SEATTLE — In King County alone, the number of unhoused community members has grown by thousands in the past two years.
Currently, there are an estimated 16,385 people experiencing homelessness in King County.
According to the King County Regional Homeless Authority (KCRHA), that number is 23% higher than in 2022.
The Unsheltered Point-in-Time (PIT) Count is required every other year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to effectively allocate federal funds to support regional efforts to end homelessness. It is widely understood to be an undercount.
KCRHA conducted both an unsheltered and sheltered PIT Count in January 2024, along with the required Housing Inventory Count (HIC) of emergency shelter beds and certain types of housing units.
Fewer than half of those 16,000+ people are sheltered.
The need for any number of additional beds and spaces in shelters is crucial.
Making its own effort to add beds and support - Operation Nightwatch, of Seattle, is expanding its women's shelter and available services.
Doubling in size
Operation Nightwatch runs two shelters - one for men and one for women.
The current women's shelter is "humble" in many ways, according to Operation Nightwatch staff.
"It's mats on the floor but it's a loving presence of the community, to say this place is safe for you," said Frank DiGirolamo, executive director of Operation Nightwatch. "The women say, it's the nicest shelter they've ever stayed in even though it's so humble because it's friendly and clean and they're known."
For now, the women's shelter can safely house up to nine women each night, but its new space is going to allow the shelter to house up to 20 women. The new space will open on Jan. 15, 2025.
Every bed and safe place made available counts as the need for shelter spaces grows.
The new space will provide beds for each woman, access to a bathroom and hot shower adjacent to the sleeping quarters, a hot meal, and laundry.
Plus, an additional meeting space will be available for women to meet with medical professionals, therapists, career coaches, and case managers, if they choose to do so.
"It's a win-win not only for the person coming off the street, but I think we receive a gift when we welcome the stranger," DiGirolamo said. "And something bigger than just the both of us happens."
The new shelter is moving into an unused space on the St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral campus.
It will be named Donna Jean's Place in honor of Donna Jean Palmberg. her late husband, Pastor Bud, founded Operation Nightwatch nearly 57 years ago.
The building campaign for Donna Jean's Place continues and requires funding.
"The reason then, is still the reason today," DiGirolamo said. "Unfortunately, sometimes we can get lost in life and lost on the streets of Seattle. In 1967, a group of parishioners came to their pastor and said, 'Help us find our adult children who are out there somewhere,' and he went out. He found them and he talked to them for hours, just listening to hopes and struggles. When it was time for him to leave, they said, 'Pastor, please come back because the streets need a chaplain,' and we've been doing it ever since."
Over the decades - DiGirolamo said the need for nightly visits to the streets of Seattle has only grown.
"We do nightly hot meals and these church-based shelters," DiGirolamo said. "We also operate some affordable housing for some formerly homeless seniors, and we are adding basic medical care."
Meaning of the mission
"I believe in getting people through the night, not planning their lives and [Operation] Nightwatch was aligned with my feeling of wanting to, you know, help people on their journey," said Tonette Winston, director of shelter housing and dispatch. "Not direct them."
Winston has been serving the mission for more than nine years. She's held several positions as dispatch center manager, volunteer coordinator, and desk supervisor. For the past two years, she has worked as director of shelter housing and dispatch.
Through the years, Winston has gotten to know hundreds of the men and women Nightwatch serves. She said they range in age from 30 to 80 and she emphasized that many seniors are unhoused.
"I think people would be surprised to find out - to actually talk to our folks - and they're just like you and I," Winston said. "They had lives, they had families, they had jobs and, you know, and things happened, so, here they are. Our folks that have struggled through life and are now getting social security are getting $839 a month...like, where are you going to live? What are you going to do with that?"
An additional need that Donna Jean's Place will meet is more space for women to store their belongings. While that may not see like a major amenity - Winston said it makes a pivotal difference for people, especially those who are trying to get to appointments or job search.
Women can store their belongings at Donna Jean's Place while they go to job interviews. Winston said they won't have to "carry their whole lives on their backs," which she explained can lead to prejudgment by others.
"I think it's a challenge for people to ask for help even when they're struggling," Winston said. "I mean, sometimes we have to save people. You really need to come inside. You really need to go to the doctor."
Called to volunteer
"I heard a presentation at St. Mark's, that Frank and Tonette did and I thought, 'Oh my goodness, I can do this,'" said Elizabeth Clark-Stern, a Nightwatch volunteer as of about three months ago. "What were those 30 years of psychotherapy about if I can't now move it out into the world in a whole different way?"
Clark-Stern plans to be one of the therapists that meets with women requesting those services at Donna Jean's Place.
"For a therapist, really? It's your own humanity that you bring to the profession and for my humanity to be nourished by theirs, actually," Clark-Stern said. "I mean, you have no idea how much we get from it. I hope they get as much as we do because we hear their stories and any little way that I could help them connect their story to some way that they can move forward in the world."
When she first joined the team as a volunteer, she was admittedly afraid to interact with unhoused community members during the street visits.
However, when she actually went out and began meeting people, those fears couldn't have been farther from reality.
"When I got out of the van with Pastor Michael Cox, there was this gentleman just sitting there and he was talking to himself and I leaned in and said, 'Well, hi, my name's Elizabeth,' and he said, 'Oh, you're new,'" Clark-Stern said. "And suddenly, there was just this deep human connection and I've got to say, it has changed my whole way of looking at life. I see the vulnerability in everything, everything seems fragile, when you see someone who's sleeping on the streets."
During her short time with Nightwatch, Clark-Stern said she recognizes the value of the new shelter's services and amenities.
"Having this home base is going to be so critical because then they can get up in the morning and think about, 'I can go to WorkSource or I can go to my medical appointments or I can maybe even go to Goodwill and get some clothes so I can do a job interview,'" Clark-Stern said. "You can think about those things rather than, 'What am I gonna do next?'"
Donate and volunteer
To donate to the new shelter's building campaign, click here.
If you would like to volunteer for Operation Nightwatch, click here.