Today, a guest speaker named Jennielynn Holmes, director of Shelter and Housing in Sonoma County, came to speak to us about homelessness. She told us about how Sonoma County has a homelessness 3x higher than anywhere else in the country, but we have been steadily decreasing that number. It has gone down 30% in the last few years. Still, about 3,000 people live on the streets every night in Sonoma County. 60% of these people live in Santa Rosa, the others in other large urban areas.
A majority of the homeless population is a lot different than what people assume it's like. A large part of these people are families or veterans. All of these people don't have easy access to what we take for granted. Any number of these people start out with or develop mental health issues, which relates to our mental health unit. It is very difficult for these people to get back up on their feet with these problems, or for them to handle their mental issues if they have to worry about where they will sleep or what they'll eat.
The charity that Holmes works at, Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa, does outreach to give homeless people housing. Holmes says that the best way to counteract homelessness is with housing. N.E.W. also wants to help by providing Homeless Packs, just like Innovation STEM did last year. We will work together to make as many packs as possible with business cards for Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities also takes donations, so even you can help by donation to them.
Create your own homeless packs and help break down the stigma that surrounds homelessness!
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