15. What is Transitional Housing?

On this episode of The HOME Team Podcast, Carl Falconer and Daniel Arroyo break down one of the most misunderstood pieces of the homeless response system: transitional housing. What is it, who is it for, and how does it actually work between shelter and permanent housing? They talk about the real-world challenges of budgeting for stays that can range from a few months to two years, progressive engagement, and how case managers decide when someone is truly ready to move on.

In this week’s Offense vs. Defense, they tackle a tough systems question:

• Is it better to serve fewer people with more money, or try to stretch resources to reach more people with less?

Along the way, they highlight:

• Creative approaches like sleeper buses in Central Florida
• The impact of Alex Highsmith, the Steelers’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee, and his support of people experiencing homelessness
• Local football updates from Jones High School’s playoff run
• A Homelessness MVP: a winter overflow shelter for families in Illinois
• A “fumble” in West Virginia, where a sanctioned encampment was cleared right after a snowstorm

They close with a powerful reminder: change and transition are hard—but most people on the streets do want change. Our job as a community is to meet them with compassion, stability, and real options.

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_03 0:04

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

SPEAKER_04 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 is transitional housing? So how's your weekend, Danny?

SPEAKER_02 0:36

So I was just thinking about it because I knew we were going to talk about it and I forgot what I did this weekend. Whoa. Oh, we went to Disney Springs. We went to Disney Springs and hung out and just saw the trees and all the Christmas decorations. Nice. That's it. It was just a quiet weekend at home. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

Good, good, good. Um, trying to think of what I did this weekend. Um worked, I think, yeah. Because we had that we had the HUD Nofo uh going on. So I was trying to get some work done, and yeah, that's pretty much it. Um, you know, hung out, watch some football, of course, as always. But uh, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Our lives are so eventful.

SPEAKER_04 1:16

Yeah, exactly. That's right. Yes, yeah. They definitely are not gonna do some biography on me or anything because it's gonna be very boring, and people shut it off after a few minutes. Well, they do football. Football, that's it. Exactly. Football and work. That's it. There you go. Football work, football work. That's pretty much it, exactly. All right. Uh well, we'll start it off as we usually do uh with the coin flip. So, Danny, call it in the air.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Uh heads.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

It is heads, so you get to lead us off.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

All right, well, welcome to our first quarter. Uh, I'm gonna kick off by defining our topic of the week, and then we will cover some news headlines and announce the results from last week's home team locks of the week. So, our topic this week is transitional housing. Uh, transitional housing refers to a temporary structured living environment designed for individuals or families who are experiencing homelessness, fleeing unsafe situations, or recovering from major life disruptions. Unlike emergency shelters, transitional housing offers people a stable place to live for an extended period, usually several months or up to two years, while they work on rebuilding their lives. It is meant to be a bridge between homelessness and permanent independent housing. Residents not only receive a safe place to stay, but also have access to a wide range of supportive services that address the root cause of their homelessness. These services may include case management, mental health support, substance abuse recovery programs, job training, educational assistance, childcare, and help securing long-term housing. The overall goal of transitional housing is to help residents achieve stability, develop skills, gain financial independence, and successfully transition into permanent housing without returning to homelessness. It is especially common for people who need a period of healing, recovery, or adjustment before being ready to live on their own.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

So what I in my experience, what I've seen with transitional housing is that this is one of the trickiest uh types of programs or types of housing to be able to run. And the reason is because of the the vast time difference that someone can be in transitional housing. You know, it as you read here, uh several months up to two years. So I've seen transitional housing programs be as short as three months. And then I've seen transitional housing programs go all the way to two years, and then sometimes even extend beyond that. Yeah. Uh in some circumstances.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

I I think it gives the person that's in whatever situation they're in that kind of that time frame to work individually on their own goals, on their own, you kind of what the end result is for each person. It's not like you got six months and that's it, we're done. Right. Every single, you know, family or individual is different. So it I like that it spreads it that far out. And again, it depends on the person, the situation they're in, and and kind of where they're at, you know.

SPEAKER_04 4:17

I I think for for service providers though, that's where it gets tricky. That's that's the problem is how do you budget for a transitional housing program when you don't know whether you're gonna have 10 people who are there for two years or 50 people there for two years, or you're gonna have 20 people there for three months, 17 people there for six months, you know, 35 people there for 18 months. I mean, it's it's all over the place. And trying to budget for that is a really hard thing. But the reality is the best transitional housing programs run their programs like that, in just like you described, where they give the person the least amount that they need until call it's called progressive engagement. Right. So what you do is you give them the least amount that they need to be able to get from month to month until they become independent. And the problem is you never know from month to month what that's gonna be. So one month, you know, you might start out where somebody has a job. They come into your transitional housing program, they have a job, a full-time job, and they're paying 80% of their rent, right? So they do that for the first three months and then they lose their job. And then in in uh the fourth month, all of a sudden the program has to pay 100% of their rent because they're without a job. And then in the fifth month, they pick up a part-time job and then they're paying 50%. And it's really hard to budget, but it's also it's it's it takes a lot from the case managers to really flex back and forth on that progressive engagement because and for the case manager to figure out when they're actually ready.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

That's exactly because if we see that the person is kind of uh jumping, you know, they lose their job, like you said, and then it's it's it's not a steady uh income coming in. So the case manager has to decide, okay, how many more months or a year am I gonna give this person to be actually stable to then move on on their own.

SPEAKER_04 6:18

So yeah, you bring up a great point is how do you how do you judge their stability and how do you know that they're ready to move on to other things? And uh the the other thing about transitional housing, which is different than rapid rehousing, which we've talked about before, is transitional housing is usually in a separate setting. So it's usually in one site, it's more congregate usually, and it's in a it's a site-based kind of project. Whereas rapid rehousing is out in the community, and that's even a harder transition because somebody can be stable, doing really well in a transitional housing program, doing great, and then they have to move out on their own, and all of a sudden they have to relearn all of those all of those uh skills. It's a culture shock, pretty much. Yeah, absolutely. Because it's different to budget, you know, when you're when you're someplace in a structured environment than it is to budget when you're out there on your own in your own apartment. Right. I mean, it just is yeah, because you're on your own.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

You put you have to fend for yourself and make sure you're paying everything on time and you know putting food on the table and all that stuff. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 7:27

So it's it's a tricky one. This one is tricky, and I've not seen a lot of people do it really great.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Uh I I think also call for the transition of housing, like we said, about when to roll someone off. I think creating a program like this, you have to create with the criteria is to come in. Yes, but then what the criteria is to go out. To get out. That's exactly right. And if you set that and you all the case managers are in line with the same criteria for someone to exit out, right, I think it'll make it more successful because then everybody follows kind of the same plan. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

And again, it it's it's hard to it's hard to predict that though. That's the hard part. Because, like you said, even if you predict who's coming in, what the criteria is for people coming in, you don't know how they're gonna react once they're there. And like I said, whether they need three months or they need 18 months.

