Founder of Phoenix nonprofit can relate to the homeless she helps

PHOENIX — The founder of a Phoenix nonprofit organization is working to aid the homeless community that she once was a part of.

Pamela Williams founded Journey Out of Homelessness after she spent nearly two years without a home herself.

“I was in a car accident and out here, Arizona is not a social state. They care more about animals than they do people, in my opinion,” Williams told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Gaydos and Chad Show.

“When I couldn’t afford to pay my rent anymore, I was evicted.”

With help from church members, she said she was able to stay in extended homes, while also bouncing from residence to residence with her family.

“When I received my little settlement money for the accident, I got a place to stay and I started giving back and that’s what I’ve been doing for five years,” Williams said.

Her mission is to teach individuals — some of whom have been priced out of housing — financial literacy, educating them about credit and providing shelter in transitional homes.

“We’re focusing on the individuals who had circumstances happen in their lives like I did and want to be out of that bad situation,” Williams said.

“It’s all geared around money. If you don’t have the finances, then you can’t make it.”

On Saturday, her organization anticipates feeding 400 people at “the Zone,” an area south of Jefferson Street between Ninth and 13th avenues.

“We’re making 400 sandwiches on Friday and preparing to take all the clothes and jewelry and toiletries and whatever was donated to us down to the Zone for those people,” she said.

This weekend’s event will be the second the organization has brought to the zone this year. Williams anticipates two more this year.

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