14. What is Continuum of Care?

On this episode, Carl Falconer and Danny Arroyo break down one of the most important — yet often misunderstood — systems in the fight to end homelessness: the Continuum of Care (CoC).

They explain what a CoC is, how it was created by HUD, and why strong collaboration between agencies, nonprofits, governments, and providers can make or break a community’s ability to reduce homelessness. Carl also shares insights from his decades of work across the country, highlighting how communities with strong CoCs consistently achieve better outcomes — even when funding is limited.

In Offense vs. Defense, Carl and Danny debate a big question:
Should HUD merge Continuums of Care with local Housing Authorities?
They explore both sides — from streamlined resources and faster housing placements to governance challenges, mission drift, and legal barriers.

This episode also dives into:
NFL Headlines: Mason Rudolph’s “My Cause, My Cleats” spotlight on a women’s shelter, fantasy football picks, and updates on the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, and local high school teams, including Jones High School’s playoff run.
Homelessness Headlines: The VA’s announcement of permanently housing nearly 52,000 veterans, the largest increase in seven years.
Community Spotlight: Kentucky high school students raising awareness through a “Feed the Need for Change” walk and supporting their local shelter.

Fumble of the Week: A new Orange County, CA ordinance that fines and arrests people camping on public land — and why advocates say it harms more than it helps.

The episode closes with an inspiring African proverb about collaboration — and a reminder that while public attention often focuses on visible homelessness, countless providers and partners work every day to reduce it behind the scenes.

Key takeaway:
Homelessness is reduced not by isolated efforts, but by coordinated systems of care — agencies, nonprofits, and communities rowing in the same direction.

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_01 0:04

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

SPEAKER_06 0:20

Today in our podcast, we will discuss two of our passions, football and ending homelessness. Please join us to four quarters with our topic this week being what is the continuum of care? CLC.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

It was good. It was good. Went up to Jacksonville, as I said. I think on the last podcast, I was planning on going up there. Went up there, family, friends. I had some family in from out of town. So it was pretty good. It was pretty good.

SPEAKER_06 0:53

I had family come over, uh, my parents, my daughter, and her boyfriend, and had a nice dinner. We haven't had Thanksgiving in a couple of years in our house. Nice. So it was nice. And then uh went to Disney uh really okay Saturday. So was it crowded? No, it actually wasn't. Really? It was very surprising. Yeah, it was it was empty. Parking lot was empty, the lines for the rides. It wasn't it wasn't bad. So it was chilly, it was good too to walk around and not be sweaty. Yeah, absolutely. So they had just started the festival of the holidays that day. So it was a good weekend. Good weekend.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Good, good deal. Good deal.

SPEAKER_06 1:27

And football we'll get to, but we had good weekends on a festival. Absolutely, we sure did.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

We'll get to that. As always, we'll start with our coin toss. Uh so Danny, go ahead and call it in the air. Tails. It is heads, so I will start us off. Great. Uh, welcome to our first quarter. I'm going to 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 uh our question or our topic this this uh this time is the continuum of care. The continuum of care, or COC as it's known in our in our uh system for homelessness, is a coordinated and comprehensive system of housing and supportive services designed to prevent and end homelessness by guiding individuals and families through progressive stages from crisis to long-term stability and self-reliance. It is not a single program, but rather an integrated network of agencies, organizations, and government entities that work together to ensure that people experiencing or at risk of homelessness receive the right type of help at the right time. The COC model focuses on collaboration, prevention, service integration, and long-term stability. Um, the only thing I guess I would add to that, Danny, is that it is a HUD-designated um uh nomenclature or name. It's the the continuum of care comes from HUD. Uh I've been around in the homeless service system for so long now that I was around before COCs were even a thing. Um but um at one point, I guess it was in the 90s, maybe early 2000s, um, that the that HUD decided that they were going to break up the areas into smaller local geographic areas. And what they said is we want you to create this continuum of care, this COC, and we want you to have what they call lead agency kind of be in charge of that. Um and and basically it's as it says, it's all of the all of the partners, agencies, anybody who's working on trying to end homelessness or prevent homelessness in a specific area.

