Many complain about vagrants living on the streets, but members of four local churches are tackling homelessness by creating a community building and six little duplexes to serve as transitional housing in Centralia.
“We all have prejudice when it comes to experiences of those who are vulnerable and poor and on the margins and struggling to find housing,” Pastor Mark McHugh of Harrison Square Presbyterian Church said on Thursday at the monthly meeting of the Lewis County chapter of the American Association of University Women at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Chehalis.
But who exactly are the homeless?
• A tax accountant who suffered a traumatic brain injury lost her business and lives in a van with a disabled husband and two daughters.
• A 57-year-old with mental health issues whose home was destroyed by fire qualifies for low-income subsidized housing but remains on a waiting list to enter a shelter.
• A military veteran with post-traumatic stress syndrome.
• A breadwinner whose medical bills left the family without enough money to pay rent.
• An elderly widow without enough Social Security to afford a place to live.
• And yes, some are mentally ill or addicted to drugs or alcohol.
Many people are only one paycheck away from becoming homeless, and the number of those without shelter in the United States increased by 18 percent between 2023 and 2024, McHugh said. In 2025, McHugh said, Washington state had the third-highest rate of homelessness in the nation along with its fourth-highest average housing cost.
“By comparison, Mississippi has the second lowest housing cost in the United States and the lowest homelessness rate,” he said.
For every 100 people who need affordable housing in the United States, only 37 units are available, he said, leaving a gap of 63 percent. A California study showed the average life expectancy for people living on the streets is 47.
“We judge them for their homelessness rather than marveling at all that they carry,” McHugh said. “That these folks are still getting up every day to try to go about life is just a small miracle in my mind.”
AAUW Chapter President Laura Hewett introduced McHugh by saying she first met him when his mother pushed him in a stroller at the Southwest Washington Fair. Others at the AAUW meeting included his day care, grade school, middle school and high school teachers.
“I’m in a room of 12 people I could call to avoid being homeless,” McHugh said.
But many people living on the streets lack those ties to the community. They’re isolated without family and friends who can provide a safety net to prevent eviction if unexpected medical bills, a job loss, an injury or another emergency prevents them from paying their rent, McHugh said.
A couple of years ago, with housing costs soaring and more people living without shelter, members of Harrison Square, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Gather Church, and Chehalis United Methodist Church brainstormed ways to help. They realized Lewis County had no transitional housing — places where people can live while waiting for affordable housing to open.
First, they formed a nonprofit 501(c)3 called Hope Housing Collaborative of Lewis County.
“Our purpose is to provide safe housing in a community environment where residents are supported and encouraged to pursue personal goals, including those of permanent housing and employment,” McHugh said.
Then they decided to raise money to build the $427,000 Shalom Village at 1227 Harrison Ave. (behind Bill and Bea’s Drive-In) on property leased by Harrison Square. Shalom means “peace.”
Ground broke in January on the 1,440-square-foot community building, which will have an office, kitchen, meeting room, two bathrooms with showers (one accessible after hours from the outside), and a washer and dryer.
Next, six small “micro-shelter” duplexes, housing a dozen people altogether, will be constructed. Each unit will feature a bed, desk, window, heating and cooling, and even a small porch. Most importantly, the doors will lock, giving residents a safe place to sleep and store their possessions.
A part-time on-site manager will work with residents and case workers to provide resources on jobs, housing, and other help available to transition people into a more permanent and stable lifestyle.
Shalom Village is what’s called high barrier housing — a safe, sober community where residents must undergo criminal background checks and abide by a code of conduct.
“Most churches, except for Gather, probably don’t have the resources to be able to care for people who are actively in addiction,” McHugh said. “Gather would be the exception.”
When it opens, the well-landscaped, fenced Shalom Village will be accessible only to residents and staff. It is patterned after Olympia Westminster Presbyterian Church’s Hope Village, which has operated for five years without any problems, McHugh said.
For Shalom Village, the Lewis County churches raised $320,000 in private funding and grants. Another $100,000 is needed to complete construction of the duplexes, along with $35,000 to $50,000 a year for operational costs.
Hope Housing is working with Mitchell Smith, Centralia High School wood arts teacher, whose dozen students are constructing the village. Paul S. Ely Insurance provided rain gear for the students working on the project. Others providing skills, materials or labor include plumbers, electricians, drywall installers, attorneys, accountants, engineers and lumber suppliers.
People will live in transitional housing for between four and 12 months as volunteers and staff help them find permanent housing and jobs that pay enough to cover rent.
Even more churches are involved in the six-month Safe Parking Pilot Project, which will offer 10 women and their children, who are living in their cars, a safe place to park overnight from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., complete with a mobile bathroom and garbage bins. The parking will rotate each week among the participating church parking lots. The pilot project is expected to launch within a few months.
McHugh pointed out that the last half century has seen the average size of American homes increase by 1,000 square feet and more than 2 billion square feet of storage units constructed to safeguard extra material things.
“To put that in perspective, every unhoused person last year in the United States could have been housed in 4,000-square-foot homes if we didn’t have so much stuff,” McHugh said.
“When we see the poor, we know that this is a death sentence,” he said. “Our homes are getting bigger, our storage units are getting more. What is going on around us?”
A Bingo Night fundraiser will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. March 24 at the Juice Box, 216 S. Tower Ave., Centralia, with Bingo, raffles, and a silent auction. Doors open at 5.
For more information, visit the website at https://www.hopehousinglc.com/. Donations can be made online via PayPal or mailed to HHCLC, P.O Box 881, Centralia WA 98531. Call (360) 669-5050 or email hopehousinglc@gmail.com for more information.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian and author from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
