The Housing First philosophy allows us to accept individuals as they are and bring them into our housing from off the street. But we also acknowledge that the next steps after a person moves in are crucial to her or his ability to thrive in permanent housing. We want hospitality at the forefront.
Story by Elisabeth Vasquez Hein, Volunteer Outreach Manager, Plymouth Housing Group
Bringing hospitality home! L-R: Jeff Buchan, Jeremy Kern, Winona Caruthers. Photo by Elisabeth Vasquez Hein.
One year from now, Winona Caruthers hopes to have created an especially comforting and welcoming atmosphere for Plymouth tenants. This will help tenants overcome the challenges that go along with the transition to permanent housing after many years of homelessness and increase their ability to remain stably housed.
Winona has just embarked on 12 months of national service with the VISTA*AmeriCorps program under the sponsorship of the United Way of King County. Winona is the first VISTA member to be placed at Plymouth Housing Group in over a decade.
Her official title is sophisticated – Community Engagement & Housing Stability Coordinator – but beneath the lengthy words are the simple, universal sentiments of warmth and generosity.
Winona’s big-picture goal is to enhance hospitality in Plymouth residential buildings, especially for new tenants in their first month of living in permanent housing after having been homeless for many years.
Gestures such as setting up a new tenant’s apartment with home wares, hanging a “welcome home” sign, and giving a batch of homemade cookies can go a long way in creating a welcoming atmosphere and a feeling of safety and comfort.
Chronically homeless adults come to Plymouth from an experience quite different than permanent housing. A safe, stable home can be a foreign concept that an individual may find challenging to adapt to. There is a need to provide additional support through hospitality to set the tone for relationship-building and long-term success in housing. –Winona Caruthers
Hospitality is already happening across Plymouth’s 13 buildings. Each new tenant receives a welcome basket chock-full of household items, as well as a bag of food to get them through their first week in their new home. However, staff would love to provide more hospitality, and to involve volunteers and the larger community in these efforts.
“We want hospitality to be at the forefront of what we do,” says Jeff Buchan, Plymouth’s Clinical Development Manager. “The Housing First philosophy allows us to accept individuals as they are and bring them into our housing from off the street, but we also acknowledge that the next steps after a person moves in are crucial to her or his ability to thrive in permanent housing.”
Winona has been involved in community work since she was a kid volunteering at soup kitchens and organizing car washes to raise money for those less fortunate. She grew up on the other side of the country, in a place where poverty was noticeable. At a young age, she developed an awareness of socioeconomic inequality.
Winona moved to Washington state in 2010 when she was accepted into the University of Washington’s degree program in Social Welfare. She has served vulnerable populations at the King County Superior Court Youth Service Center and at the University District Youth Service Center, where she provided hospitality services to homeless youth.
Her objectives for the year include creating a toolkit of hospitality resources and information for staff and volunteers; evaluating the success of new tenants in permanent housing; and engaging the community in new ways to support Plymouth’s hospitality effort.
Winona will collaborate closely with Jeff Buchan and with Jeremy Kern, Plymouth Property Manager, to develop processes and systems that work for all of Plymouth’s buildings.
According to Jeremy, “First impressions set the tone for what a tenant will expect as the norm for her/his new apartment. We want our tenants to move into the building receiving hospitality in such a way that they instantly create an association with the building that is solely optimistic. Simply moving into a new apartment doesn’t make it feel like home. It’s the community around you that makes you feel welcomed.”
Stay tuned for monthly dispatches from Winona about the progress of the Hospitality Project! She will be reporting on what tenants face in their first month at Plymouth, what can be done to welcome new tenants, and how volunteers and community members like you can get involved.
Contact Winona at wcaruthers@plymouthhousing.org