SPEAKER_06 4:00

So yeah, I was thinking about it driving in and what our topic was gonna be, and kind of when I got here to Florida and I started working at the shelter, um kind of the this whole collaboration and partnership like wasn't there at first. Right. I remember during hurricane season, everybody was like, So what are you doing? And what are you doing and what are you doing? And it was just it was just not organized. And then like the second year of doing it, they kind of like, okay, we're kind of overseeing all this, let's all get together and plan it. Now they have a nice system here on how those emergencies uh uh kind of how it works, and because it was really confusing company. This was about eight years ago, so it was a while ago, but it's much better now. But yeah, no, the CLC is is um I I think having all these organizations and all these partners working to what we talk about, right? We need partners, we all have to work together, and I think this brings it all together to kind of kind of be the hub of everything, right? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

And and I've been in several different places, I've worked in several different locations across the United States, and each COC is a little bit different. And I think that's one of the advantages, I guess I would say, to having a COC and having this system in place is that it really it leaves it up to the locals of the area to determine what the issues are or not, because in every area it's different. But it but this is the one way that I've seen homelessness be reduced. Money uh money is all over the place, right? Sometimes there's funding, sometimes there's not funding. But the one consistent that I've seen in places that reduce homelessness is their continuum of care is solid, is that they have real collaboration, partnership with the agencies, and they're all kind of you know rowing the boat in the same direction, you know, singing from the same page of the choir. You name your name your whatever uh whatever thing you want to name. But uh but they're all they're all moving in the same direction, they're all trying to do the same things, and they're working together to do that. And that to me is what really helps us end homelessness. You know, all all the money is fantastic. We need more resources, there's no doubt about that. But the reality is that without that system of care, without those partners working together, that money gets get, you know, can be used inefficiently.

SPEAKER_06 6:26

Yeah, and it kind of baffles me sometimes when some agencies don't want to be part of that. Yes, it's it's yeah, it's like you're living in a silo and you want to do your own thing, and it it's kind of okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

And the reality is they're they're part of it anyway. Right.

SPEAKER_06 6:41

I mean, they are part of it, they're serving the same people we serve, they're seeing the same people, so it's like but if they're not again, part of this part of this being CLC is how we collect data and how where everything lives. And if you're not that's how we track people, right? That's how we know what they're doing. So it's yeah, we talk about that all the time. Those that aren't part of the CLC. So all right, so now let's take a look at some of the headlines from the homeless world. So um, I found this yesterday, which was really great. Um, the Department of Veteran Affairs announced that it permanently housed 51,936 homeless veterans across the country in fiscal year 2025, 2025, marking the largest number of homeless veterans housed in seven years. This represents an increase of 4,011 veterans housed compared to the previous year. The Atlanta veteran uh VA healthcare system houses uh 745 veterans locally, which is 157% of their planned goal for the fiscal year.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

That's fantastic. That's great. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, and as a veteran myself, as you know, I I'm a huge proponent of getting veterans off the streets. Yep, yep, yep. There's no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_06 7:50

Yeah, so that was those are great numbers that they just they're they're getting more people housed, and yeah, it's it's fantastic. So absolutely. All right, now let's see how our cowboys and f and bears did this week. So I will let you go first.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Well, Danny, and and you know, most people probably think I'm gonna come in here and talk about the bears and all of that. And and actually, you know, I thought I'd try something a little different this this week. Oh boy. So what I thought was I thought I'd go ahead and I'd talk about the number one seed in the NFC. Do you know who that happens to be this? I don't this week. I don't follow football anymore. The number one yes, it's it is it is your bears. Oh, we're still talking about the bears. It is your bears. Yep. Who knew? The number one seed in the NFC right now is the Chicago Bears.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Yeah, your text this weekend after the game was you're welcome.

SPEAKER_03 8:42

I was like, what is he talking about?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

You told me that you needed the Bears to beat the Eagles, and in fact, we did. 24 to 15. The Bears beat the Eagles. Nine and three. Nine and three. Philadelphia. They beat the Eagles, and so uh, yeah, so that puts us at the top of the NFC. Right now, if the playoffs were tomorrow, we'd be the number one seed and have home field advantage throughout the entire playoffs.

