nov e mb e r 2 0 1 5
homefront
Bailey-Boushay House
Having No Place to Be
Bailey-B0ushay House creates new ways
to help homeless clients prepare for
stable housing
Having No Place to Be
M
uch is going well for Terry after four years as a client at Bailey-Boushay House.
He’s taking HIV medication successfully. He practices harm-reduction techniques when using street drugs and alcohol. And he signed on as a peer educator in Project
NEON (an outreach network for gay, bisexual and transgender
men affected by crystal methamphetamine).
Despite all these successful moves to build stability into his life,
Terry is discouraged and frustrated. He’s been homeless for
more than two and half years and sees no signs of hope in his
housing search.
A desperate need for housing
The hardest part of being homeless is the “stress of having no
stability,” he says. “You can’t depend on anything. There’s no
place to keep anything. There’s no place just to be. You have to
keep figuring out what you’re going to do next, all the time.”
Right: Nurse Kimberly
Perry helps Randol
manage his medication.
Cover: A client (J.R.) is
able to relax and get
some much needed rest
in the BBH quiet room.
The long, slow process to find subsidized housing is wearing
Terry down. “I want a place of my own, just like everyone else.
How many years do I have to wait before I find housing?”
Changes in the Bailey-Boushay client mix
Terry’s not an exception. A third of Bailey-Boushay’s 300 clients
with HIV/AIDS are currently homeless. Another third are at risk
of becoming homeless.
“In late 2013 and early 2014, we saw a big change,” says Brian
Knowles, BBH executive director. “More homeless clients were
coming in — especially younger men in their twenties — and
with a much higher level of desperation. The outpatient program
hasn’t been this full since 1998.”
For years, Bailey-Boushay has given vulnerable clients the
support and stability they need to stay on HIV medication. Our
services worked equally well for housed and homeless clients.
But the chaotic lives of more recent clients have changed that
pattern.
bailey-boushay house homefront november 2015
Far left: Héctor
Urrunaga Díaz, care
manager and social
work associate, helps
Richard navigate online
forms.
Left: Volunteers help
organize items at a
clothing swap held at
the facility in October.
“Their most immediate needs, like where can you go to the
bathroom at night, have to come first,” Brian says. “They can’t
think beyond the next few minutes and hours, much less make
plans to take HIV medication and maintain health long-term.”
Finding new ways to build stability
Starting with the basics: Dry socks and foot care
The BBH team has committed to developing services that
engage and build trust with clients in housing crisis.
“The homeless have to keep moving,” says Sandy Eastwood,
assistant nurse manager, “so foot care is a huge issue.”
Last fall it took a big step by collaborating with Lifelong AIDS
Alliance in a pilot program called Winter Motel.
All Bailey-Boushay clients, whether housed or homeless, can
now get a clean, dry pair of white tube socks every day. No
questions asked. Socks for diabetics are offered, too.
During the coldest months of the year, 55 of BBH’s hardest-tohouse clients (including Terry) were given immediate respite
through temporary housing in local motels. They were safe, had
private rooms and got plenty of practical support from staff at
Bailey-Boushay and Lifelong.
Preventing hospitalizations was a primary and short-term goal
that met with success as Terry and the others stayed out of the
hospital. Building life skills to help find and keep permanent
housing is a longer-term goal. Unfortunately, by winter’s end
only a handful of clients moved into permanent housing.
Taking practical steps and the long view
This fall the Winter Motel, version 2.0, was rolled out as one
part of a broader, year-round approach now called the Housing
Stability Project.
“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” Brian says, “But we’ve
learned that Bailey-Boushay has unique ways to help our clients
be safer and healthy while homeless.”
Participation is always voluntary. Strategic incentives —
whether a grocery gift card, sleeping bag, poncho or a volunteer
furniture mover — inspire clients to keep working a housing
plan, complete applications, meet with outside resources, and
move through a skill-building curriculum.
New services that evolve in the next few years will focus
both on clients’ immediate and long-term needs. A couple of
examples:
A new foot care station in the Big Room now offers relief for
painful feet. Nurses, armed with formal training in foot care and
professional nail tools, soak and scrub feet, cut and trim nails
and treat fungal infections.
On the horizon: Finding pro bono partners
Some clients need legal help to resolve issues that block their
efforts to get housing. Others need the services of a representative payee to make sure they don’t lose housing because of a
late or mislaid rent check.
Bailey-Boushay welcomes calls from local professionals and
firms who can provide these services free of charge to its
homeless clients.
The connection between housing and
HIV medication management
How do all the new Housing Stability Project services fit into
the Bailey-Boushay mission?
The major goal is still improving HIV health, taking HIV medication and fostering independence.
“By helping clients meet their basic needs for food and lodging,
we show them that we care about the realities of their life,” says
Billy Burton, BBH social worker. “Building that trust will hopefully result in people trusting us, when they’re ready, with their
medical needs.”
homefront
Bailey-Boushay House
Editor................................................................................... Kara Talbott
Contributors.......................................................................... Ellie David
Graphic Design.................................................................Dean Driskell
Photography........................................................... Paul Joseph Brown
Homefront is published by the Virginia Mason Foundation.
For placement of stories or information of community interest,
please contact: Bailey-Boushay House, 2720 East Madison St.,
Seattle, WA 98112, (206) 322-5300, Bailey-Boushay.org.
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Thank you
to the following organizations for their
recent gifts of $1,000 or more:
• American Endowment Foundation
• Bailey-Boushay House Volunteers
• BNBuilders, Inc.
• Employee’s Community Fund of The Boeing
Company
• enwave Seattle
• Keith and Mary Kay McCaw Family
Foundation
• Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group
• KPMG LLP
• The Seattle Foundation
• Truist
• United Way of Greater Philadelphia and
Southern New Jersey
S A V E
T H E
0 1 . 3 1 . 1 6
DA T E
One person can make a difference.
Imagine if we all tried.
#GivingTuesday and World AIDS Day – December 1
We have a day for giving thanks. We have two for getting holiday deals. Now, we have
#GivingTuesday, a global movement dedicated to charitable giving and volunteerism held on the
first Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
On Dec. 1, families, communities and organizations around the world will unite for one common
purpose: to celebrate generosity and give. You can join the thousands of people who will affect
the lives of millions by donating on #GivingTuesday.
https://connect.virginiamasonfoundation.org/bailey-boushay/donate-online
Take a culinary journey at the 24th annual Chefs’ Dinner, an opportunity to celebrate and raise support
for Bailey-Boushay House. Our featured local chefs will treat guests to an incredible hors d’oeuvres reception followed by a private and elegant multi-course dinner. Tickets go on sale Dec. 5.
For more information, visit ChefsDinner.org or contact us at (206) 223-7521 or [email protected].