HOW TO HELP: Dozens of local volunteers need your assistance to keep neighbors housed and fed

April 26, 2020 11:18 am
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 |   Coronavirus | How to help | West Seattle news

We’ve learned a lot about local nonprofits and their scope during the coronavirus crisis. If you are fortunate enough to be able to assist, rather than needing assistance, here’s another way to do that. From Vicki Quinn, president of St Vincent de Paul‘s Holy Rosary Conference, and Bob Bucci, president of SVdP’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Conference:

During these weeks of enforced isolation, have you wanted to help the thousands of our neighbors here in West Seattle who have been laid off, face an uncertain future and are unable to pay the rent, utilities or even put enough food on the table for their kids?

The St. Vincent de Paul Society has been helping our neighbors here in West Seattle, from the Admiral District down to White Center, for the last 60 years. We reach out to our neighbors through our 65 dedicated local volunteers; pre-pandemic we would always visit with our neighbors in need in their homes to make sure we did not overlook any need that they might have forgotten in their anxiety and stress. These days we try to deliver the same message of compassion and care by phone.

Even before the Covid-19 crisis, the priority for St Vincent de Paul in West Seattle was to keep our neighbors in their homes, to stop evictions and do this by helping pay their rent.

In March 2020, the SVdP Helpline received a staggering 1.079 requests for rent help – 40% more than in February 2020, and a 47% increase over March of last year. Many callers in West Seattle have never called any organization for help before. When we talk to them, our responsibility is to let them feel the compassion and love of our entire community – to let them know that they are not alone and that their community cares deeply about their situation.

At the same time as we have been hit by this wave of need, our income has been hit because church services can no longer be held and therefore donations are down sharply. So, we ask you to please help your neighbor by following this link to make an online donation. Please be sure to select the “Where needed most” box and where you’re asked for the name of the specific conference or program please type in “West Seattle.”

Alternatively, please send a check payable to St. Vincent de Paul Society, write West Seattle in the Memo line and mail it to St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle/King County, 5950 Fourth Avenue South | Seattle WA 98108.

To learn more about SVdP after receiving this, we asked about referrals from 211, the phone number people can call for help and resources. The reply: “St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle | King County has been the largest 2-1-1 referral source for many years, receiving 12,000 to 25,000 referrals annually, more than any of the 1,700 social service agencies in the county. Of course, today those numbers are off the charts.”

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