Friendship Prevails Over Homelessness
Originally printed in the Kitsap Sun
SILVERDALE -- For years, Ana Velez, 51, Candace Woodhead, 66, and Denise Walsh, 72, have stood by each other. Walsh and Woodhead started living together in 2001 after meeting at Seattle Central College in 1980. Years later, in 2012, Velez joined them after the trio reconnected through a mutual friend. For over a decade, the three women lived as roommates in Sequim, with Velez as Woodhead's caregiver after she was diagnosed with cancer in December 2016.
Their stable living situation met a challenge in 2024, when the trio found mold in the walls of their home. Not long after, Walsh's eyesight had deteriorated to the point she was legally blind.
"We had just moved three months before. We were feeling odd, and then (the landlord) checked the walls and found the mold... We all chatted and decided to ask the landlord to break the lease," Woodhead said.
The years together and persisting through challenges had created a special bond. Since all three of them are deaf, along with Walsh developing blindness as adult, the friends decided they could not be separated — even, or perhaps especially, when they were suddenly faced with homelessness.
The search for new housing took the friends from Clallam County to Kennewick, crossing the state in an attempt to find a new permanent place to live. It was fruitless, and the three were homeless for about a year, eventually landing in Bremerton.
The three women are connected in a way only they can understand. Although they frequently speak through sign language, and sat with an interpreter for an interview with the Kitsap Sun, there is something much deeper that exists within the handholds, gentle movements and gestures they use to communicate and guide each other, now in a safe place after several years without a home.
An unbreakable union.
As opportunities for housing continued to fall through following the mold incident in 2024, the three friends came to Kitsap ready to apply for an apartment — until the past crept up on them.
"I got an email from my old landlord, where the mold was, suing me for over $20,000. Nothing in the mail, a paper or anything. No eviction," Woodhead said during the interview, stating the conflict came after a miscommunication about paperwork following the end of their lease. "They ended up waiving that 'cause I couldn't pay $20,000. Then later, Anna ended up getting the same email that she was getting sued."
The situation impacted their credit negatively, making the three women afraid to apply for apartments due to potential rejection. They stayed with a friend for awhile, then motels in Port Orchard and Bremerton. In December 2025, they sought out help through local service providers, and found temporary housing. Just as the women thought they had found a place to stay, that offer was revoked.
"We were approved then not approved, so it just seemed like there was no hope," Woodhead said. "The Salvation Army tried to help us to keep fighting and keep a positive outlook."
The Salvation Army is a nationwide, faith-based organization known for providing assistance and offering programs to those in the community, with a location in downtown Bremerton that has been a social service hub, church, and for the past several years, a temporary shelter for people without housing, which currently operates overnight hours.
Eric Harrold, the social services coordinator at The Salvation Army in Bremerton, first learned of Velez, Walsh and Woodhead's story during a phone call.
"One of them called me through an interpreter... Candace was asking if there were any resources because they were having to go to a shelter, and they didn't feel safe at that shelter," Harrold said. "There was such significant hardship with them trying to navigate their lives in a shelter that requires you to be out during the day and only come in at night."
The Salvation Army enrolled the women in the organization's hotel/motel program, which pays for temporary stays to get people indoors. A voucher was available, as was a room at the Quality Inn on Kitsap way, and the three had a place to stay.
The hotel/motel program is a county-funded program that places individuals or families as funds become available, alongside Kitsap Community Resources and a similar program funded by a Virginia Mason Franciscan Health grant. The next step in their journey involved the help of several local organizations, including Housing Kitsap, which owns affordable-housing complexes around the county. Velez, Woodhead and Walsh were able to move into a space of their own, a small apartment in Silverdale. It didn't have much, they said, just three twin beds to start. But it was at least a place to build from.
"The three of us are deaf… We all need each other, we wouldn't know what to do without the other. We all play a role like a family," Woodhead said. "Salvation Army just wouldn't give up... They were very supportive and helped us through every day as we made progress."
Now settled at the Housing Kitsap property, Harrold and other Salvation Army volunteers continue to pay visits to the women, providing them with medical supplies and food as they settle into their new place.
"Within a successful housing program, it can't stop once a person gets keys," Harrold said.
Spreading the love, support and hope.
After a few weeks in their new apartment, the trio has been able to consider future endeavors and get excited about day-to-day life again, planning to be active in the community and pick up old interests like crafts and rock painting.
"We're planning to have our car fixed, and then hopefully once we get that going, we can go back to the YMCA to start swimming again," Woodhead said.
They hope to purchase a house in the near future, improve their health and start volunteering with surrounding organizations to help others in situations similar to their own.
"I had too much pride to accept help. Then these situations happened all of a sudden, and that really made me realize that people are there to help," Woodhead said. "So now we want to help others and support them in return."
Velez, being the trio's voluntary caregiver, is able to receive proper training to become a certified caregiver. Walsh is also pursuing services that are aiming to assist her after becoming blind.
"Eric's given us a lot of information and resources… Like Denise, although she's deaf and blind, they have services to help train her to know how to function when it comes to a cane or just navigating," Woodhead said. "People like Eric and others work so hard to help us… I strongly encourage people to be involved and help each other even more as time goes on."'
Several organizations provided funding, transportation, supplies and other resources with the efforts of The Salvation Army.
"(The Salvation Army) were the ones coordinating this entire effort with all of these people, so if you don't have somebody that's willing to do that, it's going to be really hard to succeed," Harrold said. "I really want to encourage all of our community organizations to work together because that's the way we best serve the public."