Dean is a 59-year-old man who moved into Bloomside last month. He is friendly, with a thin build and a tan from the summer sun. Prior to living at Bloomside, Dean lived in one of Burien’s biggest encampments, and he spent three years living outside in the Burien community. Dean noted, “This [encampment] down here is pretty dirty (referring to the encampment across from the police station); I mean, it’s way too cramped.”
Prior to being in that encampment, Dean was receiving some support and services at a local church, “There used to be a tent city behind the church there, and I was in that one until they closed it down. That was a good camp and REACH used to go out there, and people would donate food, and it was well organized.”
REACH builds relationships with people experiencing homelessness and connects them to the help that they need – everything from food and clothing to medical care, shelter, and mental health and/or substance use treatment.
Dean’s mother and father were educators and advocates in Burien. Dean reminisces, “My mom taught at Gregory Heights and Seahurst Elementary School, and my dad taught at Pacific Middle School, and they used to run the Burien Food Bank.”
Dean is excited to have a safe space to rebuild a foundation for his life, with a modern new studio apartment and a rent payment arrangement that works for him, “They wrap all the bills up into one, you know, because you pay a third of your income, and I have it all on autopay now.”
Dean said he wants to take classes on basic finances and how to adapt to living indoors again, and this is something that DESC does in the form of group workshops and individual case management.
“The transition is tough; people don’t realize it,” he reflects, “A life skills class just once a week for an hour, it would help immensely.”
Additionally, Dean says that balancing relationships with this move has been challenging, “I still visit my friends in the encampment, and we meet once a week to share a pizza that I buy, and we give each other updates. They are all happy for me, that at the end of the day, I have a safe place to go to.” Dean notes that the 30-day hold on new tenants having personal visitors to the building has been “a good thing” and it is giving him the opportunity to settle into his new home “privately.”
When asked if there is anything else that he would like people to know about, Dean said this:
“I hope that no one ever has to experience what it is like to walk up to a crosswalk and not know which button to push. Sometimes I would just break down and cry because I didn’t have a place to go, and I was so tired. Now, I have a place to go, and with purpose.”