SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (KGUN) — For the past 10 months, Cochise Housing Connection, Inc. and the City of Sierra Vista have held a resource fair for locals with food and home insecurities.
The fair is meant to connect the homeless or low income community with resources that can help them. Agencies that attended Tuesday's event ranged from healthcare organizations, federal agencies and local homeless shelters.
Flu shots, at-home COVID-19 tests, necessity kits, pet food, information and a free meal were given out at no cost to the attendees and their animals.
Executive Director Jay Matchett said the attendance has grown over the course of 10 months and they had 30 homeless people attend the fair. He added they have seen repeat visitors, which indicates they have found a benefit from attending the event.
The partnership to put on the event stemmed from and idea from a past city intern. After research was collected and analyzed, the need was clear to city officials that the Sierra Vista community could benefit from a resource fair.
Initially, the event was put on a four-month pilot to see how it would be received and it was later extended by another four months after the initial pilot.
In 10 months, Cochise Housing Connection, Inc. has had 131 completed applications for services and had provided 580 free meals to those in need.
Matchett said Tuesday that the city received funding to extend the program and the event through 2026.
While Matchett expected the target audience for the event to be the homeless population, he was surprised by some of the event's patrons. He said that most of the homeless that comes through the doors are women and roughly half of the women that visit are mothers.
Matchett added by catching the homeless mothers, the organizations who support the event aren't just helping one person, they are helping a whole family. And the sooner the mother and the family receives the resources they need, the sooner they can be in a better situation and the less trauma the children are exposed to.
Matchett said he is looking for volunteers to help run the events.
If you are interested in volunteering or would like more information you can contact the executive director via the contact page here.
The resource fair is held the first Tuesday of every month from 10 am to 3 pm at 2950 E Tacoma St. in Sierra Vista.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
