Fremont

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PLEASE MEET SCOTTY:

It is with such sadness I am writing to tell you that our very dear friend Scotty Ferguson has passed away. There is so much to this beautiful man I honestly don't know where to begin. I first met him at his home, which at the time was a covered bench along the ship canal in Fremont. It was the winter of 2011. His friend Dinkus was living there too.

Both Scotty and Dinkus had an undeniable twinkle in their eye, it drew them together, feeding off each other's charisma. They were so alive, now they are both gone. Dinkus passed in early 2017 which hit Scotty hard. Everyone that frequented the bench could see they were a team. Scotty played the guitar and Dinkus sang off-key, Dinkus told jokes and Scotty gave that infectious laugh. And through it all, they drank, and drank.

Scotty's charm was second only to his big heart. He was a good man that would do anything for you. I felt this constantly in my friendship with him. I know the people at the University Methodist Church felt this too, he volunteered lots. Gail Winberg from the church, along with many others, is feeling the painful loss of his friendship.

Scotty's life was in a downward spiral during that time living on the bench. It was horrible to witness his daily struggle. All of that changed when he met Anne. She pulled him out of it with her goodness and love. Often when I was in the office, working early, I would see Anne's car pull up, just when it was getting light, and she'd walk down those steps to visit with Scotty.

Eventually she broke through. He quit drinking and they moved in together. It was beautiful. They were there for each other, both learning and growing. In the end, the obstacles were too much and they separated but their love kept them close, texting daily till the end. It was Anne that told me Scotty had passed on February 5th of cancer. Please send your LOVE to her, I know she is hurting deeply with this loss.

Scotty loved to fish. Often he and Dinkus would fish along the canal. During Dinkus' last year outside he was in a wheelchair and somebody had thrown it into the canal, coming to rest about 10' out and 5' down. You could see it when the water was still. Scotty decided to fish for it. It was a big deal, he spent hours trying to catch it and finally did, slowly pulling it to the surface and onto land. There was a celebration like you'd never seen. Scotty talked about the big one he caught, over and over, asking if we'd heard the story yet. Still makes me smile so much.

We loveLOVE you Scotty. At 60 years old, with so much life in you, you were much too young to leave us. Thank you for your beautiful friendship, for the LOVE of life you shared so very easily with everyone.

Fremont Neighborhood | Rex

A QUIET THOUGHT - If you're moved by the goodness of this community, please visit http://www.facinghomelessness.org/ and click on the 'donate' button and consider a "monthly recurring" donation of just $5 in support of the work. THANK YOU!
#JustSayHello #Kindness #FacingHomelessness

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PLEASE MEET ANN:

In April of last year Ann was about to be evicted from her Fremont neighborhood apartment. You all donated enough to keep her housed till now. Wow! So much kindness.

Circles of support and love came forward. Back bills were paid and her home cleaned spotless! It should have been enough. We all thought it would be. We had 10 whole months to take advantage of services available for this next phase of her life.

Services available. Hmmmm. What seemed easy became complicated, then impossible. Case Managers came and went. She was slipping through the cracks as weeks past.

Ann is 78, sharp as a tack! Well, not all the time, just most of the time. I think. For sure sharp enough to say she needed to stay in her neighborhood, "I won't go into a Nursing Home, I can't leave what I know." She insisted the $600 short between social security and rent could be earned by getting a job.

This week Ann will be removed from her apartment by the authorities. Put on the curb with whatever stuff she can carry. My brain can't even comprehend that. Yesterday while visiting I asked her to think about what things she liked, things she could take when the knock at the door came. She looked at me incredulously, saying, "I like all of it." Just then her phone rang, I answered for her. The woman asked if Ann would be sending in payment for her medication, that she was behind.

I don't know what to do. I don't know what is going to happen.

Ann just says she wants to die. She is very depressed. It's all too overwhelming for her. I must admit, my brain wants to explode too. Ann has never been homeless. She won't last two days outside.

