April Arnwine shook her head and laughed as she described her family as stubborn.
“We don’t like to ask for help,” she said, sitting next to her blonde, 10-year-old daughter.
The pair sat in metal folding chairs at the Project Homeless Connect event on Friday morning as Arnwine waited to have a tooth pulled from the right side of her mouth. She had been waiting for years to have the troublesome tooth pulled and to be able to chew on the right side of her mouth.
Project Homeless Connect, an annual event sponsored by Metropolitan Ministries, is a one-stop shop for the homeless population in Chattanooga. People walk, ride bikes and take buses to the event every year because it offers everything from dental care and HIV testing to clothes, food, job services and CARTA bus passes.
Arnwine, whose family has been homeless for about five months, said the event is perfect for people like them because they don’t have to ask for help — it’s offered.