“I Walk With My Head a Little Higher”: The Annex Brings Hope, Better Living Conditions

Editor’s Note: This is part 1 of a 2 part series of interviews with Mid-Columbia Community Action Council shelter guests. These interviews focus on those utilizing MCCAC’s services, the lived experience of homelessness, and how MCCAC’s transitional housing program is addressing houselessness in the Mid-Columbia region. The names of certain people mentioned in these stories may be changed in order to protect their identities.

By Cole Goodwin

The Dalles, OR, September 1, 2023– Mid-Columbia Community Action Council (MCCAC) celebrated the first move-in day at The Annex, their newly inaugurated Project Turnkey 2.0 initiative on August 30th, 2023. Now, seventeen residents, all previously housed at The Dalles Pallet House Shelter, located on Bargeway Rd, have a more humane place to land while they access services and seek permanent housing.

CCC News met with Joe Allen Daveis, a veteran, and former Software Engineer, an employed individual from Montana to chat about his experience of houselessnes and how MCCAC and moving into the Annex from the Pallet Shelters has affected him.

An Interview with Joe Daveis
An employed Air Force veteran and former software engineer from Montana opens up about his experience of houselessness and The MCCAC Annex.

When I meet Joe, he’s sitting at a picnic table with several other individuals chatting. When he gets up to shake my hand, the first thing I notice about him is his kind eyes, easy going manner and good hygiene. I also notice that he is both polite and very open and talkative—things that always make my job a little easier as an interviewer.

It was a bit loud at the picnic table however, between the sounds of cars driving across wet asphalt and the conversations happening around us, so I suggested we talk someplace a bit quieter and take a tour of the newly renovated space he’s staying in.

As we walked up the stairs to his new space in the Annex I noticed a heart shaped planter filled with succulents sitting on his neighbors doormat. I ask about it.

Joe told me that it was dropped off a good samaritan who found out the resident likes plants.

“You’d be surprised by the generosity and kindness of people. People drop off cupcakes and sandwiches and stuff just out of the blue,” he said.

Next, Joe gave me a tour of his new space and it’s pretty obviously a big improvement from the 64 square foot pallet house shelters on Bargeway road.

So, maybe it's no surprise that after two months in the pallet shelter’s Joe was feeling more than happy to be staying at the Annex.

“I guess I’ve gotten claustrophobic in my old age? I couldn’t be there. I would sleep in there and then I would just go somewhere else. I would just be sitting in my pickup,” he confided.

He also likes that he can keep an eye on his pickup from his room’s window.

“I used to have to walk a mile to my pickup because there was no place to park at the pallet houses,” he said.

In the room is a locker for storing valuables, a microwave for reheating meals from Meals on Wheels, a desk and chair for working, reading, or relaxing in, a bathroom, shower, and bunk bed.

Having an in-unit bathroom is a real game changer as opposed to using the shower trailers at the Pallet House Shelter.

“You would have to schedule your showers, you know? It wouldn’t be a warm shower because I would go to work early before they turned the heat on. And if I showered after working ten hours there would be other people’s water there–and it was just unpleasant–to have to walk through the gravel to get to the port-a-potty and stuff. Not good for work. This works much better,” said Joe.

But while Joe’s room has a bunk bed in it, he doesn’t have to share it with anyone. Currently all residents of The Annex have their own rooms, except couples who share.

“It’s so nice,” he says.

I ask Joe if he’s noticed a significant change in himself since moving into The Annex vs the Pallet Shelters.

“I was thinking about the difference on my way to work yesterday and I realized, that now I walk with my head a little higher,” said Joe.

“I used to walk out to my truck for like a mile and I’d be like, ugh what people must think of me,” Joe laughed and hunched his shoulders a bit acting out a down and out kind of look before straightening up again.

“So yeah, my self-esteem is up a little bit,” said Joe humbly.

I asked him to tell me about himself and how he became a part of MCCAC’s transitional housing program.

Joe tells me he was born in a small logging community in Montana.

Joe's childhood was marked with adversity, but he didn’t let it stop him.

“When I was about four our mother started drinking after her father, who was in engineering, died on the dam in The Dalles of all places. So she went off the deep end and started drinking and eventually we were taken away from her and we were put into foster homes,” said Joe.

Foster care offered strict structure but it wasn’t great, and he had a different foster home every year of high school, in a small town of just four thousand people. Still, he prefers to look on the bright side.

“I turned out alright. No scars,” said Joe.

At age 17 he was emancipated and went to live with his sister in Wyoming.

However, not three months after moving to Wyoming his sister and husband moved to Montana. Luckily, Joe had made some friends while in Wyoming, and a family offered to let Joe live with them until he could graduate high school.

“I stayed with them my entire Senior year. Super nice people. Just the nicest people,” he said.

They loved Joe so much that after he left they became a host family for foreign exchange students.

