It wasn’t so long ago that Chris Collins was homeless on the streets of Lawrence, so incapacitated by depression that he couldn’t keep a job or function well around other people.

Collins was saved, he said, by assistance from many of the agencies that serve the homeless here: Community Drop-In Center, Salvation Army, Independence Inc. and others. Those agencies helped him find treatment for depression and assisted him in getting off the streets into Section 8 housing.

“They helped me know I’m not alone,” Collins said Tuesday, during a “town meeting” on homelessness at Trinity Lutheran Church. “There was hope for me … and when I started out, I had no hope.”

Collins was one of several success stories featured Tuesday at the meeting, sponsored by the Lawrence Coalition on Homeless Concerns. The meeting was aimed at getting the sometimes-divided community of social service providers to start working more closely.

“That was my goal, to get everyone together and get the dialogue going,” said Steve Ozark, co-chairman of the coalition. “I think there’s too much negativity and finger-pointing.”

Negativity wasn’t entirely absent from Tuesday’s meeting. One homeless man yelled an obscenity when Collins praised the Lawrence Housing Authority. And some of the homeless challenged social service agencies to do a better job.

“Why is it we have over 50 social services agencies in Douglas County, yet our numbers grow daily?” asked Dyall Leewright, who is homeless. He said people who are homeless must demand employment opportunities and affordable housing in Lawrence.

“We have not required a solution,” Leewright said.

More than 50 people, many homeless, attended the meeting.

From left, City Commissioner Mike Rundle, Sandi Kelly and Mark Kemberling talk before the town meeting on homelessness at Trinity Lutheran Church, 1245 N.H. At least 50 people attended Tuesday's meeting, many of them homeless.

“The coalition is really trying to make a difference,” said Tami Clark, coalition vice chairwoman and director of the drop-in center. “We need everybody here to make a difference.”

The next meeting of the coalition will be 3 p.m. Feb. 10 at Victory Bible Church, 1942 Mass.

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