The gulf between middle class American life and life on the streets is closing. Tacomans who have taken comforts for granted are losing their jobs, their homes, their medical care and their carefully cultivated security. Many of them are ending up on the streets, says Diane Powers, Homeless and Housing First coordinator for the city of Tacoma’s Human Rights and Human Services division. There aren’t any numbers yet. Pierce County hasn’t collected data on homeless populations recently enough to provide a clear picture. But the anecdotal evidence is profound, says Powers. One woman arrived in her office desperate for help. She had recently been the proud owner of a home; she had a job and medical care. But she had lost her job and couldn’t keep up with house payments, and was living on the streets. These are the new homeless. They’re harder to ignore because they probably look just like you. Many of them recently lived like you, or better. They’re confused. They don’t know how to be homeless, and they’re frantic and afraid.



“We just started noticing we were getting calls from different kinds of populations,” says Powers. “People who go from foreclosure to homeless almost overnight — people who don’t have medical care and housing, and they’re in shock. They’re used to having a home.”



Currently, Pierce County has one of the highest rates of foreclosures in the state. The county was third highest in the state in March, after leading the state in foreclosures for all of 2008, according to data provided by RealtyTrac. Last month, one out of every 320 homes in Pierce County was in one phase of foreclosure. That’s an increase of nearly 100 percent compared to the same time last year. The number of suddenly homeless appearing at shelters is low, says Powers, mostly because they can’t fathom staying at the Tacoma Rescue Mission or being fed at Nativity House. Many of them, in their shock, dig themselves deeper hanging onto comforts like cable television and dining out.



Some of the service managers are realizing that some of these people need some behavior modification — they lose their jobs and are still paying $150 for cable and going out to eat. Not that it matters much. The demand for affordable housing around here is overwhelming. Shelters, food banks and other safety nets are taxed beyond belief.  During the first quarter of 2009, Pierce County food banks responded to more than 260,000 visits, and hot meal sites provided more than 70,000 meals to those in need. While visits have increased more than 40 percent, the amount of food distributed has increased only 20 percent. Most of the affordable housing options are shadowed by long waiting lists, says Powers. Wages and job growth simply haven’t kept up with the cost of housing. People who were teetering on the brink — sacrificing things like healthcare and food in order to keep roofs over their heads — are falling into the breech even faster than this new breed of homeless citizen.



The city of Tacoma and Pierce County, meanwhile, have each been promised a little more than $1 million from federal agencies to try and plug the dam. The money would be used to create a homelessness prevention fund and emergency shelter grant program. The money and programs would provide financial assistance and services that would help low-income families avoid becoming homeless. Those who have become homeless would receive help getting back on their feet. Mechanisms would include housing relocation, credit counseling, deposits, rent and utility payments and moving costs, for example. All of that money must be contracted out by the end of September. It’s not much, considering the magnitude of the problem. Powers, however, remains optimistic.



“Any sort of funding that we have that will help someone immediately is encouraging,” she says.