SPEAKER_04 9:04

We need to play back the first episode to see how we first and second and see how we sounded. It was a whole different tone. It was just sadness in our voice. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

So next week as opponent, uh, we're playing the Packers. It's gonna be a big game. Uh, it's it's gonna be tough to play Green Bay. Uh, obviously, it's a division game, it's really important. And now that we're the number one seed, we're we're the target of everybody out there. I mean, they're gonna be looking at us and they're certainly gonna be trying to knock us off. So hopefully we can get another win.

SPEAKER_06 9:39

So, my cowboys, um, we won previous Sunday, and then we had a Thanksgiving game. Yeah. Um, and we uh played the Chiefs, yeah who aren't looking that great right now.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

No.

SPEAKER_06 9:50

Um, so we I didn't know how that was gonna go, and it was at home. So I I've been to a couple of games at home and they haven't won Thanksgiving to the one year and go. True.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

I've been I went to a Thanksgiving day in Dallas.

SPEAKER_06 10:03

Yeah, when last year we played the Bills and we got killed. But anyway, um, but we we won uh 31 to 28, um, and we are now 6'5 and one, so we're not at the top yet, but the Eagles are kind of dropping. Not that they've lost two in the right. They've lost two in a row, but we've won three in a row. Right. You've won five in a row.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_06 10:20

And but next week we have the line, so that's gonna be a hard game for us. And we're at Detroit. So uh we'll we'll see. We're on the winning streak right now, so hopefully we keep it going.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Well, their offense is looking really good. Dallas' offense is looking really good. We're getting some defensive starters back for the Bears, which is making our defense look better. So I'm you know, I'm hopeful for both of our teams at this point. Now, you know, after next week, we'll see how it goes. But you know, from week to week at this point, right?

SPEAKER_06 10:48

You guys went five in a row. That's that's pretty impressive. One game at a time. Right. One game at a time. That's how we have to take it, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

All right. Well, that wraps up our first quarter, and we'll be back after this break.

SPEAKER_06 11:02

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 gift 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 our second quarter where we are getting a little deeper into homeless topic with something we call offense versus defense. We will each take turns discussing some opposing viewpoints of our topic this week. The statement to discuss this week is should HUD merge CLCs, the continuum of cares, with local housing authorities to end to help end homelessness? Please remember that we are trying to show both uh sides of the issue. These do not necessarily reflect our individual stances on these positions. So this week, call you have uh offense, yeah, um, and I will have the defense.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Okay, great. Um, so again, to remind everyone, should HUD merge the continuum of care with the local housing authorities to end homelessness? So let me give a little context to this, Danny, for those that are not familiar. So in HUD or the Housing and Urban Development Department at the federal level, they've effectively uh divided uh their department into two kind of divisions, if you will. So there's the housing authority divisions, and the housing authorities have you know public housing units, they have uh vouchers, which are subsidies for rent for people, uh they own some properties, things like that, and and give vouchers out. And and their focus is on people who are low income. And then on the other side of it, there's the continuums of care uh division, if you want to think of it that way, and their focus is on people who are literally homeless and trying to make sure that those people get into housing. But right now, those two divisions don't uh essentially they're not mandated to work together and they're not part of the same division. So they could work completely separate, and I've been in places where they work completely separate, and sometimes they work more closely together. Um, so that's what we're talking about now is should they merge both of those divisions together and essentially make them work together towards ending homelessness. So uh, so like I said, uh like you said, I have the pros, which is the offense, or yes, they should merge them together. And here's some of the reasons why they should. Uh, stronger alignment of housing resources. The COCs coordinate homelessness services, while PHAs, public housing authorities, control large federal housing resources, as such as housing vouchers, project-based vouchers, so on and so forth. As I said, merging could streamline access to vouchers for people experiencing homelessness, which is a real barrier now. It could reduce bureaucratic barriers between crisis response and long-term housing programs, and it could allow for unified prioritization policies like coordinated entry, could you know, equal voucher allocation and so on and so forth. Uh next, it could improve the strategic planning. A single entity or one entity together could recreate one comprehensive plan rather than two separate plans as they have now. It could set unified goals and measures for reducing homelessness, and it could reduce duplication of staff planning and administrative work. Next, the potential for faster housing placements. When COCs and PHAs operate jointly, housing referrals and voucher issuance could become more efficient. Wait list preferences for homeless households could be implemented more easily, and data sharing between HMIS, the homeless management information system, which the COCs use, and the PHA systems could improve the tracking and outcomes between them. It also could consolidate funding and administrative functions. Shared administrative overhead may reduce costs. So obviously, there's an economy of scale there if you put things together. Uh more coordinated use. Uh the vouchers could be used more effectively, more efficiently. It could increase flexibility in leveraging capital funds, support service funds, and vouchers together with each other. Uh, and then finally, there could be stronger political influence. Uh, if they were a merged entity together, they could have greater credibility with the local government, uh, more leverage in advocating for affordable housing development and integrated messaging that strengthens public support.

