Stewpot’s Opportunity Center offers help for the unhoused during World Homeless Day
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Many are not worried about where they’ll sleep at night, but there are hundreds of people in the capital city unsure of where they’ll lay their heads.
Friday, Oct. 10, was World Homeless Day and the Stewpot Opportunity Center provided help for those without a place to call home.
“I’m gonna take advantage of everything. I need all the help I can get,” said Sharday Thomas, an attendee of the World Homeless Day Community Fair.
Thomas, 39, is currently without a home. She said she came to Jackson, Mississippi, from Coats, North Carolina for a relationship that turned bad.
According to Thomas, she has been living in spaces not far from The Opportunity Center for three years now.
“I’m hoping to get off the streets and start my life like I need to,” Thomas said. “I’ve been off drugs for, like, three months now. So, I’m doing good.”
Thomas was able to receive supplies, such as a tent, and she hopes for stability.
“I just come up here today to have myself checked because you never know what might be wrong,” said 64-year-old Eddie Spann, another event attendee.
Spann is also homeless and was there for the available medical services.
“I done had four strokes in my lifetime,” Spann explained. “So, now I got to be one step ahead.”
“We wanted to bring the help to the community,” Javonda Stanton, Stewpot’s Director of Shelter Services, said.
This year’s World Homeless Day Community Fair offered a wide variety of resources, ranging from mental and physical health services, emergency shelter options, education advancement opportunities, and more.
“It’s an opportunity, not just for those who are unsheltered, to be here. We’ve got our resource providers who are networking, communicating, and they’re seeing what real need looks like. It’s one thing to sit behind your desk and see it. It’s another thing to interface with it,” Stanton emphasized.
There was live music, free food, and a chance for the community to see those among us living without.
Nearly 350 homeless and disenfranchised members of the community attended last year’s event.
Around 70 people each day, six days every week, utilize the services provided by The Opportunity Center.
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