The Seattle Times’ Project Homeless is supported by Campion Foundation, Raikes Foundation and Seattle Foundation. The Seattle Times maintains editorial control over Project Homeless content.

For years, NeChole lived with the kind of pain that would stop her in her tracks.

Lightning bolts would shoot down her leg, so painful it would bring her to her knees. She’s fallen many times because of it. Eventually she told her employer she couldn’t keep working until she could undergo surgery to fix the degenerative discs in her back causing this chaos.

But the 55-year-old is on Medicaid and had difficulty scheduling the surgery with anyone who will accept the federally subsidized health care, NeChole said. After nine months of waiting, her employer told her they could no longer hold her job.

“

See Full Page