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February 13, 2011 in City
Once homeless residents to plead for safety net
Group heading to Olympia as legislators talk of reducing social services
Jaclyn Coyle plays with her two children, 3-year-old Alexandra and 22-month-old Nico, in her Spokane apartment Friday. Coyle, who has experienced homelessness, will join other advocates Monday in Olympia to lobby the Legislature to preserve social service programs.
(Full-size photo)
At a time when both the U.S. Congress and the Washington Legislature are discussing scaling back social services to help reduce deficits, a group of formerly homeless Spokane residents and advocates is headed to Olympia on Monday to ask lawmakers not to remove the safety net that has kept families from drowning.
“It does not benefit society when we put our most vulnerable people in jeopardy,” said Romney Simpson, who became homeless after giving birth to her disabled son.
Jaclyn Coyle and her two small children nearly ended up on the street after divorce and foreclosure obliterated their middle-class existence.
“It could happen to anybody,” Coyle said. “It could happen to your daughter.”
Both Simpson and Coyle, who were helped by the SNAP homeless program, will be part of a group of 20 social workers and clients participating in Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day in the state capital on Monday.
The following week, a delegation of 50 low-income residents led by the Spokane advocacy organization VOICES also will travel to Olympia.
Both groups will plead with Spokane-area lawmakers to restore some social service programs that have been cut and preserve other programs at risk of being cut in the current session.
“I want to put a face to the programs they are cutting,” Simpson said.
The 42-year-old single mother lived in rural Stevens County until she prematurely gave birth to Logan in 2005.
Born with intraventricular bleeding and an underdeveloped trachea, Logan would not have survived if Simpson had not moved her family closer to advanced medical care in Spokane.
Jobless and unable to find affordable housing in the city, Simpson eventually had to move her son and two daughters into the Salvation Army’s Family Emergency Center and later SNAP transitional housing.
Five years later, Simpson and her two youngest children now live in federally subsidized housing. She works part time as a photographer and cares for her developmentally delayed son.
Simpson said Logan, who suffers from seizures, would not be able to enter kindergarten next year were it not for a preschool program for disabled children provided through Spokane Public Schools.
However, beginning Jan. 1, the state will no longer reimburse the district for school-based medical services, for which school districts are responsible under federal law.
“I want to make sure my son has as much chance as everybody else,” Simpson said. “Without programs we are on, he wouldn’t be able to go to school.”
Coyle now receives Temporary Assistance for Needy Families under the state’s WorkFirst program, which provides welfare while she looks for a job. Her grant for a family of three was just reduced 15 percent, from $562 a month to $478.
Coyle also receives the state’s Working Connections child care subsidy. But once she finds a job she will have to reapply for the subsidy. Under new cost-saving rules imposed by the state this year, it appears unlikely she will remain eligible.
“Then why would I try to become employed if I am going to remain in poverty?” Coyle asks.
Jennifer Martin, homeless coordinator for SNAP, the private nonprofit social service organization, said budget cuts threaten critical services designed to help families find work, housing and health care.
“There will be a direct correlation in homelessness,” Martin said. “I also think we should look at what it will do to landlords who have all these tenants who were just scraping by.”
Martin said the group from Spokane will meet with Spokane’s legislative delegation to demonstrate the importance of these programs and others that target poverty and homelessness.
“We want to send a message that cutting in this area will have a huge impact for the next three to five years in our community,” she said.
Man dies following early Saturday car crash 
ChefGus/ John Olsen on February 13 at 6:20 a.m.
We all are going to be measured by how we live with and treat the least among us….. and the wide cross section we see in our low income housing and feeding and social service programs underlines the truth that it CAN happen to any of us. Suffering and sadness are present before us every day we walk the streets of Spokane. If you are not able to put yourself in their place with empathy and compassion it is a “whistle in the dark”. Gus
mikeln on February 13 at 7:57 a.m.
The private prison industry is ailing, not enough bodies to fill all those empty beds. The best way to solve this is to stop helping the poor. This way the money saved can be used to fund this industry and at least save the already too wealthy. The public will also get the extra added benifit of more crime as the poor struggle to survive. You will still pay the same in taxes but at least you can rest easy knowing the wealthy will not have to suffer.
D Statler on February 13 at 8:17 a.m.
I know this is going to sound heartless.I wish these people would plan better before having children, having a good place to raise them.I realize that things do happen, but the fact of the matter is.You can work two minimum wage jobs @ 40 hours and still live in poverty.When I started you could support a family on a strong back and good work ethics.Now days, poverty seems to effect everybody.No matter how hard they try to get out of the system. The system tends to feed on itself.It would be nice to see these people receiving assistance providing daycare so others on the system could jump off.Providing free education to people who promise to give the years back in return, sounds pretty good also.
We seem to keep the system feeding on itself and not getting the needy off the systems.Hopefully our new blood in Olympia can have a closer look at this problem.Maybe the wealthiest 1% can help out with some MORE scholarships for the needy. GOD BLESS :^)
lewis8457 on February 13 at 10:39 a.m.
Why would someone have a baby they cant afford? Maybe because a baby or two will bring enough welfare to support the kids and the latest boyfriend?
Don’t get me wrong i am more then happy to help those that really need help, but many of them could have saved themselves the trouble by simpling using a condom. And you can get them free at any Chas clinic.
