Your coverage of the proposed shelter/day center in Kent in your March 21st and March 7th issues is missing something incredibly important and meaningful. Instead of suggesting that there are no shelter services being offered in Kent, I would remind you that since 1995, the Church Community in Kent and South King County, the City of Kent, thousands of volunteers, the original HOME Corporation, Sound Mental Health and Catholic Community Services have been collaborating to provide shelter and support services for homeless men in the City of Kent at the HOME Shelter program.
The fruits of this collaboration are staggering: In the past 3 years, 23,000 nights of shelter have been provided for homeless men, 46,000 meals, 20 different churches from a variety of congregations have provided space, food and volunteers for the shelter, hundreds of men have been connected to social services in the community, and most importantly, 130 homeless men have moved into permanent housing. And these are statistics for only the past 3 years.
Do we still have much more to do? Of course. The need for day center, shelter and housing options in South King County and Kent is great. Let's keep moving forward. But to conveniently ignore a 17-year long community-wide effort to sensationalize the story is wrong. The commitment, passion and generosity of the Kent community speak otherwise.
Bill Hallerman
Catholic Community Services