16. What are the Funding Sources for Homeless Service Providers?

This week on The HOME Team Podcast, Carl Falconer and Danny Arroyo break down a question we hear all the time: Where does funding for homeless service providers actually come from?

We walk through the major funding categories that keep housing and supportive services running—government grants, philanthropy, corporate support, healthcare reimbursement, earned income/social enterprise, and capital/emergency funds—and why the healthiest nonprofits typically rely on a mix rather than just one source.

In our Offense vs. Defense segment, we debate:
Should funders make it easier for providers to access funding?
We cover the pros (speed, flexibility, innovation, reduced burnout) and the concerns (accountability, coordination, and limited resources).

Plus in our football quarter:

• Bears win big, Cowboys struggle
• NFL community spotlight: athlete-led holiday giving
• Locks of the Week updates
• Homelessness MVP: free veterinary care for unhoused pets and their owners
• Fumble of the Week: another cold-weather encampment eviction

Produced by Gigi Ramirez and Jay Falconer. Music and Sound Design by Kwon.

Please send any questions or comments to: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠questions@pathlighthome.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome to the Home Team Podcast. I'm Carl Falconer and I'm Danny Arroy, and we're tackling homelessness.

SPEAKER_07 0:20

Today in our podcast, we will discuss two of our passions, football and ending homelessness. Please join us through four quarters with our topic this week being what are the funding sources for homeless service providers?

SPEAKER_03 0:34

So, how's your weekend? Weekend was good. Weekend was good. Uh my bears, one again. How about that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They keep rolling.

SPEAKER_07 0:41

Great way to start the podcast. Great way to start the podcast. Great way to start the week.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Yeah. Um, let me see what I do. Um I think I just hung out primarily, I think. Uh yeah, had some uh family in town. So they went to Disney. I stayed home with the two dogs.

SPEAKER_07 0:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Um and you know, hung out with them. So it was pretty chill.

unknown 1:02

Cool.

SPEAKER_07 1:02

Yeah, I didn't do much either. I just hung out. I think we got ready for our vacation that's coming up. Uh so we just started packing, cruising. Yeah, getting things together. Uh so quiet day at home uh for the weekend wasn't nothing crazy. So yeah, good, good, good. Yeah, like I said, we don't have much to do on the weekends other than football.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

That's right. Yeah. All right, so we'll kick it off as we usually do uh with the coin toss. And Danny, go ahead and call it in the air. Uh Tails.

SPEAKER_07 1:32

It is Tails. Okay, perfect. So welcome to our first quarter. I'm going to kick off by defining our topic of the week, and then we will cover some headlines and announce the results from last week's home team locks of the week. So, as we mentioned earlier, the topic is what are the funding sources for homeless service providers? So, homeless service providers rely on a mix of public, private, and earned income funding sources to operate. The exact blend varies by location, availability, and organization size. But the main categories are consistent. They include government funding, which are federal, national, state, and local grants and contracts. These are typically larger grants and often can fund complex programs with multiple services, even without other funding sources. But they often come with more restrictions. Philanthropy, foundations, individuals' donors, faith-based organizations, uh, faith-based giving. Uh, these funding sources have the greatest variance in size as well as options for providers. Typically, each one has a single focus on what they want to support. Corporate support, grants, sponsorships, and in-kind donations. These grants are typically harder to receive and often rely on relationships an agency has with a specific funder. Healthcare reimbursement, Medicaid or health assist payments for services like case management and behavioral health. These often do not fund housing, but they can fund very expensive medical services. They also usually require professional certificates and licenses to obtain earned incomes such as thrift stores, service service fees, or social enterprises. These require nonprofit agencies to switch their thinking to a profit mindset to thrive, but can be a great way for a nonprofit to be less dependent on other sources of funding over time. And finally, capital or emergency funds. These are one-time grants for buildings or crisis response. Yeah. So we dabble a little bit in all of these, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

I mean, uh, yeah, here at Pathlight Home, we have just about all of these. I guess maybe the healthcare reimbursement is probably the one that we're not as much into, but we don't provide healthcare directly here.

SPEAKER_05 3:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Um, but our partners, our partner providers that come in definitely uh use those services or use those funding sources. Yes, uh a lot of these, like we said, um have different restrictions, different types, different, you know, uh amounts that you can write for, things like that. Um obviously the capital is one that we use pretty regularly because we have not only older buildings, but we're always trying to look for new housing units, trying to look for things like that and build upon what we have already for the infrastructure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 4:17

Like we said, yeah, we dabble a little bit in everything. I mean, the earn income one with the thrift store and our social enterprises. Um but yeah, the government funding one, I mean, those are good for those big projects that we have to kind of rehab some of our, like you said, their old um properties, so there's always something that needs to be fixed. That's true. Um on the part, whether it's a roof or whether it's windows or you know, HVACs. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

Yeah, the the the other thing about the funding sources is for the community out there at large who is not familiar with our system, there's a lot of acronyms that go along with these. So when you hear us talking in acronyms, CDBG, that's community development block grant, ESG, that's emergency solutions grant, you know, HUD, COC, all of these different things. These are funding sources usually. Right. That's usually what we're talking about with most of these things, um, even FEMA and you know, other things like that. But most of the time that's what that's what we're trying to, that's what we're talking about, right? Is the different funding sources that are out there and things like that.

SPEAKER_07 5:21

So and we'll get a little bit more into kind of the funding sources we have and utilize them and things.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

So yeah, and I think the biggest thing to for people to understand, and even homeless service providers understand, is that you should have a mix of these things. Now, depending on what your service is and depending on how you're trying to run your programs, it will vary which one you should or should not have more of. But you know, I've seen it all over the place. Some people rely really heavily on philanthropy, some people rely really heavily on government funding. Um, a lot of the faith-based organizations go more towards the philanthropy, particularly the individual donors, that type of stuff.

SPEAKER_07 6:03

Um yeah, I think also, too, if you're going to take some type of funding, does it align with what you're trying to do? That's right. You don't want to provide something that you're just not gonna meet the goals, you're not gonna be able to spend the dollars. So you gotta make sure that what you apply for, you're looking for in in every sector is what you do. That's right. Unless you want to like expand. Like we've done new services that weren't done before, which is good, but we just have to have a plan in place and make sure that you know those dollars because it's hard to get those new grants when it's a new program.

