On Aug. 16, the volunteer-led group Women in Black held an hour-long vigil outside of Seattle City Hall to honor 34 people who died recently while unhoused or by violence in King County. This included 32 people who died in the month of July.
Anitra Freeman, one of the founders of Women in Black, current Real Change vendor and a participant with the shelter organization Women’s Housing, Equality and Enhancement League (WHEEL), said that a record number of women are dying while unsheltered or by violence. Since the start of 2023, the number of women who have died outside or by violence has nearly tripled over the same time period in 2022.
Exacerbating the lack of shelter is the influx of fentanyl, a highly potent opiate, which has led to a dramatic rise in overdoses throughout the county. Of the 34 people Women in Black honored at the vigil, 23 individuals died due to an overdose. Freeman said that one of the dangers of living unsheltered is that you often don’t have anyone who can come to your aid. This is especially true when dealing with an overdose situation, when time is of the essence.
“We’ve had overdoses at the WHEEL shelters, and we’ve reversed them with Narcan,” Freeman said. “The women who overdosed in shelter lived. The women who overdose out on the street don’t. The women who overdose sleeping in isolation, in isolated spots, don’t. So it’s not just fentanyl: It’s fentanyl without community.”
At the end of the vigil, REACH outreach coordinator Katie Jendrey taught attendees how to use naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, to save someone’s life.
Afterwards, attendees and participants delivered a letter to city leaders calling on them to use vacant space on the first floor of City Hall to open up a 20-unit emergency women’s shelter. That space, hidden behind red glazed glass panels, has been previously used as a temporary cold weather shelter. In the same week as the vigil, the Salvation Army had been operating a day-use cooling center in the interior room of the space.
Freeman said that women’s shelters like WHEEL were overflowing and that the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) needed to identify new options to meet the demand.
Vigil participants called on Seattle and KCRHA to find a new provider to operate the shelter, since WHEEL is already above capacity.
In an email to Real Change, KCRHA spokesperson Anne Martens wrote that Seattle would have to approve use of the building and that new money would need to be allocated.
“The City would have to approve any use of City-owned property, KCRHA does not have that authority,” Martens wrote. “In addition, any new shelter would require new funding for ongoing operations and services.”
Freeman said that between the two WHEEL shelters, there are 68 permanent beds. However, the organization is hosting 90 to 100 women sheltering each night, with many sleeping on mats on the floor. She said this is an untenable situation that is stressing out shelter residents and workers alike.
“Right now it’s a severe situation.The need keeps rising and the amount of shelter does not rise to the need,” she said. “The two WHEEL shelters are low-barrier shelters for any woman or woman-identified person in any condition and we end up being the last resort [for] post-birth or women just walking up and for other shelters that are overloaded. And for the hospitals on First Hill that often send us people that we aren’t equipped to help, but they send them anyway. So we’re overloaded.”
For Linda Soriano, who has been attending the Women in Black vigils for more than two decades, remaining steadfast and channeling grief into action is crucial.
“We have to keep fighting,” she said. “How many council people, how many U.S. presidents do we have to sift through before the housing crisis is better? Before the number of homeless people outside drops? How many more people are gonna die?”
Soriano called for people to stay determined amidst these times. “Stay in the fight. ... Keep up with the good fight. Don’t give up.”
Guy Oron is the staff reporter for Real Change. Find them on Twitter, @GuyOron.
Read more of the Aug. 23-29, 2023 issue.