Licensed cosmetologist Kristina Kole (left) and her spouse, cosmetology student Brandy Kole, team up to give Gold Bar’s Cindy Lien a haircut at last year’s Project Homeless Connect. They were volunteers from Paroba College of Cosmetology. Paroba students and staff will be back to help at this year’s event, scheduled for July 14 at Everett High School.

Licensed cosmetologist Kristina Kole (left) and her spouse, cosmetology student Brandy Kole, team up to give Gold Bar’s Cindy Lien a haircut at last year’s Project Homeless Connect. They were volunteers from Paroba College of Cosmetology. Paroba students and staff will be back to help at this year’s event, scheduled for July 14 at Everett High School.

Annual Everett event provides services to homeless

Project Homeless Connect, which provides free health care, haircuts, backpacks, hot meals and other resources, will have a new home this year and added services — including a portable laundry and showers. The annual one-day event to help people in need is scheduled for July 14 at Everett High School.

“Laundry and showers are the big new services,” said United Way of Snohomish County’s Adrian Wieland. On-the-spot medical, dental and vision care, housing and benefits information, help for veterans and much more will be available.

“Everything is free,” said Wieland, United Way’s senior manager of learning and analytics.

Everett’s Evergreen Middle School hosted Project Homeless Connect in 2015, and in other years it was at Cascade High School. Jacqui Campbell, the local United Way’s director of marketing and communications, said the venue change is because of summer school schedules at the other Everett schools.

During the event, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 14, Wetmore Avenue will be closed to traffic between 24th and 25th streets to accommodate Project Homeless Connect. Most resources will be in Everett High’s Norm Lowery Gymnasium on Wetmore, with mobile medical vehicles parked nearby.

Lunch, prepared by the Everett Gospel Mission’s Feed Hope Kitchen staff, will be served in the school cafeteria. Guests will be seated and served restaurant-style.

Project Homeless Connect was launched in Everett in 2008. Built on a national model, the event delivers free, direct services while working to improve long-term access to needed resources.

About 1,000 people were served at last year’s event, among them 260 children. Helping were about 90 programs and 164 volunteers. This year, volunteers are still needed for to help with registration and exit surveys, at information desks, and in the cafeteria. July 6 is the volunteer sign-up deadline.

Project Homeless Connect is a joint effort of the county’s Human Services Department, the Snohomish Health District, the city of Everett, United Way, the Homeless Policy Task Force and many nonprofits.

Bob Malone is treasurer of the Employees Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound, which provided $40,000 to sponsor Project Homeless Connect. The fund also has given backpacks to the effort. This will be Malone’s fifth year volunteering with registration at Project Homeless Connect.

“Everybody has their own story, and a different experience of homelessness,” said Malone, who gathers demographic information at the event entrance.

Everett Transit will provide free bus service the day of the event, Wieland said. And about 1,400 backpacks, filled with toiletries gathered by the YWCA, will be distributed.

Students and staff from Paroba College, an Everett cosmetology school, will provide free haircuts. “It’s a great opportunity for students to help in the community,” said Patience Hoffman, a Paroba barber instructor.

Project Homeless Connect is coming the month after Snohomish County announced publication of its final 2016 Point in Time Count Report. On Jan. 28, the annual count surveyed 1,118 people in 878 households who didn’t have permanent places to stay. People ranging in age from 44 days to 90 years old were counted as being unsheltered or staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing or other precarious homes.

Among them were 36 military veterans, 68 children, and 194 people who said they were domestic violence survivors.

The city of Everett, meanwhile, is at work developing a “housing-first” project to combat homelessness. In May, the city revealed a proposed site for the housing facility, just east of Evergreen Way in the Glacier View neighborhood.

At Project Homeless Connect, Jessica Reasy sees the faces, and the feet, of poverty. She is executive director of Redeeming Soles, a Seattle-based nonprofit that will bring some 2,000 pairs of shoes to the July 14 event. Redeeming Soles gets athletic shoes from the Nike, Brooks and Salomon companies.

