It was raining softly at the Douglas Harbor when Candi Spicer popped out of the 30-foot sailboat she just started renting. She grew up on boats in California and is used to being on the water.Silver insulation lines the walls inside, but she has plans to cover that up. There’s a bed, a bathroom with a shower and a small kitchen. The stove doubles as a heater. She says it’s nice falling asleep to the gentle rocking of the water in the harbor.
“The Glory Hall, the warming center and stuff like that — those are supposed to be stepping stones. They’re not supposed to be life choices,” Spicer said. “So two years ago, I was walking down the street. And now it’s like, I have a job. I have a car. I have a place of my own.”The flexibility of the grant is unique — usually federal housing money can’t be used to rent non-traditional housing like boats, hotel rooms or rooms in a home. The program side-steps these requirements.
The typical path to long term stability from homelessness involves a Section 8 voucher, which is federal rental assistance. But the wait time has ballooned over the last year or so, according to Vroman. “That has changed. It’s now statewide, it’s in our regional hubs. It’s in our cities,” he said. “And as the affordable housing crunch has gotten worse in the larger areas, that tells you it’s probably and certainly gotten even worse out in the rural areas.”