHES or UGM or a shower truck to get a shower. Our ladies are in all different places as far as where they’re at. Our community has not enough resources but very diverse resources where people can go someplace and get help with ID, get help with social security cards, and we also do those things. We do some case management where I will come in early or stay late in the morning and meet with ladies who need to have some resources, and we’ll do some of the application processes or case management at Safe Sleep after hours. But it’s not a time where everybody can stay, but for people who need specific support we make appointments and do that kind of case management.

Miller: Cindel, can you give us a sense for what Safe Sleep United has meant for your life?

Cindel Mikesell:  It has been very impactful in that I have a cat. I have a very old cat, she’ll turn 20 in January. She’s my baby. Most of the places I inquired about wouldn’t take a pet. When I was told about this place and I showed up and that was one of the first questions I asked, I have a cat, is that going to be a problem? And I was told no. And it hasn’t been. It’s been nice to have as the name implies, a safe place for my cat and I to sleep.

Miller: Can I ask you, because we’ve talked about this before when we’ve talked to people experiencing homelessness who have pets, have furry companions. if you had to decide between being with your cat and having a roof over your head, what would you decide?

Mikesell: For me? I’d decide on the cat.

Miller: But obviously Safe Sleep says you don’t need to decide.

Mikesell: Right. And I would have decided on the cat because not only has she been there emotionally for me when I’ve had a really rough time, I adopted her as an older cat and she has a history of being abandoned. I would not do that to her for that as well. Safe Sleep has been just amazing. I have food allergies and they have bent over backwards to make sure that I can eat like everybody else can eat there. They have checked with me if they’re not sure on some of the food, if I could eat it or not. It’s just been amazing. They have been very caring, and interested. That’s something I really like, they’re interested in how our days go. They’re interested in what we do and what brought us to the conclusion to do it.

Miller: Do you mind if I ask you what led you to become homeless?

Mikesell: What led me to become homeless is the place I was living, my job got impacted by the pandemic and I didn’t qualify for pandemic unemployment insurance and I didn’t qualify for regular unemployment insurance, so I no longer had the ability to pay for rent. So I had to leave and that’s how I became homeless.

Miller: Were you living in Salem at the time?

Mikesell: I was living near Salem. I was in Kaiser.

Miller:  So just down the road essentially.

Mikesell: Yeah.

Miller: And where were you sleeping before the Safe Sleep shelter?

Mikesell: I couch-surfed for about a month and then was sleeping in my car for a little bit. The people I was working with at the employment department asked me if I’d ever heard of Safe Sleep, and I said no and he said well, they take pets. So, that’s what prompted me to call them.

Miller: I understand that you actually once worked in a shelter before you were homeless yourself. Looking back, how much did you truly understand about homelessness back then?

Mikesell: That is a terrific question. I started that job and I thought I had learned alot about homelessness. I looked at my peers that were working there, I had spent years working with homeless people but had never been homeless. I thought, well whatever, I don’t know, I can ask them to supplement it. Then when I first became homeless, I was like, wow, what a difference. I refer to those experiences like life labs, and here was this great life lab that was basically showing me the other side of the people I had been working with. It was remarkable because a lot of things that I thought I was on top of and was clear on, it turned out I was not accurate.

Miller: What are examples of some of those?

Mikesell: One of the examples would be if people don’t follow through and do something, they’re just not committed. That is not the case at all.

Miller: Like, for example, if they’re supposed to show up at some office at a certain time to get some ID or to fill something out and they don’t show up it’s easy to think they must not care, that they’re not invested in having to turn their lives around.

Mikesell:  Right. I am a form of disabled; I’m not full-on disabled, but I’m in that campground. If my meds, if my maintenance meds are off, I can hardly even wake up. If the pharmacy falls behind on giving me my medications,

which has happened, I have a brain fog. I can’t hardly function. If I’m homeless - and I’ve been homeless without a car before - if I’m homeless and I need to be in five places in one day for all these different services, then sometimes I have to choose which ones I can get to.

I went to go for services yesterday somewhere and they told me I should have come earlier and I said I was working, I just got off and came straight there and this other organization told me, well, come back when you’re ready to be here. And I said, okay. So I have to choose, I have to figure it out. I talked with Lynelle about it and probably show up on my day off which fortunately falls on a weekday, so they’ll be open and I can show up at the time they want and see if I can make those services work or not.

Between medical issues, challenging people and slowing people down, transportation issues and just trying to fit a lot of stuff into one day it can be really challenging to be there, even when you’re verbally committed to being there.  It’s not because you’re a flake or because you don’t care. You’re trying, and sometimes trying just isn’t enough.

Miller: Lynelle, I want to go to the striking numbers question. Do you have a sense for why it is that Salem has a higher percentage of women who are homeless - more than half - than either the state or the country as a whole?

Wilcox: I think I can only guess at that because I don’t have the knowledge of other places, just here. But it does seem like we might be in a unique situation in the fact that we have the Oregon State Hospital locally, we have a women’s prison pretty local. Covid has happened and that’s increased some of the domestic violence that people are experiencing. When the state hospital or the prison are releasing people, if they don’t have family and friends and or other support, they might need to go to a homeless shelter. Otherwise, they’re on the streets. I think those things are probably contributing to why we have more women. Just hearing in general that violence has increased in families because of Covid and everybody being home and financial stress of that. The dynamics of everybody being home and not being able to connect and hug, and have the relationships the way they used to is very stressful and more violence has been happening. There’s more women fleeing domestic violence, it seems. Those would be my guesses.

Miller: Cindel, we just have about a minute and a half left but I’m wondering if you see a path for yourself out of homelessness right now?

Mikesell: I do, and it’s nice because there was a while where I didn’t think that I would have a path out of homelessness. I have the ability to save some money [inaudible] so I can put a down payment on an apartment or room and move out. I’m very, very excited and thankful for that.

Miller: Do you have a timeline for that right now?

Mikesell: My goal is by the end of January to have to be living on my own again.

Miller: Lynelle, what’s it like for you when one of your guests goes into housing?

Wilcox: It’s very joyful, and it’s hard because you want that for everybody. You want housing for all to just kind of be a thing and housing first to be more available to people. When you have someone who is able to do it, it’s incredibly joyful and such a relief and happiness for the person. It’s really hard to know that you have so many other women who need that same opportunity and don’t have it yet.

Miller: Lynelle and Cindel, thanks very much for joining us today.

Wilcox: Thank you so much.

Mikesell: Thank you.

Miller: Lynelle Wilcox is program manager for Safe Sleep United. It’s a women’s night shelter run by the United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley. Cindel Mikesell is a residential site assistant at Redwood Crossing. It’s a job she got through the shelter and she is a guest at Safe Sleep United.

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