Change is never easy. But for Morgan Wasikonis, this change is for the good.
Wasikonis was recently promoted to executive director at Housing Transitions in State College. Previously, she was the development and community relations coordinator.
Wasikonis sat in the conference room at Housing Transitions and talked about her new role.
“I think the focus is definitely different,” Wasikonis said of the changing title. “Right now I am in development and community relations. I am very focued on the fundraising aspect of things, holding fundraising event and I do a lot of reaching out to the community. I’ll continue to do those things, but there will be added duties.”
As executive director, Wasikonis becomes the face of Housing Transitions. She will replace Ron Quinn, who will be retiring this month after serving as executive director since 1999. Wasikonis was selected by a search committee composed of board members and interested community representatives.
According to Wasikonis, Housing Transitions plays an important role in Centre County.
“We provide a wide variety of services to help guide people toward a more stable living environment,” she said. “It’s people who are in the midst of a housing crisis … whether they are experiencing homelessness, are at risk to become homeless or know that there is some big change that is coming in their life that needs to be addressed.”
Housing Transitions has grown, starting as a place that just provided emergency overnight shelter, to now offering a number of housing-related services to Centre County residents. Housing Transitions has Centre House at its disposal. The shelter was created by a task force of community members in 1984 to address a concern for a demand for emergency housing services.
“Centre House is the only shelter in Centre County that is available for men, women and children. It’s open 24/7 and it’s the only one that addresses that population,” Wasikonis said.
In an area where there is very little affordable housing, homelessness is a big problem, according to Wasikonis.
“A lot of homlessness is hidden. There are a lot of people doing what we call ‘couch surfing.’ They stay with different people and hope that their welcome will not run out. Numbers may not be changing, but there are challenges. People who live from paycheck to paycheck … any change in their life can cause a (homeless) situation.”
Housing Transitions operates with a staff of just seven full-time employees. Wasikonis said that the staff takes a lot of pride in what they do because they are helping Centre County residents who might find themselves in an unfortunate situation.
“There are a few people who are unsheltered or street homeless, but there’s not a lot. That gives the impression that we don’t have that problem here. But there are so many people from different areas in our community who are on the verge of having some serious crisis going on. It’s really important to be able to address those issues and keep our community in a good place.”
Those who don’t know exactly what Housing Transitions does, are not alone, Wasikonis said. There are many people confused by the services it offers.
“We’re not just a drop-in shelter. People can’t come and go as they please. It’s a program, so people have responsibilities, rules that they follow and they set goals with a case manager. We provide a lot of intensive case management to help people get to a better place.”
Wasikonis is passionate about what she does. That helped make her an obvious choice to succeed Quinn as the executive director. She knows that going from a development and community relations coordinator to executive director will mean a lot more work on her plate.
“It’s going to be a lot more hours,” she said. “I’m very excited about, though. It’s definitely going to use different strengths than I am using right now, which is great.”