SPEAKER_05 6:31

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 6:31

It's very, very hard to sell what is it that you're gonna do, and because they usually ask for type some type of show me some data of what you've done or and we're like, no, we're new. Right. So like, yeah, maybe not this year, maybe not this year. Um, but again, if they give us a chance, we can show you know the success that we've had with some of our programs.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

And and again, in our vernacular, they call that chasing the money. I mean, and you you never as a nonprofit want to chase the money. You want to make sure it stays true to your mission. And again, like you said, it doesn't mean that you can't add services or you can't add things, but you really want to stay close to what your core is because otherwise then you get into another term we use, which is called mission creep, which is where you've decided you're gonna do everything in the world. You know, we talked about the healthcare reimbursement and how we don't do that, it's because that's not what our main mission is here, although we're building a wellness center or rehabbing a wellness center to bring other providers in and let them do more of the healthcare.

SPEAKER_07 7:28

Yeah, and you have to also look at, and again, we'll talk more about it, but you have to also look at what happens when the grant ends.

SPEAKER_03 7:33

That's right.

SPEAKER_07 7:34

Can you continue that service? It usually comes with staffing. Can you cover the staff? So you know, there's been organizations I've seen that get a bunch of grants, and then at the end they're like, well, we can't fund this, we can't fund that, and that's that's kind of harning for um for staff.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Well, and that's another good point to bring up about most of these sources, maybe other than maybe the earned income are time limited. Correct. Is that they give you the funding, but it's it's finite. It goes for a certain amount of time or a certain amount of funding, and usually that's the end of it. Or you have to reapply or get renewals, or you know, all kinds of complications with these things. The earned income one, that's what makes that so valuable, I think, to the nonprofits, is because they're basically earning their own income, and as long as they can keep that stream going, then they have a uh stream of funding that is significant and steady. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_07 8:30

Yeah, so great.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

All right. Well, now let's take a look at some of the headlines from the homeless world. Uh Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols announced the official launch of the Oklahoma Homeless Youth Handbook. The virtual guide provides young people with access to information about their rights and the resources available to them. The homeless youth handbook was launched with the help of several partners, including the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Williams and HP Inc., and more. Mayor Nichols stated on social media this work directly aligns with our work to support youth and end homelessness in Tulsa. As we have come to learn, homelessness is not a one-agency issue. It takes all of us working together to coordinate care and reduce barriers. That's great.

SPEAKER_07 9:22

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and again, we've seen an increase in youth homelessness, um, you know, especially during the pig count last year. Absolutely. Um, so it's I'm glad that they're addressing it and kind of going head on with it. Because again, these youth that's out there, it's they don't know what to do. You know, no, you're exactly right. They're lost. They just need guidance and someone to you know give them a hand.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

So well, and we talk about that often here is that a lot of the people that we're serving have been in our system for a long time. But when you're a youth and you're first new to the system, or if you're older and you're first new to the system, whenever you're new to the system, it helps to have a resource guide, it helps to have you know some information about what you can access and what you should be doing or what you could be doing to help yourself get out of that situation. So I'm glad that they put this together for them. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 10:11

All right, so let's see how cowboys and bears did this week. All right. I'm gonna let you go first because you're fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

All right, so my Bears played the Browns this weekend and finally did what they should be doing. Danny, they didn't give me a heart attack this time. 31 to 3. They beat the Browns soundly and uh they put it all together, basically. They had almost the perfect game. They had their offense clicking, they had their defense clicking. And like I told you before, we got ahead immediately and stayed ahead. And then our defense kicked in and it really you know picked up the momentum.

SPEAKER_07 10:52

It makes that fourth quarter a little easier for your defense and yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:56

Yes, absolutely. And the fans, let me tell you. It was at home, it was at home. Yes, absolutely. So it was a really, really good weekend for the Bears. Uh, our next week's opponent, again, we go back with the Packers again, but they're coming to us. That's at home now, yeah. And so we need to win this game. This is a pivotal game for us to be able to maintain our number one ranking on the NF in the NFC North uh to win our division. So we gotta have this one. This one's a this one's a must-win.

SPEAKER_07 11:26

Yep. So my cowboys, I really don't know why they keep putting us on primetime TV. Just like just I was wondering about that. I was wondering why is this play that's I was gonna say, I was wondering about that. Put us like on satellite, something like that.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

Well, I mean, your offense is good, so it's exciting. It is, you know, they can't. But the end result is not.

SPEAKER_07 11:45

So we played the Minnesota Vikings, uh, and unfortunately we lost uh 34 to 26. Um, just back to you, Carl, your record is 10 and 4. Oh, that's right. Absolutely. Uh so our record is 6'7-1. We still haven't been eliminated, even though you pointed that out yesterday. You thought they were, but we have a 1% chance. So just a little hope. So you're saying there's a chance. We went from 9% the week before to 1% now. 1%. I mean, we're just our own worst enemies, and our defense is bad this year. So it is it is really bad. But next week we have the Chargers, so that might be it's not gonna be any easier. Yeah, I don't think we're on prime time. Um, and then the next two games will be hopefully a little bit easier. Yeah. So we'll we'll I think this game is definitely needed for us to win the chargers. I've not, I think. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 12:34

We're definitely out. I mean, you have to win all your games basically, and then get some help from the help from other teams, yeah. Definitely. So exactly so.

SPEAKER_07 12:42

Yeah, so just another bad week for me, but go ahead, call.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

All right. Well, that wraps up the first quarter. We'll be back after this break.