SPEAKER_06 16:33

All right. All right, so my cons or my defense is number one, loss of CLC flexibility and community-driven decision making. So CSCs are designed to be broad collaborations of nonprofits, people with lived experience, local agency, and funders. PHAs, in contrast, operate under more rigid regul federal rules. Uh merging can reduce uh nonprofit influence, decrease innovation and service models such as housing first programs, and shift power away from community stakeholders. Number two, governance complexity and legal barriers. So CLCs and PHAs are created under different HUD statutes. A PHA is usually a government public entity, a CLC is often a nonprofit collaborative or coalition. Emerging may require legislative action, changes to local ordinances, changes to broad structures and procurement rules, and this may legally uh can be legally difficult or impossible in some areas. Number three, cultural and mission differences. PHAs prioritize long-term housing, asset management, regulatory compliance, and financial stability. COCs prioritize crisis response, shelter, outreach, and rapid rehousing. Merging may result in mission drift, tension between housing stability goals and real estate management priorities, and potential uh the prioritization of most vulnerable populations. Uh number four, risk of reduced competition and oversight. So COCs rely on multiple service providers, competition improves program quality. A merge structure may centralize control too heavily, reduce innovation and accountability. Nonprofit partners may lose autonomy or funding influence. Uh next is strain on PHA capacity. PHAs are not traditionally equipped to run shelters, outreach team, diversion programs, or supportive services, or to manage crisis response systems. Taking on these functions could overwhelm the administrative structure. And then finally, potential for increased bureaucracy rather than less. Merging two large system large systems can create a larger, more complex organization. Slow decision making or regular new compliance systems and IT integration.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:49

So yeah, I just reading those, I'm like, yeah, I'm kind of in part of the the the con the pro one. Um I mean, just just again, everything that I said on my side, if yeah, it's it's harder when you merge two big um how they run things so differently, but merging it together and figuring out how to read off each other and work off each other, right? You know, kind of it it makes sense in a way, you know. Um I understand that it's they if they don't talk to each other, that's why there's so much back and forth and confusion. But on your side, I mean, just having everything uh getting people faster into housing, you know, more of those vouchers, which we talk about that all the time, not having vouchers. Um it just to me makes sense to to kind of put them together because again, we they're both trying to do the same thing just separately. Yeah, you know, and it just it doesn't working together is just a little smart, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Yeah, and and to me, and I brought this up on a previous show, again, about uh about actually ending homelessness. The the biggest barrier to this working is the fact that PHAs are not required, the public housing authorities are not required to serve homeless individuals before they serve other people that are low income. And unfortunately, the way their system and structure is set up, it's very difficult for people who are experiencing homelessness to get those vouchers or to get access to the public housing units. And so I think the answer to this probably is yes, it would be better if they work together. But and and some of the cons that that you mentioned here are I don't know, maybe a little bit ridiculous, I guess I would say. Because it doesn't mean, you know, you it talks about how you know HUD or uh the PHAs, the public housing authorities are not, you know, mandated or don't know how to run emergency shelters. Things like there's no expectation that you would want housing authorities ever to run emergency shelters. That's not the case. What we're talking about here is an integration of both of those divisions working together. Not necessarily that they have to be, you know, uh that they have to be merged so that each one does the other's job. That's right, that's not what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_06 21:20

