Please give me a second grace. Please give me a second face. I've fallen far down, the first time around, now I just sit on the ground in your way.
Nick Drake

We do have folks here in true need. If you haven't already done so, read through Camp Quixote , that gives you some idea of what is up in our area. I'll list some more local resources too, plus there are several members from Bread & Roses and Egyhop here on OlyBlog who post regularly about how the homeless community folks are doing.

Bread and Roses

Word on the street

Egyhop

Crisis line and referral 360-586-2800 Trained volunteers, they can be someone for people in crisis to talk with and they can find resources for various needs

Rob has been busy and so asked that I respond to this post. Thanks to Sarah for posting such great and varied info!

As you pointed out, Security_Six, the weather seems to be taking that final turn into the 'Olympia Grey'-my name for the dark, cold, and wet season of Olympia-and indeed, this change means the homeless and low-income of Olympia are starkly affected. As soon as supplies are being donated they are being used and we can never collect enough tents, sleeping bags, and warm winter clothing.

Olympia, and indeed all of Thurston County, does not have a day center. The Bread and Roses Advocacy Center (my place of work) is one of the only safe, welcoming places a body can get warm and gain respite from the weather. The library is not meant for the job, but does provide the same comforts, and simply cannot provide the space for as many people as is necessary. As concerned citizens, I ask every person so moved to write the city and ask for day shelter in our town. The Salvation Army does not allow its boarders to stay inside during the day unless grievously injured/ill or with small children. This means that folks are out in this weather from 7 in the morning until 6 at night. Folks start showing up on our porch as soon as they leave Sally's. Our office is meant to be an advocacy center, but we do not turn people away for lack of space, although we operate out of a living room, literally.

As for nightly shelter, there is, as last year, an extreme lack. Especially, sadly enough, for women. There are two types of shelter, emergency nightly shelter and transitional housing (with interviews and applications). To get an idea of what is needed I will give an estimate of shelter spaces and programs available on any given night (an asterix* notes a transitional program, the term 'beds' may mean a mat on the ground).

Salvation Army: 16 beds for women

48 beds for men

A few 'apartments' on site for families with children

A few 'apartments' for folks involved in their transitional program

Drexel House: 15 beds for men, 25 studio apts.* and 10 permanent apts.

Emergrency Shelter Network: 15 beds at a different church each night M-F

Sacred Heart Shelter (Lacey): 15 beds for men Saturday and Sunday only

Out of the Woods*: A house with room for four families with children (project of Westside Unitarian, not emergency nightly shelter)

Camp Quixote (Tent City)*: tents, up to 30 occupants maximum, mixed gender (not emergency nightly shelter)

Interfaith Works: Space unknown, emergency shelter, two week cycles for women with children and established couples at various local churches

Women's Guest House*: spaces for six single women and 1-3 women with children (duplex style, project of Bread and Roses)

By my count, Olympia offers less than a hundred nightly emergency beds and less than seventy-five transitional beds. These are figure estimates for homeless adults, I am less familiar with youth shelter, although many youth under the age of 18 enter our doors at B&R. So, best case scenario, 175 people find a warm, relatively safe place to lay their heads. The point-in-time Homeless Census of Thurston County, taken January 2007 and made mostly with information from Olympia, indicated that upwards of 800 community members were experiencing homelessness. It is well known that this census does not provide an accurate picture, as census-takers cannot poll every campsite, every couch-surfer, every family in and out of scary situations. It is, however, a snapshot. We cannot ignore, with these-albeit estimated-numbers, the absolutely dire need for more shelter.

I, and any of the wonderful, dedicated volunteers who help with emergency shelter, with street outreach (EGYHOP), with CityGate Minitries, etc. will tell you the same thing. We who do outreach are providing bandaid solutions ( a sleepingbag here, raingear there) to the population; action must be taken by every concerned community member to agitate for shelter. These are people's lives at stake. We lose people to the elements every winter, no question.

And this is just a starting point for a response. Stay tuned on OlyBlog, on other blogs and by getting to know the street community for a fuller picture. Always free to private message me for more information.

Rather sad.  I will make another statement here, at the risk of raising hackles here, that the overtime spent on OPD of late could have gone for much better uses, but sadly had to be spent on the protests.

Correct me too if I am wrong, but there must also be an effort to help people get back on their feet, be it through employment or other means.  Simply providing charity while important does not good if it does not address the cycle of homelessness and the events that led to it.  There are many who do not believe in providing a "free ride" for homeless people and insist that there be some effort on their end to end the situation they are in.  I realize that it is much easier to do this when you know where you are going to sleep at night.

A package of shelter space/day center and "rehab" (for lack of a better word) would seem to be the best way to sell this.  Perhaps those able can also help in community service while also getting off the street and gettting back on their feet? 

I  have seen elderly  and disabled men and women on the street and it breaks my heart and angers me.  This should be illegal.  A person no longer able to work should be able to have a place to come home to.  

Million Dollar Murray