Project provides help, hope

WASILLA — As he spoke about Mat-Su Valley Project Homeless Connect Wednesday, Dave Rose pointed across the soccer field and above his head to a man leaning on a railing overlooking the event.

Rose, who heads up the Mat-Su Coalition on Homelessness and in that capacity was running the show, said the event had a goal of serving 200 people that day.

“We might not meet that goal,” he said. “If we don’t, it’s because of him.”

And while that might seem like a strong accusation, in this case it was closer to strong praise. Rose and the groups assembled on the field will take all comers.

But homelessness is the type of problem where less is better. The man on the railing, John Rossi, is working hard to make sure there fewer people living in the Valley end up homeless.

Rossi heads up Valley Charities, which is overseeing a coalition of six charities that together will distribute a $550,000 state grant and matching $275,000 from the Mat-Su Health Foundation aimed squarely at keeping people in their homes.

In a nutshell, that means filling in gaps and meeting needs that lead to homelessness. If someone can’t make rent, the charity can step in. Or it can buy sleeping bags or help pay bills.

“It’s going really well,” Rossi said. “We have helped over 350 people since September.”

In that time, they’ve spent $125,000.

“Our goal for the year was to help 500 people, so we’re going to eclipse that pretty easily,” he said.

But it’s not just a handout, and the charity won’t just pay full rent. The group will contribute what it can and the client will make up the difference, or it will split the bill with one of its partner charities.

“People are resourceful,” he said. “The majority of times people came up with the balance.”

He said that his organization does a 90-day follow-up with clients it helps and so far it has met with success.

“So far people are still housed,” Rossi said. “It’s been very rewarding.”

The event he and Rose were at Wednesday, Mat-Su Valley Project Homeless Connect, is in its third year. The idea is to bring everybody who can help a homeless person together under one roof, in this case the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla. The coalition can then get an estimate for the yearly national count of homeless people, done on the same day nationwide. But they can also connect people to services.

That kind of one-stop shopping carries through to other parts of the event. CCS Early Learning is a good example.

“They said child care is what we do, how about we take over the child care this year?” Rose said.

Which is great. It frees up parents to apply for services and visit the various tables. And, when they come back, they can meet folks at CCS and see if they qualify for those services as well.

In addition to 50-plus service providers there were haircuts — they had to up the number of barbers to three this year, the one barber on hand last year was worn out at the end of the day — clothes from numerous local thrift stores, a buffet lunch and a sit-down dinner from the Mat-Su Borough School District’s nutrition services department.

“They gave us a screaming deal on a Mexican-style dinner,” Rose said.

Nobody was paid to be there, unless their various agencies let them put the time on their time sheets.

“It takes a lot of volunteers to make this happen,” Rose said.

At the end of the day, co-organizer Laurie Kari with Family Promise Mat-Su said 208 people received services at the event Wednesday. Though not all in that tally were homeless, she said.

“Some came seeking services to prevent homelessness,” Kari said.

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