SPEAKER_07 12:52

Hello, I'm Daniel Arroyo, Vice President of Programs at Pathlight Home. If you're new to our mission, welcome. We're dedicated to changing the lives of those experiencing homelessness and hardship through housing, support services, and career training. What began as one dream for a compassionate solution to homelessness has become a reality. Since our funding, we've provided housing for more than 8,000 people, offering shelter, opportunity, and hope. This month, as we honor National Homeless Awareness Month, we are also kicking off our end-of-year campaign, a time to come together and give back. Every contribution, whether monetary or in kind, directly supports our residents and the community we serve. No gift is too small to make a difference. As we celebrate our journey from dream to reality, thank you for being part of this mission. Together we can make the dream of ending homelessness a reality in our community. This is the second quarter. We are getting a little bit deeper into a homelessness topic uh with something we call offense versus defense. We will each take turns discussing some opposing viewpoints of our topic this week. The question we asked this week is should funders of homeless services make it easier for providers to get funding? Please remember that we are trying to show both of the issue. Uh these do not necessarily reflect our individual stances on these positions. So this week, call has offense, which is yes, and I will have the defense.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

And yeah, and before we get started, I want to preface, I want to add one more preface statement to this. Danny and I are in the middle of a of two complex applications right now for funding. So uh it might be a little bit tainted based off of that. Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Because I was just gonna say yes. Yeah. That's it. That's it. That's the whole argument. But uh but we'll then just go to the third quarter of it. We'll make it more entertaining than that. All right.

SPEAKER_07 14:53

On the video, we'll put a disclaimer on the bottom. There you go. Of the video.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

Something like that. Anyway, okay. Uh so for the yes, uh, should funders of homeless services make it easier for providers to give funding? I say yes, and here are the reasons why. Faster help for people in crisis. Homelessness is often urgent. Streamlined funding allows providers to respond quickly. It reduces delays that can leave people unsheltered, unsafe, or without basic needs. Next one. It supports smaller and grassroots organizations. Smaller nonprofits and community-led groups often lack grant writing capacity. Easier funding increases equity by allowing culturally specific or neighborhood-based programs to compete. Next, reduces administrative burden. Less time spent on complex applications and reporting means more time delivering services. Lowers burnout among nonprofit staff because of all the administrative burnout. Next, it encourages innovation and flexibility. Fewer rigid requirements allow providers to adapt services to local needs. It supports pilot programs and creative solutions that don't fit traditional funding categories. Next, it improves service continuity. Predictable and accessible funding helps organizations retain staff and avoid service disruptions. You just talked about that. It stabilizes programs that clients can rely on. And finally, it has better alignment with housing first and trauma-informed approaches. Easier access to funds can reduce barriers that exclude people with complex needs. It emphasizes trust in providers rather than heavy compliance monitoring.

SPEAKER_07 16:40

All right. So I have the defense. No. First is risk of reduced accountability. Simplified processes may weaken oversight and outcoming tracking. Public and philanthropic uh funders have a duty to ensure funds are used effectively. Number two, uh potential for inefficient or ineffective programs. Easier access could lead to funding programs without proven impact. Risk of duplication of services or misalignment with broader homelessness strategies. Three, limited resources require prioritization. Funding is uh rigorous application processes help ensure funds go to the highest impact interventions. Easier access may spread funds too thinly. Uh number four, increase risk of fraud or misuse. Less vetting can increase the chance of mismanagement, especially with new or inexperienced organizations, which is kind of what we just talked about a little while ago. Uh challenges with coordination and system planning. Simplified funding may encourage siloed programs rather than coordinate a system of care. It can undermine regional or data-driven homelessness response strategies. And finally, political and public scrutiny. Funders, especially government agencies, face public pressure to justify spending. Easier funding may be perceived as lax or irresponsible oversight.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

All right. Well, uh, let me go through yours first, Danny, and I'm I'm just gonna try and go through these quickly and say whether I think I agree with these or these are valid, I guess I would say, in my mind, anyway. Uh the risk reduced uh risk of reduced accountability. Uh yes, there is reduced accountability. I agree with that. Potential for innovation or ineffective programs. That one I would probably argue against because uh I mean, anybody who's applying for these funds and has even a relatively decent application is not going to put it towards something that's not effective or or you know not trying to be effective.

SPEAKER_07 18:40

So which again, what we said is applying to things that you are, this is your scope of what you do in your organization.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

And I don't I don't think the I don't think the barriers that they put in place make it make a program more effective or less effective, I guess. That's that's what I would say. Limited resources require prior require prioritization. And yes, to some extent, I think that's true. Uh obviously we've talked about scalability a lot and having more resources, which would make it easier for everybody, and that would certainly make it easier for funders. Uh increased raw risk of fraud or misuse. That one I have a little bit of problem with because there's very little fraud and misuse that goes on. Now, it might be because of the requirements that a lot of funders have, but honestly, I don't think most of the nonprofits that come into this business are really looking to you know be fraudulent.

SPEAKER_07 19:38

And we and we read a story a couple of weeks ago about some misuse. That's right. But that's very few and far between.

SPEAKER_03 19:45

And it's usually pretty easy to catch, too. That's the thing, is if you're just paying attention a little bit, I don't think it I don't think it requires that much to catch somebody in in fraud or because again, these grants come with reporting.

SPEAKER_07 19:59

You have to report out, you have to show dollars spent. And so yeah, I don't think.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

And I think and again, we're asking, should they make it easier to for us to get funding.

SPEAKER_07 20:09

To get funding, right.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

After we get the funding, maybe that's where more of the restrictions can come in. But to get the funding, I mean to go through all these trials that we have to go through to get the funding, that's that's a little bit more, I think, than that. So go ahead, Danny. What do you think?

SPEAKER_07 20:25

Yeah, no, I think again, we said yes. So yeah, um, no, I I agree. I think some of these down the nose is a little bit kind of out there.

SPEAKER_08 20:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 20:33

Um, but again, if you know what you want, you know what you need for your agency and you're applying. And again, you're the one that are like us when we apply to things, we're the ones that at times are setting our own goals, right? Setting what we're gonna do because we want we want to succeed at the program, we don't want to fail. Yeah, so it's great when we are uh asking for dollars from whether government or foundations and we set the tone of what we want. Yeah, it makes things much easier for us. Um, and again, it it does it's faster in helping people in crisis. We get those dollars, and it's we can start helping people right away as soon as we get them. And it's so so yeah, it's a little bit of both, but definitely on the yes side, I think there was more that I agree with there than on that.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

Yeah, I agree. I I think it's and and again, I think it's about getting the funding where it needs to be for the people that need the services. And I think if maybe what the maybe maybe the the bottom line that I think is that the funders, if the funders knew a little bit more about our service system, if we had people who were really in tune with what we were trying to do here, it might be easier for them to get the funding to us because a lot of times these funders have very little idea about what we're really trying to do. And like you said, that's where they should they should require that the applicants come up with their own goals. That's right. And then the funders can look at those goals and say, okay. Which ones do we think are more efficient? Which one do we do we think are more effective?

