The Road2Home Success Story
A1DesignBuild and their nonprofit A1andALL partners with various other nonprofits throughout Whatcom County to help provide services and resources to those in need. This is a continuing effort, and we encourage you to read below to learn how you can help a very worthwhile organization.
THE ORIGIN STORY
A1andALL caught up with Clark Schofield, the Executive Director at Road2Home, an organization dedicated to helping provide homes for everyone in Whatcom County. Read on to hear the story and donate today. For the price of just one cup of coffee, you can really make a difference.
Clark Schofield: Ending up at Road2Home was a happy accident and a very happy coincidence. I moved back to the US at the end of 2023 from almost a decade living and working in Europe. Some of the folks that I had worked with in Serbia ended up living in Bellingham and one of those people ended up working at at Road2Home. So my partner and I moved here when a position opened up and here we are.
At the beginning of my career, I actually started out in construction project development. I worked for a big big company that did turnkey hospital and hotel developments in the Mississippi and Gulf Coast region. I found the whole business and the way they ran it fairly disgusting and I wanted to put my skillset to a different use.
So first I moved to Seattle and did an internship supporting unhoused people with a local organization there. From that, I kind of randomly decided to go to Europe to volunteer for a couple of months - which turned into a decade. The organization I worked for was called Collective Aid, and it supported refugees from all over the world and provided anything from food to shelter, clothing, medical aid, legal support, public advocacy, you name it. We served over a million and a half meals in four years.
After my first two months there, they asked me to stay on as the executive director. Over the subsequent four years from 2017 to 2021, our organization grew to operating four projects in three countries. We worked in Bosnia, Serbia, and France and supported thousands of refugees every month with a huge volunteer team of about 60 full-time volunteers and a staff of 20. They continue to do great work in the same region to this day.
I spent the next couple years consulting other grassroots organizations that were similar to Collective Aid. I did that in Albania, the UK, Poland and then I ended up moving back here in 2023. Then I heard about the position at Road2Home and moved up here as an administrative associate and then the associate director, and then became executive director about two months ago. It’s been busy and very exciting.
ON BELLINGHAM AND ROAD2HOME
I think this community is beautiful. It's an incredible place to live. But also there's a huge need, right? There's quite a large unhoused population for the size of the city. There is both some incredible initiatives being supported by local government and some huge gaps still existing in the supports that are needed.
I've never seen a housing program like Road2Home that has supported such a marginalized community that has seen so much success, so quickly. Garden View Village is one of the most incredible programs I've ever seen in my decade plus of doing this work. In 2024, 26 out of 35 people we housed moved into permanent housing. Those are 26 folks who are some of the most challenging cases in our community. Folks who have been unhoused for years or even decades and who are considered unhousable by other agencies in our community. We have seen this low barrier model for people be incredibly successful, this idea of housing first so people are able to address addictions or long-term childhood trauma. They can only address these things if they have their basic needs covered, like a roof over their head. It’s been incredible.
And 95% for the people who we’ve housed are still in that housing, which is also an incredible.
We see our work expanding to meet people along the spectrum of housing needs no matter where they are. Building hope and creating conditions for people to thrive. It’s based in this value we have of providing low barrier services. And understanding that homelessness is hardly ever a personal failing. It is often a collection of injustices and systemic failings that not only create the conditions for people to become homeless but but also to hold them there. For example, that could be something as simple as a shelter that doesn't let you bring your pet with you, or a shelter that requires absolute sobriety while you're there. There's certainly a place for more restrictive housing options, but not being able to bring your dog with you into a shelter can really be a barrier to getting permanent housing. This might be their only real connection and we don’t want to take that away. Sure, it’s more difficult to run a shelter where pets are allowed - but it's worth it.
I think that homelessness and addiction are in large part issues of lack of connection. And these systems that are there to help them can sometimes not be very human. Navigating housing is incredibly difficult, certainly if you don't have an ID or an address already, or have an eviction in your past, those barriers can be the things that keep people on the streets for 20 years. And we don't want that to be the case in our program.