SPEAKER_05 8:13

Right.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

And budget-wise, that's just a nightmare. It's all over the place. You you know, you'll you'll uh estimate for the most conservative estimate and then end up with a whole bunch of extra money that you can't spend down or something.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

And how many people you're gonna serve within that time. Absolutely. So to budget yourself accordingly. So exactly.

SPEAKER_04 8:34

So it it becomes it becomes a little bit of a challenge, but we'll talk more about it uh later. Um now let's take a look at some of the headlines from the homeless world. Uh earlier this year, Orange County, and that's here in uh Orlando or here in uh central Florida, Orange County nonprofit Matthews Hope partnered with the Apopka City Council to bring a sleeper bus to the second largest municipality in the county. It's meant to help keep people experiencing homelessness off of the streets at night and give them a safer place to rest. Its Orange County location in Winter Garden will be getting a carbon copy of one of the existing buses sometime next year. And it's something the organization is very excited about. Matthews Hope gave a tour of one of its buses in its parking lot in Cocoa, uh down south of us. It's a coach bus transformed into a mobile overnight shelter and is a program the organization's founder, Scott Bellew, said he couldn't imagine when he kicked things off 16 years ago. I'm still trying to figure it out. I just wanted to help someone help some homeless folks, Ballou said. So this is a really good story. Uh, you know, this idea of the mobile bus is a really innovative way uh to to think about, you know, trying to do things. And again, we'll talk a little bit more about innovation and creativity later, but uh, but this is one of the more unique things. And I know they have right now we have uh uh the Christian Service Center has the 407 Connect and they have this kind of sleeper bus. But a Popka for those who are not familiar with Apopka is a is more of a rural kind of area, so the homelessness there I would say is not as dense, but it's probably more spread out. And so for them to have a bus in that area is a really positive thing because they don't have shelter out in a popka. And in order to get to Orlando, people would have to go a long ways and travel a long ways, and transportation is just not that easy for them.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Yeah, and a popka is very close to Winnergarten and to Koe, where where uh there are other service providers like Matthew Soap and Christian Service Center, but there are no shelters out there. There's no shelters, so uh they're kind of the hub of kind of capturing all those people in those areas to provide services. But no, I think this is the new kind of thing now is sleeper buses. Yeah, I just want to see what the outcomes are gonna be. That's that's what I want to see. Because I if you know they're doing great work, not saying anything bad about the buses, but if we're just putting people in for the night, but there's no housing afterwards, then it kind of defeats the purpose. I would love to see in a year what the 407 connect, what Matthews Hope, what their kind of results are to get.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Yeah, me too. Yeah, I I think that might be one of the drawbacks. Uh, and again, we'll have to see, but that might be one of the drawbacks of the of the bus is that you can't provide services on the bus, really. Right. They're designed for sleeping, and that's it. Yeah. So it's almost like going to an emergency shelter and getting kicked out during the day. Right. If there aren't any follow-up services or there's nothing for the people to do during the day service-wise, well, then it's gonna make it real challenging.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

But but I think it's great just being out there is you know, these folks that are on the street, it takes them a long time to get downtown to go to a shelter. Yeah. By the time they go, those shelters are either gonna be closed or they're full. Yes. And it's just a waste of their time heading all the way down there. So I think at least they're giving getting some relief being in those buses at night, not having to get incarcerated, not having to get, you know, uh kind of pushed away from wherever they're located.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

So yeah, and uh, and a lot of people out in those areas don't want to leave those areas. I mean, that's where they're familiar with. That's where they're familiar with. That's where they grew up, that's where they're from. So the this brings the services to them, and I do like that aspect. Definitely. Yep. Um, all right. All right now. Let's take a look at how our Cowboys and Bears did this week. Uh, this is gonna be the the depressing portion of the uh my tone will be different from last week.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

It's definitely gonna be tough. Definitely gonna be different from the last week. So my cowboys played the Lions. Um yeah, we we lost 44 to 30. Um I figured it was gonna be that kind of game. Yeah, um, the Lions have a great team. So they do. Um we just made a lot of errors. Um CeeDee Lamb got a concussion. Yeah, he hit hard on that floor. Like you could see him that something was wrong when he hit.

SPEAKER_06 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Um, so I don't know where he's at. I doubt he's gonna be in next week's game. So um but we are yeah That's a big loss. That's a big loss, yeah. But we are 6'6-1.

SPEAKER_04 13:15

Yeah, and fighting for the playoffs still.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

I mean, that's the so just watching the game, they you know, when it comes to playoffs time, they start giving already percentages.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

So if you do the if you win here, you're gonna be the so we would we were at 29% if we won the game. If we did it, we would 9%. And that just seeing that number, I was like, oh, this is not good. So our best bet is to hopefully win the division. Yeah if if the Eagles continue playing kind of the way they're playing, yeah. But yeah, I don't know about the playoffs right now. But uh next week we have the uh Minnesota Vikings, so that's gonna be an interesting game as well.

SPEAKER_04 13:46

Yeah, is that in Dallas or is it Minnesota? Do you know?

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Uh I think it's in Minnesota, I think.

SPEAKER_04 13:51

You think so? I think I think, yeah. Well, yeah, that one's gonna be well, the Vikings haven't been, but they did beat up on Washington last week. But Washington, we've already talked about doing really bad.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Washington and Washington and the Giants are already eliminated from playoff content.

SPEAKER_04 14:07

I I don't understand that. There's something going on there in Washington in particular. Um, the Giants haven't been good for a while.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Right, but Washington's usually up there and they always give the Eagles and the Cowboys kind of a run for their money.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

They just playing well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

All right, your bears.

