This past week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with public health nurse Jody Rauch to talk about her work as a direct-service public health nurse and a policy/systems change advocate for people experiencing (or, as she says, "surviving") homelessness. She talks about the path that led her to her current work as Senior Program Manager for the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness. I love how she stated that she didn't listen to nursing instructors when she was in her BSN program who told her she couldn't go directly into public health nursing upon graduation. She credits the wise mentoring she received about this from Dr. Maggie Baker (a trusted friend and former colleague of mine). Nursing students whose heart is in community/public health nursing should absolutely consider going directly into jobs in that field upon graduation. Please don't listen to the nay-sayers you may encounter!

Jody stated, "I really think homelessness is just where the failures of systems, and either good or bad public policy impacts, really converge. And I wanted to be able to work and participate in trying to shift systems." She talked about what is going on in Burien, where she lives. "Right now the Burien City Council in particular has chosen to criminalize homelessness." She speaks up at City Council meetings and advocates against the cruel effects of sweeps and other bans on people surviving homelessness. It's important to note here that places like Burien that criminalize homelessness cause more pain and suffering, prolong homelessness, and lead directly to an uptick in hate crimes against people "appearing" to be homeless. Unfortunately, this includes verbal and even physical attacks on official outreach workers (and public health nurses) in the field who are connecting people with needed health and social services, including behavioral health and housing options.

Finally, Jody spoke of success stories, positive programs, and public health/social service interventions, especially ones we learned locally due to the COVID-19 pandemic response impacting people living homeless. It is important to emphasize, celebrate, and support evidence-based programs, including multidisciplinary outreach teams like REACH (Evergreen Treatment Services) and the U Heights Vehicle Outreach Team.

In honor of National Nurses Week, I want to highlight interviews I've done with some amazing nurses working on health and homelessness issues in the Seattle area. I had the pleasure of working with Eric Seitz, RN, when he was completing his BSN nursing degree at the University of Washington. He was the class president. I interviewed him right after graduation. He spoke of his own journey through homelessness and heroin addiction on the streets of Seattle when he was a teen and young adult. About how he almost died on the streets from a "flesh-eating" bacterial infection in his leg. About his two-month stay at Harborview Medical Center and the role of nurses and others there who provided quality and compassionate care. About his decision to turn his life around with the help of friends and family members--to become a nurse to help other people living in addiction and homelessness. And to work as a street medic to provide first aid at protests and to help "spread calm."

Almost ten years after graduating, Eric has worked as a public/community health nurse in the Seattle area. He worked for a while at Harborview Medical Center, a place he credits with saving his life. He worked as a "HOTT Nurse," (Housing Health Outreach Team). And he has worked as the head admissions RN at one of our too few low-barrier substance use detox and intensive inpatient facilities. He is doing amazing work. As he says, he can "empathize with all the suffering."

On June 24, 2022, I sat down with Noah Fey, director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) Housing Programs, at the DESC building in Pioneer Square. We discussed his work, first as a volunteer at DESC, then as an outreach worker, and now in DESC administration overseeing all of their varied housing programs. That morning, I had walked past tent encampments on the sidewalk just north of DESC. Noah talked about his nuanced views of encampment clearances (sweeps), encampments that grew exponentially in Seattle during the COVID-19 pandemic. Noah said, "I am not a fan of sweeps, but I am not a fan of simply saying, 'We need to leave people where they are and leave them be.' Neither of those are good alternatives and neither of those are informed by what we know works for people. Sweeps on their own are highly disruptive for people. (...) There's already such a feeling of insecurity when you don't have a place to live. Losing it time and time again is inherently pretty traumatic. (...) But I also think we're shortsighted (...) if we are just adamantly saying, 'No sweeps,' and not saying what should come instead."

Various cities around the country, including the Seattle area Burien, enforce stricter "anti-camping" bans, allowing more encampment sweeps and legal fines for unsheltered people. Many people and advocacy groups, including the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, point to the mounting evidence that sweeps harm people experiencing homelessness. Other groups like the National Homelessness Law Center have the campaign, "housing not handcuffs," highlighting the fact that encampment sweeps are a form of criminalizing homelessness and poverty.

This past Monday, April 22, I conducted a workshop on homelessness in a large medium-security correctional facility in a rural area of Washington. The forty-five men who attended wanted to discuss the just-opened Supreme Court case, City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, which will decide whether laws regulating camping on public property constitute 'cruel and unusual punishment' prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. Many of the men had experienced homelessness and had family members still living on the streets. Obviously, they were in prison for other crimes, but homelessness had complicated their lives. They asked me for resources on re-entry programs for when they are released from prison to reduce their chances of becoming homeless and churning through the homelessness, jail, and prison pipeline. Through the librarians at the facility, I was able to provide some of these resources. The Central Library of Seattle Public Library has a list of re-entry services, as does the Emerald City Resource Guide from Real Change. Seattle University's Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, which advocates for legal and policy changes to prevent homeless people from entering the criminal justice system, also has a list of sources. My experience with the men at the prison made me even more grateful for the dedicated work of people like Noah Fey in providing compassionate, evidence-based housing and support services in our region.