By KATE POSS
Special to The Record
Seven years ago, a South Whidbey woman enrolled in a substance abuse treatment program. She was homeless. Her five children lived with her sister. She hoped to be eventually reunited with them.
The following year, the young mother, who was in her 30s at the time, received help that changed her life.
“By 2017, I was clean,” Tanya Stager-Gran recalled in a recent interview. “We were placed in the House of Hope. We lived there four months with my husband and five children.”
Stager-Gran’s experiences and a passion for helping others led her to the Whidbey Homeless Coalition, which runs the House of Hope. She was named executive director last month and, on June 15, she was honored for “selfless service” by the Whidbey Westside Rotary International Club.
Langley’s House of Hope opened on Memorial Day of 2015. It offers shelter for families and single adults who are homeless or severely at risk of becoming homeless. In Stager-Gran’s case, she and her family lived in one room. It was there that she found the “hand up” she needed to move on with life. The House of Hope is part of the Whidbey Homeless Coalition’s program to support the unhoused; it also operates the Haven in Oak Harbor.
After sheltering at the House of Hope, Stager-Gran and her family found housing in Freeland with the help of Faith Wilder, a co-founder and past president of the Whidbey Homeless Coalition.
“I had a really overwhelming sense of support and advocacy,” Stager-Gran said. “I found my community through the House of Hope. When I left, I had the burning question, ‘How could I provide that support to others?’”
She began talking with people who struggled with getting their lives back on track.
“As a mentor, I worked with others with substance abuse issues, and helped facilitate, recover and stabilize their lives to move forward,” Stager-Gran recalled. “(This work) opened the doors and ignited my passion.”
From being homeless to running the program that helped get her back on her feet, Stager-Gran received support and encouragement along the way.
“She’s the most amazing young person,” said Judy Thorslund, who co-founded and served as past president of the Whidbey Homeless Coalition. “I’ve watched her take living at the House of Hope and she rose up like a star. She has taken on the whole ball of wax.”
When she was younger, Stager-Gran fell into an unhealthy lifestyle that she realized had to change. Thorslund was part of her metamorphic transition.
Impressed by Stager-Gran’s newfound strength and ability to truly connect with troubled folks in the wake of getting clean and sober, Thorslund invited the young woman to join the Homeless Coalition Board. Thorslund mentioned how both she and Stager-Gran were helped by Alcoholics Anonymous.
“AA echoes the belief that the addict and alcoholic’s pain is so great that when they get their life back, they want to give back,” Thorslund said.
In her new role as executive director of the Whidbey Homeless Coalition, Stager-Gran coordinates fundraising, donor retention, finances, public and community engagement. But it’s helping the folks who need the services that remains her priority.
“My heart is in working with guests in the program,” she noted. “I follow through with case management. It’s the reason why I do this job.”
Stager-Gran’s whole family helps her, whether it’s arranging sleeping cots and food at the Haven shelter in Oak Harbor, lending a hand with the new tiny homes residents, or meeting with “guests.”
Stager-Gran joined the Whidbey Westside Rotary International Club two years ago in its drive to support the annual Point in Time count of homeless people.
The Rotary coordinates getting donations of food, blankets, clothes and toiletries to distribute for the count.
“I fell in love with them,” Stager-Gran said of her work with the Rotary. “I saw I could be the lead. I enjoyed having the community come together. Watching people progress. Seeing people get service. People who need mental health professionals. Giving the helping hand. Seeing the potential.”
Her willingness to be a part of peoples’ lives during their toughest times prompted Gwen Jones, past president of the Rotary Club, and representative of the Rotary Foundation, to choose Stager-Gran as this year’s recipient for the club’s Service Above Self Award.
The Rotary donated $1,000 to the Whidbey Homeless Coalition in recognition of the young woman’s selfless work.
From left, Tanya Stager-Gran, Rotary Club volunteer Spring Roehm and John Joynt, former president of the Whidbey Westside Rotary Club, met with Island County’s unhoused population during the annual Point in Time count.