Right, because just saying that it's adding more to the administrative structure, it's not. Because we're not you're not gonna go into the business of shelters or it's that's that's we we handle that on our side. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

The COCs handle that. That's right. Exactly. And again, as far as local control and things like that, you still could have these two departments, if you will, right instead of divisions that were both working on the same goals towards something. Exactly. And again, I mentioned this in a previous uh episode that we had that if we use the public housing units and public and public housing vouchers and things like that, we have enough to end homelessness. If they if uh people experiencing homelessness were actually prioritized for those vouchers and for those public housing units over people who may or may not need those services. They may be low income, but they are they have places to live. And to me, that's the biggest, that's the biggest advantage to being able to have these two working together and merge together is that they would both be working on ending homelessness and they both could work on ending homelessness. Because again, the way that the way that I would see it being set up is that the COCs would then convert to providing services as opposed to the housing authorities providing services. That's not what they do. They would provide all the housing and the cocks would provide all the services. Right now, the COCs are expected to provide housing and services both. And the housing authorities are just expected to serve provide housing, but they're only expected to provide housing to low-income individuals. So if we shifted it, then the housing authorities only worked with people who were experiencing homelessness, and again, only until all of the uh people experiencing homelessness were housed and the COCs provided the services for all those people, I think we could end homelessness, no doubt.

SPEAKER_06 23:23

Yeah, and I and I yeah, and I think that just if if it's set up that way, the supportive services I think will be better. Yes, we we can focus harder and better on the client, on the resident, on whoever it is. Absolutely because that's that now that's what we're focused on, right? Because the housing part's taken care of. Now it takes that away from the case manager or anyone else, and now you could just start focusing on everything else. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

You don't have to worry about where the subsidies coming from or any of those other things. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. So so I I think it could work. Um in fact, let me go into Pathlight Home's uh position here, real quick. Uh PathLight believes that both COCs and housing authorities have a role in ending homelessness. But without a proper plan for merging them, it would likely not result in less homelessness. And again, you talked about that kind of in your cons, is if we did it the wrong way, then it's not gonna work, obviously. You know, there's just gonna be more inefficiency, it's gonna be more bureaucracy, there's gonna be more of those things, but there are ways to make this work. And if there was a plan for ending homelessness between these two different divisions, I think it absolutely could work. Yeah, no doubt. All right. 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.

SPEAKER_06 24:53

All right. So let's start uh by hearing from our listeners. So the first question comes from Katie. We know Katie very well.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 25:00

Uh, do you think paying market rate for rental assistance has kept the rental rates from dropping?

SPEAKER_01 25:06

This is an interesting question. Um and uh sorry, and she adds, especially in areas with higher housing costs. Um This is an interesting question, and it it it actually is a really this is a really deep question. Um because in some cases, we may be, and uh I say we, the continuums of care, uh the providers that are providing housing in the continuum of care, we may be our worst enemies. Because if we are not united, so so again, remember the continuum of care has multiple provider agencies, and they are all trying to provide housing in the most efficient way that they possibly can. But let's say Pathite Home, we're one of the providers, right? We go to we go out in the market, let's say, or even let's use our units, for example, right? We can we can lower the rates on our on our units because we own our property and we're paying off our debt service and all those things. And so we're able to lower the the cost. So let's say the cost of our units, and I'm gonna throw out a number, this is not real numbers, but let's say the cost of our unit is $900 a month, right? And we charge $900 a month. Well, if another provider in the community goes to another landlord and they get units for $850 a month, then effectively what's happening is we're competing against each other, is that that other provider is providing at a certain level, we're providing at a certain level. And now imagine if we've got 20 different providers going to 20 different landlords and getting 20 different rates for each of the programs and each of the things. Sometimes it does, in fact, drive the rates up because the landlords know, oh, well, if I can't get $900 from Danny, well then I'm gonna go over to this other agency, I'm gonna get $950 from them or something like that. And and so in some cases, if the continuums of care aren't really working closely together, we could in fact drive up our own rental rates. Yeah, because it becomes kind of a competition. That's right, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 27:30

That's absolutely right, which defeats the purpose of what we're trying to accomplish. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