SPEAKER_07 22:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:04

All of those and then hold us to those goals.

SPEAKER_07 22:06

Yeah, we just got some funding where we did the goals and we're like, uh, we need to adjust a little bit. But I think communication with us and the funder, it's kind of, you know, we because we're being transparent. We're like, we don't think we can hit these. Let's let's change them a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Yeah, sometimes you have to change them in the middle. You don't know what's going to happen.

SPEAKER_07 22:22

Yeah, the one I do like is the encourages innovation and flexibility, supports pilot programs, and that's kind of what we do. It's creating a bunch of new programs and thinking outside the box of what we want to do and not the norm of everything. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:34

And again, the different funding sources have way different takes on these things. So I mean it really makes a difference there in terms of what's happening or you know what's what's uh what they're requiring of us and what the rules are basically about getting that funding. So yeah.

SPEAKER_07 22:49

Well, Pathlight Homes position, we believe that the larger the amount of funds, the more requirements should be in place. But the requirements should be made clear prior to the application for funding and not changed during or after the program starts. We also believe that individual donors should be intentional about who and how they fund to maximize the effectiveness of their gifts.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

Yeah, I think that's one of the areas that maybe we've left off in in most of our offense defense. We're talking mostly about complex programs. We're talking about, you know, government agencies, things like that. But individual donors, individual donors should really pay attention to where their funding's going and how effective it can be or not be. Look, I love the fact that people just want to give, right? They just want to give to end homelessness, right? Some broad, you know, priority or something that they have. But there are a lot of agencies that say that they're trying to end homelessness or they're effective at ending homelessness. And when you look deeper into the data that they show you or the information that they show you, it doesn't, it doesn't ring true. Yeah. They're not. You know, they're some a lot of them are managing homelessness, but they're not trying to end homelessness, which is why all of our focus comes back to housing.

SPEAKER_07 24:10

Everything, everything is housing. Everything is. The end result should be housing regardless of what who's coming through the door or what services they're getting. But a lot of agencies focus more on services and not solutions. So all you're doing is putting a band-aid on it, right? That's right. So if your goal at the end of whatever funding or whatever you're doing is not, and you know, housing someone, right? It's kudos to you, but you're not. And if you can't, partner with someone who can.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_07 24:35

You know, and that way we can kind of help each other back and forth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:39

And I think that, but I think that's the key here with the individual donations. Yeah. Is individuals should pay a little bit more attention, do a little more investigation, go visit the places that you're going to give to, take a tour, actually see what's happening there, and really get down to are you trying to solve the problem? Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 24:58

If you're willing to give money, invest in us, come on and see what we do. Yeah. You know, let's meet the case managers, let's meet some of the residents, let's see some stories of what we've done.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

Look at our data, look at what's happening, look at how many people you know we've actually ended homelessness for. Because again, if you know, if I was giving money to an animal shelter, I would want them, I would want to know that they were sheltering more animals.

SPEAKER_07 25:24

Animals, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

That's the idea. So for us, it's about how many more people did you get into housing.

SPEAKER_07 25:30

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

And it should be that way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 25:31

And again, if you're funding for a specific, let's say you're funding for veterans, we can show the data of how many we've housed. And it shows how successful it is, which now you know the more you're giving us, the more people are going to get housing together. Absolutely. So, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 25:43

Absolutely. All right. Well, we've made it to the halfway point, and during halftime, we want to take a moment for fan interaction and highlight an inspired quote related to housing and homelessness.

SPEAKER_07 25:56

All right. So let's start by hearing from our listeners. So the first question calls comes from Steven. Um, you mentioned previously that Pathlight Home has a flex fund. Uh, what kind of items do you find yourself frequently covering because of other because other funding doesn't cover those identical but critical expenses other than the application fee for housing?

SPEAKER_03 26:17

Right.

SPEAKER_07 26:17

So we got a couple of flex funds.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

Yes, we do. And actually, this is a better one for you to answer, Danny, than me because you you run the flex funds and things. I mean, I can talk about some of the things that we cover. Obviously, we cover identification, uh, we cover things like birth certificates, uh, application fees sometimes can be an issue. Uh it's mostly rent, though, because again, it's about housing. We're trying to get people into housing. Um, but it's it's a lot of that gap funding. I mean, when we talk about flex fund, what we're talking about is a gap is where is there a gap in all these other funding sources that will not fund this thing, X, whatever it is. Yep.

SPEAKER_07 26:58

So yeah, and again, we we have about three flex funds that are assigned to different uh programs. Uh, but yes, everything you said is correct. We also have moving costs, so we do that as well. Um, the big one that we do, which is like I've said before, is one of my favorites reunification. So we use those dollars for reunification. We identify someone out on the street, you know, they're they've been living here for whatever reason and lost their way. Um, and we are able to put them on a bus or on a plane and send them back to their family. Uh of course we we vet them out and go through the whole process of it. But the rent is the big one for us just because of how many units we have here, how many people living here. And look, they go through some hard times, their car breaks down, they get their hours cut, um, they get sick and are out of work. And so we come in and kind of cover that little gap. It's a it's a one-time, you know, because we want to share the love with all the residents, but it's a one-time kind of help. And again, we do vet them out as well. The case manager works with them and make sure that they are um asking for what exactly they need and why and showing proof of it.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

Um, but but we this year we've helped a lot of people stay here and not get evicted for it because we helped them with that little whether it's a hundred, whether it's five hundred, just that little help, you know, gives them that boost to to then keep going the next month and they get back to the yeah, and that's a good point to make is that even when we're housing people, uh it does not necessarily increase their income just because we got them into housing. Right. They're still low income and they still struggle sometimes with choosing between the necessities of what they have. Because uh and essentially that's what low-income people have to do for most of their life when it comes to am I paying rent, am I getting medications, am I getting food, am I getting transportation? Exactly. They have to make decisions about these things. And especially when when they run into a crisis or come up short, that's where a flex fund can help them bridge that gap to get them to their next paycheck, to get them to their next, you know, whatever it is, whatever income source.

