This website is dedicated to the study of Contemporary American Homelessness. It treats Thurston County, Washington as a microcosm of American Homeless Issues and therefore the support systems, service providers and people experiencing homelessness within it’s boundaries a valid system ripe for study.

Homelessness in Olympia.com has two primary objectives. It’s first objective is to be an information platform for anyone seriously wishing to study Contemporary American Homeless Studies and its second objective is to be a information resource for any person providing services to people experiencing homelessness.

Photovoice

When first arriving at the site the interested party will notice the Home Page’s banner photograph. This photograph is one of many randomly selected and posted on the Home Page and every page visited thereafter. These photographs were exclusively taken within Thurston County and were specifically selected to graphically represent the Thurston County Homelessness Experience.

Blog

The blog is a work in progress. The blog will eventually become a posting place for pertinent articles in Contemporary American Homeless Studies along with space for readers space.

Housing

The Housing pages is collectively called the Thurston County Housing Options Tool (HOT) and is an in-depth outline of all Thurston County homeless housing. The housing options detailed and outlined in this section are: severe weather emergency shelter, emergency shelter, transitional housing and permanent housing.

Asset Mapping

Asset Mapping is an exploration of the concept and itself is the development of policies and activities based on an understanding, or ‘map,’ of the community’s resources — individual capacities and abilities, and organizational resources with the potential for promoting personal and community development.

Revised 5.28.2014