Reasy has seen kids at Project Homeless Connect wearing shoes three sizes too small.

“You realize it’s not just homelessness and it’s not just addiction,” Reasy said. “It’s people like you and me who have maybe hit a rough patch.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Homeless Connect

Project Homeless Connect is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 14 at Everett High School. The school is at 2416 Colby Ave., Everett. Most events are one block east in the school’s Norm Lowery Gymnasium, between 24th and 25th streets on Wetmore Avenue, with lunch in the school cafeteria. The event provides free services including health care, housing information, showers, laundry and hot meals.

Volunteers are needed. July 6 is volunteer registration deadline. Information: 425-374-5530 or email Jessica.Gaitan@uwsc.org. Volunteer online at: www.uwsc.org/phcsnoco.php

See Snohomish County report on 2016 Point in Time homelessness count at:

http://snohomishcountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/34385

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Trader Joe’s customers walk in and out of the store on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Trader Joe’s opens this week at Everett Mall

It’s a short move from a longtime location, essentially across the street, where parking was often an adventure.

Ian Bramel-Allen enters a guilty plea to second-degree murder during a plea and sentencing hearing on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Deep remorse’: Man gets 17 years for friend’s fatal stabbing in Edmonds

Ian Bramel-Allen, 44, pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder for killing Bret Northcutt last year at a WinCo.

Firefighters respond to a small RV and a motorhome fire on Tuesday afternoon in Marysville. (Provided by Snohomish County Fire Distrct 22)
1 injured after RV fire, explosion near Marysville

The cause of the fire in the 11600 block of 81st Avenue NE had not been determined, fire officials said.

Ashton Dedmon appears in court during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett Navy sailor sentenced to 90 days for fatal hit and run

Ashton Dedmon crashed into Joshua Kollman and drove away. Dedmon, a petty officer on the USS Kidd, reported he had a panic attack.

A kindergarten student works on a computer at Emerson Elementary School on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘¡Una erupción!’: Dual language programs expanding to 10 local schools

A new bill aims to support 10 new programs each year statewide. In Snohomish County, most follow a 90-10 model of Spanish and English.

Logo for news use featuring the Tulalip Indian Reservation in Snohomish County, Washington. 220118
Woman drives off cliff, dies on Tulalip Reservation

The woman fell 70 to 80 feet after driving off Priest Point Drive NW on Sunday afternoon.

Everett
Boy, 4, survives fall from Everett fourth-story apartment window

The child was being treated at Seattle Children’s. The city has a limited supply of window stops for low-income residents.

People head out to the water at low tide during an unseasonably warm day on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at Lighthouse Park in Mukilteo, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett shatters record high temperature by 11 degrees

On Saturday, it hit 73 degrees, breaking the previous record of 62 set in 2007.

Snohomish County Fire District #4 and Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue respond to a motor vehicle collision for a car and pole. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, near Triangle Bait & Tackle in Snohomish. (Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office)
Police: Troopers tried to stop driver before deadly crash in Snohomish

The man, 31, was driving at “a high rate of speed” when he crashed into a traffic light pole and died, investigators said.

Alan Dean, who is accused of the 1993 strangulation murder of 15-year-old Bothell girl Melissa Lee, appears in court during opening statements of his trial on Monday, March 18, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
31 years later, trial opens in Bothell teen’s brutal killing

In April 1993, Melissa Lee’s body was found below Edgewater Creek Bridge. It would take 27 years to arrest Alan Dean in her death.

Logo for news use featuring the municipality of Snohomish in Snohomish County, Washington. 220118
Man dies after crashing into pole in Snohomish

Just before 1 a.m., the driver crashed into a traffic light pole at the intersection of 2nd Street and Maple Avenue.

Bodies of two men recovered after falling into Eagle Falls near Index

Two men fell into the falls and did not resurface Saturday, authorities said. After a recovery effort, two bodies were found.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.