Ann receives $1,100.00 assistance a month for food, bills and rent. Is there anyone that can rent a room to her? Her whole world is in and around the Fremont neighborhood so Fremont, Phinney Ridge, Ballard, Wallingford, or Queen Anne would be ideal. But at this point we are just looking for a place to tide her over, to find something within the system.

If you are Case Manager Miracle Worker, which I know all Case Managers are, can you please work a miracle here. A few years ago Catholic Community Services' Noel House took in a woman the next day that we featured on this page. We are hoping for someone to reach out and rescue Ann in the same way.

You can call me directly on my cell. 206-330-1142. If you want to donate funds for Ann's future rent, here is a Paypal link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3A8G7BDFB9PFJ&source=url

We loveLOVE you Ann, we will get through this together!

Fremont Neighborhood | Rex

A QUIET THOUGHT - If you're moved by the goodness of this community, please visit http://www.facinghomelessness.org/ and click on the 'donate' button and consider a "monthly recurring" donation of just $5 in support of the work. THANK YOU!
#Kindness #JustSayHello #FacingHomelessness

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PLEASE MEET DZY:

It started with Lydia. At the end of last September she read a post on this page about Dzy, about him not being sure if he could survive another winter in a tent.

Lydia and family responded by donating their van to Dzy, wowWOW!!

They put a new battery in it, outfitted it with curtains for privacy, and purchased a small heater along with some fuel and a carbon monoxide sensor to make it warm and safe!

It's hard to measure the importance of this kindness. To know what would have happened if they had not reached out. What we do know is that Dzy is in a better place making positive change in his life. Among other improvements, he now has 10 days off of heroin.

Dzy is a talented musician. He busks around town to cover food and phone bills, and now fuel for the van. Off heroin, he's able to save money earned, ready to rent a room for $500 a month. It's a big step. Right now he's $150 short, hoping we can help him get inside.

UPDATE: The Paypal link has been pulled in that the goal of raising $150 has been reached with $352.67 donated, wowWOW!!! I know this will mean a great deal to Dzy in his journey forward. A heartfelt THANK YOU!!! All funds will be paid directly to Dzy's landlord with no funds going to Dzy directly and, as is always the case, no funds to go to Facing Homelessness.

Thank you Lydia for putting all of this goodness in motion with your beautiful KINDNESS!!!

Fremont Neighborhood | Rex

A QUIET THOUGHT - If you're moved by the goodness of this community, please visit http://www.facinghomelessness.org/ and click on the 'donate' button and consider a "monthly recurring" donation of just $5 in support of the work. THANK YOU!
#JustSayHello #Kindness #FacingHomelessness Lydia Sigo

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PLEASE MEET ANN:

Back in April of this year you all did something veryVERY beautiful for Ann. Life-saving actually. Her phone and utilities were in the process of being shut off and she had already received the feared eviction notice. It was only a matter of time before she would have been homeless.

Enough funds were raised to pay the bills and keep her housed in her apartment through the end of the year. It meant the world to her.

Over these last 8 months a host of people, including case-managers, have met with Ann to help her navigate next steps. Sadly, she's been unable to act upon the advice. It's hard to say why. Whether it is the emotional hurdle of leaving a home, fear of the unknown, a strain of stubbornness, perhaps a decline in awareness, or whatever, she is now again a month away from receiving an eviction notice.

To make matters much worse, Ann suffered a stroke three days ago. She's lost control of her left leg and some in her left arm. She's hopeful to regain full use of both, saying, "I'm going to work very hard to get back to living!"

I'm sharing because there are many of you that have reached out to Ann, including Faith Cooley who navigated all the bill paying and early searching for case-management help, and the group that came to clean her apartment a few months back, and others! I know you all would have wanted to know.

