Housing Community Pillar Award
Landlord Liaison Project Pillar Award
by Alexis Agee-Cooper, Lead Family Permanent Housing Specialist
We have the honor and privilege to present Landlord Liaison Project with our Community Pillar for the month of November. They have been a partner in ending homelessness for years here in Pierce County. Landlord Liaison Project “LLP” is a program that we use to assist in housing our clients. LLP has a talent and special skill in contacting and fostering relationships with Landlords in Pierce County.
The LLP team that is the driving force behind this program are Crystal Campbell, Sunita Garrett, Kiesha Triplett and Raina Frazier. Let me tell you from personal experience, these women are all business and are driven to provide our agencies with great landlord partnerships. They work hard to develop those relationships for our clients. Working with these strong, dedicated and compassionate women has been a great experience. The compassion, care, and skill they put into this program is beyond words. Thank you for all you do!
Q&A
Q-What has driven you to do this work and working with people who are homeless and working with them from the inside out?
Kiesha– “I wear my heart on my sleeve. I am one of those people who believe that if you can change one person, then you can make a difference in helping the masses. Helping someone with such a basic need as shelter is super humbling experience. Once someone has a home, everything else seems to fall into place. I am honored to be able to work from the outside in and experience the emotional change from the inside out.”
Sunita– “For me it started with health care for the homeless and working directly with the homeless. I learned from being out at the camps that homelessness is a type of disease but there is a way to relieve it and being able to move forward. From there, I went on to be a housing aid with housing first at one of the first housing 1st buildings that MDC opened up. Through that I became a housing specialist so I am basically back where I was in the beginning helping homeless people get housed, health care, and other services they need.”
Crystal –“I have a background mental health. I work at Greater Lakes as a second job. I would witness after the clients are let out back into the community and they would be on the street. So I wanted to see the other side to see what happens after they’re on the street because a lot of people who have mental health issues also experience homelessness. When I applied for a job I ended up in the rapid rehousing program and I just wanted to see things from the other side and see their successes instead of thinking about “oh they just left the facility and they’re out on the street nothing really changed in their life I didn’t really impact it” Now I can see some of the same people and I get to help them in a greater way.”
Raina-“I graduated with a Social Work degree. I did my internship helping veterans find housing so I started dealing with the homeless population. My thing is the same thing that brings me to work here every day, when I wake up. It’s just the whole process we go through with every client is different but I know the longer the process it takes with some of the more difficult clients and getting them housed is a big celebration for us. The whole process and seeing their faces when they do move in that they have their own house and the basic needs like “I have a door to shut and I have an address”. That’s really inspiring to us to come and it allows me to come to work and be like hopefully we can get someone housed today. It’s a good feeling when we get to put our metrics together and see all the work we did and having families we got housed is really inspiring to us too.”
Q-I know we see you all as leaders in this community do you see yourselves as leaders and how so?
A-No not as a leader we see ourselves as someone who is able to help when we can and try to make sure we utilize that companionship with all of you.
Q-So how do you see your role in the community how do you feel and what is your role in fighting homelessness?
A-We are advocates I wouldn’t say leaders if anything we help navigate and direct our client on what they need to do when looking for landlords. We can lead and direct them but it is up to them. We are the middle piece between landlords and clients, we help them get housed but they have to want to help.