What do you do when, in six months, you’re losing your house? Ordinarily, you would just get busy and find another one. But it’s not always that straightforward, especially when your house is a support home for young people.
Take Tammy Levario. She operates a nonprofit foundation named BrenRose. Perhaps you have heard of BrenRose. I had. I read about it earlier this year, providing a support home for young people, with stories in The JOLT’s "Thurston County's Hidden Sector" column, South Puget Sound Community College’s (SPSCC) Soundwaves Magazine, AND a 3-minute SPSCC YouTube video describing her journey from dropping out of high school, an early marriage with domestic violence to a gratifying job working with preschool children. Then, at another level, helping young people to cope with trauma and make life-affirming decisions. Then, education to fill in gaps and enhance her natural ability to connect with others.
Since 2009, she has worked in the house and the house next door, providing (with others also) what the state first called foster care, then residential care. In 2018, she became program manager and helped oversee both homes. The successful work with youth, however, using a family-style model, was a square peg in a round hole as far as state licensing was concerned.
“Although adoption is the best-case scenario when the biological family is not an option, we cared for many youths who had been sent back to the system by their adoptive families, and for some, it happened several times.
“We modeled our homes after family foster homes, but due to being licensed as a staffed residential home, many viewed us as ‘group care.’ Licensing forced an institutional model that excluded their family-style approach. Also, there is a movement to end or significantly reduce the use of group care.” The home’s success in longevity with foster kids worked against them. It was a gift for the youth who craved stability while prepping themselves for independent living, but didn’t match the current trend in care provision. The license was dissolved, and in March 2022, the homes closed.
While telling this sad story, all at once, Tammy said, “I’ll back up a little. I want to say that the local office of the Division of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) truly appreciated us. We took some of their toughest kids, and when they came to visit, they would find that the kids had stabilized and felt a sense of family here.” Unfortunately, the ‘system’ was at odds with any long-term success, as adoption or return home was the desired outcome.
But if you look at the big picture, she was right. She has, with the like-minded people working with her, identified the need to help with what is termed "emerging adulthood." It takes time. It is the development of the knowledge, skills, and judgment that allows a young person to function as a competent adult. Particularly tough for someone who has grown up with trauma, abuse, and homelessness. And stability, however you can find it, is essential for the best possible outcome.
As other staff left for other work, Tammy stayed behind to try and save the home since several non-minor foster youths living there would have nowhere to go. With a little help from her friends, Tammy founded the nonprofit BrenRose and started afresh with one of the houses while the other was sold. “The community really stepped up,” she said. Formerly for adolescent males, the house is now a home for young adults who have experienced foster care or homelessness.
The house has five bedrooms. One tenant told me that she wept when she realized that BrenRose would provide her with a private room with a door that she could lock. She had been in and out of homeless shelters and foster homes in which she suffered abuse. Never before in her life had she had a room to herself. Here is an example of what this can mean: In the past, at times, she returned to a shelter only to find that her possessions had been stolen.
With the support provided by Tammy and BrenRose, she realized for the first time not only that she was college material but that, living at BrenRose, she could manage to afford college attendance. She is now following a demanding science-based curriculum. With BrenRose, and with a supportive college advisor, she has hope for the future.
Tammy takes on the job of filling cracks, societal cracks, which are an abyss called aging out of foster care. It is also called getting your life together in your twenties with support after you’ve grown up in crisis or abuse. Tenants help with rent to the extent they can afford, and Tammy respects privacy but provides a loose structure and support for those who need a helping hand, balancing light supervision and needed assistance with independence.
Tammy started as a caretaker in 2009. She loves young people and has a way with them. Coming from a troubled past herself, she can see the value of the work of skilled staff with youth and seeks to continuously learn more, working with more than 50 teens in state care, plus many others.
As an older student, she put herself through a challenging social service program at South Sound Community College starting in 2020. She graduated with high honors and earned an Associate in Arts degree from South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC). She was one of two graduates to receive the SPSCC Outstanding Student Award of 2023.
She hopes to continue her studies to complete a Bachelor’s degree at The Evergreen State College. She has taken courses through the Department of Health, including the peer counselor prerequisite training, and is now waiting for an assignment to the in-person class, to update/ sharpen her skills. “Although my dream is still to obtain my bachelor's degree at Evergreen and grow the nonprofit,” she said, “I have to do what I can to support myself so I can help the people I made a commitment to.”
“I have six months,” she said, “and the most important thing is, if I can’t get another house, to help the young people living here – that I am committed to – transition to permanent housing. And my personal commitment to them continues no matter where any of us live.” She also needs to find housing for herself!
The house operated by BrenRose NFP has lived, for the last two and a half years, on donations, fundraising, the contributions of house residents, and a relatively low rental rate ($2,800 for a 5-bedroom house). Now, the future is uncertain, but Tammy and BrenRose are laboring to apply for grants and seek options to continue the work, fingers crossed! Communication consists of word-of-mouth and social media.
She will sponsor a fundraiser at the Traditions Cafe meeting space in the next month or two – stay tuned to BrenRose's website and Facebook! She would love to find another house, if she can come up with the funds, but realizes that she may have to settle by helping current tenants (and herself) find new, hopefully permanent, living situations, as she has done with others in the past. Of course, she would prefer to keep the household together, with tenants leaving at the optimal time, rather than be rushed out when they still need support. Contact Tammy Levario at Tammy@housingforhope.org or https://www.facebook.com/BrenRoseFoundation
Shirley Stirling, of Lacey, writes about good things people in Thurston County are doing. If you’d like to nominate someone to be profiled, contact her at shirley@theJOLTnews.com or comment below.
Caption of photo edited at 3:54 11/15/2023 to reflect appropriate gender sensitivity.
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*An eye-opening expose of a “system failure.” Those in government with the ability to make adjustments in how policies are implemented should take note!
Saturday, November 11, 2023 Report this