SPEAKER_04 14:25

And then my Bears. Yeah, we we tried to do what we've been trying to what we've been doing, Danny. Uh-huh. We waited until the end to try and pull out the victory, uh, and it was it was not good.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

It's one of those games that to the last second minutes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:44

And the thing is, is is that's the that's the thing that the Bears have to understand is that against good teams, you're not going to have that opportunity to be able to pull these games out. You've got to get ahead of them. Yep. You've got to stay ahead of them. Our defense let me down a little bit in this one, but we were missing our our uh our safety. Safety. And that made a huge difference because you could see they had uh three big plays for touchdowns, uh big pass plays.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Well, you made a good point when we spoke about it yesterday. You said, you know, if they play like this in the playoffs against other teams, this last minute, it's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. Absolutely. You know, these teams that are not having great records and like they've been doing kind of all year.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Coming back. You know, but look, they play the Packers and it's a different story.

SPEAKER_04 15:30

So that's exactly right. So next week we have another good defensive team, not necessarily offensive, although the Browns have been playing pretty well. Um so we play the Browns. Um hopefully we can get a victory here because it's gonna start slipping away. You talked about the playoff opportunity. So we went from first in the NFC to now seventh in the NFC, which means we're on the bubble of losing out to the playoffs. It's from one game. From one game. One game. And it's uh because the NFC is really competitive this year. There's some really good teams with some really good records, and so we've gotta we've got to get it together. I mean, if if we don't our defense needs to play better, hopefully we'll get our safety back. Uh are they at Chicago? Are they at the I think it's at Chicago, I believe, this week. Yeah. Um, so hopefully.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

And I know they play in the Packers again like two weeks.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

Next week, after Cleveland, that's gonna be at home as well. And we'll that one will be at home. So yeah, we're definitely important games coming up. Really important games, absolutely. We're gonna need, I figure we're probably gonna need 11 wins to be able to get in um to get into the playoffs. So, yeah, which doesn't leave your uh Cowboys in a very good position. Nine percent chance.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Remember, so that was like, just might as well just just go home.

SPEAKER_04 16:48

Well, and without C D Lamb, that's gonna be fun. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

We'll see what happens. Okay, so uh that wraps up the first quarter. We'll be back after this break. 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.

SPEAKER_04 18:06

This is the second quarter. We're getting a little deeper into a homelessness topic with something we call offense versus defense. We will each take turns discussing some opposing viewpoints of our topic this week. The question we ask this week is is it better to serve less people with more money or not? Please remember that we are trying to show both of the both of the sides of the issue. These do not necessarily reflect our individual stances on these positions. So is it better to serve less people with more money? Danny, you have the pro or the offense, so you you say yes. Uh let's hear what your arguments are.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

All right. So number one, there is a higher likelihood of long-term housing stability. More funding per person usually means you can cover deeper needs, long-term rental subsidies, quality supportive housing, mental health services, case management, transportation, and follow-up care. The result is people are most likely to stay housed and avoid returning to homelessness. Number two, ability to serve individuals with the highest needs. A small percentage of unhoused people have the most complex challenges, serious mental illnesses, chronic medical issues, substance abuse, and past trauma. Intensive, expensive interventions like permanent supportive housing are proven to reduce a crisis service use and to stabilize this group. Number three, cost savings for communities in the long run. So although the upfront cost is high per person, research consistently shows that deeply supportive housing reduces emercy emergency room visits, jail stays, and shelter use. The result is fewer long-term public expenses. And finally, better quality and consistency of services. Smaller caseloads allow staff to provide individualized consistent support. This increases program success rates and improves people's experiences. So you have defense.

SPEAKER_04 20:03

I have the defense, or no. Uh fewer people get help. Uh the biggest drawback, obviously, to serving less people is that the limited funds means fewer households are served. While some people get intensive help, many more remain unsheltered or in shelters. Uh it can leave people out with who would succeed with lighter assistance. So not everyone needs high cost, high-intensity services. Some could quickly exit homelessness with small rental assistance or short-term help. A serve fewer with more approach risks underserving this large group. Next, the political and public resistance. Policymakers and communities may perceive it as unfair or inefficient to spend large amounts per person when many others are unserved. This can make funding harder to sustain. Next, the risk of bottlenecks. If every case requires heavy resources, wait lists grow, shelters remain full, outreach teams struggle to connect people to housing quickly. And then finally, there's a potential for misallocation if needs are not accurately assessed. So if assessment tools misidentify who needs expensive services, resources may go to the wrong individuals, reducing overall effectiveness. So uh I'll start with uh some of your points that you made. Um, of course, you know, permanent supportive housing is something that they pointed out in yours, uh, is that you get to serve the people. So it's kind of the 80 20 rule. I don't know how many people are familiar with that, but basically the 80 20 rule says that 20% of any problem or issue that you have, uh 20% of the people that that have a certain problem will take up 80% of the resources. And so if You're serving that 20%, then just like it says in some of your argument here, you can get better quality services, you can reduce savings in other places, like the community, things like that. I think the biggest problem with serving less people, and this is something that we see over and over, is that people can't see the results as easily. Is that and I'm talking about the community, I'm talking about people that are not in our service field. And look, this is a question that we struggle with every single day. Our service providers and our communities and our systems struggle with this every day. Do we try to serve more people or do we try to serve people with bigger issues and harder issues, which is going to be more expensive? And so we have to we have to try and go back and forth between these things, you know, trying to serve people who have more severe issues, but also trying to help the people who don't have those severe issues.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Yeah, I'm I'm back and forth on this because we want to serve everyone, right? Yeah, we want to get everyone off the street. It doesn't matter who you are, we want you off the street.

