4/18/2012: I am Tinamarie Swihart, a resident of Camp Quixote and its current elected secretary. It has been my honor the last year and three months to be a part of this process of creating Quixote Village.

When you think of a homeless person, what do you imagine? The first image that comes to mind is a man in dirty clothes wearing a ripped trench coat, smelling of piss and alcohol, begging for money from everyone that walks by. Or I imagine an individual pushing around a shopping cart piled high with stuff, smelling as if the last shower was a year ago, and wearing three to four layers of dirty and torn clothing while talking and yelling at no one.

Granted many of us have similar images of a homeless person. This stereotype can be seen in many areas even here in our home town. This stereotype is not what I would want around my family, my home, my business.

But not all homeless individuals are the aforementioned stereotype. We are individuals who have had homes, jobs, schooling. We became homes for a wide variety of reasons.s. We want to get our lives back, to have jobs, homes, everything we once had.

In some of the meetings, public hearings, and informational sessions I’ve attended, I often wonder if the individuals, families, business owners against the Mottmen Road spot for Quixote Village have ever been homeless. True homeless, not couch surfing, living with friends or family, moving back in with Mom and/or Dad. But homeless to the point of losing everything except what you can carry in a couple of bags and a backpack or two. Nowhere to lay your head at night, no car to sleep in. No safety of four walls, a floor, a ceiling and a door. No way to cook or store food. No way to wash yourself or your clothes. Finding creative places to sleep at night where you will not be seen by passersby, cops, or property owners. Walking everywhere you need to go because you cannot afford a bus ride. Not even sure when or where your next meal will come from.

Then you hear about programs such as Capital Clubhouse, YMCA, YWCA, Sidewalk, and The Mission. You might even get a church to pay for a load of laundry and give you a few dollars to go to the Olympia Center for a shower at 25 cents for 2 minutes. Boy what a blessing. I never thought a shower could mean so much until I had to go a month without taking one.

I am now a firm believer that you never understand the true meaning of what you have in your life until you lose it.

Sitting here listening to individuals talking about the harshness of the industrial area of Mottmen Road, I think to myself, “What about people who live next to military bases, train depots or tracks, or even airports?” They choose to live in those areas with noise, air pollution, extra traffic for their own personal reasons. I am not going to try to guess why. Those individuals live productive lives.

With Quixote Village, we will offer a safe place for homeless individuals and couples to be able to get back on their feet, to get back to living productive lives, a place where they can start to rebuild part of what they have lost. We will never be able to gain back everything, but at least Quixote Village will be a place for us to start. A place where we can rebuild hope in our hearts and souls–hope that what we do will improve our situation.

Quixote Village will be a place where we can gain back the self respect and dignity we lost when we lost everything.

News from the Camp

Beginning on April 21, the Camp will be located next to Westminster Presbyterian Church at 1925 Boulevard Rd. SE in Olympia. This is a lovely spot, and Westminster is a wonderfully welcoming and hospitable church. For the first time, the Camp will have a vegetable garden, in beds kindly installed by church members. Residents are looking forward to watching the garden grow, pulling weeds and watering, and eating fresh vegetables. The Camp will be in this location until the end of August.

To schedule a meal or shift, email Christie at: tucocamp@gmail.com.

Many people in the Camp need paying work. If you have household chores, maintenance projects, yard work or painting, come by the Camp and hire a camp resident!

The Quest for Quixote Village

Yahoo! We won an appropriation of $1.5 million in the state capital budget to help us build Quixote Village. We owe many thanks to Senator Karen Fraser, Representatives Chris Reykdal and Sam Hunt, and to the chair of the House Capital Budget Committee, Hans Dunshee. We are also grateful to the whole House Democratic Caucus for their support and their members’ personal donations to the Camp.

We have more grant applications pending, and if they are successful, there’s hope we could break ground on the Village this fall.

To apply to live at Camp Quixote, stop by the Camp’s host tent during the day and fill out an application. You also need to provide a copy of your photo ID for a background check. You may want to call first (360-753-2095) to make sure they are taking applications. If the Camp is full and there are already people on the waiting list, they sometimes stop taking applications for a while.

If the Camp has vacancies, you will be invited to the next weekly Community meeting. Meetings are held every Sunday evening at 6 p.m. The Camp will interview and vote on new Camp members at the meeting.

The Camp does not admit sex offenders. Folks with felonies or violent crimes on their record may be accepted at the discretion of the community. No outstanding warrants are allowed. Background checks performed on ALL applicants.

NO DRUG OR ALCOHOL USE is permitted at the Camp. If you have an active addiction, you are welcome to apply, but you should know that you will be asked to seek help to get clean and sober once you’ve settled in. We work hard to make the Camp a place where people in recovery can succeed.

Over time, local opposition to the Camp melted away.  Other churches stepped forward to host the camp.  The City of Olympia (and neighboring jurisdictions as well) passed ordinances that allow the Camp to exist, but require it to  move from one church parking lot to another every 90 days.

From its beginning, the Camp has been a self-governing community that elects officers, makes and enforces its own code of conduct, and provides mutual support and accountability to its members.

As of January 1, 2010, the Camp will have moved 16 times.  Each move is difficult and traumatic for people who are struggling to recover from adversity, illness, unemployment, and disabilities of every description.

The Camp is supported by a non-profit organization called Panza that grew out of the faith communities that have hosted and supported the Camp financially, and provided hundreds of volunteers to help Campers meet their basic needs and get back on their feet.

Camp Quixote is named for Don Quixote, who tilted at windmills in a seemingly hopeless quest for justice in Cervantes’ famous novel.  Panza is named for his sidekick and loyal servant, Sancho Panza.

The Quest for Quixote Village

From the very beginning, the residents of Camp Quixote hoped to find land on which they could build a permanent village.  Their vision was – and still is – to build a central community building that includes bathrooms, showers, laundry facilities, a shared kitchen and social and meeting space, and about 30 one-room cottages.  They want to plant a vegetable garden and fruit trees, and start one or more micro-enterprises that could bring in income to support the Village and its residents.

In the nearly four years of the Camp’s existence, the power of peer support and the spirit of community have become ever more important.  Camp residents become family to one another.  They support each others’ quest for stability, and hold each other accountable for abiding by the Camp code of conduct.  They accept people as they are, and support each others’ recovery from trauma, mental illness, addiction and prolonged poverty.  They also have fun together, celebrate each others’ successes, and establish lasting relationships.  The Camp has so far brought together three couples who have married while living here.

Thus, the design for the Village is based on the experience of community living – a model that provides private sleeping space, and shared space for cooking, eating, and socializing.  This model makes it impossible for people isolate themselves; it draws everyone into family life, shared responsibility, and a common quest for a better future.

The latest news on the quest for Quixote Village.