After high school things looked up for Joe for a while.

“I joined the military for four years. I was stationed up in Upper Heyford, England for a few years. I got out for two years. I was stationed in San Angelo Texas. Then I got out. I lived in Texas for twenty years. I got my degree in Bachelor of Science, Computer Information Systems,” he said.

With his degree he went on to work as a software engineer.

“It paid well,” he said.

But after twenty years in Texas working he decided it was time for a change.

“I had a couple of really good friends pass away, and my reason for being in Dallas kind of went away. And then I guess I had some depression. And a mid-life crisis maybe.. And it was hot,” said Joe with a laugh.

He’d also lost interest in his job as a software engineer.

“I got tired of going back to the same cubicle. Doing the same thing I’d done for twenty years so there’s no surprises. It used to be fun but it’s no longer fun when you see the same things over and over, you know? They’d say, let’s try it this way and I’d be like: I know that doesn’t work, but okay,” said Joe.

Then a stroke of luck sent Joe in a new direction.

An old roommate reached out to Joe asking if he could mail Joe a briefcase that Joe had thought he’d lost years before.

“He had it for 35 years. He said it had survived seven moves and a laundry room fire,” said Joe with a laugh “Can you believe it?”

Inside was a letter with his long-lost sister’s full name on it. He hadn’t seen since he was five years old.

Not knowing what might happen next, Joe knew he had to try and contact her. And he was overjoyed to find out she was doing well and even had a ranch in Condon, OR.

After so many years apart they agreed to meet.

Joe left Texas and came to Condon to meet his sister and her husband. For six months he helped out on the Ranch and spent time reconnecting with his family.

“She’s a wonderful person,” said Joe.

But after six months…he decided it was time to make his next move.

“I say, all right I need to get some work and there’s nothing in Condon. So, I’m like, what's closest? Because I want to stay close, you know? And the nearest place was The Dalles. And I got a job and I spoke to the Veteran’s place and they said well we can help you get on your feet, and here I am,” said Joe.

MCCAC Housing Navigator Skye Morgan and Housing Stabilization Specialist Miriam Starrett briefly interrupting the interview to conduct a routine room inspection. Room inspections ensure the health, safety, and hygiene of staff and clients at MCCAC. Photo Credit: Cole Goodwin

Joe got a job at the Home Depot where he trained for two weeks but then they ran out of work for him and he soon found himself out of work and without any income. But thanks to MCCAC and Veteran’s Services, Joe never had to risk the dangers of urban camping or sleeping on the street like so many others who experience houselessnes.

Not giving up after the first job fell through, Joe kept trying, and now he has a new job doing auto detailing at Columbia Gorge Toyota.

Once he get’s his first check he’ll be able to see what kind of housing options are available to him.

In the meantime he’s looking forward to the day his dog Wiggle joins him at The Annex.

“Wiggle belonged to one of my friends who passed away in Dallas, she was his dog, and he asked me before he passed away–unexpectedly– if I would take Wiggle, because she loves me. Four months later he died,” said Joe.

Wiggle is currently enjoying life on the Ranch, but no doubt misses Joe terribly.

“She’s with my sister right now and they’re falling in love with her so it’s gonna be a little tough to get her back,” he laughs.

I nodded and told him he seems to have a really good attitude about the whole situation.

“Once you get a little older and look back you realize how lucky you’ve been,” said Joe.

“Life is a roller coaster, right? You have your ups and your downs. You just have to ride it long enough to get to the ups again,” said Joe.

I asked Joe if he has any other dreams for his future.

“I like to take things one step at a time. My dream is just: get back on track. Get some money saved and stability and maybe come back and help,” said Joe.

And finally Joe said he wanted people to know that the MCCAC’s services and The Annex was something the town can be proud of.

“I’ve met some really nice people here. I thought the same thing a lot of people think about homeless people to be honest. I was thinking Portland, all kinds of sketchiness, like five people crammed into one room, and drug users or whatever. Just chaos right? That’s not the case. This is run very well. There’s cameras all over. There’s no illicit activity,” said Joe.

“I’ve seen people get kicked out, they don’t put up with much. They don’t want to see their downtown go south, people laying on the sidewalk, and draped over fences and stuff nobody wants that. That’s not what this is. I think the community will be pleasantly surprised,” said Joe.

Joe said he felt the program was protecting the most vulnerable and providing support to people who were serious about moving their lives forward.

“Since I’ve been involved here I’ve seen a lot of really vulnerable people get help…women who are escaping abuse. I think it’s needed,” said Joe. “People are here for different reasons. It’s really a great thing. In Dallas there’s nothing like this.”

“There’s structure here. They can get their life back together if that’s what they want,” said Joe.

I thank Joe for taking the time to chat with me today about his experience and for sharing his story with the community.

All of us here at CCCNews want to wish you the best of luck on your journey Joe! I hope I get to meet Wiggle soon!