A Corona Moment with Erin Von Fempe: Home Among the Homeless

Law enforcement and compassion are not incompatible approaches when dealing with the homeless, thank to Erin Von Fempe (right) and the Mount Vernon Police Department.

I first heard of Erin Von Fempe about a year ago — back when we weren’t wearing masks and observing social distancing. I happened to be walking along East College Way near the I-5 exchange when I passed by a homeless vet in a wheelchair who went by the handle “Pops.” He was hungry, so I walked across the street to the Jack in the Box and got him some lunch. I think he expressed a preference for strawberry milkshakes. I myself am a vanilla guy.

I chatted with Pops about his life. It turns out he was living rough not because of a mental health or substance abuse issue, but simply because he didn’t have a roof over his head. He had lost that basic security that most of us take for granted due to some family estrangement (these things happen), but I didn’t feel entitled to press him for details as the price of a hot meal. Having been through the Mount Vernon Police Department’s “Citizen Academy” (Class of 2016, he said proudly), I did ask him about his interactions for our local law enforcement system — which is when I heard some very complimentary things about a certain Erin Von Fempe.

Erin Von Fempe (LICSW, CPRP) had devoted 30 years of her life to delivering social services to folks in the grips of mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness — conditions that are very often perniciously intertwined. Much of her career was spent in southern California. She and her husband were contemplating a well deserved retirement and a change of scenery, and they had some family in the Sedro-Woolley area. Things developed quickly from there.

“One day, my husband noticed that a company based in California had a job opening in Sedro Woolley,” Erin recalls. “He applied, and about 20 minutes later he got a call back asking if he knew where Sedro-Woolley was. We feel fortunate every day that we came here.”

It was also a fortunate turn of events for the city of Mount Vernon, which right around the time that Erin and her husband were considering retirement had created a community outreach position within the police department to address the growing homeless population within its law enforcement jurisdiction. Erin has now served in this position for the past three and a half years.

Homelessness in Skagit Valley

The State of Washington ranks between 38th and 39th nationally in mental health delivery services, according to Erin. “It’s terrible here, especially since Skagit County is a rurally funded community with a zero percent vacancy rate on housing, coupled with very poor mental health services. It makes it really hard to help people here, and the more you hollow out social services, the more of a burden you place on other professions that have to deal with the consequences, such as healthcare workers, teachers…and police.”

While it may sound like hyperbole to those who are not involved in homeless outreach, Erin thinks of homelessness and the issues that are its causes and consequences in terms of pathology. “I feel like people without homes in our society are shunned,” she says. “I think most people want to play a positive social role in life, and no one on the street wants to be a drug addict, a transient, or homeless.”

In working with the homeless, Erin confronts stereotypes and misperceptions regarding who they are. One misperception is that Mount Vernon’s homeless population is due largely to an influx of people from outside the community. “In my more than three years on the job, I’ve met about 350 people. At least 60 percent of them are from here — and folks in our police department have grown up with some of them, and maybe even went to school with them. It’s not as though we can send them someplace else when this is where they live.”

A common misperception about homelessness that extends well beyond the Skagit Valley is that it is a matter of “choice.” “On any given evening in the United States there are some 550,000 people who are homeless,” Erin says. “I’ve only met one person who actually chose to live in the woods — everyone else would prefer to have a home. There are many reasons they don’t, starting with the cost and availability of housing. There are also people who become homeless as the result of fleeing domestic violence, or who suffer from mental illness or substance abuse — or a combination of the two, which accounts for well over half of the homeless I encounter.”

Impact on Policing

Erin’s position was created by the city because the Mount Vernon Police Department (MVPD) was spending increasing amounts of time addressing social problems, which diverted officers and resources from other law enforcement duties. In her role with the MVPD, Erin helps people without homes to access social and family support services. She carries a police radio (“I’m terrible at using it,” she confides), and if the patrol officers have any issues that involve a homeless person, they know just who to call. Although Erin had never before practiced social work within a law enforcement structure, the culture of the MVPD has turned out to be highly supportive.

“We’re a large team, but one that understands that uniformed police are not the right people to help resolve homeless situations in our community,” Erin says. “This department is very well trained in negotiation, and they understand social services, but it’s not their job to deliver them. For that reason they are motivated to get this community and me connected. This department is impressive in its commitment to the community. With the training they all go through, the thoughtfulness they exhibit every day is one of the best parts of my job — and that’s something I never thought I would say as a social worker.”

Asked about the national discussion currently taking place around the role of law enforcement in communities, Erin worries about the focus on “defunding the police.” “We have become so fixated on defunding the police that it ignores the fact that there are legitimate problems the police face that could be helped by redistributing funds to no longer burden them with what they aren’t best suited for to begin with,” Erin says. “I see ‘defunding the police’ as a false dichotomy. We need to fully fund the whole system.”

A Day in the Life

Erin currently works, with varying degrees of involvement, with about 150 people, and much of her daily routine involves supporting their unique journeys out of homelessness. “I make appointments with my folks to help them connect with services, or sometimes just to help them develop relationships,” she says. “Half the time I’m stood up, but half of the time people show. I might go buy them a meal at Jack In the Box so we can get to know each other, then I listen to how I might be able to help increase their resilience. We figure out where they would like to go and we make the necessary appointments and do the work to keep their momentum going. I drive around in a city Jeep and I often get flagged down by friends without homes. Sometime they may have requests for socks or just need transportation to other places.”

Sometimes, Erin says, her job can involve some “detective work,” along with what she refers to as “silo busting” — the ability to work across a variety of agencies to bring a coordinated response to the situations she encounters.

