Grant Funds Target Gig Harbor's Homeless Population

Efforts to eradicate homelessness in the Puget Sound got a slight boost Friday when the Rotary Club of Gig Harbor and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pumped $5,000 into the cause.

On hand for a breakfast meeting of the Rotary Club of Gig Harbor was Kollin Min, Gates Foundation program officer.

Min said the philanthropic arm of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife worked with the University of Washington to determine which segments of population within the Puget Sound have the most difficult time financially and the least opportunity.

“What we quickly realized (is that) primarily single moms and their kids were a population that lagged behind their peers,” he said.

Min said the foundation consequently has been putting its money behind prevention programs in Pierce and Snohomish counties “to try to make a more fundamental difference and to create, ultimately, a more permanent solution for these families.”

Rotary Club of Gig Harbor was one of 10 regional Rotary organizations in the district that qualified to share $100,000 in grant funds. It received $2,500 and matched that amount with its own check Friday.

Club president Joyce Taylor said the majority of the $5,000 will go toward direct client assistance via the Key Peninsula Family Resource Center.

“They help people with direct assistance, like helping out with a light bill, or helping with with a mortgage if they’re about to lose their home,” she said. “The remaining amount will be used to pay for counselors and other staff that meet with these people on a one-to-one basis and talk about what other sources are available to them.”

Whether Gig Harbor has a significant homeless problem seems to be a matter of conjecture.

“I don’t know that homelessness is necessarily an issue in Gig Harbor itself,” said Al Abbott, the club’s president-elect. “But certainly on the peninsula there are people in need.

“Over time, with the Gates Foundation and Rotary Foundation behind initiatives like this, it will certainly make an impact.”

Abbott, a Gig Harbor resident, said he has seen more panhandling at freeway entrances since the economy took a nosedive. On the other hand, Gig Harbor Police Chief Mike Davis said his department has not observed any appreciable increase in vagrancy or panhandling.

Regardless, Friday’s group agreed the grant money will go to good use.

“We have a district of 87 Rotary Clubs,” said Kathy Melendez, president of the Gig Harbor North Rotary Club, which also received a matching grant. “Currently, there are 10 clubs participating, but the applications are still coming in.”

Melendez said some of the funding already has been used to fill backpacks so students from needy families can bring food home on the weekends. Money also has been distributed through a coalition of churches to food banks.

“We were able to give $21,000 to Key Peninsula Lutheran Church, which is part of the Communities of Faith, which has done backpacks for kids,” Melendez said. “They’ve done almost 200 backpacks a week.”

In addition, the funding has helped Key Peninsula Lutheran Church Food Bank provide 60 families with three meals a week and a breakfast every other Saturday.

“There’s also emergency relief funds, like if a person has just lost their job and is about to be kicked out of their house,” she said.

Melendez said a recent survey found 60 families living in tents and cars in the Key Peninsula/Gig Harbor area.

“These people have a lot of pride and you don’t see them on the street,” she said.