Organization seeks local volunteer hosts
Ronda Smeltzer is no stranger to the phrase, “it takes a village to raise a child.” As she works to get Room One’s Host Home Program off the ground, the sentiment rings true.
The Host Home Program, facilitated by the Twisp social services agency Room One, aims to place young people ages 12-24 in safe, temporary homes by matching them with volunteer hosts. Room One Managing Director Kelly Edwards said offering a stable living environment is often the first step in helping a young person succeed.
MORE INFORMATION
For additional information about the Host Home Program:
- visit Room One’s Host Home page at https://roomone.org/programs/youth-housing-support/host-home-program.
- contact Ronda Smeltzer at ronda@roomone.org.
- Room One will hold a Host Home information session in the Winthrop library’s North Community Meeting Room on Aug. 3 from 5-6 p.m., followed by a Q&A.
- Room One will also host weekly outreach events on Wednesdays at Twisp Park from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. through the end of the month.
“Unless you feel like you have safe and stable housing under you, you kind of need that before you can resolve any of the other issues going on in your life,” Edwards said.
Room One recently made its first housing placement for the program, but Smeltzer, Host Home coordinator, said that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The organization still has six to seven youth in desperate need of homes — and only one available volunteer host.
“We have youth that need places to go,” Smeltzer said. “We just don’t have enough hosts, we don’t have enough places to put them.”
There are many reasons a young person might come to Room One seeking housing resources, Smeltzer said. Often, a family simply outgrows its home but can’t afford to move, leaving older children in need of a new place to stay.
Youth and young adults might also be escaping unhealthy environments, for example a home with an abusive partner, a parent who’s unsupportive of their LGBTQ identity or a family member living with mental illness or addiction. While the Host Home Program doesn’t work with youth who have open Child Protective Services cases or criminal backgrounds, they can still seek support through other Room One programs.
As part of its programming, Room One seeks insight from youth on a Youth Housing Advisory Board and compensates them for their time. One member of the advisory board, who asked to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, said she moved out of her parents’ home in the Methow Valley right before her senior year of high school. Constant fighting and power struggles with her stepdad, she said, created a volatile home environment she knew she had to leave.
“Moving out was really good for me,” she said, “to have control of my life, and not having to worry about four screaming siblings when I went to sit down and do work.”
Although the advisory board member sought resources at Room One leading up to her move, the Host Home program was still in its development stage at the time, with no registered volunteers. When an affordable apartment came up for rent, she saw the opportunity and took it. For the next year, she balanced high school classes with four full-time days at work in order to pay rent.
Not a new problem
While the Host Home Program is just gaining traction, the reality of youth housing instability isn’t new. Edwards said many community members were informally hosting youth in their homes long before the organization established its program. One motivation for the project’s origin was to provide structure, training and resources to support those hosts.
“In a rural community, people really look out for each other,” Edwards said. “We won’t let a kid go out on the street, we’ll take them in and we’ll give them a couch or a blanket or a meal and keep them safe for the night. And so that idea of looking out for each other, it’s been working … but it’s not a sustainable model.”
The Host Home Program was approved and funded in the fall of 2019, but due to COVID-19 volunteer recruitment was put on hold until the beginning of 2022. Room One held its first in-person information session for the program in May.
During the gap, the organization built out the Host Home Program’s policies and connected youth with case managers, working with over 35 young people through its existing Youth Housing Support Program.
Carrie Port, youth housing case manager, said the Host Home Program is youth-centered and youth-driven. As part of its program development, Room One consulted its Youth Housing Advisory Board to refine questions for the Host Home Program’s housing agreement. The housing agreement is a form that both youth and hosts fill out a to establish housing preferences and non-negotiables around topics like curfews, chores and relationship dynamics.
During the matching process, youth and hosts also have the opportunity to meet — first at a neutral location, and then, if both parties want to proceed, at the host’s home. Smeltzer said the idea is to put care into the matching process early on, so conflict doesn’t arise later.
“We don’t make those decisions lightly, because we want it to work from the beginning,” Smeltzer said. Nevertheless, youth and hosts have the option to back out if at any point in the process they don’t feel comfortable.
Port works with youth in the program both before and after placement to help them with needs like getting a cell phone, finding a job and connecting with a counselor. Once youth have moved into a home, she also does home check-ins with the youth and host, weekly first and then as needed.
Housing headaches
Housing options in the Methow Valley and Okanogan County — particularly rentals — are in short supply. In 2021, TwispWorks’ Comprehensive Economic Study of the Methow Valley reported an average of 36 people per unit waitlisted for subsidized housing.
Smeltzer said addressing housing instability in an area like the Methow Valley can be challenging because of how easily it can fly under the radar.
“Homelessness looks very different in small towns than it does in larger cities, because when most people think of ‘homeless’ they think of people sleeping under bridges and camping in parks and on sidewalks,” Smeltzer said. “And that’s just not what it looks like here in the Methow Valley. Homelessness here is staying on your friends’ parents’ couches and sleeping in your car and camping and couch surfing.”
The advisory board member said one thing that’s stood out about living on her own is how aware she’s become of others’ housing struggles. She recalled several friends who have spent time living in their cars, or in trailers on people’s property, with situations sometimes changing on a weekly basis.
“It’s just so invisible to everyone else, like, ‘Homelessness in the valley? What?’ And I think part of it is that they don’t really identify as homeless,” she said. “It’s hard to identify with that extreme word.”
As Room One looks to expand the Host Home Program, Edwards said its success will be dependent on support from members of the community. Having a portfolio of even 10 volunteer hosts could help get young people into safe homes more quickly and provide more options for appropriate matches.
Edwards said for those who can’t commit to a longer-term hosting commitment, Room One is also in need of respite hosts who can provide for youth during transition periods or for a week or two when a longer-term host needs a break.
“Most of the youth and young adults that are in this program, they’re already raised, they’re already on their way to young adulthood,” Smeltzer said. “They just need a safe landing space to get their future started.”