SPEAKER_06 23:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

But we see that when there is we we talk about case management here and caseloads. You know, how much is too much for a case manager to provide the best service that's right to get them where they need to be, get them housed, provide all the services they need. Um, but then you kind of lose track of that person, yeah. Or it's you know, you have a case load of 30 or 40 people, how much one-on-one are you giving that person who needs it the most? Because like you said, some people are more severe than others and need that more of that attention. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I I think it's kind of back and forth on it because again, we want to serve everyone. Yeah, we want to get everybody in, but to you know, but it is expensive, right? It is expensive to serve everyone.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

So and I've seen some models which uh I think are some of the better models where they actually are trying to mitigate this question or this these resources. And what they do is they they basically assign when they do an assessment with someone, they assign them a level, let's say, you know, higher acuity, lower acuity, what whatever the let's say it's a number system, right? One to five. So the people that are ones need less help, the people who are fives need the most help. And what they do is when they come into the program, they assign them to case managers, but they make sure that case managers get a mix of those. So they might say, look, we're only gonna give you three fives, but we're gonna give you ten ones. And then we and then we mix that. And if another five comes in, we're not gonna assign them to you, we're gonna assign them to someone else because you have you have enough fives already. And they mix that. So they're able to serve more people, the ones on that end, but they're also able to serve people with more uh with more attention on the other end because they have a few of those. But then also it makes it easier for the case manager because then they know, okay, this person's coming in with a five level of need, a high level of need that they need. I know I'm going to have to see this person maybe three times a week. But if someone comes in with a one immediately, then you know, I'm I know I'm only gonna have to see this person once a week. So they so they they develop their case plans with the individual.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

And we have that here with our case managers. When I talk to our director of housing parents, we talk about her caseload and you know her staff caseload. Some of them she's like, Yeah, we we see them like once a month. They're good, they don't need us. Yep, they're good, they're taking taking care of what they have to say, and then there's others that are in their office every other day with some type of need, or they're struggling with some mental health, or they're off their meds. And so I think they they kind of do that, they assess their own client because they don't they know them better than anybody else, right?

SPEAKER_03 25:49

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

And they know, like, okay, here's you here comes call. You know, call's gonna need something, or you know, let me go check on call because I haven't seen him in a month and he's busy working and doing his thing. So I yeah, it's it's it's hard. It's hard to do that. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

And and I think it, you know, it made a great point though in in my section for the nose, is it it's that accurate assessment because that's a huge part of this. Yeah, if we can assess or get an idea of what people really need, and again, this goes back to the transitional housing discussion that we had as well, is if you can assess as quickly as possible what a person or a family or whoever you're serving needs, if you can get that accurate, the more accurate that is, the better you're gonna be able to serve them on the front end. And if we can get them served on the front end as accurately as possible, then there's a good chance that they're gonna be able to get on on that back end a whole lot faster.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

I think kind of what you said earlier about the community and seeing, okay, well, you got this great program, but why do we still see, you know, 200 people on the street? And but again, it goes kind of the bottlenecking that you said about the you know, the shelters are remaining full.

SPEAKER_04 26:59

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

Outreach, I mean, they struggle just to find housing for people. So it it you know, you're gonna you want to serve less, but it's gonna be harder for those out there who are trying to get people housing. That's like we're limited, we which they some they are now. Yeah, they are now on finding housing for people.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

And I think that's one of the myths that we have to deal with from the community often is they, you know, someone sees somebody out on the streets and they try to refer them to a service, not understanding what the services are or how the system works. They try to refer them and they can't get in. And they don't understand. Hold on, I've got a homeless person here, a person who's sleeping on the street, and I'm referring them to services and they can't get in. What's the issue here? And sometimes they can't get in because of eligibility. I mean, you know, uh when when your system is overwhelmed with permanent supportive housing, there's a very specific criteria for that permanent supportive housing, and it keeps people from getting into that housing sometimes. But then on the other end, it's like, well, you know, but the reality is this person might not have greater needs than another person who happens to be.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

I was just gonna say the same thing you said was somebody that people in the community think that they refer and we talk to you, and you're housed. And you automatically get in, yeah. It's very difficult to get everyone people into housing. Take the whole housing uh unit aside. It's the start of the conversation, getting them assessed, figuring out what their needs are to get them in. And I think a lot of people think, oh, I refer to them over. Why are they still on the street? Because it's not that easy, it's a process.

SPEAKER_06 28:38

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

And we want to provide the best service for them to make sure that we're putting them in the right place, getting the right services. So yeah, it's uh again, it's that education of learning, it's not that easy. No, it isn't.

SPEAKER_04 28:49

And again, and again, we understand how it's frustrating for the community, yeah. But again, it's it's the and ultimately what it comes down to, and we've talked about this multiple times, is it comes down to the scaling of resources.

SPEAKER_06 29:02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 29:03

Look, if we had enough resources for every single person that was out on the streets, well, then it wouldn't be an issue. Then it would be on us because if you made a referral to us and we couldn't put that person into housing or shelter, whatever the case is, then then that would be on us. But you take places like New York, right? New York, we've talked about this before.

SPEAKER_03 29:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 29:23

They have a right to shelter in New York, which means that everyone who gets referred has to be referred to a shelter.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 29:31

But I'm not so sure that system is working really well. You know, yeah. They're they're overflowing into hotels and they're overflowing into all kinds of other shelter spaces and trying to figure out how to get everybody shelter beds, yeah. But at the same time spending a huge amount of money on the on the individuals because, again, they're not really uh they're not really assessing people based on what their needs are. It's just you have a shelter need, you have to get into shelter. I'm not sure sure that's always the best way to do it.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

Yeah, and I I think also for those that are listening and saying, then why refer? Refer so we could start the process. We could start the conversation because there might be someone out there who hasn't spoken to anyone in a year or something. That's more correct. Or someone who's never been in the system, so we could start that conversation, start the process to find out what to do with them next.

SPEAKER_04 30:21

So well, and we talked about, and we're gonna talk more about the point-in-time count later. Yep. This is a good place for us to get a better understanding of what our system needs to look like when we go out there and we can we can interview people and we can talk to them about what their needs are, and we can see the group as a whole, every person experiencing homelessness in our area, then we can start to say, okay, look, when we did the interview, we had this many people who had these issues, we had this many people who had these issues. We need to adjust our system that way. And that's the way it's supposed to work, is we're supposed to be able to take that information and adjust our system to what the actual population of people who need.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Just to start the conversation, start something for us to work with, especially if someone who hasn't even been touched by me. If that one conversation starts something different for them, it gives them some hope and something that it's gonna take a while, but at least we started a conversation. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 31:18

And and we talked about outreach, and that's where outreach comes in is outreach, uh you're right, they often get frustrated because they can't make referrals. That's right. But the least they can do is they can go out, they can talk to people, they can assess people, and they can start working with people while they're on the street still. So we definitely want more referrals. We want we want to know where everybody is and what their needs are as much as possible. So now we'll talk about uh Pathlight Homes position. Uh, we believe that the best systems and agencies find balance to serve more people and people with more severe issues. That's why the breadth of services and housing types is important to help everyone have access to housing. And again, it comes down to that scalability is if if we can scale our services so that we can serve a larger group of people, then then that's where that's where those referrals become more and more valuable. Definitely so all right.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

So 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. So Paul, you have uh the questions.

