A space to heal and flourish

From her apartment perched on a hill in the Central District, photographer Florene Jimerson has a sweeping view of the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood where she grew up, the two sports stadiums where she works at Ivar’s seafood bars, and even a bit of the water of Elliott Bay beyond it all.

Portrait of a young woman in a tan jacket on her apartment deck, with a beaming smile on her face and her hands clasped.

Florene takes great pride and joy in her home. (Credit: Converge Media)

The apartment has one bedroom, a tiny kitchen, and plenty of room for her growing collection of cameras, prints, and boxes of developed film. But most importantly, it has a sense of stability that Florene has rarely had the opportunity to enjoy.

A 26-year-old Seattle native, Florene grew up experiencing frequent cycles of displacement and homelessness as her family struggled to find their place in a neighborhood and city that was changing around them, becoming more expensive and less welcoming to the Black communities that had long thrived here.

“My childhood was just experiencing all the dysfunction of broken cycles at home – and with so many different people – because my parents have very big hearts too,” she says. “We always had my siblings and aunts, cousins, uncles, friends. They always let them come over whenever they needed somewhere to stay.”

At 18, Florene moved into her own apartment and swore she would never be homeless again. But five years later, when it became clear that her landlord wasn’t going to do anything about the black mold that had spread from the walls of the apartment into her clothes, she found herself back in the situation she most wanted to avoid.

After eight months of living on couches and in her car, Florene found an apartment she could afford back in her old neighborhood. She was offered the apartment but didn’t have the thousands of dollars she needed to cover the landlord’s required move-in costs – the only thing keeping her from the stability she so desperately wanted.

“I was homeless even though I had a job, even though I had everything – no addictions, no abusive habits – that you need to be able to be healthy and living in a home.” So she began looking for help and eventually connected with Solid Ground. Almost immediately, she got a call back from Stabilization Services’ Celestine Berrysmith and Akeela O’Dell, who said they could cover her move-in costs and work with her new landlord to make sure they’d accept the payments.

“I see it as a space for me to heal from it all – the trauma and abuse. It’s a place for me to be safe from the outside, a place for me to warm up, a place for me to edit my pictures, a place for me to grow, and a place for me to build. And that’s what’s going to allow me to really flourish.”

~Florene Jimerson, photographer

Soon, Florene was in her new apartment, adamant that with new tools, boundaries, and financial experience, she would never again experience homelessness. “I see it as a space for me to heal from it all – the trauma and abuse. It’s a place for me to be safe from the outside, a place for me to warm up, a place for me to edit my pictures, a place for me to grow, and a place for me to build. And that’s what’s going to allow me to really flourish.”