"I think Real Change brings people together," Paulette says matter-of-factly.
With 12 years of experience, she knows. That's how long she has been selling the paper. And the amount of time she has lacked stable housing.
"It's not just alcohol or drugs that make you homeless," she adds, "It's a lot of things."
In Paulette's case, at least most recently, it was an unscrupulous landlord. The price of rent for her one-bedroom Rainier Valley apartment started at $300 a month. By the time of her eviction notice it had been raised to $900. Not to mention the utility bills he was trying to stick her and the other tenants with -- thousands of dollars worth of water bills, water they sure as heck didn't use. When she refused to pay, he harassed her. So she took him to court and got a no-contact order. He picked the wrong lady to mess with.
She didn't have to pay the outstanding bills, but the settlement still didn't protect her from the streets. She and her two kitties had to find a new home, and without enough cash for first and last month's rent, that home became Nickelsville.
"It was hard," she says of her stay there during the winter, "But I met a lot of good people."
Like, for instance, her fianc