By Patty Hastings, Special Projects for The Columbian
Kaylin Tompkins sits cross-legged on the carpet surrounded by her four children. She tickles them, cuddles them and asks them questions in that high-pitched mom voice reserved for little ones. Karly, 7, sits quietly, hands folded, on her mom’s leg while 1½-year-old AJ dives into his mom’s lap. The twins — Kamryn and Kristina — lie on their stomachs, giggling.
“I know, I don’t have enough lap for you all,” Tompkins says.
This floor where they play is not their floor. The toys around them are not their toys. The beds where they rest their heads at night, along with all of the other furniture in this basement, are not theirs, either. The lit Christmas tree and stockings on the mantle were a surprise gift from the family that lives upstairs and owns the house they’re staying in.
Tompkins’ family of five may not look it, but they’re homeless.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. While at the Longview Emergency Support Shelter a couple of months ago, Tompkins, 29, got a housing voucher that would partially cover rent while she dug herself out of poverty. But she couldn’t find a landlord that would accept her voucher before the family’s two-month stay at the shelter ended. She thought she would fare better in Clark County.
They have lived in the Bonnin family’s basement ever since.
“It makes me as a parent feel kind of like a failure,” Tompkins said.
But she is far from alone.
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