“Sometimes we have to figure out where people belong,” Erin says. “Recently a 79 year old woman showed up in Mount Vernon. We tried to figure out where she was from and what she needed, which meant calling DSHS (State Department of Social and Health Services), other embedded social workers in police departments around the state, mental health agencies and Community Action. One of the benefits Erin enjoys as a social worker embedded in a law enforcement agency is access to police databases, which enables her to see if there are family members in the vicinity.

Figuring out where people belong is just the beginning of an outreach process that Erin likens to “remodeling your bathroom,” and she cites the example of one of Mount Vernon’s homeless named Bernadette.

“If you decide to remodel your bathroom, you start with a plan and a timeline,” says Erin. “But then suppose you notice termite damage. From the outside nobody else notices, but it’s a problem that has to be fixed, and that can take much longer than expected. It’s a convoluted road.”

The Story of Bernadette

“Bernadette likes to use meth and likes to dance and she ends up on the street. When I first met her she had an empty baby stroller and was impossible to understand. I gave her some socks and she said she wanted to be clean. At first I thought she had a mental illness, but when I talked with her one day she seemed lucid — but later did her ‘meth dance’ even when not on meth. People at the county jail had noticed the same behavior. She wants to go to treatment, and she has done an assessment, but keeps ending up in jail due to warrants and having drugs on her — or in one case, a fake knife. I started visiting her in jail and she still wanted treatment, and the public prosecutor has been on board to help.”

“Most people using and on the streets don’t want to be using,” say Erin. “One option for them is Transitions House, a place where you can cook meals together and where eight people can stay for six months, but you have to be discharged from the hospital or jail to get a bed. We tried to place Bernadette there, but she ended up losing her bed date due to another incarceration.”

About two years ago, Community Action hired an outreach worker who focuses on opioid addictions, so Erin sees fewer of these folks in her work. “I end up working with people with serious untreated mental illness, substance abuse, and folks with physical health problems who have terrible insurance — people with really complex problems. It takes me up to two years to finally help them get what they need. I work with fewer people now, but they are more complicated.”

Outreach Goes Two Ways

Two essential activities that occupy Erin’s homeless outreach efforts are social services assessments and replacing lost IDs. “You have to have an assessment before you enroll in services,” says Erin. “If you miss appointments you are dis-enrolled. Then you have to re-enroll or you could lose your psych meds. We do not have enough mental health professionals up here, and very few psychiatrists. Our state gives Medicaid dollars to five managed care organizations, and they do a good job with physical problems, but have no idea of how to address mental health issues.”

When it comes to replacing lost IDs, the homeless face some unique challenges. “You can’t get anything without ID, including a social security card. If someone loses their ID they can get it replaced through DOL (Department of Licensing),” says Erin. “But where do you have it sent if you don’t have a home…and you can’t pick up your mail at the post office without ID.” There is also the issue of money. Erin notes that the cost of a replacement ID has gone up from just over $7 to over $20.

In addition to providing services to the homeless, Erin’s outreach is also in the direction of those of us who are fortunate enough to have a roof over our heads. “I want regular citizens to understand that unless we can provide housing and services the homeless situation is only going to get worse,” says Erin. “And it isn’t about people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, which is something folks in rural communities have had to do for so long that it influences how we look at homelessness. Our systems have to change to solve this problem. We usually think of mental illness as a sentence, but everybody with the right support can get better.”

Community Response and 4% Friday

Like issues of racial division, homelessness and its contributing factors are not easy subjects to discuss, especially when trying to counter misperceptions with real world experience. Fortunately, Erin also encounters an increasing number of people in the community who are getting involved and trying to figure out how to help. “There are more relationships being built to help people and provide access to services,” Erin says. “On a micro level there are good things happening.” One example is a program created by Skagit Valley College to repair cars for the homeless. Erin’s community outreach budget pays for parts, and the college provides the labor. Although this partnership has been put on hold due to the pandemic, Erin is still able to fund the purchase of parts for automobile owners who can do their own repair work.

Another recent program temporarily sidelined by the pandemic is “contingency management” — an intervention for people who are getting off meth. “There are lots of programs for heroin users but fewer for meth, and this is an intervention that has been studied since the 1990s. We are partnering with and receiving guidance from a Western State University researcher to pilot a project here in Mount Vernon.”

The latest community partner to step up to the challenge of helping Mount Vernon’s homeless is the Skagit Co-op, which is promoting a “4% Friday” fundraiser to benefit the MVPD’s community outreach program. On October 23, 4% of total sales at the Mount Vernon store will be donated to support Erin’s activities, and will supplement the occasional grants she is able to apply for. “These funds will help cover the cost of replacement IDs, bus tickets to help people get back to their families, work clothes for folks who are starting new jobs, shoes, backpacks, tents, sleeping bags…and, of course, food.”

Homelessness has been a difficult challenge for Americans to grapple with. After all, we are the wealthiest nation in the world — the land of unbounded opportunity. And when anyone in our community falls through the cracks of the social infrastructure we all rely upon — and many of us take for granted — the causes often defy simplistic answers. Even in the case of something as obvious as addiction, there are layers to peel back to not just get to the source of the problem, but to help someone to address it. This is what Erin Von Fempe does in her once imagined retirement, and it can be tough. “I’m a total buzz kill — I don’t get invited to parties anymore,” she admits.

But then there’s the promise that some day, someone like Bernadette will find her way to not just a safe and reliable shelter, but a place that she can call home…and a life she feels at home in. And that’s why Erin Von Fempe has found a home among the homeless.