In recognition of National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week, nonprofit agency Share will host its third annual Hungry & Homeless in Clark County: Get the Facts brown-bag forum from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday in the Columbia Room of the Vancouver Community Library, 901 C St. It’s free and open to the public.
The housing-first approach to homelessness and the proposed Lincoln Place building for chronically homeless people will be main topics of the event. Housing first is the philosophy that a stable place to live is the main building block of a stable life, and that people should be provided affordable housing even before they’ve defeated demons such as drug addiction.
Speakers will include Rachel Duke, supportive housing program director at Bud Clark Commons, a housing first building in Portland; and Andy Silver, executive director of the Council for the Homeless and a strong proponent of the housing-first philosophy and the Lincoln Place project in downtown Vancouver.
According to the last Point In Time count in January, 695 people are homeless in Clark County on an average night.
Find out more, including how to donate and other ways to help out, at www.sharevancouver.org.
