Hundreds of the Richmond area's homeless population turned out today for Homeward's third annual Project Homeless Connect at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.
The service fair is designed to offer the homeless access to services ranging from medical and dental screenings to housing and employment. Nearly 800 volunteers and more than 40 service providers were at the fair, which ends at 3 p.m.
Kelly King Horne, executive director of Homeward, said the purpose of this annual event is to bring the service providers under one roof and help get people off the streets.
Volunteers were paired with a homeless client, walking and talking with them throughout the day.
"That [one-to-one pairing] is about hospitality and offering a listening ear," Horne said.
The event attracted the recent homeless, like Joey Monroe who said he has been on the streets since losing his job and being evicted from his South Richmond apartment in August.
"What I'm able to get here is a lot of information that I couldn't get on the streets because of transportation problems," said Monroe. "It's all in one building and . . . and I can meet a lot of friendly people. On the other hand, when you get to those offices downtown, some of the people don't want to see you."
During Homeward's July point-in-time homeless count, 1,061 people including 155 children, were homeless in the Richmond region.
-- Jeremy Slayton
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