Before:
One of, if not the most vulnerable community in Olympia is the homeless population. According to Thurston County Public Health and Social Services’ 2024 Point-in-Time Count Homeless Census (PIT), as of January 2024, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Thurston County was 952. 332 participants of PIT 2024 identified as households with children, while 614 identified as households without children. However, the data only counts for the person taking the survey. If the data is accounted for all family members individually, the number of individuals within the households with children category would surpass the number of households without children. Thurston County has a program called the Coordinated Entry System, an extensive intake program that aims to connect individuals experiencing homelessness or at the risk of becoming homeless to existing shelters and/or housing resources in Thurston County. There are several night shelters in Thurston County, including the Union Gospel Mission that serves individual adults, and Rosie’s Place that serves youth ages 18-24. Family Support Center of South Sound is an Olympia-based nonprofit that seeks to provide families with coordinated support services to combat homelessness. The Thurston County Office of Housing and Homeless Prevention (OHHP). The OHHP is a fuding agency that distributes local, state, and federal funds. There are several food banks in Olympia, such as the Thurston County Food Bank and Tenino Food Bank Plus.
After:
On April 14th 2025, disaster strikes Olympia and the rest of the world. Earthquakes of supernatural origins leave Thurston County a ruin. Olympia is cut off from the rest of the world via a living forest and an endless sea that leads people trying to leave the city right back to it. The event itself would affect the homeless population by the likely destruction of homeless shelters. Presumably like most buildings in the area, emergency shelters would be destroyed, leaving those experiencing homelessness with less reliable and safe shelters. All services or programs with federal funding would be cut off from said funding, including the Thurston County Office of Housing and Homeless Prevention and food banks. Programs that aim to connect individuals with housing resources would go down in the apocalypse, leaving individuals experiencing homelessness without assistance.