By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — Kathy Neirinckx believes much of our fight against homelessness comes down to perspective.

"I'm not wealthy by any means, but sometimes I get the feeling that I have so much," she said. "Many of us have so much, but there are people who have so little."

The Coeur d'Alene woman was among roughly 1,200 people who enjoyed samples of 43 soups made by representatives of churches, businesses and agencies for the eighth annual Souport the End of Homelessness fundraiser for St. Vincent de Paul's warming centers Thursday at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. The event raised about $15,000.

"I love soup — I didn't even get to taste them all — and St. Vincent is my charity of choice," Neirinckx said. "The warming shelters are really needed, and we're getting into that season."

Neirinckx said she has a heart to help those who are not as fortunate.

When she learned that a man and his dog were headed to a bridge to sleep under, she provided money to him and pointed him toward places that allow dogs. She also brought blankets to Thursday's event for the warming shelters.

She's proud of communities throughout Kootenai County for supporting the fight against homelessness.

"We really are a giving community," she said. "We've gotten awful big, but we still haven't lost that touch."

Post Falls Police won the Best Booth Award by erecting the "PFPD Jail" built by Lee and Jake Holbrook, husband and son respectively of employee Charlene Holbrook, and Northwest Body and Paint.

The setup made for great photo ops of the attendees.

"Our whole purpose is to help fight

homelessness and we wanted the chief (Scot Haug) to go out with a bang," said Assistant Chief Pat Knight, adding the chief will retire in April.

St. Vincent operates warming shelters in Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene. The Post Falls shelter opens when the temperature dips to 28 degrees or colder and, if it fills up, the one in Coeur d'Alene opens.

Last winter at least one of the shelters was open for 88 nights.

Barb Smalley, St. Vincent's development director, said she hopes shelters are not as busy this winter, but homelessness isn't going away.

"We're seeing a lot of people living on the edge," she said. "We're losing a lot of the middle class. It's certainly an ongoing problem, and the reason you don't see a lot on the street is because St. Vincent and others give them a hand up so they can help themselves."

Pam Houser, community relations director for Heritage Health, which operates a mobile clinic to help the homeless, said local agencies coordinate to combat the issue.

"Kootenai County does a great job with partnerships — several partners coming up with one solution," she said.