Faith groups are working together on possible solutions to the dwindling supply of affordable housing in Clark County, where vacancy rates hover around 2 percent. It started a few weekends ago at St. Andrew Lutheran Church off Northeast Gher Road, where people were called to an interfaith workshop.
At the workshop, Paul Sundergelt talked about his experience being homeless and how he ended up at Courtyard Village Apartments after a motel maid told him about it.
“It wasn’t the best place. It was one of the worst, probably, but it was a roof over our heads,” Sundergelt said.
When he got a 20-day vacate notice last winter, like the rest of the tenants at the complex, he was worried about what he and his wife would do, where they would go. With help from the Council for the Homeless, their transition to a new apartment at Orchards Glen was smooth, he said. They didn’t have to be homeless again.
But, Sundergelt knows his story is not a anomaly — it’s happening again to residents at Ghim Village in Hazel Dell — and that low-income people are experiencing the stress of rising rents.
Sundergelt got choked up as he finished his speech. “There has to be some solution.”
The 120 some attendees often referenced Sundergelt’s story when they split into groups to talk about ways the faith community could increase the supply of affordable housing. Some of the ideas were big and ambitious, like buying land and building affordable housing, while others suggested the faith community coordinate funding efforts or provide a more supportive role.
St. Andrew Lutheran is getting feedback from the church coalition to determine the top three actionable ideas, said Denny Scott. He’s a member at St. Andrew Lutheran Church and sits on Vancouver’s Affordable Housing Task Force. St. Andrew, though, is not the leader or the brains behind the effort.
“The affordable housing crisis is bigger than any one church,” said Pastor Jim Stender.
Rather, the faith groups are bound by a common concern. Churches help the needy in their own ways and have varied perspectives that need to be considered, Stender said. The next meeting, at a different church, hasn’t been set yet.
Forming the coalition coincides with churches gearing up for Winter Hospitality Overflow, another cooperative effort. From November through March, women and families can stay overnight at St. Andrew, which is close to Share Orchards Inn. Men stay at St. Paul Lutheran near Share House in downtown Vancouver.
Stender said they house an average of 43 people every night, about one-third of whom are children. People sleep in the gym on a mat with bed linens. They can shower, eat, watch television, charge their cellphones and get a good night’s rest out of the elements.
In the morning, everything is cleaned and put away in time for the church’s preschool program.
“The WHO volunteer group is dealing with the symptoms of the problem,” Stender said.
After 12 years of providing a band aid, churches are wondering how they can be part of a more permanent solution. WHO volunteers were asked to participate in the interfaith meeting.
Stender remembers when WHO was first formed and hosted at a different church every week. It was a struggle for homeless families, who often didn’t have reliable transportation, to travel to a new shelter each week; some families, after all, use WHO the entire five months.
When churches pooled their efforts, and the number of hosts was whittled down to two, it was much more effective, Stender said.