SPEAKER_04 32:31

That's right. Let's start by hearing from our listeners. Uh so uh our first question today comes from Heather. Uh, as the holidays approach, what are the top item donations you need for your residents?

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Danny. We need to call Gigi in here for this. So uh no, I I think yeah, she's the expert at that. But uh no, I think now for uh the holidays and not just for our residents, I'm gonna switch it a little bit, but also the community. Uh-huh. Um, I think it's getting cold.

SPEAKER_03 33:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

So, you know, jackets, socks, absolutely, um, all that. For our residents, I think just a nice gift for their unit. Yeah. You know, a nice gift for their unit. You know, we we we do stuff for them here. We have Christmas parties and we do. We buy them gifts and just the appreciation they show. Not just everything we do all year, but just for that one day of Christmas. But yeah, uh gift cards. I mean, gift cards. We have someone who is uh who's here in our kitchen who is donating a bunch of gift cards to our residents, which is fantastic. Yeah, absolutely. So any little bit helps, you know, gift cards to Walmart. Gifts are you know, uh just yeah, but especially the community is those cold items that we definitely need blankets and so yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

And also now's the time we're doing our annual fund you uh fundraiser, end-of-year fundraising campaign. And so uh obviously dollars that are coming in, and again, tax the tax deductible because we're a 501c3, so we want to remind people now's the time to give those dollars and really have an impact on what we're trying to do here again for the rest of the year because we'll be able to use those for anything that resonates need, and fill those gaps basically.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

Oh, definitely, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:10

All right, so our next question comes from Joe. Uh, why aren't more faith-based programs involved in getting people housed?

SPEAKER_02 34:19

That's a good question. Yeah, absolutely. So I think that faith-based organizations are involved to a point.

SPEAKER_03 34:27

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

To a point. They they do food drives, they do clothing drives, they but I think they don't fully understand what housing is and what that approach is.

SPEAKER_06 34:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

And I think with us, we're trying to reach more faith-based organizations to partner with us and to learn a little bit more about what we do, you know, and the barriers we find. And again, referrals, because they do see a lot of people who are homeless, especially when they do cold nights, you know, during hurricane season. And um, but I think it's just education of learning what we do, you know, what resources they have, because they have a lot of people in their um in their church that might have, you know, housing units or houses that they could rent rooms. And that's right. So I think it's just more connection of the faith-based organizations with us nonprofits. And just starting those conversations and figure out how we can partner together to but but letting them know what what what we do, yeah, how we do it, and then how they can kind of jump in when we don't have housing. Right. And do they know someone else?

SPEAKER_04 35:26

Well, and and I think the I think this question is getting to the scalability. Again, I'll use that word. Is think of how many churches, synagogues, mosques, any faith-based groups are out there in our communities. We have tons of them. And if every faith-based organization, if every church, if every synagogue, if every mosque, if every faith-based, you know, unit out there took on one person or took on one family or took on whatever, we could really put a dent in homelessness here. I think I but I think you brought up the good point though, is they're not professionals. So they don't know. Um they they, you know, we see like you said, we see good good things happening from faith-based organizations, but oftentimes it doesn't have the impact that it could have if they were partnering with professional organizations. Um, you know, uh again, we have some really great relationships with some faith-based organizations, and we want to have more, more uh, you know, relationships with so previous employer that I had, we had satellite locations.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

One of our locations was based at a church, and we had case management there that provided uh prevention, yeah, and but also housing as well. So we had people going to the church to get food, to get clothing, and then they were getting referred to that case manager to kind of start the conversation, and that was a nice collaboration because it out not only educated the church, but it also gave us more resources when we couldn't find things, they we would go to them, they're like, Well, I think I know this person. Let me see if I could connect you. But we had them in an office at the church providing those services.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

And and some of the best places that I've seen where churches really can get involved is volunteers. Is we always need more volunteers. And the more volunteers we have here doing helping us do that professional work, the better we can do our work. You talked about the attention that people need, especially people with high acuity and high needs. Is the only way we can do that is what I call the Disney model, which is where we have more people on site than we need to have on site. And volunteers can help us fill that gap. You know, they can help us come in and help us do all kinds of different things with people.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

But but I think with us also, I think it's not just them volunteering with us. We need to go out to them and volunteer for them.

SPEAKER_04 38:02

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

Be there and set up a table to talk to people that are coming through, to you know, and see what is kind of both ways on it.

SPEAKER_04 38:09

Yeah, I I absolutely agree with you because you're right. Getting out to the satellite locations is a is a huge part of it, but you've got to have those churches that are willing to do that and they've got to have people there. Right. Because we can't just go to a church and just you know, show up a table show up on a Tuesday morning or something. We've got they've got to have staff there. I mean, they've got to have these things like this. But I think it's just, you know, really partnering more with the with the professional groups, the provider agencies, and learning where the biggest impact is from that that they can have. Because again, if it's a small church and they have a small group of people, then maybe it's volunteer opportunities. If it's a large church, well, there's a lot of money that goes into large churches, and that money could be used to house a lot of people. And sometimes it's land. You know, we talk about property and trying to partner with churches because they have a lot of property often. We could build housing on that property.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

Like you said earlier, like one church just sponsoring a family.

unknown 39:10

Right?

SPEAKER_02 39:10

Sponsor family, we start the process, get them housed, and but the church is involved in that, all that, all those steps to get them there. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

All right, so it's time to get inspired by our quote of the week. So our quote this week comes from D Pak Chopra, who said, All great changes are preceded by chaos.

