From Crosscut: Social workers, doctors, and nurses meet patients in untraditional settings, including tents, vans and shelters.
Chuck King has experienced homelessness, off and on, since he was a teen. While he worked in construction from the time he was 18 until his late 30s, a profession from which he derived great pride and joy, he said he also spent most of his life on the streets or incarcerated.
Originally from Tacoma, he moved back to Seattle a year ago to be closer to his roots after years of traveling around the West Coast. He was living on the streets and battling illness. He had been in and out of the emergency room at Harborview and was suffering from pneumonia. Then a friend told him about Plymouth Housing, a nonprofit supportive housing facility that takes into account an applicant’s health status.
King, who is 68 years old, applied and was accepted into Plymouth. But shortly after settling into his studio apartment, King received a shock. He was diagnosed with heart failure and was told he had only six months to live. His doctor at Harborview provided him with a referral to hospice care, and soon he began receiving visits by a nurse from Providence Hospice of Seattle.