Last July, residents of the southern Kenai Peninsula formed a group to help homeless people in the Homer area. They call themselves the Homeless in Action Committee. The committee has been meeting once a month to organize events and find ways to help the homeless in the community.
Tara Schmidt is the committee’s organizer. She created the group last summer after watching a short film about youth homelessness produced by Homer teens and sponsored by Lead On, a teen leadership group that plans a community service project each year with support from the Haven House, Homer's local R.E.C. Room, and the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Schmidt began collecting emails during the film's premiere at the Homer Theatre, and set up the first meeting for the following month.
The group has created two task force teams. One team is dedicated to preparing free meals to give away, while the other team focuses on finding available host home candidates in the community.
Schmidt has also been putting together a needs assessment.
“We want to get a scope of this issue. We want to know what solutions are going to stick and we want to know what causes this [homelessness] in our community among teens and also among adults," said Schmidt.
Diana Shadley is one of many members of the Homeless in Action Committee. She has taken the time to create over a dozen Ziploc bags full of goodies to hand out to those in need. These bags contain nutritious snacks, Kleenex, dental products, and more. Members of the committee carry these goody bags in their vehicles to hand out when necessary.
Janet O'Rourke is another dedicated member of the team. O'Rourke is preparing to serve as a host home for teens and young adults. She lives in a one-story house out in Whiskey Gulch, near the Anchor Point area, and is dedicating one of her two bedrooms to be used as an emergency shelter for struggling members in the community. She is also the founder of Teens United for the Future organization, also known as T.U.F.F Teens.
The Homeless in Action Committee meets once every month. Their next meeting is scheduled for May 26th at 5:15 p.m. at the Salvation Army Church in Homer and it is open to the public. For more information, you can check out their Homelessness Task Force page on Facebook.