Omaha event hooks up homeless with whatever they need

Sharon Wineman, a retiree, was matched with Foster. Their morning together started with a free breakfast for Foster and time spent getting to know each other. Foster explained that he had worked for the same janitorial service for nearly three decades when the owner of the business recently announced he was retiring — and all the employees would be "retired" with him.

Foster said he and his co-workers had one day's notice that their jobs no longer existed. He has spent the past two to three months on the streets and in shelters. "And I don't like it," he said.

Wineman said the two "were going to get something done today. I'd be in the same place he is if someone had cut me off after 29 years."

One of the pair's first stops was the job table, where Foster spoke with representatives from Omaha Steaks and Ameristar Casino. The two then headed off to talk to officials about replacing Foster's Social Security card. It was stolen, along with all his clothes, at a local shelter.

"I feel a whole lot better," Foster said after filling out job applications. "I hope to come out (of today) smelling like a rose."

The one-stop service event was modeled after a similar program in Denver. Ed Shada, an Omahan who set up a Web site for the homeless and their families, visited Denver's Road Home program last year and decided to do the same for the local homeless community.

As Shada went from one service area to the next, checking on how everything was going, he expressed gratitude for all the help he received in making the event a reality. Seeing the volunteers and homeless come together, he said, "is touching, moving."

Jamie Van Leeuwen, project manager of Denver's Road Home and a 1996 graduate of Creighton University, flew in to see the event unfold. The education he received at Creighton led him to work with the underprivileged, he said, and it was exciting to see the university "doing something that is hugely beneficial to the poor."

Van Leeuwen said about 100 communities nationwide have some type of one-day, full-service event for the homeless. Each strives to connect residents with the homeless and the homeless with services that can get them back on their feet.

But, Van Leeuwen cautioned, these events are just starting points. At the end of the day, the homeless still need affordable housing, medical care and jobs. The hope is that the contacts they make at an event like Omaha's will lead to all these things, Van Leeuwen said.

Mayor Mike Fahey, one of several dignitaries attending the event, expressed confidence that good things would come out of Omaha's Project Homeless Connect.

"This is the most comprehensive approach to addressing homelessness I've seen" in Omaha, Fahey said.

The mayor praised the community's response to the call for help. The number of volunteers "is just remarkable. Overwhelming."

For some volunteers, he said, this might be one of the only times they have come in contact with the city's homeless and the problems they face. "It brings awareness to the issue."

The Rev. John P. Schlegel, Creighton's president and honorary chairman of the event, said people don't always "realize how fine a line separates us from homelessness."

People sometimes "also fail to realize how little it takes to give hope."