Walter’s House 2.0: a lifeline for Yolo County’s most vulnerable population

After years of battling addiction, homelessness and personal loss, 57-year-old Dana Lea Eakle has found stability through Woodland’s East Beamer Way Campus project, which includes supportive housing and community programs targeted at addressing Yolo County’s growing homelessness and substance abuse problem. 

One of these programs is Walter’s House, a substance use disorder treatment facility that recently held a grand opening ceremony as part of the third and final phase of the project. The new facility — Walter’s House 2.0 — will take over the original Walter’s House program, which has been operating in downtown Woodland since the early-2000s. 

Eakle was referred to the program a couple of years ago by a public defender. She argued that the facility is critical for Woodland and Yolo County’s homeless population dealing with substance abuse. 

“I was there for four and a half months,” she said. “I got a wealth of information, a lot of support and guidance until I was able to be housed here at the East Beamer project.”

Eakle now lives in a one-bedroom permanent residential unit with her 2-year-old cat, Meow, and has remained active with Walter’s House through its biblical-principle-based 12-step program she participates in most Wednesday evenings.

Walter’s House Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, at 1901 E. Beamer St. in Woodland.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)

“It’s coming at the right time with another opiate epidemic going on and alcoholism,” she said. “I’m ecstatic and looking forward to the changes and the progress that Walter’s House is making for the community. Coming to the understanding of the disease of addiction and homelessness lies parallel with addressing the [homeless] population and getting them help.” 

Doug Zeck is the executive director of Fourth & Hope — a faith-based nonprofit organization that runs and operates the treatment facility and homeless shelter at the campus. During a mid-December tour of the new facility, he said the intent of Walter’s House was to help meet the ever-growing need for substance use disorder treatment for the city’s unhoused population. 

Doug Zeck, executive director of Fourth &Hope, gives a tour of Walter’s House Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Woodland.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)

Zeck noted that the program is “insurance billable for drug Medi-Cal,” meaning that anyone who qualifies for Medi-Cal who needs treatment services will be able to utilize the facility. Typically, he said the people utilizing the program are unhoused individuals and people who have been referred there by mental health or drug diversion courts.

“Typically, it’s somebody that is currently unhoused, or maybe finds themselves in a shelter, or somebody who’s been in an institution and they’re being released, but they have this substance use disorder that they need to address,” Zeck said. “But anybody that qualifies under Medi-Cal is really who we’ll see here.” 

He noted that people are typically authorized at 30-day increments with most stays lasting about 90 days. During that time, Zeck said a treatment plan is developed that includes homework, reflections and performance activities. 

Additionally, Zeck said the facility — like most of Fourth & Hope’s other programs — operates 24/7 year-round. 

Although many who receive treatment from the program will need to stay throughout the duration of their treatment, the facility has an outpatient program. 

Karla Tovar, development and marketing manager for Fourth and Hope, noted that 20 people currently utilize the outpatient program largely because they don’t want residential treatment. 

“We try to be flexible to their needs and how they feel comfortable,” she said. 

A laundry room Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, at 1901 E. Beamer St. in Woodland.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)

Homelessness and substance abuse in Yolo County 

Yolo Board Supervisor Angel Barajas represents Woodland and has been involved in the creation of the campus project since its inception. He was mayor of Woodland in 2017, which is when he said community conversations started regarding the expansion of Fourth and Hope and Walter’s House. 

“It was around 2016 [when] we started seeing [an] epidemic increase of homelessness throughout Woodland and Yolo County,” he said. “Typically at that time, the thinking was, ‘Well, the counties are in charge and responsible for the homeless population and their services.’ That was the case statewide.”

But Barajas noted that as the rate of homelessness continued increasing and as it became increasingly visible, community members began asking local leaders what they were doing to address the problem. 

In response, the council created its first-ever homeless subcommittee in 2016 signaling to the community that homelessness was a city issue, not just a county issue. That led to the proposal and eventual creation of the East Beamer Way Campus Project on the outskirts of Woodland in partnership with the county and several other organizations. 

“Just on Walter’s House 2.0, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted to allocate $500,000 for that specific phase-out project that is now completed,” Barajas said. “In addition, Yolo County has mental health specialists and other staff who provide wrap-around services that are much needed.”

He noted that these are labor-in-kind support services from the county. Barajas also stressed that the county and its partners still have work to do to address the growing issue.

“We want to make sure that the most vulnerable populations use them and that they use them for all the right reasons,” he said. “We want to make sure that this is a model that other counties and cities replicate throughout the state of California. It’s something that we truly believe in as local elected officials.” 

The Yolo County Homeless and Poverty Action Coalition, a nonprofit organization committed to combating homelessness and poverty, found in its 2024 point-in-time Count that the county experienced a 26% increase in homelessness since 2022. 

Woodland saw the largest increase of any jurisdiction in the county with a 55% increase from 68.6 individuals per 10,000 residents experiencing homelessness this year compared to 44.4 per 10,00 in 2022. 

The report also found that of the 942 people surveyed, roughly 30% were experiencing substance use disorder, 32% were not and the rest were unknown. Approximately 70% of the people surveyed experiencing substance use disorder were unsheltered. 

Homelessness and substance abuse in Sacramento County 

On the contrary, homelessness decreased in Sacramento County by 40% from 2022 to 2024. The most recent point-in-time count found 3,944 unsheltered individuals in the county compared to 6,664 in 2022. In Sacramento, homelessness decreased by 31% from 4,444 unsheltered individuals in 2022 to 3,053 in 2024. 

Additionally, the report found that the majority of people surveyed — roughly 90% —  experiencing substance use disorder were unsheltered, similar to Yolo County. 

“People want instant results and I just gotta say that any doctor or scientist, they’re gonna agree,” Eakle said. “It takes time to heal mind, body and soul. So when you’re displaced and put into such extremes, whether it’s drug addiction or mental health, it takes time to recover from that. I think that’s where we need the compassion and understanding and patience with the community, and continuous support.”

CapRadio reporter Kate Wolffe contributed reporting to this story.