Homeless woman was down on her luck till shelter took her in and lifted her up

Kathy's new home in Somersworth is a warm and inviting place. (Courtesy photos)

A Somersworth woman who was without a home for five years said the biggest albatross around the neck of the homeless who live on the streets and in local encampments is addiction.

"They don't want to give up that party lifestyle," she said earlier this week.

The woman, now in her 60s and living in a cozy one-bedroom apartment in the Hilltop City, said the saddest thing about these people is their lifestyle doesn't only affect them.

"Unfortunately, many of them have children," she added.

The woman, who did not want to be identified for this story, chose Kathy as her pseudonym. Her journey into homelessness that began some six years ago is probably not uncommon among women.

"Before I became homeless I was living in Maine with a man I'd been in a relationship with for 19 years," she said. "I left him because I found out he had a different family. I left that night, immediately."

Kathy spent years couch surfing with relatives and friends, but never liked it. Then she found an acquaintance with whom she shared an apartment in Berwick, Maine.

"It was a cute place, we liked it very much," she said, "and I only paid $250 a month."

But another shoe was about to fall.

"The apartment house had lead paint, and the landlord said he could not afford to get the place de-leaded," she recalled sadly. "Everyone had to leave."

Kathy, who has been on SSI since the 1980s after she suffered a heart attack, was getting just $711 a month. Her roommate went to live with her granddaughter, so she knew she would have to find a new roommate to make ends meet.

It was last August, winter was on its way and she knew she had to act fast. She lived with a relative for a while, but it just didn't work out, she said.

"I was getting desperate to the fact where was I gonna end up," Kathy recalled in a phone interview with The Rochester Voice on Monday.

Realizing she would have to be proactive in her quest for a roof over her head, she began calling area shelters. Among them was the Strafford County Homeless Shelter where she talked to Tracy Hardekopf, its executive director, who recognized Kathy as a perfect candidate to take advantage of the shelter's guided programs designed to put the homeless into permanent housing.

In September Kathy moved into the shelter's 26-bed facility on the Waste Management campus at 9 Isinglas Drive in Rochester.

She had never lived in congregate living before, so "it was difficult," she recalled. "You had new people moving in all the time, so it was different."

Unlike many shelters that have little or few rules or structure, the Strafford County Homeless Shelter is like a private school for the homeless.

Hardekopf and her staff do intake interviews and maintain a structured environment for the families and single individuals who live there. They also teach their clients resume and interview skills and help them fill out applications for local, state and federal housing assistance.

Kathy said when she began living there she had to pay $250 for rent and put aside $250 in a facility maintained saving account that would accrue so she would have money for her first month and security deposit when she found a permanent home.

That left her with just $211 for other monthly expenses.

But what she quickly learned was that the shelter also provided them with a pantry full of donated food.

"We were also given a cubby to store our own food, and each person had their own Fridge if they wanted to buy something for themselves," she said.

Kathy, who formerly worked in the ad department and as a proofreader at Foster's Daily Democrat and also for a book company in Salem, Mass., said at first she was a little uncomfortable living with so many people.

"But after a while, I started making friendships," she said. "The people who were there for the most part were good people and just down on their luck. After a while I was looked at as sort of the grandmother of the place."

Kathy said Hardekopf was like a "den mother," pushing and prodding when needed and always giving helpful advice.

"She knew what was best for you before you did," she said. "And I was like the grandmother of the place, all the resident's kids thought of me as their grandmother; it was endearing.

Kathy said she took all the advice from Hardekopf she could, but also proved a self-starter in her search for a permanent home, filling out dozens of applications for state and federal aid as well as dozens of applications for local apartment house residency.

"We were given the tools, but it was up to us to find an apartment," she said.

After eight months of searching she found a one-bedroom apartment in May in a quiet section of Somersworth.

"It's beautiful," she said. "Everything is new - carpets, ceilings, walls - and outside there's a walkway with grass, benches and planted flowers."

But when she found out that the shelter was going to donate all her furniture, kitchen utensils, sheets, towels and everything else she needed to get started she was overwhelmed.

"I broke down and cried," she said.

With federal Section 8 funding that she applied for, she pays just $222 a month, which includes heat, hot water, electricity and cable. In the summer she pays about an extra $25 for running an air conditioner, she said.

Hardekopf said Kathy was a model resident of the shelter, which will soon have a new home at 202 Washington St. near Rochester Crossing.

Hardekopf said through tax-credit funded donations and grants they have already raised more than $900,000 of the approximately $1 million they'll need to construct an expanded 40-bed facility on 18 acres of land.

Hardekopf said Waste Management has been a wonderful benefactor for many years giving them a free lease at the Isinglas Drive building, but WM now needs the land for their own use and the shelter also wanted to expand its client base and services.

The shelter began working through its approval process for the new facility at a Rochester Planning Board meeting on Monday.

Hardekopf stressed they are not a walk-in facility, but do intakes and take referrals from other shelters and welfare offices around the county.

"We serve everyone, and we follow up with an after care support system after they leave the shelter for a permanent home to make sure they're doing OK," she said.

Hardekopf said right now they are looking for a design builder, adding she wants the building to feel "homelike."

Their goal is to have it up and running by October of next year.

With 14 more beds that means 14 more folks like Kathy - down on their luck through no fault of their own - can get the help they need to find a place they can call home.