Exhibit at Blue Ridge Community College works to build compassion for issue of housing insecurity

WEYERS CAVE — As a child, Colleen Pendry was never sure when she walked in the front door after school if she would have to pack up her belongings and move. One of five children raised by a single mom, Pendry and her family never had a place they could call home. Paying rent was always a struggle and when her mom didn't have the money landlords had little patience.

"There's this constant moving," she said. "Never settling."

Now, Pendry works at Blue Ridge Community College, wearing many hats. She's an adjunct professor, the school's co-diversity officer and a Title IX coordinator, among other titles. When she was approached about possibly displaying a photo exhibit entitled "This is Home" about housing insecurity, she was on board immediately. She had lived the life displayed in the exhibit and she knew students at the school had also.

"These stories are stories of our students," Pendry said. "We have students living in their cars. We have students with their parents living in hotels. We know this."

Pendry likes a phrase she once heard — the shortest distance between two people is a story. A lot of people like to keep those stories hidden, but she thinks it's important to share them with the community. She wanted to share this photo exhibit with the BRCC school community.

Since early January the photos have been hanging in the Houff Student Center at the school.

The exhibit was created by the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge and photographer Kate Simon. The organization distributes grants, scholarships, and awards to numerous organizations and individuals each year in Staunton, Waynesboro, and the counties of Augusta, Highland, and Nelson.

This past November, the Community Foundation celebrated its 30th anniversary, but instead of holding an event to pat itself on the back, officials wanted to use the opportunity to make a difference. They researched various issues in the community, but one kept resurfacing — housing insecurity.

Housing is the number one expense in every household and those with the Community Foundation felt that if there was one place they could make a difference it was by throwing their time and attention behind that particular issue.

"That's what led us to the front gate of this project and other work that we're doing around housing," said Dan Layman, the president and CEO of the Community Foundation.

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Calls to the Valley Homeless Connection's helpline in 2022 revealed some troubling numbers for those experiencing housing insecurity in the cities of Waynesboro, Staunton and Lexington, and the counties of Augusta, Rockbridge and Highland.

Those in need of housing assistance totaled 1,422 people, including 260 children. There were 490 calls from people not staying in places meant for human habitation, 138 living in hotels, and 357 who experienced a history of domestic violence.

​"There are all of these needs that we see every day in our community," said the Foundation's Miriam Burrows, "but they keep pointing back to if you do not have a roof over your head, how could you possibly move forward and address any of the other needs that are in this community?"

The "This is Home" project, which is not only a photo exhibit but a series of podcasts, came out of interviews being done by Chris Lassiter, who was hired as the Foundation's community engagement director in January 2022. A former journalist, Lassiter did what reporters do — meet with people and ask them their story.

"At that time, the exhibit was not even a concept," Layman said. "But Chris would come back and say, 'I've got to tell you about who I just met,' and 'I've got to tell you their story.' And he got us excited about the potential for sharing these stories more broadly."

Around the same time, Lassiter started listening to an NPR podcast about housing insecurity in Las Vegas. With the 30th anniversary of the Community Foundation approaching, the idea of the local project began to develop.

"We decided that because we had already recorded so many housing insecurity stories for in-house use, what if we brought our photographer friend and colleague Kate Simon to tell the local housing insecurity story through photos," Lassiter said.

Simon felt a personal connection to the project because she had experienced some of the situations being discussed in her own childhood. She worked to get photos of not only those currently experiencing housing insecurity, but of those who have survived it — Lassiter calls those the redemption stories — and those helping find solutions.

One of those people in the latter group is Allison Henry, an outreach worker with the Valley Community Services Board. Lassiter and Simon took a trip to a homeless encampment in Waynesboro with Henry.

"She was one of the people that we were allowed to photograph her face," Simon said of Henry. "A lot of what brings people in and what grabs their attention is your eyes, seeing the eyes. They say the window to the soul and so you could really see her dedication, her compassion in her face."

Then Burrows created the website to house the photos and the podcasts and everything just came together. The website is linked off of the Community Foundation's site at cfcbr.org.

"We did 12 photo sessions," Simon said. "We're not done. That's not even the tip of the iceberg. That's just like a couple of individual stories that we felt like could represent all of the pieces, but there are so many in between."

The vision behind the exhibit, according to Layman, is to educate the community about the people experiencing housing insecurity and their needs. He said communities usually go about addressing these needs by throwing money at it, but that's seldom rooted in compassion.

"Let's first grow that compassion as we begin pulling together partners for thinking about what the solutions need to be," Layman said.

Pendry sees this project reaching far beyond the Shenandoah Valley.

"It's phenomenal, but it doesn't stop here," she said. "I could so see this exhibition as a road show to every single community college in the system. That's 23. And I'll drive."

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— Patrick Hite is The News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Exhibit at Blue Ridge Community College focused on housing insecurity issue