SPEAKER_04 39:30

And this is a good, this is a good saying. Um, and what I really like about this saying is it's true. I mean, you think of us as human beings, and you think of when we want to make changes to things, right? It's when we're in chaos. It's when something happens to us that all of a sudden we want to go ahead and we want to make change. Because we're not, we're not apt to try to make changes, right? I mean, that's just not who we are. We like things the way they are, we like things to stay the way they are.

SPEAKER_02 39:59

Like that comfort level.

SPEAKER_04 40:01

But until something happens, something usually bad happens, then we adjust and we have to make that change. And with the with the people who are homeless out on the streets, that's their bad moment. That's their chaos. And and I think that's one of the other things that the community needs to know is that most of the people out on the streets want to change their lives. They want to have better lives than they're having. The problem is sometimes they don't know how. We talked again about the access sometimes to different services or different things that they can get in. But but overwhelmingly, when I was doing street outreach, that's what we found is that people really did want to change their lives. They just needed some help in trying to do it.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

We say it all the time nobody wants to be on the street. I mean, that's just obvious, but they are in chaos. Yeah, and you know, we that's what the outreach team does, that's what we do. We try to provide changes for them to get them off the street.

SPEAKER_04 40:58

So yeah, absolutely. And I think COVID was a perfect example of that. So that's kind of where my stories come from is you know, during COVID, we learned a lot of things during COVID. And to me, the most valuable thing for for our industry for the homeless response system during COVID was that we have way too many rules and way too many barriers for providing services, which just magically, magically, Danny, got dropped. Exactly. When all of a sudden when COVID showed up. Yep. Now you have to go visit people six times a week. No, you don't have to go visit people six times a week. You know, we can't do, you know, uh video conferencing. Oh, yes, you can do video conferencing. And all of a sudden, you've got people who are hundreds and hundreds of miles away from each other having conferences and having team meetings with each other. And I'm like, how stupid were we making people drive an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, to go to an hour-long meeting when in fact we could have done it by video the whole time.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

Yeah, I think COVID changed a lot of how us and nonprofit looked at how services were provided. That's right, and how we had to adjust. And we used to say it was like organized chaos. Yeah. You know, we used to say it was chaotic, but we were organized, but we were trying to figure out what to do. At that time, I was working at a shelter. So just imagine 500 people in a shelter, and we were building walls, and we were building, I mean, it was just insane and it was chaotic, but we made the changes in order for it to work so we could serve the population that most vulnerable out in the street. So and it it it was.

SPEAKER_04 42:34

And I bet you waved a lot of rules. Oh, we waved.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

Oh, we waved a lot.

SPEAKER_04 42:38

Why do we have these rules?

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Yep, we waved a lot.

SPEAKER_04 42:41

And you start looking at that, and and then after you know, COVID, you know, kind of subsides a little bit, you ask yourself, why would we go back to having those rules when we didn't need them this whole time? They were unnecessary.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

Unnecessary, absolutely. Definitely.

SPEAKER_04 42:57

And that concludes our halftime. Please stay with us after this short message.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

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_02 44:06

It's now time to kick off the third quarter by highlighting the goodwill and good works in the NFL community, looking at how our local football teams fared and announcing the NFL home team locks of the week. So our NFL player spotlight of the week this week is the Steelers have their 2025 Walter Payton. He was such a great player.

SPEAKER_03 44:26

Yeah, he was.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

NFL Man of the Year Award winner, and the player who will go on to be nominated for the overall award at the NFL honors before the Super Bowl. This year the winner and nominee is linebacker Alex Highsmith. I am so humbled, honored, and grateful to be the Steelers nominee for this year's Walter Payton Man of the Year, said Highsmith. I truly believe that God has given me the platform to be a blessing to others, especially in the communities that I love. Walter Payton is one of the best football players of all time, but his true impact and legacy are felt uh today through the way he lifted up his community. I'm grateful to be able to make an impact off the field as he did. He established the Alex Highsmith Family Foundation in three places: Pittsburgh, his home of Wilmington, North Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina, where he played his college ball. The foundation helps kids through fitness, education, and community. Those programs have included the annual Alex Highsmith Youth Football Camp, which began in 2021 and has helped more than 100 young athletes. Along with all of his work with his foundation in 2024, Highsmith helped those in need in a Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh after a fire tore through a homeless shelter. The residents of the shelter have nearly all of their personal items destroyed. And Highsmith stepped in to provide the shelter with new clothes as well as serving dinner to each residence. Since then, Highsmith has visited a Pittsburgh homeless shelter each month.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

That's fantastic. And again, talk about chaos and helping people. You know, they had a fire, everything was destroyed, and people stepped in. You know, when you have the means and you have the ability to do so, you give back. And and again, Danny, I'll echo your uh your sentiments back to the hometown, back to their college football uh playing place, and then obviously where they're living now.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

I mean, it it always comes back to it's great because they have a platform to just not only just give but also raise awareness for those type of causes.

SPEAKER_04 46:28

So and again, based on our last conversation, you know, a lot of these people are doing this based on their faith. And I think that's a huge thing that that faith-based organizations, churches, synagogues, mosques, like I said, need to really ask themselves is are we doing God's work in our community? And what can we do to do more of God's work? Obviously, um helping individuals in need is is a big part of that. Um all right, Mr.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

Call, fantasy football. Oh my gosh. Uh I I could have sworn last week you said Trey McBride, 11 points. This is, I mean, come on, he's surely gonna get this.

SPEAKER_04 47:09

It was a given, Danny. So last week I picked as my football, my fantasy football player pick of the week. I picked it up.

SPEAKER_02 47:17

I think let me cut you off a good. I think next season we need to get a score on you on that. Like what you're oh my god. I just want to see where we're at because I don't know. No, I don't think it's very positive right now. No.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

We could do it as a differential, right? You know, they do the differentials in football because I'd be about minus 190 at this point or something. I don't know. It's it's just terrible.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

All right, so Trey didn't do that good, huh?

SPEAKER_04 47:40

Trey, Trey McBride, tied in for the Arizona Cardinals, who is a great player. And by the way, they were playing the Los Angeles Rams, and as even more perspective, they got blown out by the Rams, which usually means that players like Trey McBride have huge gains because they're trying to catch up, they're passing the ball all the time, they're doing all that. He was projected to get 11 points and he scored five. Five, Danny. Okay. Five. It's not good. It's like he didn't practically he didn't even step on the field. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

He got three points for attendance. I guess maybe.