Regardless of Ann's path forward, she is going to need additional funds. I'm hoping together, with everyone pitching in, even a small amount like $10, we can create an emergency fund that will make another big difference for her.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=733DT4R57ULSS&source=url

As is always the case on this page, no funds will go to Facing Homelessness. Every penny will help cover Ann's expenses.

A heartfelt THANK YOU.

Fremont neighborhood | Rex

A QUIET THOUGHT - If you're moved by the goodness of this community, please visit http://www.facinghomelessness.org/ and click on the 'donate' button and consider a "monthly recurring" donation of just $5 in support of the work. THANK YOU!
#Kindness #JustSayHello #FacingHomelessness Crosscut

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PLEASE MEET DONNA & LIA:

Donna asked, "Do you think you could find somebody to watch my dog while I go into treatment?" I immediately made an assumption, "Is it heroin?" No she said, "It's mental health".

Donna is a veteran, she served from 1988-92, both in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. She's hoping to receive treatment at the Washington Veterans Home in Port Orchard. She would be there for 4 months but needs to first find a place for her loved dog Lia.

I told Donna I don't need to tell why she needs dog-care, that there are so many dog-lovers that just asking would be enough. Donna replied, "No, I want to share what I am going through, nobody talks about mental health even though the results of it are going on around us all the time."

Donna has experienced a great deal of it going on around her. Her father was an alcoholic, took his own life when she was 11. In her 30's she lost her sister to cancer and 4 years ago her husband divorced her. She said that at that point in her life she just turned off and shut down.

Turning off and shutting down led Donna into homelessness, she's been living in her car for the last six weeks.

Donna shares that she suffers from depression and anxiety. As we talk she tries hard to explain the feelings of PTSD, telling me that the emotions of the moment, are not just what is going on at that point in time, that with it come all the emotions of the past, right to the forefront, feelings going from nothing to overwhelming.

We shared a long hug and agreed to be life-long friends.

If you think you might want to foster Lia for four months, please comment below and then private message me on this page with any questions. We want to make sure it's a good fit!

A bigBIG community size HUG to you Donna for your courage. Please know that you have so many people reaching out to you with support and love!

Fremont neighborhood | Rex

A QUIET THOUGHT - If you're moved by the goodness of this community, please visit http://www.facinghomelessness.org/ and click on the 'donate' button and consider a "monthly recurring" donation of just $5 in support of the work. THANK YOU!
#Kindness #JustSayHello #FacingHomelessness

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PLEASE MEET DZY

Over the last week I must have heard ten times something about summer being over, comments like, "You can feel the season changing, it's in the air, summer is gone, winter will be here soon." Or simply, "How was your summer?"

For the homeless this is no small thing. It adds a serious layer of complexity to surviving. In the chronically homeless you can feel it, they begin to hunker down, they know what's coming. Wind and rain. Storms that soak everything through and through, including the cold ground. Wet socks are worn for days. Then there is the darkness. People that shared a smile on warmer days, now rush past without saying hello, without looking up. The cold is everywhere.

Dzy is chronically homeless, he lives in a tent but is having a tough time imagining another winter. For the first time I can see he's worried.

I love Dzy, for lots of reasons. He has a warmth in his voice and also in his views of the world around him. He's always kind, even in the middle of his suffering. There are times when I ask him difficult questions and I'll say, "I hope you don't mind me asking?" He'll reply with something like, "No, not at all, I know you love me."

I am making an ask of our community for a beat-up broken down van, one that Dzy can live in through the winter. It just has to be able to move a block or two every 72 hours to avoid impound. I know this would mean the world to him, to have some shelter going into the approaching winter.

A big community size LOVE to you Dzy, you are a beautiful person through and through.

Fremont neighborhood | Rex

A QUIET THOUGHT - If you're moved by the goodness of this community, please visit http://www.facinghomelessness.org/ and click on the 'donate' button and consider a "monthly recurring" donation of just $5 in support of the work. THANK YOU!
#Kindness #JustSayHello #FacingHomelessness