Fair connects homeless, services
Joycelynn Straight went to a homeless-services fair in Coeur d’Alene Park on Thursday looking for help with her housing problem.
She found boxed lunches, used clothes and books at booths set up by numerous social service agencies. She left the Browne’s Addition event, however, no closer to moving into affordable housing.
“It looks like show to the people who really need help,” said Straight, a single mother who moved to Spokane from Utah to care for her 93-year-old grandmother, only to find a much tighter rental housing market than she expected.
Thursday’s fair coincided with the Spokane Homeless Coalition’s first summertime count of homeless people in the county. Two previous counts were conducted in winter. The last one, taken in January, found 1,187 homeless, down from the January 2006 count of 1,592 people.
These numbers, according to Amy Jones of the city’s Human Resources Department, include individuals in transitional housing and others living with family members or on a friend’s couch, for example. The results of this week’s homeless count will not be available until October, Jones said.
The counts will help determine what services are needed to reduce the number of homeless people.
“The data will allow us to compare how seasonal changes affect homelessness and to identify differing needs and service usage,” said Jones, chairwoman of the steering committee organizing the count.
On Thursday, shelters and feeding stations through the county were staffed by nonprofit organizations to take information from homeless people. Every effort was made to ensure an unduplicated count. Throughout the week, outreach workers visited campsites to take information from those who may not regularly use social services available to the homeless.
“You can’t go hungry in this town,” said Victor Klinefelter, 37, who was among the homeless who appeared at the Spokane’s Homeless Connect fair.
Klinefelter, who has been homeless since his mother died in Vantage, Wash., said he currently lives in transitional housing provided through the House of Charity while he undergoes drug and alcohol counseling and looks for work.
Among those agencies with booths in Coeur d’Alene Park were Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs, the YWCA, the Northwest Fair Housing Alliance, Transitions, Anna Ogden Hall, the Coalition of Responsible Disabled, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, the state Department of Social and Health Services and Northeast Washington Housing Solutions.
Apparently, none could help Straight move into affordable housing despite her approval for federal housing assistance in June.
“They said, ‘We can’t help you,’ ” Straight said. “They are offering us raffles and food when what we need is a house.”