SPEAKER_04 48:20

I don't know what happened. I don't know what they were thinking. All right. All right, we're gonna try it again. Here we go. This week, my pick of the week is Trevor Lawrence. He is a quarterback for the Jacksonville Jet Accord. This looks good. This one looks good. The Jets are coming on now. This one looks good. And they're playing against the Jets. So you've already told me the Jets are no good. So he should he should easily make his seven. That's 17 might double problem. Uh there we go. So I'm looking for Trevor Lawrence to have a big game against Jack against the Jets. I think it's at home, actually, in Jacksonville. I'm pretty sure uh they're projected. He's projected, like I said, to get 17 points, so hopefully he'll outdo that.

SPEAKER_03 49:02

Good luck.

SPEAKER_04 49:03

All right, so now on to my fantasy flashback. Um, this week we give a little bit of love to a kicker. How about that, Danny? Chris Boswell. So in week 15 of 2016, Chris Boswell, the kicker for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who's still the kicker for the Pittsburgh Steelers, by the way, kicked six field goals in a 24-20 victory over Cincinnati. Wow. Six field goals. And to add to that, five of those six were over 40 yards, which is fantastic. So Chris Boswell had a great week that week. And if you had Chris Boswell as your as one as your fantasy kicker that week, you probably won the week because kickers are not known to score that many points, but he got a lot of points that week.

SPEAKER_02 49:53

Yeah, that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 49:55

Um and now onto the local football team. Jones watched. Just team. I just put team. Just team. Just team. It's not teams anymore. It's teams. Go Jones. Go Jones. There you go. Both rooting for Jones. Jones is still in the playoffs. Um they beat uh Port Charlotte 35 to 23. They're now ranked to number 27 in Florida and number six in Orlando. So their next game, which I believe is the semifinal of the playoffs. I'm pretty sure it's the semifinal of the playoffs. So two more games, Danny. Two more games.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

Getting there.

SPEAKER_04 50:28

All right. They will play uh American Heritage, who is eight and five. Jones is now 12-2. Um, they'll play American Heritage, and hopefully they'll get the victory. Now, American Heritage is a good team. I imagine these five losses are probably a really good team.

SPEAKER_02 50:48

I think Boone played them this year. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I think we did.

SPEAKER_04 50:51

And I mean, they're I think they're a pretty good team. So I'm hopeful Jones can get the victory and go on to the championship.

SPEAKER_05 50:58

They're playing very good.

SPEAKER_04 50:59

But this one, I think we're starting to get a little hairier. The further you get in the playoffs, it you know, it gets a little more challenging. Um, and now into our locks of the week. Uh, we're predicting the home team to win each week. And all right, Danny, here's where uh again I didn't do so well here. Uh last week I had the uh Atlanta Falcons. They were at home versus Seattle, and I know Seattle's a good team, but but Atlanta's you know trying to make a playoff run here. You know, they're uh Tampa is leading their division, and they're trying to get back in it, but they got blown out by Seattle. Um Seattle 37, Atlanta nine. So I lose, and that takes my record on the season to six and eight. So Danny.

SPEAKER_02 51:49

So Mike, uh I had the Commanders against the Vikings, and the Commanders got a big donut. It was 31 to nothing. They got blown out because like what we were saying earlier, the Commanders are not playing. Good for you, like the commanders right up. He picked it. Yeah, they got blown out.

SPEAKER_04 52:04

Yeah, they did.

SPEAKER_02 52:05

Uh so my record is eight and six. Oh, you're opening up a lead over me, Danny.

SPEAKER_04 52:10

Sir. And not many, not many uh weeks left.

SPEAKER_02 52:12

So I gotta get this straight here.

SPEAKER_04 52:14

Yep. So next week you have Next week I have Tampa Bay, uh, who is at home playing Atlanta. This terrible team. So you went the opposite way. I went the opposite way. I said, look, if Atlanta's not gonna give me the victory, well then I'm I'm uh I'm gonna pick against them this week.

SPEAKER_02 52:30

And I have the Bills against the Patriots, so that's gonna be a fantastic game.

SPEAKER_04 52:36

So you got the Patriots at home, and that should be a really good game. Now, my brother is a Buffalo Bills fan. He's a huge Buffalo Bills fan, and he has been his entire life. And he tells me the Bills are gonna beat the Patriots. So I didn't wanna I didn't wanna, you know, uh jinx you or or put it out, but he said the Bills are gonna beat the Patriots in New England. That's what he told me. Right. Let's see. So I'm just letting you know. So uh if you get the if you get the loss, then then you know we'll know he was right. All right, and that that ends our uh third quarter, so stay tuned for our wrap-up after this message. 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.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

All right, welcome to the fourth quarter, uh, where we will find uh we will wind down the episode by reflecting on the homelessness MVP and fumble of the week before wrapping up with our key takeaway. So, call you have the MVP of the week.

SPEAKER_04 55:30

Let's start with our MVP of the week. Uh, our MVP of the week takes us to Champaign, Illinois. With temperatures plummeting into the single digits, the Champaign County Regional Planning Committee has opened its first seasonal overflow shelter for families with children under 18 years old. The first come, first serve pilot program screens families at a remote facility on Neal Street. Once approved, they can check into the shelter, which is within a half a mile also in downtown Champaign. The RPC isn't releasing the shelter specific location in the interest of guest safety. The shelter can hold around eight households each night with a capacity of 24 individuals. There is no limit to how often a family can stay. Jesse Heckenmueller, the RPC's Assistant Director of Community Services, said the programs stem from a community need. I think that all families in our community are valuable and worthy of safety, support, and dignity, she said. And from my perspective, this is important because this is one way that we're able to offer housing and also learn how we continue to improve what is offered, how it's offered and how it meets the need within our community. Families seeking shelter should arrive at the screening office before doors open at 7 p.m. and close at 7 30. In August, the RPC received a $175,000 grant from the city of Urbana to maintain the shelter from early November to April. Support has also provided from the Housing Authority of Champaign County, other donors and volunteers. We're really grateful that we were awarded that funding opportunity to do so, Hekken Muller said. In years past, the RPC bought hotel rooms for families, but stopped due to cost. Bryce Decker, the program manager, said the program is well worth it. I believe we actually have the ability to succeed, and I think it's worthwhile, he said. I think people should have a chance to live full lives, not having to worry about freezing or knowing what's happening to them night to night is worth it. So pretty good. Right, absolutely it's the first one.