SPEAKER_07 29:01

We've seen just just the car issues. Your car breaks down, you got $500 that you have to pay back. There it goes. Now, now you're short. Now you have to decide what to do next. But that's if if the case manager's talking to the client of the resident and having that discussion, they know what's happening. Yeah, they can intervene immediately. And usually those flex fund turnaround is a day or two. It's quick, it is a very quick to do something.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Absolutely, and that comes from that's uh foundation that we got uh some of the flex fund funding from, and that helps us significantly because they've really given us a lot of latitude there to be able to provide this gap funding.

SPEAKER_07 29:36

So it's it's helped a lot, and case managers love it because they don't have to work on finding another place for someone or going through the process of eviction, which messes up their credit score and everything else. So it's it's it's I love the flex web. So it's something great that's been working. All right, Carl, the next question uh comes from Robert. Uh, as food and housing prices soar, how does it impact your ability to meet uh the needs of people experiencing homelessness?

SPEAKER_03 30:03

Well, this is an interesting question, and and this is a really a funding question. Um, it really is. It doesn't might not sound like it, but really is a funding question because the thing I think the thing that people have to understand about nonprofits is we are agencies, we are companies, we are we are organizations that run just like any other organization, any other for-profit or whatever, we're running our organization to make sure that we maintain the organization as well.

SPEAKER_06 30:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

So when food costs go up, when housing costs go up, a lot of times insurance is a big thing for us, security is a big thing for us. Um, these are some of our higher ticket items, utility costs for us, all of these things, as they increase, it makes it harder and harder for us to use the same amount of funding that we had five years ago or two years ago, or which is why we need more funding, because we have to keep up with that. Definitely. You know, it's that inflation and everything that we're providing to our people to help keep them here, including the services and including paying the staff. We have to pay more money to be able to keep up with that because our staff are dealing with these food and housing costs as well.

SPEAKER_06 31:18

As well.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

And if we can't pay them, you know, what we need to pay them so that they can actually live out there in the community, they're gonna be our next residents. I mean, that's just a reality.

SPEAKER_07 31:28

Definitely, yeah, or even worse.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 31:29

So, yeah, no, I agree. I think that um, again, with funding sources, we I guess we at times when we're applying for things, we we're adding all these extra things to cover, you know, food is a big one. Again, we have a lot of units here. We have 560 units, and so if we're applying and we're housing people in those units, we want to provide food for them. So we'll give them a little help, a little kind of nudge. You know, we we do have a food pantry, but it's definitely not enough for all the people that we serve, not just that live here, but also the people that come off the street to get services as well.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

So yeah, which is also where those in-kind donations help us that definitely the in-kind donations coming in really help us supplement our funding sources. And so, you know, anytime we get in-kind donations from individuals, it really helps us with that. The other thing about the food in particular is we have a culinary arts program. Students have to have food to work with in that culinary arts program. And so if the cost of food goes up, that costs more for us to run that culinary program, and it's free to the students who come here. Exactly. So we don't want to have to start charging students because all of a sudden the food costs have gone through the roof and we can't figure out how to fund those things. Definitely. Well, it's time to get inspired by our quote of the week. Uh, this quote comes from the Spider-Man movie, which Danny loves, by the way. He's a huge, huge fan. He went Marvel on a huge fan, he loves it. Uh I do. This comes from the Spider-Man movie. The quote this week is with great power comes great responsibility. And when I when I found this quote or or from this quote wrote this quote down, Danny laughed at me a little bit because he was like, Yeah, okay. Our producer laughed as well. Our producer laughed. That's right, exactly. But but really, I think this this ties into funding because you look at you look at the amount of money that we have in this country, you look at the amount of money that we have in the world, honestly. And there are people who have the means to be able to do a lot more than what they're currently doing. Um, I saw something recently, one of my favorite people in the world, Mackenzie Scott, um, who uh was married to Jeff Bezos with Amazon, and uh she's now giving away billions of dollars. Billions of dollars. And that to me is that's what this quote is about is with power like that, with with funding power, with money, with monetary resources, it there's responsibility there. And you know, you as a as someone who makes a lot of money or has a lot of money or whatever has a lot of resources, you've got to realize that there is some responsibility that you should be paying to the community. Definitely why?

SPEAKER_07 34:18

Because you're part of this community, and if you really want this community to be better, if you want everything to be better in the world, then you need to take that responsibility on and you need to be able to really power of getting that those dollars, is our responsibility to spend the dollars, to use it while you're gonna be able to do it. You're absolutely right, to to use it for what the money was assigned to do. That's exactly right. You know, so it's our responsibility as well, not just the one giving it to us, but also the ones receiving it.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

So I agree, I agree, and we really got to look at that because you know, we go back and forth. Uh, you know, we've talked about this on other on other podcasts. We've talked about how we have to make decisions about services that we provide or the types of services or the way that we provide services. We're always constantly making those changes and those adjustments, and and I think that's something that individual donors in particular should be looking at for their agencies, is they should be saying, they should be asking themselves about the agencies that they give to. Are they making adjustments? Are they doing new things? Are they being innovative? Are they being creative? Are they trying new things? Or is it the same thing that they've been doing for 50 years, the same exact way they've been doing it? Because there's nothing, there's almost nothing in this world that should not be changing as the world goes on.

SPEAKER_07 35:38

Just the population we serve has changed so much in the times that we've been doing this. Absolutely. It's different now. We just talked about youth increasing, the elderly populations increasing. So we have to kind of change our mindset on how to serve those that probably five, ten years ago wasn't really a priority. You know what I mean? So but that that goes back to the funding sources and and asking people, okay, we're seeing an increase in this. Yeah. Can you provide us dollars for that to exactly address those issues?

SPEAKER_03 36:06

And but you got to ask that way too. I mean, that's the other thing is that people that just assume that funding sources only want to fund this one thing or that you got to ask the question. You know, um and and luckily we have some really great staff who ask those questions, who who go to the funding sources and ask them, hey, I know you do it this way, but what if we tried this new thing? Or what if we tried, I know we have an application that we're writing for now to foundation. We've wrote, we've written to a couple of foundations already and been unsuccessful, but we're trying to introduce AI into our residents' lives to try to make their lives better. We're trying to, you know, bring AI, artificial intelligence, into their lives and help them be better or help them be more connected to the community.

