No one who saw Shawn Frye just 14 months ago, homeless and panhandling for food and gas money in front of a south Everett Wal-Mart, could imagine how much his life has changed.
He and his wife, Kimberly Frye, once spent three months living out of their car in the discount store’s parking lot, the result, they said, of their addiction to methamphetamine.
Now Shawn Frye proudly shows off a closet they converted into a snug space for their daughter’s crib in their one-bedroom apartment.
“It’s got its own window and its own light,” said Shawn Frye, 26, with the unmistakably proud smile of a father.
He said he’s been drug-free since March and has worked at an Everett McDonald’s since June. He aims to get a college degree.
His wife, Kimberly Frye, 31, also drug-free, hopes to pursue a career as a nurse and someday work in a hospital intensive care unit for infants.
Last year, if volunteers in Snohomish County’s annual homeless count had encountered them, they would have just been one more couple without a permanent home, sleeping on the floor of a family member’s home.
On Thursday, when this year’s count was taken, both were beaming parents, cuddling their daughter, 11-month-old Jordan, and their 3-week-old son, Cody.
Shawn Frye said he hopes their story shows that people who once were homeless can start a new life.
“I’ve been through the worst of the worst,” he said. “I’ve been where they’ve been.”
This year, more than 200 volunteers fanned out throughout the county for the third annual census of the homeless. Preliminary results, released Friday, showed volunteers identified 2,202 homeless people.
That included 1,217 people staying in shelters and transitional housing and 985 people who said they did not have a place to stay.
The total number of homeless counted this year is up slightly from last year, when surveyors found 2,154 people who were homeless.
Although the one-day count is more of an estimate than a formal census, the numbers are used to help guide funding and programs for homeless teens, adults and families.
Last year, the homeless listed their top needs as affordable housing, food, safe shelter, dental care and a place to shower and clean up.
The Fryes found housing through a Salvation Army program that helps families with children make the transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency by paying half their rent for a year.
“One of the big breakthroughs you see with families is when they live beyond the moment and start planning,” said Dana Libby, who helps lead the Snohomish County chapter of the Salvation Army.
The program has case managers to help families set goals, plan budgets and navigate other obstacles.
The Fryes have made enough progress that they hope to regain full custody of their daughter Jordan, whom they now care for three days a week. The state stepped in shortly after Jordan’s birth, because of the couple’s drug problems.
She now stays with another family member four days a week.
A court hearing on Jordan’s custody is scheduled for Feb. 11. Starting next week, the state has allowed Jordan to stay with her parents full time, Kimberly Frye said.
Tammy Lyons, 42, another participant in the homeless housing program, has a background similar to the Fryes, with alcohol and drug problems eventually leading her to live in her car.
“People make poor choices,” she said. “Unfortunately you end up on the street.”
She recently celebrated her second anniversary of being drug free, she said, and now, with her husband, Mark Lyons, tries to help others beat their drug habits.
“I don’t have the fear any more of I’m not going to have some place to sleep and not having any food,” she said.
To people who may drive by homeless people every day, Lyons said she hopes they take time consider: “Their lives could change in an instant; they could be there.”
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com
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