So yeah and I have to say, here in uh here in Central Florida with our continuum of care, our lead agency is really trying to work on this. Um our lead agency, the Homeless Service Network, yep, is really trying to work on this. One of the things that they're doing as part of our COC notice of funding application or our application that goes to HUD each year for the COC funding, is they're trying to bring those dollars into their central agency and trying to pay all of the rents for the entire system. That's what they're trying to get to. We haven't gotten there quite yet, but they're trying to get to the point where they pay all the rents, which means that we have one provider agency or one agency, the homeless service network, that is basically going out there and working out all of the relationships with the landlord.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

And they're doing it on an equal level because now you can't compete against anybody.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

It's HSN.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

So, you know, if HSN goes to this landlord and they say 825 and they go to another landlord and they say 800, they can go to the 800 landlord. And the 825 landlord doesn't have any choice but to lower their rates if they want to get the business from HSN. And keep it all the same, exactly.

SPEAKER_06 28:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

So having that lead agency with the continual care really helps that. It can really help coordinate making sure that your rental rates don't that you don't, you know, price yourself out of your own system basically by competing against it, like you said.

SPEAKER_06 29:04

All right. All right. So the next question comes from Tom. Uh, is it safe to go out and talk to people doing the HUD point-in-time count?

SPEAKER_01 29:12

This is a good question because we're getting ready to come up on that. Coming close to it, yeah. At the end of January, uh HUD, the Housing and Urban Development Department, requires that we do a point-in-time count, um, which is effectively counting all of the individuals who are experiencing homelessness in our entire system, uh, whatever your COC is. So uh people ask me this question all the time when I talk about the point-in-time count, because we love to have volunteers and we need volunteers to go out. Yeah, as you can imagine, going out into a large area like we have here: Orange County, Seminole County, Osceola County, we have to cover all those counties, all those areas, and the and the number of volunteers that we need to cover all those areas is pretty big. And so we ask people to volunteer all the time, but people always have a have an issue with safety. And what I would argue is that the safety is typically not an issue. And the reason why is because we have team leads, we have people who are experienced, people from our field, people from provider agencies who are going to be leading each of these teams, and they know what the issues are, where safe areas are, you know, how to approach people effectively, things like that. So very, very rarely have I ever seen any safety issues. And and honestly, what we tell them in training is if you feel unsafe, then remove yourself from the situation.

SPEAKER_06 30:42

Yeah, yeah. No, I it's that I think that's one of the first questions that get asked, not only from volunteers, but even staff that's new who've never done it, is is it safe? Yeah, and I think people think that it's you go out alone and and talk to people, right? And it's not, it's groups of five, it's groups of six, right? Last year we did it together, and that's right. We had our cars were full with people and we went out together. It's a great way, again, to educate those that have never done it to go speak to people. Yes, but it's it's safe, it's not uh 99% of the people we go out to talk to are very welcoming and very just they just want to talk to you and answer any questions, you know. They ask you what it's for first, and we but there's a whole narrative that we we tell them, and but yeah, it's it's safe, it's never been an issue. Last year when I did it wasn't an issue, and so it's but that is the first question that gets asked by someone is is it safe to go out? But I think it's because they think they're doing it alone and they're not having any support, right? You know, and the people that are going out with them, the leads are experienced in this field, right? Me, me and you were leads last year. That's right. So we made sure we took care of those that came that never done it before, or even our staff. Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Yeah, and and so we want to encourage people to sign up for it. We want to encourage people to volunteer. Like I said, I think the volunteer uh portal or the volunteering opportunities are going to be coming out uh very, very soon. Uh and so please sign up for the point in time count. And as Danny said, it's a great way to actually learn about who the people are that are homeless in our area because uh that's the overwhelming feedback that I get from people after they've done their first point in time count. Is I didn't understand who these people were, yeah, and I got to talk to them, and now I know what some of their situations are, and it changes their entire perception of homelessness.

