Patty Werner

Patty Werner has been living in the Frye Apartments for over 20 years. She gets by on disability payments. Before that, she says she was “way out there”, living on the streets. She had hit rock bottom on drugs and alcohol.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE: “I struggle with seeing a lot of these folks ask me for money and I can’t do it. I can’t give to everybody. I try, but I can’t. There’s too many of them. I’m just one person. It takes a lot of people to make a village strong.”

Now, she spends almost all her time volunteering, helping those in need. Her life’s ambition is to raise enough grant money to open a shelter for eight women and their children. In Ms. Werner’s shelter, the residents would not be put out each night to fend for themselves until morning.

They would have their own kitchenette apartments and would be able to stay for up to 18 months, saving money, feeling safe and secure. They would have access to job training, food and a clothing bank. And they would have the love and support of each other.

When Patty was homeless, she and other women would ride the Seattle busses all night with the good graces of the drivers, or they would convince a security guard at the airport to let them bed down for the night. Local restaurants would give them left over food. She says it’s harder now to be homeless, and that people’s hearts nowadays are “waxing cold.”

Ms. Werner had to put her daughter up for adoption many years ago. It was hard for her, but she knows her daughter has been living a safe and good life in Japan.