SPEAKER_07 36:57

Yeah, and even our Thanksgiving episode when we brought some of our staff into talk and we asked them what do you want to see different with Pathlight Home? They gave us all these different why don't we do families? Why don't we so they want to see us doing more and helping more people? So it's great to gotta think outside the box.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

Yeah, and you and you gotta change with the time. You gotta change. I mean you gotta change with the time. 100%.

SPEAKER_07 37:14

So okay, and that concludes our halftime. Please stay with us after this short message.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Hello everyone. I'm Carl Falconer, the president and CEO of Pathlight Home. And I'm often asked by many in the community, what can I do to help end homelessness? I would like to invite you to join PathLight Home's efforts. Pathlight Home is a 501c3 nonprofit organization in Central Florida. We currently have 560 units of housing that we provide to individuals experiencing homelessness. But we also provide additional support through employment resource centers and mental health services. We have a drop-in day center where people can come in from the heat, do laundry, get meals, all in preparation to get them into housing eventually and off the streets. Community involvement is key to the success of our efforts, and we love when community members want to get involved with Pathlight Home. There are three things we invite you to do to help. Number one, consider supporting us with funding. No donation is too small, and every dollar has an impact on our community. You can go to pathlighthome.org and click our donate button to contribute anytime. Number two is volunteering. We love to have volunteers come in and help us with any of our projects. We have ongoing projects and needs, but are also open to individuals and groups sharing specific talents in ways that build up our residence. Number three is take a tour with us. Come here to our facility and see what we do for yourself. It's the best way to get an inside look at what we're doing at Pathlight Home each day. We think it's important to understand the work it takes to fight homelessness and love the opportunity to meet community members who are passionate about the issue. We love our Central Florida community and are grateful every day for the continued support. And again, to get involved, go to pathlighthome.org. Thank you. Looking at how our local football teams fared and announcing our NFL home team locks of the week. All right, so I'll start with the uh with the highlight of the goodwill. Uh in Westchester, Pennsylvania, two former and current NFL standouts will crisscross Chester County this December to deliver coats, gifts, food, and personal support to families facing hardship, marking one of the region's largest athlete-led holiday outreach efforts in recent years. New York Jets tight end actually used to be New York Jets tight end. Really? I did a little research on him because I was trying to figure out how to pronounce his name. Kenny Yaboa. Yaboa, uh-huh. Uh actually plays for Detroit. He signed with Detroit this year. Okay. Um, but he's still tight end for Detroit. And Eagles legend, Seth Joyner. I know Seth, he's fantastic. Uh are partnering with the Point Legacy Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics and JB Sports Ventures to bring warmth and relief to households struggling through the winter season. The initiatives spanning school visits, community distributions, and doorstep deliveries underscore a growing focus on direct local impact. Yaboa's first stop will be Reeville Elementary School in Coatesville on December 11th from 9 30 to 10 30 a.m., where he will join Santa Claus in greeting students and staff. While no items will be distributed at the school, winter coats, hats, and other essentials will be delivered to the point for its holiday gift distribution program, serving youth and families throughout the Octo Rara region. His outreach continues on December 16th from 10 to 11 a.m. at the point in Parkersburg, where he will personally help distribute coats, food, and gifts to families in need. Yaboa said the efforts reflect his ongoing commitment to the community. He noted that the region poured into his life as a young athlete and added that giving back now allows him to return that support during a time when many families face financial strain. The Point, a long-standing youth and family center, serves children ages eight to eighteen through mentorship, meals, after school programs, and leadership development. Executive Director Dwayne Walton and Yaboa's support will bring hope during a season that can be difficult for many, especially households navigating economic challenges.

SPEAKER_07 42:09

The holidays are a hard time for families. Yeah, they are. And people trying to put food on the table and gifts under the tree. Yeah. You know, it's like we said, you've got to decide which is more important. Is it so, you know, these these players coming in and providing all these extra items, especially Pennsylvania. I'm very familiar with Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_08 42:26

It is cold. It gets cold.

SPEAKER_07 42:28

So these coats and hats, you know, and going to school, these kids, it's needed for them to wait for a bus or whatever it is. So great job. Yeah. Great, great job.

SPEAKER_03 42:36

All right. Here we go, Danny. Oh, let's see. I didn't see the scores. Oh, let's see. How about this? Oh, yeah. The fantasy football player pick of the week. How about this? Finally.

unknown 42:45

Woo!

SPEAKER_03 42:46

You had a good week. My producer's gonna have to do some kind of like home run wing or something for this one because this is football. I nailed this thing. I nailed this thing, Danny. Nailed it.

SPEAKER_07 42:58

Nailed it.

SPEAKER_03 42:58

I've got it.

SPEAKER_07 42:59

I didn't check it until now.

SPEAKER_03 43:00

Anyway, uh, all right. So last week I had uh Trevor Lawrence, quarterback for Jacksonville, versus the New York Jets. He was projected to get 17 points. He got 42 points, baby. All right, 42 points. That's wow. He crushed it. He crushed it. And you said it's a jet. It's a jets. It would have been different if he didn't get those points. We were like, what is happening? That's probably true. Exactly.

SPEAKER_07 43:29

It's the poor jets.

SPEAKER_03 43:30

All right. So this week, uh my pick is Rico Dowdle. You know Rico pretty well, right? He used to be a cowboy, right? He's now running back with Carolina Panthers. Uh they're playing Tampa Bay, and he's projected. He's projected to get nine points, and I think he will exceed that significantly.

SPEAKER_07 43:47

And Tampa Bay is not playing for the biggest.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Tampa Bay is not playing for struggling right now. They really are. Yeah, they're struggling. You know, we'll see how it goes.

SPEAKER_07 43:54

That's very low, nine points for running back. Nine points. Running back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's very low. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:58

So I I think he'll

SPEAKER_07 44:00

I think maybe you'll get another 42 points next week.

SPEAKER_03 44:02

Who knows? We'll see. All right. So now on to my fantasy flashback. This one takes us back to week 16 of 2017, where Todd Gurley, running back for the Los Angeles Rams, he uh ran for, or sorry, he had 276 yards from scrimmage. I think 118 of those were actually rushing yards, and the rest were passing or receiving yards. Okay. And two touchdowns and a win over Tennessee. So obviously 276 scrimmage yards, two touchdowns. I think he had 11 catches, something like I mean, he just he blew up that week.

