‘The hidden homeless’ — Family Promise supports families facing homelessness

In 2020, Norman Martin and his daughter Cheyenne were spending their days barbecuing north of Spokane at Bear Lake. Every evening, they would drive back into town to park overnight at the Flying J Travel Plaza.

“I hate to say it, but it was some of the best times with my daughter … things were pretty awesome,” Martin recalls. “Except at night. You don’t want to be out there at night.”

With better lighting and a sense of security around them at the Flying J, Martin would lock up the truck and cover the windows so they could sleep among the semitrucks.

One night, local cops spotted the family. Martin says he was grateful to run into them, despite his history of nonviolent offenses, a suspended license and outdated tabs. The officers shared their contact information and directed the family to local housing resources.

Fast-forward to current day. Martin and Cheyenne have been living in their own apartment in Cheney since August 2020, thanks to the support of Family Promise of the Palouse — a local nonprofit focused on assisting families in housing crises.

“Coming through [Family Promise] has taught me more about myself, my child, and … about homelessness and how horrific it is for families,” Martin says. “Most people think about homelessness, they think about these folks down here on the corner. It’s not like that for families. It’s different.”

Affordable housing shortages hit families hard

“Families are the hidden homeless,” says Joe Ader, executive director of Family Promise of Spokane.

Families experiencing homelessness represent 36 percent of the homeless population in Spokane, he adds. Oftentimes, families are sleeping in cars, couch surfing or moving from place to place.

Family Promise of Spokane is dedicated to preventing families from becoming homeless, providing for families experiencing homelessness, and preparing families for life beyond homelessness. Case workers work closely with families to navigate complicated housing assistance programs, seek emergency care and develop skills to ensure stable, long-term housing.

Each year Spokane County sees approximately 3,000 local unhoused students, Ader says. When you add their siblings, parents, grandparents or whoever makes up their household, that’s about 12,000 people countywide experiencing homelessness at some point during the year, he adds.

“There’s lots of different factors that come into play with it, but one of the biggest things that we are experiencing right now is there’s just not enough housing,” he says. “Because of the limited amount of housing, prices continue to rise. Apartments are 50 percent more expensive today than they were two years ago on average.

“We’re pricing people out of the market,” Ader continues. “And if you have any type of blemish on your credit history, or late payments to a previous landlord, getting housing is now really, really difficult.”

For Martin, finding affordable housing — or even an accommodating housing shelter — for him and his young granddaughter was a challenge when they moved to Spokane in early 2020.

“I grew up in a small town,” he says. “Both my parents worked … and I had a wonderful childhood. Fishing, hunting, all the good stuff. Then later on in life I got involved in drugs, lost my kids.”

Martin would serve numerous jail sentences over the years for nonviolent crimes. During one sentence, his 15-year-old daughter found out she was pregnant with Cheyenne, whom Martin later adopted and now calls his daughter.

Shortly after his release, Martin broke his neck in a car accident and spent more than 50 days in the hospital. He began using drugs again, but the possibility of never walking and losing Cheyenne hit him hard.

“I couldn’t stand it,” he says. “So that’s when I gave up drugs.”

Martin later moved to Arizona with Cheyenne and opened his own telemarketing business. They were doing well, despite Martin suffering a parietal lobe stroke in 2011 that left him with some communication and memory challenges.

That changed in 2016 when Martin’s business went under and they lost their home. The family stayed at shelters and friends’ homes until 2020, when a niece sent Martin cash to drive up to Spokane.

Unfortunately, staying with them didn’t work out. That’s when they found their way to Bear Lake in the truck.

But in the middle of the pandemic when everything was shut down, Martin says Family Promise of Spokane got him and Cheyenne into their own home within months.

Connection and community

“Homelessness is that one interlinking section with health care, with mental health, with substance use, with education, transportation, employment,” Ader says. “When you don’t have housing, all those other areas get worse. And we see that over and over again.”

Martin says Family Promise of Spokane has helped improve his and Cheyenne’s lives in more ways than he can count. They helped him find a car, secure housing vouchers, update his taxes to receive his COVID-19 relief check, and move into their apartment. They live in a neighborhood where Cheyenne loves her school and friends.

It all comes down to building a community of support, says Ader. Family Promise of Spokane works with school counselors to identify families in need, as well as other nonprofits and churches that direct families to their organization.

“This is our 25th year in Spokane County, but even so, a lot of people don’t know about us and don’t know about the work that we do here,” Ader says. “So, we love folks to just get involved and know about Family Promise and about our families and the amazing success that we’re having.”

Ader says the community is often missing the fact that roughly one in every 25 students was homeless in 2021.

“Kids who are the most vulnerable, who have no choice about being homeless,” he says.

Family Promise of Spokane prides themselves on outcomes, Ader adds. In 2021, the nonprofit prevented 3,512 people from experiencing homelessness who were right on the edge.

“We want to see every single one of our families back in stable housing and building for a better future for themselves,” he says.

Learn more about Family Promise of Spokane. Connect a family to their resources online or by calling 509-747-5487.

“Partnering for healing and a healthy future” is MultiCare’s mission, and it inspires us to form connections that help improve the quality of life for our communities. Community organizations all around us are doing amazing work, and we’re inspired and excited to support that work.

Stories from our Community is an ongoing series conceived to dive into some of these organizations*, bring their stories to life and spread the word about how they are making our communities better.

*Some of the organizations profiled in this series are recipients of MultiCare’s Community Partnership Fund, which awards funds to nonprofit organizations working on initiatives, programs and projects that improve our community.