‘Everyone Has a Unique Story’: Project Homeless Connect Event Offers Help, Collects Data

On Thursday, volunteers from service organizations and nonprofits again gathered at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds for what has become an annual tradition in Lewis County — Project Homeless Connect. 

The event, which invites homeless or otherwise impoverished members of the community to get services and speak with organizations that could help is organized by Lewis County Public Health & Social Services (LCPHSS). It also serves as the annual homeless point-in-time count for Lewis County. 

“There are all kinds of reasons why people are homeless in Lewis County so there needs to be a lot of paths for them that’s why we are glad to have so many providers here. Everyone has a unique story,” said Deputy Director John Abplanalp of Lewis County public health.

The event’s goal is to provide basic supplies, information on the services provided by various organizations, and to collect surveys to help better understand the circumstances and needs of the homeless population in the area.

The event was held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Events Center of the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds and Twin Transit provided free bus rides to the fairgrounds for anyone that needed transportation. Attendees were asked to complete a survey that asked questions about domestic abuse, his or her housing situation, children, health issues, gender, and sources of income. Abplanalp said that the data collected will be used to determine the needs of the area and then sent to the state to determine the necessary funding.

Individuals from the Housing Resource Center also went out into the community to try and survey the homeless individuals that did not attend the event in order to get a more accurate count. 

“This annual count is conducted to quantify the number of people experiencing homelessness. LCPHSS and its community partners use this information to work towards making homelessness in Lewis County rare, brief, one-time,” stated a press release from LCPHSS.

LCPHSS held the event again in on Friday Jan. 24 at the same time in Morton at the Lyle Community Center to quantify homelessness in that area as well.

After the event, Abplanalp said that about 200 showed up but final numbers will be available in May after the Department of Commerce is done processing the information.

There were 30 organizations in attendance with the goal of helping as many people as they could. Organizations at the Homelessness Connect event include:  Centralia College Transitional/Adult Basic Education Program, Centralia School District McKinney-Vento Program, Centralia Timberland Library, Infant-Toddler Developmental Center, LINK: Center for Autism & Behavioral Health, Northwest Justice Project, Early Childhood Education & Assistance Program, Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC), WorkSource, Lewis County Drug Court, Molina Healthcare, Valley View Health Center, Friends Without Homes, Gather Church, Hub City Mission, Family Education & Support Services, The Salvation Army, Eugenia Center Substance Use Disorder Services, South Sounds Behavioral Hospital, Cascade Mental Health Care, CORE Health, Community Action Council, Housing Resource Center of Lewis County, Hope Alliance, Lewis County Gospel Mission, Trueblood Mental Health Diversion Program, Health & Hope Medical Outreach, Traumatic Brain Injury Resources, and Reliable Enterprises.

A “store” was set up making various goods available for free to those in need. Some of the items included: dog food, diapers, shampoo, soap, razors, femine products, socks, hats, and winter coats.

Free haircuts were available as well provided by cosmetology students at the Centralia Beauty College. Rylee Peters, 17, who goes to high school in the mornings and the beauty college the second half of the day, was on hand to give haircuts to anyone that wanted one. She said she is happy to be apart of the event and everyone she has talked to has been very kind. 

“I was really excited when my instructor told me we were doing this. I think it’s a great way to give back especially since not everybody can afford a haircut,” said Peters.

Darrin McGowan received a free haircut and said it was fantastic and that he was grateful.

Tables with representatives from all organizations were set up and they were ready to speak with people who needed help. Sandra Freeman with Valley View Health Center has handing out hygiene packs and had free flu shots available for all who wanted one. Freeman said that compared to past years it seems there are more people in attendance this year. Valley View Health Center had administered three flu shots in the first 45 minutes of the event.

Patty Howard attended the event as representative of Gather Church.

“We are a faith-based organization and we love people and we want to help. It’s great to see all of these organizations come together,” said Howard.

Shaleene Moir, the foster care and homelessness liaison with Centralia School District, had a table set up to help all school-aged children get enrolled and remove barriers that prevent attendance.

“I work very closely with the school counselors and they identify students that may need help and then I contact the families to find out what they need. A lot of it is a case by case basis but I go in and remove barriers to their education such as getting lice kits for students that have lice,” said Moir. 

Brant Byrd who does facilities maintenance for Reliable Enterprises, taking care of 13 properties, said he used to be homeless and stuck in a cycle of alcohol and drug abuse. 

“I started at the men’s shelter and went through Drug Court. The Housing Resource Center really helped me a lot because I wasn’t able to go back to my spot because of the alcohol and drug abuse going on there,” said Byrd. 

Byrd said he has been clean for five years and two months now because he utilized many of the programs that are available in Lewis County including Drug Court, Cascade Mental Health Care, Eugenia Center Substance Use Disorder Services, and the Housing Resource Center. He said that each organization was important for him during his process of getting and staying clean.

“I think that’s one of the strengths of Lewis County is that I think everyone really wants to work together to solve this problem. Everyone may come at it in a different way but everyone has different resources which makes us stronger,” said Abplanalp.