SPEAKER_07 44:43

He had a good game overall.

SPEAKER_03 44:44

And the beautiful thing about this is they did a little bit more research on this as well. The week before, he had 180 rushing yards and I think three touchdowns. And the significance of this in particular for fantasy football is week 15, 16, 17, or 14, 15, 16 are playoff weeks in most fantasy football leagues.

SPEAKER_04 45:10

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

Is you're in the playoffs now. Even though they're not in the playoffs. Even though they're not in the playoffs. Interesting. Yeah. And so Todd Gurley was was he was winning someone a championship. He was what he was doing. Two weeks in a row, he just absolutely blew up. And so uh yeah, so he had a really good week. So if you had Todd Gurley in week 16 of 2017, there's a good chance that you won your playoff matchup. And you may have won your championship even that week in fantasy football. All right, now we go on to local football teams to watch. Man, man. Right there. Jones High School almost got it done.

SPEAKER_07 45:50

You said American Heritage was a great team.

SPEAKER_03 45:52

I told you they were a really good team. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 45:55

Yeah, like I told you yesterday, they were I started watching it in the beginning, and they were losing 28 to like three or six, and I was like, ooh. And then I didn't watch anymore, and then I went back after, and they were they were close. They were so close.

SPEAKER_03 46:08

Close game, absolutely. So American Heritage. Yeah, American Heritage got the win in the championship game, 33 to 28 over Jones High School.

SPEAKER_07 46:17

They were playing in Miami, you know.

SPEAKER_03 46:19

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they went in Miami. Yeah, exactly. So, but which is where American Heritage is is in South Florida, too. So they probably have a little home field advantage there, you know. And kudos to them. They went that far. Yeah, they did great. They did they did fantastic. They had a great year. Good for them. Jones has nothing to be ashamed of. Um I've seen where they have several of their uh several of their players have already uh committed to different universities. Uh I think the quarterback is going to Miami, I think. Good for them. Um they have they have a lot of really good players. So good, good on them. Congratulations, Jones, for a wonderful year. Thank you for you know taking us through this year and having a really great season. That's pretty cool. Um now on to our NFL home team locks of the week. All right, Danny.

SPEAKER_07 47:07

Yeah, I want to call your brother after this.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

Yeah. Uh so the Bills I told you.

SPEAKER_07 47:12

I know the Bills I had already committed to the Patriots. But the Bills were playing the Patriots. Carl's brother said they're gonna lose, and they did. They lost 35 to 31. Very close game.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

That's right. The Bills beat them.

SPEAKER_07 47:24

Came down to the end, um, so it was at New England.

SPEAKER_03 47:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_07 47:26

Um, so my record right now is eight and seven.

SPEAKER_03 47:30

Um, and then Carl, you had I had Atlanta, I had Tampa Bay at home versus Atlanta, a division game. They were, you know, supposed to pull this out and they did not. Atlanta and 29 to 28. Yeah, it was uh unfortunate. Like you said, Tampa's really they're on a losing streak on the bad, yeah. And they have a good team. They do, they have a pretty good team. Absolutely. So this week, I am taking uh uh say your record.

SPEAKER_07 47:59

Your record is a good thing. Oh, sorry, my record is six and nine.

SPEAKER_03 48:02

Sorry, six and nine. It's how slick. Six and nine. All right, so I'm two games behind with with what two games left? No, three games left. Oh, geez. Here we go. Here we go, Danny. I gotta catch up here. Anyway, all right. So this week, Danny, I'm taking your boys. Taking your Dallas Cowboys at home.

SPEAKER_07 48:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 48:23

Versus the last one. There you go.

SPEAKER_07 48:26

Because I looked at it and I said, no, let's skip that one for this week.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

Let's go somewhere else. Taking those cowboys. They gotta pull it out, Danny.

SPEAKER_07 48:33

And it's at home somehow. It's at home. Uh and I have the 49ers against the Colts. So I picked the culture that's at home, you know. See, that's it. You pick you pick Dallas. You're very oof. Okay, there you go. You have more faith than me. That's right. All right, so uh stay tuned uh for our wrap-up after this message.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Hello, I'm Gigi Ramirez, the senior director of fundraising and engagement here at Pathlight Home. For over 30 years, we've helped more than 8,000 people transition from homelessness to hope. But when someone moves from the streets to their own home, they often have nothing. That's why we provide immediate essentials, everything from bedding and food to soap and cookware to help them truly feel at home. Beyond housing, PathLite offers career training and supportive services, like our 12-week culinary program, helping residents gain skills, find jobs, and rebuild independence. You can be part of the story, volunteer your time, donate essential goods, or become a monthly Pathlight hero. Ensuring every neighbor has a chance to thrive. Visit pathlighthome.org to donate today.

SPEAKER_03 49:53

Welcome to the fourth quarter, where we will wind down this episode by reflecting on a homelessness MVP and fumble of the week before wrapping up with our key takeaway.

SPEAKER_07 50:04

All right. So let's start with our MVP of the week. So in San Diego, Helen Woodward, Animal Center's Pets Without Walls program, and Project Street Vet partnered Thursday to provide free medical procedures and wellness services to homeless pets in San Diego, recognizing that winter presents uh particular challenges for unhoused individuals and their animal companions. The organization set up a Father Joel's Neil Good Day Center on 17th Street from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on December 11th, offering spay and neuter procedures through Helen Woodward Animal Center's team, as well as wellness checks, examinations, and vaccines provided by the Project Street Vet. The effort addresses a significant need in California where social workers estimate nearly 200,000 people are experiencing homelessness. That's a lot. Of that population, approximately one in four have pets as companions. Many of these pet owners lack reliable access to health care and financial resources to pay for veteran services, veterinary services. Both organizations are guided by a shared philosophy regarding the human human-animal bond. Both Helen Woodward, Animal Center, and Project Street Vet hold firmly to the belief that the bond between animals and their owners should not be broken due to financial hardships. According to information provided by the partnership. Additionally, both groups are dedicated to ensuring the pets of those struggling with financial challenges do not suffer as a result. The collaboration underscores the critical role that programs like Pet Without Walls and Project Street Vet play in supporting vulnerable populations during winter months when unhoused individuals and their pets face high-end hardship. So we don't talk a lot about pets. No, we don't and the unhoused. And that is a big, you know, that that's a deal breaker for people who need to go into a shelter, to need to go into some type of housing that does not take pets because that is That's our family. We have pets.

