FUSION’s annual summer gala fundraiser returns on Aug. 7, this time featuring the theme “Whimsical Wonderland.”

Guests get to enjoy entertainment, dinner, auctions and more with a reminder of the core reason for fundraising — helping unsheltered families with children become self-sufficient through services that are tailored to meet the unique needs of each family.

At every intake with a new family at FUSION, staff discuss self-identified barriers and gets help to create plans for how to overcome them.

“We want to provide services to the family that they need, not just a blanket approach that everyone’s going to respond to,” said David Harrison, executive director of FUSION. He described the nonprofit’s model as tailoring what they do based on the individual family’s needs, instead of “trying to force you into accepting our services.”

FUSION was founded in 1993 and owns 25 transitional homes in King and Pierce counties as well as a 90-bed emergency shelter.

Overcoming barriers

One barrier that FUSION staff are seeing more than ever is eviction debt, Harrison said. During the height of COVID-19, eviction moratoriums helped many people stay housed who lost the ability to pay rent, but didn’t protect them from incurring debt.

“Some of these families are paying $100 a month toward a $50,000 debt. They’re never going to pay that off,” Harrison said.

In some cases, declaring bankruptcy is a way out for families in this situation, but even that requires legal guidance. Where FUSION comes in is in connecting families to free legal help when they can, helping them find resources to help pay off that debt or even working with the landlord they owe money to in order to negotiate a lower lump sum.

Even if a family can afford rent, having that eviction debt is almost a guarantee that no landlord will consider them, and making enough income to pay off that debt on their own is extra challenging without income, Harrison said.

Transportation is another barrier that families often express when entering FUSION’s programs. Even though public transportation is available, the coverage and timing of buses is often not conducive to the many responsibilities they are trying to balance.

“While we can get you an Orca pass and a bus schedule, it’s just time, it’s not convenient timing to get to daycare, then to work, to an appointment, back to daycare in time,” Harrison said.

Due to donations from community members, Harrison said they now have four vehicles that they can lend to guests at the family center who have a license and insurance, and they are always looking for more cars to add to this fleet.

Another challenge can be gaining steady employment.

“We try and tell our clients, don’t do DoorDash, don’t do Uber. Most apartment buildings would not accept that gig income as income,” Harrison said.

As one resource to combat this issue, FUSION launched a job skill training program in 2024 called TABLE (formerly FEEST). TABLE stands for Transforming And Building Lives through Employment and “builds on how the history of how FUSION got started – at Peggy’s kitchen table,” Harrison said, referring to Peggy LaPorte, one of the founders of FUSION.

TABLE is run through Poverty Bay Cafe and provides hands-on training in food and customer service skills while also providing steady income and a solid work reference.

The program has had two graduates so far and has another person in the program now. Starting with a goal of 10 a year, they are also looking at how they can expand it to partner with other industries aside from food service like trade and apprenticeship programs.

Volunteers and support

FUSION’s programming and offerings are shaped by the barriers identified by the people they serve, but also by what is offered by volunteers who step up to support FUSION.

This year several new programs were created, including in-house resume review, financial counseling, mental health counseling, yoga and activities to promote self-care and calming techniques. Free haircuts are even being offered by new barbers through the Life’s Style’s Barber Academy.

These programs came from volunteers who offered their skills and ideas to help create these additional holistic supports.

“When you step back and look at homelessness from a holistic view, the solution is always a holistic approach. It’s not just that we need to build more housing, it’s not just that we need to have more money for mental health,” Harrison said. “It’s yes — and more.”

There are many ways to get involved in problems or needs that you see in your community, Harrison said. FUSION has been grateful this year to have more volunteers who want to share their time, money, experience or resources, he said.

“People want to get involved but they don’t know how. Surprisingly, one way you can do it is just share the story with somebody else when homelessness comes up,” Harrison said.

He said it also is very important to help those around you understand what homelessness actually is.

“I don’t want the perception of homelessness to just be the one guy I see every day on the corner,” Harrison said.

Within the complex nature of homelessness, another avenue FUSION is looking at in the future is finding ways to apply their success with families to other segments of the population.

“Single adults have different needs, so do youth and young adults,” Harrison said.

This focus on the differing needs of children and adults is present in their current work.

“If you want to have them grow up to be healthy adults they need to have healthy childhoods,” Harrison said of the children who stay at FUSION. “We’re always looking for more stuff for kids to get them out of that 256 square foot room that they’re staying in.”

To help with this, FUSION hosts activities like an upcoming Adventure Camp in August as well as barbecue and pool days, outings and more.

In 2023, FUSION operated 22 transitional housing units that gave shelter to a total of 36 families during the year. FUSION also achieved a 100% success rate of returning families to permanent housing after leaving their transitional housing program.

Through the Pete Andersen FUSION Family Center, the nonprofit has served 221 families in 2023, and 70 families found permanent housing. Their average stay at the family center in 2024 was about 82 days as of May. The Finally Home Fund is another program that helps families find permanent housing, which “disbursed over $49,000 to 58 families for application fees, first month’s rent, utility deposits and other immediate expenses for moving into permanent housing in 2023,” according to an annual report.

While FUSION’s programs are seeing success, “we’re still seeing huge demand. I mean it’s just nonstop emails and phone calls all day long,” Harrison said.

Gala info

FUSION’s summer arts gala fundraiser, themed “Whimsical Wonderland,” is coming up 5 p.m. Aug. 7. The event features food, live and silent auctions and more. For tickets, visit fusionhousing.org.

FUSION founder Peggy LaPorte speaks at the 2023 gala, which raises money every year to benefit homeless families in the Federal Way area. Mirror file photo

FUSION’s 2023 summer gala was held Aug. 2 at Dumas Bay Centre. The theme was “A Tropical Paradise.” Mirror file photo

Poverty Bay Cafe and Bakery has been a staple in Federal Way for many years, but came under the ownership of FUSION in April 2023. The new Food Education and Job Training program will soon provide job skills training to a few people at a time who join the staff to level up their employment skills. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang/The Mirror

Jonathan Verbiscar and wife Lori Kline at the Fred Meyer where they now work together. Jonathan is the first graduate from FUSION’s new job skills program, which helped him secure his job and find more stability for the couple and their daughter. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang/The Mirror