Steampunk boutique joins fight against homelessness

WASILLA — It’s easy to see how the piles of clothes in the back of the MYHouse youth homelessness outreach center could have been a problem.

Good-hearted Valley residents had dropped them off and they were stacking up faster than the charity could figure out what to do with them.

But MYHouse resource manager Kyra Hoenack, whose job entails taking kids through the center and hooking them up with food, clothing and whatever else they need, didn’t see a problem. Or, if she did, she quickly turned it into an opportunity.

“About, I don’t know, three months ago, I had a conversation with (MYHouse Director) Michelle (Overstreet) and I was like, ‘you know, we get a lot of clothes,’” Hoenack said.

She told Overstreet that a lot of the clothes weren’t really the type that kids MYHouse serves would want. To use Hoenack’s phrase, they “weren’t in our age range.”

“We could make them in our age range by steam-punking them,” she recalled saying.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, steampunk is a term generally used to refer to a sub-genre of science fiction and the related fashion that goes along with it. Gears, valves, pistons and other accoutrements of steam power are common in steampunk art. Steampunk fashion usually involves elements that were last en vogue when steam power was dominant — Victorian London or the American Wild West.

However, to return to the story of the Boutique — Overstreet also remembers the conversation and recalls telling Hoenack that her plate was full, she couldn’t possibly take on another task.

“I said, ‘if you want to do something back there, you have to do it,’” Overstreet recalled.

So she set Hoenack up with another familiar face in Valley charitable circles — Mari Jo Parks — and the two wrote up a business plan.

“Mari Jo said, ‘she’s got an amazing idea, this is going to work,’” Overstreet recalls.

And thus the Steam Driven Boutique was born.

That business plan’s underlying theme is versatility. Like the coffee shop MYHouse currently runs, it will be a place for kids in the MYHouse program to learn job and social skills. In the boutique’s case, those skills include over-the-counter retail but also fashion design and production.

“It allows me to train the kids on something else other than the food industry,” Hoenack said.

One of those kids, Nadia Makitrina, was on hand Thursday helping get the shop ready. In addition to sales, she’s working on the design side.

“This is my first job,” Makitrina said.

Overstreet recalled an evening with kids working on sewing machines at MYHouse.

“One of them said, ‘I can’t believe I’m finally learning to sew at a homeless drop-in center,’” she said.

Giving kids skills like that is a big part of MYHouse’s mission, according to board member Michael Carson.

“The skills they have are remarkable, the survival skills, but the mainstream skills just aren’t there,” he said.

Another purpose for the boutique will be to help outfit homeless teens with the clothes the need. When they meet goals they set in their MYHouse program the teens will be rewarded with vouchers they can redeem for clothes at the boutique. They can also come in to get clothes for job interviews.

Meanwhile, Hoenack said, “the public can come in and get their steampunk stuff.”

It took a lot of work to turn the donations area into a boutique. Hoenack and her crew pulled out all the items and painted the walls. They built a dressing area out of curtains donated by Valley Performing Arts. They got steeply discounted display shelves from A Better Way to Display.

“All we pretty much need to do is tag stuff,” Hoenack said Thursday.

Overstreet is clearly excited about what Hoenack has managed to do.

“It was their baby all summer and I’m so proud of them,” she said.

She thinks the boutique will be an asset for the organization, both as a training ground and, more practically, as a moneymaker. MYHouse doesn’t have a steady funding source from a government program. It’s fueled by private donations, grants and fundraising.

“It’s really an opportunity for kids to shine and feel like they belong in a community that loves them,” Overstreet said of the boutique. “That’s going to be a money-making endeavor and super beneficial for the kids that are involved.

The MY House program has grown by leaps and bounds, faster than anyone really predicted. Just sitting in the center on a Thursday afternoon that was clear. No one — not Hoenack, Carson or Overstreet — could carry on a conversation for more than a couple of minutes without periodic interruptions from customers, clients, and other charities.

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