SPEAKER_02 57:48

Yeah, kind of what we talk about too, opening smaller shelters, identifying the population you want to serve. That's right. And it's 24 families.

SPEAKER_04 57:55

And doing it again, $175,000 to serve over four months or five months. That's not bad. That's not bad. And the the value they're gonna get out of this, because being able to take these people off of the streets, even for a night, can get them connected to housing.

SPEAKER_02 58:12

Exactly. Especially during this time with the weather in Illinois, it's very cold. So absolutely, there's no doubt about it. All right, so now I have the fumble of the week. So in West Virginia, members members of Wheeling City Council heard back last Tuesday night about the closure of the city's homeless encampment, which early in the day was vacated and cleared of everything left behind. After awakening to a heavy blanket of snow from an overnight winter storm, volunteers and representatives of local service agencies on Tuesday morning continued to assist the last remaining individuals at the camp on City Operations Department Property and Industrial Drive near the Peninsula Cemetery that for nearly two years had served as a place where the homeless were permitted to stay in tents. The city chose to close the site at 5 p.m. on Monday after giving six weeks' notice, describing the location that had been exempted from the city's new camping bed as a failure. While no one who remained at the camp after the 5 p.m. Monday deadline was arrested, a heavy police presence descended on the site Tuesday morning when city operations and refused hauling crews uh brought dump trucks, backhoes, and other heavy equipment to clean up and clear the property. By Tuesday evening, all tents and other personal property left behind was cleared from the site, loaded into roll-off dumpsters and taken away. It's just horrible. City leaders had described the camp as a hellhole that was not suitable for anyone to live in. No residents of the camp were arrested on Tuesday, but one volunteer at the site who reportedly was there with the representatives of Ohio Valley Mutual Aid, assisting camp residents with vacating the site, was arrested and booked in the Northern Regional Jail, according to the Wheeler police. Melissa Marie Birch, 36, who was booked on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and obstructing an officer. East Wheeling resident Vincent Vincent DeGeorge of OV Mutual Aid spoke before members of the Wheeling City Council during their meeting Tuesday night. The George expressed frustration with with the way the camp closure was handled, but assured his willingness to continue to work with the city leaders to find a solution to the city's ongoing challenges with its homeless population. I came here tonight to ask for a reset. I'm willing to work with you and I ask if you're willing to work with us, the George said. You guys have won. You've managed to close and clear Wheelings Homeless and Camping just before winter on the eve of a snowstorm, not once, but twice over the past two years. You've banned homelessness. The George noted that the city has been sued by the American Civil Liberties Liberties Union in the past for its handling of homelessness issues, yet the city has stayed the course.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:49

Yeah. This one this one's a little different. I I granted look, they they created a space where people were able to camp. They didn't like the way that it was being run, they didn't like the way that it the outcomes that came from it or what was happening there, and they decided to close it down. But you can't tell me that after a significant snowstorm is when you're going to try to do this. You can make adjustments for things. The first part of this, I think, which is a fumble, is number one, okay, so the encampment isn't working. Well, what's wrong with it, right? What what what's the problem there? Let's solve what the problem is, not penalize everybody there for maybe not having restrooms available or maybe not having enough service providers on site or whatever the issue was, whatever the issue was that they decided they're going to close this down, let's solve that issue rather than penalize the people who were staying there and just trying to live their lives. And then secondly, you wait until well, you don't wait, you have this on your schedule, and then a snowstorm comes in, and you tell me you can't bump this back, you can't say, hold on, let's let's re-evaluate this a little bit because you know the it's a bad time to be able to do this or whatever. I mean, it would be like a hurricane coming through in your ear in Central Florida.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:24

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:25

And then all of a sudden we say, Okay, now you got to leave the day after a hurricane blows through.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:29

Seriously. Yeah. And just you're calling it a hellhole.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:33

Then for the case.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:34

Were you not overseeing it that you could avoid it getting it to that point? And what is it that you call a hellhole anyway? Because it probably wasn't as extreme as they as they're describing it, you know? Yeah, so and then the other thing is that they just came in with dumpsters and I mean dump trucks, and and now you're moving people out, you're taking some of their belongings, which is the only thing they have.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:52

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:52

And just it's just it's horrible. Just the worst. Absolutely. The worst. Definite fumble.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:57

Definitely a fumble. All right, and finally, here's our key takeaway for this episode. Transitions can be hard for people. Change can be hard for people. But when you have the feeling you should change something in your life, you'll almost always, you're almost always right to do so. And very rarely do you hear people say, I knew I needed to change something in my life, but I was wrong and should have just kept doing what I was doing. I mean, very rarely, right? Yeah. Again, we talk about, and I'm and and again, it's not just about homelessness, it's about change, and it's about people changing their lives. And sometimes it takes that significant, you know, uh motivator to get in there and really get people to change their lives. But that's what we're seeing with the people that we run into. These people are in crisis, they're in survival mode, and they're just trying to change their lives for the better, and and we approach them from that perspective. And I think if there's one message you want to give to the community, it's to realize that. When people are out there on the streets, they're in bad spots, they're in bad situations, and so kindness is is the first thing that you really need to show to people.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:13

Yeah, I tell myself all the time, change is good. You just have to be willing to accept it. That's right, you know, and be willing to accept the change. And it might work, it might not work, but you gotta try it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:22

Yeah, you gotta try it.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:23

And I think for those that we serve in the community, they're scared. And they are gonna get scared of change, they're gonna get scared to be put, like we said earlier about transitional housing, being put someone into a unit and they now have to be responsible for their own rent. And that's right. It's scary for them for someone who's been on the street two, three, four years, yeah, but with the proper services and case management and all that support from not us, but like you said, faith-based organizations, and it changes good. Change is good. So that concludes our episode for the week. Remember, if you have any questions or comments for us, please email us at questions at pathfighthome. As always, we leave the last words for our beloved co-founder, the late Reverend Fred Maxwell. If you could think I highlight all this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:11

That we will become uh able and sufficient to increase uh the housing of homeless. This is merely a beginning.