A Gift for World Homeless Day: PeaceHealth Deepens Its Commitment to The Way Station
Thirty years. That's how much shorter a life can be without stable housing.
Almost two years ago, The Way Station Health & Hygiene Center opened with the intention of closing that gap. Showers, laundry, walk-in medical and mental health care, and respite beds for people recovering from a medical event, all in one place, aimed at interrupting the cycles that shorten lives.
This World Homeless Day, October 10, PeaceHealth is kicking off a community-wide giving campaign with a $30,000 community benefit grant in support of The Way Station Health & Hygiene program.
Rachel Lucy, community health director at PeaceHealth said:
“The Way Station Health & Hygiene Center has exceeded expectations serving many more individuals than originally estimated. Services offered at The Way Station go a long ways toward restoring dignity and filling a local gap in access. We’re a proud partner.”
A Partner From the Beginning
PeaceHealth isn't new to The Way Station. It's one of the four founding collaborators, alongside Unity Care NW, Opportunity Council, and Whatcom County Health and Community Services, that spent seven years planning the center before it opened in late 2024.
Their partnership shows up most directly in funding of 16 medical respite beds on-site, available for anyone discharging from PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center who needs a period of rest and recuperation after a hospitalization. For someone experiencing homelessness, "respite" usually isn't an option. There's nowhere to rest, keep a wound clean, or follow up with a provider. These beds exist to offer a real chance to heal.
A Place to Land
The respite program, operated by Opportunity Council with funding support from PeaceHealth, is built for a different need than the hygiene center and walk-in clinic next door. Guests recovering from a medical event get three meals a day, medication reminders, a bed, and a quiet place to rest, along with their own separate showers and laundry.
Once a guest is back on their feet, The Way Station's Health & Hygiene Center, run by Unity Care NW, is right there: walk-in medical and mental health care, substance use disorder counseling, hot showers, laundry, and restroom access, no appointment required.
"There's not a long wait to get in," says Mikel, lead Intake Coordinator at The Way Station. "We can do anything a primary care visit would do."
That ongoing access is what keeps a preventable infection from becoming an emergency room visit, and what keeps someone connected to care instead of falling out of it the moment they leave a respite bed.
That kind of ongoing access adds up. Anne, an Intake Coordinator at The Way Station, recently ran into a former guest while on a coffee run. He'd been unhoused for twenty or thirty years and had just moved into his own apartment. "It is so nice just standing in my kitchen," he told her. "It’s like oh wow, I have a kitchen now." Anne doesn't credit any single visit or service for that outcome. "That was all of us," she says, "over time."
Since opening, The Way Station has provided over 20,000 showers and connected nearly 2,000 guests to care.
You Can Help
PeaceHealth is starting off this campaign, but increasing the healthy years of life for people who are unhoused takes a community of people who care. A monthly gift to The Way Station Health & Hygiene Center is one of the strongest ways to be part of it. Your donation funds hot showers, clean clothes, and walk-in care for our unhoused neighbors, all year long, not just on World Homeless Day. Why give monthly?
Your ongoing donations add up over time to make big impacts
Regular gifts, that Unity Care NW can depend on, allow the ability to plan ahead and respond to urgent needs without hesitation
As a monthly donor, you join others as a partner in change - lifting up our community together
Every gift, big or small, helps fund the same life-changing services that PeaceHealth's grant supports: showers, laundry, and walk-in medical appointments that give people experiencing homelessness a real chance to get healthy, get stable, and get years of their life back.
Learn more about The Way Station at unitycarenw.org/the-way-station/.
