MyHouse hits the road for outreach

WASILLA — It’s 5:30 p.m., Thursday and volunteers have descended on the MyHouse headquarters, ready to make a run into Anchorage.

Michelle Overstreet, MyHouse board president, insists that usually the office is neat, or at least not overflowing with soaps and shoes and socks and canned food piled on every surface.

But the office is open once a week and during that time and when it is, “we get bombarded by donations.”

MyHouse has as its mission addressing the problem of teen homelessness in the Valley. And relatively recently, it’s added a few big pieces to its arsenal in that fight.

First, just before Christmas, the group opened its storefront on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

“Our cars got too full of donations,” Overstreet said when asked why MyHouse opened the store.

“Our husbands made us,” MyHouse board member Deb Waisanen added.

It’s also a place where homeless kids can use computers and meet up with volunteers, and a space to hold group meetings.

While the storefront is great, arguably a bigger piece of infrastructure is the van the group recently bought.

Right after Christmas, the whole thing came together. The list of people who made it happen is pretty long.

First, there’s Michael Carson, another of the MyHouse volunteers. He wrote a grant to BP asking for $10,000 and it came through.

A pair of $5,000 private donations supplemented that. The Rotary Club chipped in $2,000 to outfit the van, and Mat-Su Regional Medical Center put in $500 for first aid supplies. Diversified Tire donated a new set of snow tires, which Overstreet said she has thanked them for twice already after they bailed her out of some hairy winter driving.

“These kids stay in the junkiest places on these bad roads,” Overstreet said.

The United Way Mat-Su also contributed and then BP gave some more.

“It is a community van,” she said.

So what’s a homelessness group need with a van? Overstreet said the idea is to do outreach, to find youth where they’re camping, bring them services and donated goods, and find out what their needs are.

The trip to Anchorage is part of that — they’re going to get trained on how to do that sort of work safely and effectively.

Part of safety has involved getting T-shirts and Carhartt jackets and hats with the MyHouse logo.

“A lot of the kids are familiar now with the MyHouse logo,” said MyHouse volunteer Judith Bergman.

And, Overstreet added, as far as she’s concerned, the effort to get the van has already been worth it. Transporting a homeless teen girl the other day, she said the girl told her she loved the van. Overstreet said she asked the girl why that was.

“I love that you think I’m good enough to ride in this brand new car,” was the response. “I feel like I’m worth more because you think I’m worth it.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

“Lunafest,” which features short films by, for and about women, begins at 7 p.m., March 1 at Mat-Su College, 8295 East College Drive, Palmer. Tickets cost $20 for the general public and $10 for students. Special guest speaker is Mary Katzke with Affinity Films. The event includes refreshments and a silent auction to benefit MyHouse and the Breast Cancer Fund. Purchase tickets online at lunafest.org/palmer. For more information, contact Shana slellington@matsu.alaska.edu, or, 746-9320.