Would you folks traveling the Hansville Raod who do not have the automatic lights on your cars when running, please turn them on manually during the day. I’m sure you have noted the many shaded driveways where one can’t always see darker colored autos approaching when trying to exit. Also, many spots along the Hansville Road itself are shaded on both sides during certain times of the day. Sometimes it seems as though cars just suddenly appear out of nowhere because of the shadows. Dark cloudy days make visibility even harder.

One of my readers asked a few questions about the “One Church-One Family” project I mentioned in my July column. Twenty churches in the North End are in a partnership in supporting emergency housing for homeless families. Families are able to stay in adopted homes for a time until they are able to find something to be on their own again. Today it isn’t just the needy who are homeless, but folks who recently have lost jobs and gone through their savings, actually living in cars, tents and camp grounds, etc. Coming through the Depression as a child, while never homeless, I understand their problems. Back in the late 60s and early 70s, I served on the Kitsap Community Action board under the Office of Economic Opportunity, chairing on many councils and committees, working to bring Housing Authority agencies into each Washington State county. These agencies were formed to handle government subsidy grants for low-income families to be able to rent housing. Of course many counties had such agencies already. Now it seems low-income housing properties have gone for condos and big developments. Where is low-income housing? We also fought for a “Landlord Tenant Law,” finally getting one passed.

If your church is not in partnership with the One Church-One Family program throughout Kitsap, please ask your pastor, board, or whomever you think might be interested in joining to support this worthwhile project, to ask for information. Our communities are very helpful in supplying the food banks, and much appreciated too, but families also need a roof over their heads. You don’t have to be any religion to see that anyone can help. North Kitsap is not the only partnership like this in the county. One contact I have in my material is Rick Best for the One Church board, ocof@onechurchkitsap.org. Or, I’m sure Pastor Cal White, of Redeemer United Methodist Church, Kingston, would be more than happy to give information. Call him at (360) 297-4847. (I hear you Pastor, “She is on her soapbox again.”)

I was very happy to read of another pilot project called “Safe Park” asking parking lots to join in letting homeless living in cars have safe night parking. So far the six-month pilot project has helped 15 families including 29 children. Also, aid has come from other sources to help several families get back on their feet. After another meeting at Kitsap Resources in Bremerton, with interested parties, I hope to see it picked up as an ongoing program in other areas of the county.

Being a little tyke during the Great Depression era left vivid memories with me. I’ll never forget people living in cardboard boxes and whatever they could find for makeshift shelters in Seattle. They called one of the sections “Hooverville.” You can read more about it in Seattle history books. The pictures can still bring tears. I hope this month’s column leaves our readers in a thought-provoking mood, and as grandma used to say, “Stir up the blood.”