That’s why we have case managers, for that reason. There are multiple models of tiny home villages in our community, which is great, but our model includes full-time case management and the case manager’s full-time job is to help people address these barriers and understand what challenges our guests are facing. We want to create a system that doesn’t fail them again.
WHAT 2026 HOLDS - GOALS AND SOLUTIONS
What excites me is that this community wants to invest in solutions for homelessness. Sure, that is tempered by a political reality which is hesitant to make long-term investments in projects like these. But both in Bellingham and and Whatcom County, they have expressed in their 5 Year Plans a commitment to opening new tiny homes and creating more shelter options, creating more consistency in the services that are provided here. So that's that's super exciting.
Having a government partner that funds 90% of Garden View’s costs is incredible and I don't take that for granted at all. The city and county has been a great partner, and Road2Home is in a position right now to start addressing more of these gaps that exist in our community.
So by next year, we want to be able to fund a full season winter shelter. There’s a gap in these services currently. But people need to have a place to go when it gets cold.
Another project that we've been developing independently that is really capturing a lot of my imagination right now is a community center. Bellingham used to have a community center called the Rainbow Center that was open and welcoming to unhoused people until 2017. But since it closed, there has not been a designated place for unhoused people in our community to go during the day where they are explicitly welcomed and wanted. That leads to a lot of unintended consequences. Like the library serving this purpose, or the bus stations, which are not set-up for this. So a lot of times those interactions in those spaces are negative. People don't know how to interact with someone experiencing crisis on the street and that's bad for our community across the board. We also envision this community center as a place where medical teams could come and do vaccine clinics or there could be public health education presentations, but also a place where people could come and rest and have a warm drink and interact with other people in a positive way. So we are really pushing this project, and it would cost about $700,000 a year.
Another goal would be for the potential of additional tiny home villages, and expanding our model. Road2Home is considering our capacity for what would be another permanent congregate shelter, also outlined in Whatcom County's five-year homeless and housing plan. More permanent shelter beds available so that throughout the year there are more places for people to sleep, implemented with the same low barrier lens we use in our approach to all our projects.
Those are the three big things for next year.
“I think Bellingham is a city that could solve the homelessness crisis, I really do. There are so many good people and resources in this city. And if we’re smart, Bellingham and Whatcom County could be a model for other people to use. Our best work is possible here, I firmly believe that.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
I think Bellingham is a city that could solve the homelessness crisis, I really do. There are so many good people and resources in this city. And if we’re smart, Bellingham and Whatcom County could be the front runner and create a groundbreaking example for other places in the country. A model that other people can use. Our best work is possible here, I firmly believe that.
The frustration comes from the reality that a lot of people in this community don't understand the complexities of this issue. There is a lot of protectionism, you know, of not wanting to change things like zoning regulations. But I get it, all of these things are complicated, right? But I find it unacceptable that there are hundreds of people who sleep without shelter every single night in this city. On a national level, we have an administration that seems to want to actively target this population, and I think that's abhorrent. These folks get enough grief as it is and are not the enemy. They just need our help. Bellingham can provide that, and we’re making progress.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
As always, and as every organization would probably tell you, money goes a long way. Though we weren't directly affected by the federal funding cuts, alot of the foundations and grants we rely on were affected. So we are seeing a lot more competition for the funding that’s available. We're young and we're a small and we're a lean organization. So, the dollars you choose to give us go far here. Every dollar gets funneled right back into supporting our guests in better ways.
Another way you can help is by volunteering. We have one incredible program that is entirely built around volunteers, and that’s our Community Ally program. This program pairs unhoused community members and housed community members one-on-one, and is a platform for personal human connection. The program helps with things like resource navigation, rides to doctor's appointments, if you need a listening ear, or you need someone to help you get your driver's license. Our allies have provided an infinite variety of supports and the program and the volunteers are genuinely incredible.
We're also always looking for volunteers at Gardenview Village. And those volunteers can do a a breadth of work from cleaning to providing guitar lessons or an art class or Spanish classes. Anything you want to teach, the world is your oyster. Just reach out to us we’ll get back to you with all of our opportunities and how to engage. Because together, I know we can create a community that works for everyone, and I’m grateful for everyone who participates.
OR LEARN MORE AT ROAD2HOME.ORG
