Hope. This is something I feel everyone needs to keep going. Without it, what do you have? Can you dream, move forward, get excited about things?  I know that I can’t.

For the homeless in our community, they tell me they are not able to function without it. So how do they find hope? For many it comes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights when local churches in Maple Valley, Black Diamond and Hobart serve them dinners. Without these dinners many of them would not eat. Can you imagine? Put yourself in their shoes for just one moment. They are cold, wet and hopeless and then they walk in and see a smiling face telling them there is a little bit of hope — at least for a couple of hours, a few nights a week.

Many in our community may not have even realized that we had a homeless population. I know that I didn’t until I was invited to one of these dinners. Homelessness is not something that we typically talk about in everyday conversation. However, it exists and is actually fairly prevalent right here in town. How does this happen? How do the homeless show up here?  Most importantly how do we help and ultimately give them hope?  These are questions that I found myself asking every single day, so, I sat down with a gentleman named Shadowbird and asked him to share his story.

Shadowbird was just like many of us — great job, nice family, etc. Then things changed. He was out in Auburn but ended up here in town because friends told him about some great happenings in the art community. He came out and found a wonderful group of people and fun things happening. He was given a parking spot at a church for a few weeks to call home and felt that he was on his way out of a horrible cycle. Then the church leaders changed their minds and said that they were not OK with homeless people living in their cars in their parking lot overnight. So now what?  Where does he go? Where will he, and his belongings, be safe? How does he prevent getting robbed, attacked or worse? These are all the things that he struggled with the last day I saw him.

I remember clearly the day that I offered Shadowbird the use of our shower. It was such a simple thing for me to do. I do not think I can accurately describe the look of pure joy that came across his face! It meant that he could wash away all the dirt, shave comfortably and most importantly feel like a human being again.

Homelessness is not going away in our community. The only thing that may leave is the hope that people feel. My personal goal is that everyone who finds themselves homeless will still be able to find hope from our community. That they will know we care about them and that we do want to help them however possible. And it may be as simple as a hot shower, meal or even a smile.

We do have some programs in our community whose mission is to help the homeless like Vine Maple Place. However, not all the people who find themselves homeless can be assisted through VMP and the amazing program it offers. We also have the Maple Valley Food Bank and Emergency Services. For a majority of these programs you do need to have an address.  Did you know that you cannot get a PO Box if you do not have a physical address. Or that you cannot get aid if you do not have a PO Box or a physical address? What about getting a job if you do not have an address to put down? Do you see the vicious cycle these people live in? We need to give them some help and some hope. For many of these homeless individuals and families, it may be as simple as helping them get a bus ticket to where family lives, or an outfit for a job interview etc.

Please, next time you walk down the trail and see a tent instead of thinking about kicking it over and getting rid of it, why not ask yourself how you can give that person hope. What little thing could you do that would bring someone else, and possibly yourself, a smile that day. If your family ended up in this situation wouldn’t you want someone to reach out and help you and your children?

Megan Sheridan is a Maple Valley resident. She writes occasional columns about interesting people, businesses and issues in the community. She can be reached at 253-223-1593 or megan@pull-together.org.