WYOMING, Mich. — When the weather was warmer, local leaders in Kent County launched a campaign to find housing for 100 homeless people in 100 days, focusing especially on chronic homelessness. At the campaign's conclusion on Tuesday, 38 people had been permanently housed and 67 others were "in the process," according to its website.
Put together, the two numbers surpass the program's goal, though Thelma Ensink, executive director at Dégagé Ministries, says the success of 100 in 100 in Kent County should be measured not in numbers but in connections.
"We have never sat in a room together as collaboratively as we have during this campaign," said Ensink. "What we're hoping is that [this work] doesn't end at a hundred days, but that this is something we're going to sustain into the future."
In addition to Dégagé, Mel Trotter Ministries, Kent County, the city of Grand Rapids, the Grand Rapids Area Coalition to End Homelessness and many more public and private entities also participated in the program.
READ MORE: Kent County coalition attempting to house 100 chronically unhoused people in 100 days
One of the people helped during the duration of the campaign was Tim Newton, a new resident of Union Suites, a senior living community in Wyoming.
"Compared to what I was sleeping in a few weeks ago to sleeping in this, it's like a castle to me," said Newton, who applied for housing through the Grand Rapids Housing Commission.
For more than a decade, the Kent County resident had been homeless "on and off." He'd often sleep in a tent or at another person's apartment at night, but turned to places like Dégagé and Mel Trotter in the winter for warm water and a bed.
"It's hell this time of year," he said. "You're standing out there freezing your butt off, waiting to go get your bed inside."
In November, he moved into his one-bedroom apartment, outfitted with a furnished kitchen and heating and cooling.
"Paradise. Yes, it was like paradise," said Newton, describing the moment his head hit the pillow during his first night at Union Suites.
This, according to Ensink, is the point of the program.
"It's never been about housing 100 people in 100 days," Ensink said. "It's been about celebrating residents like Tim who are overcoming years of experiencing homelessness and finally have a place to call home."
Sitting in his apartment at the conclusion of the campaign, Newton has some ideas on how to address homelessness himself.
"Let [people who are homeless] get together as a community and voice their opinions on things too. You’d be surprised what you might hear," he said. "That's why I chose to do this interview, because I want to sit there and try to help others, if I can."
