Photos courtesy of CJK Community Homes and by Sierra Hartman
Every time you move through the city, you’re likely to see many of Tacoma’s unhoused citizens. You see them holding hand-written signs as you leave Fred Meyer. They shuffle by your office wrapped in a blanket, pushing their whole life in a shopping cart. You see them sleeping in the grass when you take your family to the playground. However, the paths you travel are missing 114 homeless people (soon to be 120) because they are current clients of CJK Community Homes.
No matter your reasoning, if you would like more people to be off the streets and housed, you should pay attention to what CJK Community Homes is doing in this city. They’ve been a financial supporter of our magazine for a while now, and we’re thrilled to shine a spotlight on them.
Founded by Noemi Cagatin-Porter in 2020, CJK Community Homes is a non-profit that provides affordable housing to individuals and families, case management services, mental health services, healthcare connections, other social service connections (like EBT benefits), and financial literacy coaching. They own and manage 28 homes, all in Pierce County.
Saying Noemi and her part-time team of six bend over backwards to help people doesn’t even begin to explain what they do. CJK Community Homes is a force of Good. Their impact is life-altering, and it’s rippling through Pierce County.
CJK provides unhoused people homes—private, clean homes. They are a low-barrier housing provider, meaning they don’t care if you don’t have any credit or resources, have addictions or health problems, if you just got out of prison, you’re a veteran, have kids—whatever. “If we have availability with our client—if we have room—we don’t care if they have a job, we don’t care if they don’t have credit, we don’t care if they come from a program… if we have availability and somebody is in need, and they’re a perfect fit, we bring them in with the expectation of them working toward self-sufficiency.” Says Noemi.
How do people come to CJK? “A lot of word of mouth. Catholic Community Services. Associated Ministries, Greater Lakes, Tacoma Pro-Bono sends us their clients, friends and family who have left our programs, also for Pierce County we get them through the HMIS, and Tacoma Rescue Mission.” The organization is well-connected and very well-liked, which only enhances clients’ positive outcomes.
Not only will they work with clients to get them a place to live, furnish it, and get them connected with immediate help for any mental or physical problems clients are experiencing, they’ll ask, “What’s the next step in making your life stable?”
Noemi says she usually gives people a few months to acclimate to housing, and then she expects them to move forward with their dreams, because the point is getting people out of homelessness for the rest of their lives, and this is the magic. “I’m really on them,” she says. “I need to see some kind of growth. I need you to want to come in here and do your resume, I want you to do the modules for the peer support (through the Healthcare Authority)’, and then they can become a licensed peer. We try to work with them on those connective steps.”
“So I’ll refer people to Goodwill, Worksource, but I’ll also reach out to a lot of my friends who are self-employed, and we help support them with applications.”
“I’m a little hard on my clients, but you know, I’m a case manager so that’s my intro. You’re here, you get the support of the wraparound services, but my interaction with you is more ‘I’m your landlord’, and so my expectation from you is this, this, this.”
Noemi and her team are abundantly generous. They do rental reporting and focus on the on-time payments so people’s credit scores rise hundreds of points. They sit down with clients and write resumes and coach them on interviews. They write letters of recommendation. They pick up, store, and transport furniture and appliances and drive people to appointments. They bring people to the DMV to get drivers’ licenses, and share the cost if they can’t afford it. They help people with college and trade school applications, and guide them through applying for financial aid. They have clients go through training modules through the Health Care Authority and become peer coaches. CJK recently began the first of four cohorts of financial literacy classes, working with groups of people as young as 12. “It’s not 100% of what people need,” Noemi says. But it’s a damn good place to start.
It’s a pyramid scheme where people on the rise pull others up with them, on and on, as the positive change multiplies exponentially.
“The homelessness problem” doesn’t have a simple solution. People need wraparound services and people who understand their obstacles, which is why Noemi and her staff are uniquely qualified: every staff person has lived experience with homelessness.
“We share our stories with them (our clients). It’s important that people know we have lived experience. That way they can see; what they see now is not what it was 25 years ago. I stayed up there on Tacoma Avenue, I stayed at the Rescue Mission with my kids.” Says Noemi.
In fact, 42 people and 9 families have graduated from CJK housing and are now self-sufficient. They’re your barber, your dentist, or your kid’s coach.
CJK Community Homes needs the community’s generosity and support, and you, reader, YOU can help, without spending a cent (although if you’re able, I strongly encourage you to donate.)
If you own a home that you’re willing to rent out, let CJK house people in it. Obtaining (and building) affordable housing is the biggest obstacle for CJK Community Homes, and some of the properties they oversee are someone else’s. If you have a friend or neighbor who’s moving or renting out a home, feel free to connect them with CJK Community Homes.
Give! (Contact them to arrange a drop-off or ask questions.)
- Your donation of money could go toward a home, a client’s college application fee, or a new bottle of shampoo for someone.
- Give or lend a box truck, a car, a storage space—moving people’s lives requires space and transportation.
- New and gently used furniture and appliances, and new mattresses make a home more than just a shelter.
- New bedding and towels. Who doesn’t want to snuggle in fresh bedding and fluffy towels?
- Detergent and household maintenance items.
- Personal hygiene products for all ages, genders, and hair and skin types.
- New kids’ toys, bedding, clothes, hygiene products.
Attend one of their events! CJK Community Homes keeps their event page running, and you could have a night out with a meal and entertainment where your ticket funds go toward people you care about.
Spread the word. Share one of their posts, and tell your co-workers and friends. If you have a shop that sells things CJK clients need, or if you can offer services like haircuts, consider donating. If you know people who provide goods or services, tell them to consider donating.
And for your community, treat all of your neighbors with respect and kindness.
Additional information from the PIT survey here and infographic which give you a snapshot of the homelessness crisis in our area, Oasis Youth Center, and crisis information here.
