BATH

Catherine Ann Wilson was born into a middle-income family, but her life’s story is full of trauma.

“There’s a lot of different ways to homelessness. There’s a lot of different ways to be evicted, to be sex-trafficked,” Wilson said, speaking last week at a homelessness forum in Bath. “There’s a lot of different stories, but there are some common themes.”

Wilson is the founder of Stop Trafficking US, and said she was first sexually abused by an administrator in the first grade. Others also took advantage of her sexually as a child, and while symptoms of the abuse became noticeable, her parents were too distracted caring for her sickly brother to see the signs.

“A lot of the signs were missed because of the situation that was going on at the time,” she said.

Starting at age 12, she ran away from home. From then until the age of 17, she mostly lived on the streets.

But the abuse didn’t end there. Wilson was incredibly vulnerable as a homeless teen, and those who briefly took her into their home would abuse her sexually. She generally kept to the streets, but as a runaway looking to steer clear of the authorities, Wilson had no one to protect her or to turn to if she was raped on the streets. At the young age of 15, she turned to a pimp for protection, housing and security — though the abuse continued.

“As soon as you say yes to a pimp it’s all over,” said Wilson, describing years of rape and abuse following that decision.

Wilson eventually escaped that life, but that scenario continues to play out for many people today.

The conversation

Experiences of and approaches to homelessness can vary greatly, as shown in a handful of conversations on the topic launched by the Neighborhood United Church of Christ in Bath.

Beginning in January, the Neighborhood has invited a number of people — who either have experienced homelessness or are working to address the problem — to share their knowledge with the community.

“We started this conversation back in January saying let’s not pretend that we’re going to resolve the matter of homelessness through these conversations. Let’s just welcome different perspectives and get a conversation going,” said Pastor Bill Bliss. “It has been really inspiring to see that people that have turned out and the conversation that has gotten going.”

Although originally slated as a three-part conversation, the Neighborhood has added a fourth event on April 25 to reflect on all of the conversations and discuss potential next steps.

“(It’s) an opportunity for anyone who wants to that has been in this conversation to come together and begin to say: ‘OK, are there next steps?’” explained Bliss.

Tedford Housing

At last week’s forum, Craig Phillips, executive director of Tedford Housing, shared stories of the many people who have reached out to the nonprofit for help. Through a number of stories, he showed some of the many faces of homelessness that go far beyond unhelpful stereotypes.

Phillips first shared the story of a Maine couple who had been living in their grandmother’s living room with two small children for years. That living situation eventually became untenable, and they reached out to Tedford for help.

“I tell people these days that Tedford is kind of a health and human services organization that just happens to have shelter beds,” said Phillips.

Especially in more recent years, he said, Tedford has acknowledged that solving homelessness is more than simply providing temporary bed or temporary housing. Often, the factors that lead to homelessness need to be addressed to prevent it from happening again.

“Over the last five or so years, we really are focusing on providing case management services that are really helping people understand their situation, provide some stability in their lives, get organized, and then to link to other community services,” said Phillips.

That more long-term approach to addressing homelessness helps reduce the number of people who return to homelessness after getting help from Tedford.

“Only 11 or so percent of the people we serve return to homelessness,” said Phillips.

Amistad coming to Bath

Mindy Harrison, staff liaison for Amistad in Portland, explained how that nonprofit helps the homeless population in Maine.

“We operate Maine’s largest peer support recovery center,” said Harrison. “The idea of it is that people who have experienced those challenges go on to support people who are currently going through it.”

Harrison’s presence was particularly relevant, as Amistad plans to open a new center in Bath in the near future. The nonprofit was awarded a grant from the state to open a peer support recovery center in the City of Ships last fall, but is still waiting for an actual contract which it hopes to get this month.

“We’re going to start really small. We want it to be a community thing,” said Harrison. “We want it to be guided by the community and what best serves the population here.”

She noted that she grew up in Woolwich and spent some time homeless on the streets of Bath.

“This is really exciting for me because I’ve always kind of had this dream of bringing something back to my community and serving my community here,” she said.

Amistad does not have a location chosen in Bath yet.

nstrout@timesrecord.com