SPEAKER_03 52:00

No, absolutely. That's our family. I mean, they're they uh obviously a lot of the a lot of our population of people have been estranged from their families. And so when they pick up a pet, when they see a pet, when they have a pet, that becomes their attachment, that becomes their family. And in fact, uh, and uh I don't know if there's any research on this, uh, but I would love to see it. Is when people move in with pets, I believe, and I've heard this anecdotally from people, that they maintain their housing a lot longer when they have a pet than when they don't. Because uh in a lot of circumstances, when you talk to people, they don't want to lose the housing for their animal.

SPEAKER_05 52:47

Right.

SPEAKER_03 52:48

Yeah, you know, they're thinking to themselves, my animal is out on the street, I couldn't get food for them, I was hard getting water for them. There's all these things. I mean, it was like they were taking care of their child, and and once they moved into housing, like, look, I'm not losing my housing because my pet likes it here.

SPEAKER_07 53:04

Yeah, and we talked about how hard it is for someone who's been on the street for a long time to go into some housing and they're by themselves and they have no one. That pet gives them that kind of security blanket to kind of keep them together. But yeah, same thing. I love what they're doing with uh the medical side just because our people who are on the street, you know, have a hard time getting health care. Yeah, but so are their pets.

SPEAKER_03 53:25

So do their pets. So are their pets.

SPEAKER_07 53:26

So I'm glad that they're working together to kind of address those issues as well. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 53:31

Absolutely. All right, so here we go. Now we go to Minnesota. All right, uh, now on to our fumble of the week. In Bloomington, Minnesota, dozens of homeless Bloomingtonians. I didn't write that, Danny. This is that's that was written. Have found refuge in the woods near Switchyard Park, but Monroe County may soon force them out of their living situation while temperatures are below freezing. Monroe County Commissioners plan to evict campers from county-owned property near Switchyard Park and Roger Street on December 15th. Commissioners cited Monroe County Code 257 for its decision, which states that it is illegal to camp on county-owned property without commissioners' permission. Without commissioner's permission? Are you telling me there's not one commissioner that just can't give permission for that? Yeah. I mean that's insane. Sorry. Anyway, that's insane. Stephanie Stephenson has lived at the camp in question for three months. She said she is there because Bloomington shelters are already full and she has run out of other options. Our whole lives are out here, Stevenson said. I don't have friends I can stay with. I don't have any family. My family has all passed away. This is the only place I have to go. Monroe County originally wanted to clear the camp on December 8th, but pushed back the relocation date back a week after cr after citizens criticized the plan during the commissioner's board meeting last week. They're humans too. They're not evil, Bloomington resident Shelby Porteroff told commissioners. They're people who are having a really hard time. According to WDWRTV's forecast, at the time of publishing, the high temperature in Bloomington on the planned eviction date is projected to be twenty-seven degrees. Stevenson is relieved she still has a place to sleep for now and hopes the county changes their mind for good. I feel like they're going to let us stay, Stevenson said. It's going to be okay as long as we agree to their terms and clean stuff up. Slowly but surely, we'll get it done.

SPEAKER_07 55:39

This is the second week, and I did this on purpose. This is the second week that I have a story of a fumble that is about an encampment of being moved during this temperature, during during this cold time. It's like it's it you're just not thinking. They're not thinking straight on what they're doing.

SPEAKER_03 55:53

There is no place for people to go.

SPEAKER_07 55:55

That's the that's the problem. If you want to move them, move them. But where give them a put them into housing, give them a place to go, put them into shelter, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 56:02

Something, yeah, absolutely. And it's just and we're seeing more and more of this across the United States, not just uh the the uh you know sweeping camps or whatever, but encampment encampment resolution programs where they are actually housing people out of encampments. I know where I was, where I've been formerly uh in Dallas, Texas, they're doing some really great work there on encampment resolutions, include in other places as well across the country are really trying to dig into solutions for encampments and really getting people moved from the encampments directly into housing instead of trying to move them around because they realize look, that's just a shell game, right? You move them down the street, you move them across the road. The entire community is still affected by that.

SPEAKER_07 56:51

And we're doing that a little bit. We're going out there to these encampments and we are housing them. It's it's it's you're absolutely right. But we've we've been doing it this whole entire year, we've been doing it, and we've been working with um Orange County with 311 calls and going out to see people and talk to people. And I think we have housed a couple of them that we found out.

SPEAKER_03 57:08

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 57:09

So it it it works. You just have to I understand we're limited on options, that's fine, but don't just move someone to go from here to there and still be on the street. Yeah, it just doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_03 57:18

Until you have a real solution, exactly, then what's the use of moving people around out on the street? It doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_07 57:25

Absolutely. All right, so finally, here is our key takeaway for this episode. So there's plenty of money in our country to end homelessness, and places where funding is more abundant and efficiently managed, we have seen some great progress toward the goal. Ultimately, through funding, uh, though funding depends on community and individual will, there is no greater investment in a community than in a homeless services because it's an investment in people and people make up a community.

SPEAKER_03 57:52

That's exactly right. That's it. I mean, look, I love all the priorities that governments have to think about and everything like this, streets, roads, you know, all these different things. But ultimately, to me, one of the most valuable things, you gotta invest in people. I mean, people are what make up your community, and people are what is going to make or break whether a community is really thriving and doing really well, or a community is you know going down. And you gotta invest in people and and and trying to make sure that people are okay. And if we can make sure people are okay, I think those other things will, you know, be resolved through other ways as well. Yeah. But we gotta make sure people are okay first. Right.

SPEAKER_07 58:35

So yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 58:37

All right. Well, that concludes our episode for the week. Remember, if you have any questions or comments for us, please email us at questions at pathlighthome.org. As always, we leave the last words for our beloved co-founder, the late Reverend Fred Maxwell. Take it away.

SPEAKER_00 58:59

I'm still dreaming. I'm still dreaming that we would become uh able and sufficient to increase uh the housing of homeless. This is merely a beginning.