With the continuing high unemployment rate we are broke and the entitlements will be the first thing to go.
My only real beef is we have far too many kids with children living off the Governement that have never worked a day in their lives while we have disabled vets living on the street.
misjustice on February 13 at 10:42 a.m.
Undooly; the woman in the story was married. It was divorce and foreclosure on their home which resulted in her and the children being homeless. I have to wonder if “daddy” is paying his child support? Maybe he lost his job in the economic downturn and can no longer provide for his children? Leaving those of us that do have incomes to help his family get by with state and federally funded social programs.
This story demonstrates how tenuous our position in the middle class can be, and how we could end up in dire circumstances should we lose our jobs, our homes, or have a child with serious health conditions.
I wish the mother in this story strength to endure the circumstances which, I’m sure, she never thought that she’d be in.
acerginnala on February 13 at 11:13 a.m.
“Then why would I try to become employed if I am going to remain in poverty?” Coyle asks
Well Jaclyn, its called integrity which many in our current culture no longer have. I lost a very good job last February and have been receiving unemployment since. But unlike most people I took a part time position for which I make considerably less money than I am qualified for. After deducting what I could have made on unemployment I was actually working for less than a dollar an hour. My supervisor is amazed I would work for that. But unlike many, I feel it is my duty to be a contributor to society, not a taker. But working has other advantages as well. I gain new skills, and it looks better to future employers to have a job and be looking to improve your situation then to be sitting around on the public nickel. Also, if you do not know it, money does not grow on trees; you are taking from someone else who actually earned it to support yourself. This entitlement mentality is destroying this country.
Teseract on February 13 at 1:45 p.m.
Whenever I think of people sliding from the relitive comfort of the middle class to being in poverty or homeless, I’m reminded of an old episode of “Rosanne” where they wrote a check to the power company and “forgot” to sign it as they couldn’t afford to actually pay the bill. The power gets cut off anyway and Rosanne said “Well, it sure was nice being in the middle class for a while”.
While growing up I was all too familiar with the utility man showing up at the power pole outside our house, using a long fiberglass rod with a hook to yank the switch that sent power to our house. Yes, my father was working at the time, but didn’t make enough to pay the bills in some situations.
When I first got married, my then wife and I were both employed but in low paying jobs, my wife with her hours cut down to part time. Neither job provided any kind of health insurance.
We bought cheap wedding rings at Walmart (costume jewelery for a few dollars) and went to the “Hitchin Post” because it was all we could afford. After we paid the fee we had $7 to our name and less than than 1/8th of a tank of gas to get home. We drove home after putting $5 in the tank, feeling guilty because we didn’t realize a tip was expected for the minister and we had to stiff him because we had no money to give him if we didn’t want to walk home from Idaho.
Now I’m fortunate to have a good job, making relatively good money for Spokane, with benefits. I still have to live paycheck to paycheck, but I can put more than $5 in my gas tank at a time and I can pay my utility bills and rent.
Despite this I’m constantly aware that sliding back into being dirt poor with $2 to my name is little more than a corporate “rightsizing” or a prolonged bout of illness away.
When I was laid off from my previous low paying job, we went on unemployment and food stamps. Without this I’d have had to hop into working in fast food or a similar job, continuing my string of low paying jobs. Unemployment and food stamps were the reason I managed to hang on for 3 months until I got my current job where I don’t have to rely on the safety net anymore. If I’d not had that net to fall into my family would still have been on the state dole for food stamps, rent assistance and daycare assistance for the last 3 years despite working full time at a poorly paying job, pulling money from the system rather than paying into it.
My wife recently decided she didn’t want to live with me any longer, and took my two stepdaughters and moved out. I can’t say I’m happy with her choice, and would rather still have them with me despite our problems, but it was her choice to make. That choice was (for better or worse) made possible by that safety net.
I worry for my former stepdaughters due to their mother’s (in my opinion) poor decision making, but at least I know they won’t starve and be homeless or go without medical care due to their mother’s choices.
So, for all of you who have the mentality that “all people on assistance are slackers mooching off my taxes”, I can tell you from personal experience this is not the case. The moochers exist, but they’re in the minority. Most people are in the system due to corporate decision making, horribly low wages, and a lack of education and training that would allow them to make enough money to get out.
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on February 13 at 7:56 p.m.
Thank you, teseract. Anyone who feels an urge to make blanket statements about people who need the safety net, is cordially invited to shut up.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on February 13 at 10:55 p.m.
Teseract, thank you for your story… it seems you could have as well as your family been on the “receiving” side of the food service line at Shalom, or House of Charity, or All Saints Lutheran any given week this last winter… what some do not “get” here on these blogs is that ALL people deserve food, shelter and safety… I am sorry for your distress and discomforts… and for your current separation… I am sure this will pass… you and yours are likely among the folks that effectively use a “bridge” of support to get back to a life that is more closely aligned with what we were promised as children… ie food, safety, shelter and a prospect for a future that is better than our parents… best and agape’ love john ( breakfast 07:30- 08:30 mon- thurs and Dinner on Monday nights 16:300.) Shalom Ministries at Central Methodist Church 3rd and Howard… :)) be well ChefGus / john