Updated: Oct 8
by Chuck Hemingway
In November 2025, a family was living in Dirt World: a mother and father, both living with disabilities, and their five-year-old daughter. Their little girl turned six and started school while the family was still unsheltered.
When COHA and COHART engaged with the family, we learned that the mother had relatives in Montana who were willing to take them in. Partners stepped forward with train tickets and a ride to Portland - and COHART filled the gap in between. We didn't want the family to spend their last night in Oregon unsheltered, and the ride could start more easily from Bend, so COHART paid for a motel room for their final night and made sure they had money for food that evening and for the train.
This quiet act was COHART's very first expenditure.
Nearly a year later, the family remains housed in Montana, and their daughter is doing well in school.
Their story is one of many. Around that same time, another family living in Dirt World - a mother with three children, ages six, four, and two, who was pregnant with her fourth - was helped by service providers, including the county's HOST team. They moved the family first into Stepping Stones, and then into their own apartment in Redmond. Her youngest was born safely housed, and the family remains in housing today. When the TSSA was created, 36 people had transitioned out of it into housing. By July 2026, that number had grown to 68 - and it has continued to climb since.
There is an old story about a little girl walking along a beach covered with stranded starfish, throwing them back into the ocean one at a time. A stranger tells her she will never make a difference - there are far too many. The girl picks up another and tosses it into the waves. "It makes a difference to this one," she says.
Every motel night, every tank of gas, every phone. It makes a difference to this one. Thank you for making that possible.
