Linda Morgan moved to Bellingham in 1975 to study Sociology and Criminology at Western. After graduating she worked as a counselor at a work-release center, helping young people rehabilitate to society. But only a couple of years into her career the program was defunded. These days Linda stays active in her church, and works as a volunteer caregiver. She also spends time each week working on her future home at the Telegraph Townhome site, with our volunteers, some of which will be her neighbors soon. “Everybody has their own journey and we’re kind of in the same boat in a sense. So, I think it’s gonna be a nice little community.” Linda’s own journey taught her that you never know where life is going to lead you, and she thinks it is important that everyone understands. “I went to school. I had good training with the city. I had a lot of good skills. You don’t ever think it’s going to happen to you–that all of a sudden…you’re in this part of your life where you don’t have enough to live. I never thought I’d be in this position. I’m very lucky now that I’ll be able to have a home.”

The Santiago Reyes family came to Washington in 2006. Aracely was pregnant when she and Eli arrived. They came to work in agriculture, on a raspberry farm in Lynden, Washington. Their first house was a small, drafty cabin on the raspberry farm where they both worked. The couple came to be with family, a common desire among those working on Washington’s berry farms.

Magdalena “Maggie” Orozco came to the United States from Mexico when she was a young woman. She met the man who would become her husband, got married, and the couple settled in the Pasco, Washington, area. Sadly, the marriage didn’t last. Before Maggie and her husband were divorced they had three children. Today, Maggie is a single mother and the sole provider for her children. Approximately 12 million households in American are headed by a single parent. Of those, more than 75 percent are headed by single mothers.

Located 25 miles southeast of Bellingham, Washington, the rural town of Acme is nestled in the South Fork Valley between the North Cascades and Lake Whatcom. In the winter of 1975, Linda Clow and her family moved to Acme and into what were two former bunkhouses joined together to make one dwelling. The bunkhouse-based house, built in the 1920s as part of the expanding timber industry in the South Fork Valley, is where Linda has lived for 43 years.