SPEAKER_06 32:31

Uh and and we're gonna have a special episode in January on point in time count so we could just go over everything, like the whole thing, and it's all we'll we'll there's more to come on that. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

Yeah, great. All right. Well, it's time to get inspired by our quote of the week. Uh, this quote is actually an African proverb. Uh, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Um, and I think you know, the first time I heard this, I thought to myself, you know, that's really true. Uh, that, you know, if you it it really it's really true that you need people if you really want to go far, you really want to have a a big impact in anything that you do, that you need a lot of people working together. Um, and in fact, it makes everything better. Um, and so I I really like this uh African proverb, and I think it really speaks to the continuum of care and what we're trying to do with continuums of care.

SPEAKER_06 33:34

Kind of like we said earlier, like there's some agencies that want to go alone.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_06 33:39

That's okay, but when you have that support system and you have other resources and it's much better, you can go further. You can go further.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

So um I can tell one brief story real quick about this. Um, so I was working at a continuum of care. I was uh I think it was maybe a uh on the board of the continuum of care in a local area. I won't say specifically where it was, but uh we were working on our continuum of care, and each year, as we as we've said before, the NOFO application or the notice of funding application comes out. And so as part of this, you have to compete against different organizations each year. And one of the things that HUD wants you to do is they want you to increase your performance scores, they want you to be better, you have better programs. And so one of the things that we came up with there is we came up with a strategy and a system whereby the lowest two scores in our continuum care would automatically get their money reallocated, right? So we've got programs who are applying to get renewed. And so the first year that we did this, I remember the scores were really low. There were some really low scores, right? So out of a hundred, some agencies couldn't even score 50 points because their performance was so bad with their programs. And so we reallocated. We took the bottom two from that from that list, so there was probably 15 projects there. We took the bottom two projects and we reallocated those dollars. The next year, program scores for for measurement and for program you know effectiveness shot up. And by the time I had left there, two or three years later, the scores we didn't have scores that were below 90 out of 100 for performance because because the competition actually drove programs to be better. And they tried to figure out okay, what can I do? And and so every year, wherever they would lose points or wherever the program uh was lacking, they would work on that area and they would make sure that the next year that they did not get you know dinged on that area.

SPEAKER_06 35:55

They didn't want to lose their funding.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

They didn't want to lose their funding. Yeah, and but but the the I think the important thing of this message, and going back to this proverb, it's everybody agreed to this. Right. It wasn't like, you know, there was one agency that said, oh yeah, let's do it this way. All of them agreed that look, if we've got these bottom two, we need to reallocate those dollars and create new programs that might be able to perform better than those than those um bottom two programs. So it was really a collaboration and it really showed how working together, you can create better programs individually across the entire system of that are going to be successful, isn't it? And that are gonna be successful, exactly. So that's really kind of the the idea behind that.

SPEAKER_06 36:40

Yep. All right. Okay, and that concludes our halftime. Please stay with us after this short message.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

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 PathLite hero, ensuring every neighbor has a chance to thrive. Visit pathlighthome.org to donate today.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

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 our NFL home team locks of the week. So we'll start with the NFL player spotlight of the week. Uh this week it is Rock Hill Native Mason Rudolph, who is now a quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers, uh, chose to spotlight a hometown women's shelter on his cleats as part of the NFL's My Cause, My Cleats campaign, which is fantastic. Love that campaign. Uh the Northwestern High School alumnus said he selected the Lifehouse because of its connection to his home church, Westminster Presbyterian. I know some of the people that helped start it back in 2020, and I think sometimes we only think about homelessness in big cities like New York and Los Angeles, Rudolph explained. But there's obviously a need in smaller cities like Rock Hill. The NFL's My Cause, My Cleats campaign is a player-led initiative where players, coaches, and staff wear custom design cleats to spotlight causes that are important to them. Courtney Denton, the executive director of the Lifehouse and director of Women's and Mercy Ministries at West Westminster Presbyterian, said she's known Rudolph since his childhood. He knows that all of life is not about football, Denton said. The opportunity for him to leverage his platform in a way that brings glory to God and honors his community is a really special thing. We certainly are very grateful to be the recipients of his support. Founded in 2020, the Life House aims to provide help and hope to homeless women in need. In five years, it has grown from a single shelter to four outposts across the Rock Hill area while assisting nearly 800 women and children. That's fantastic. That's great. Yep. My cause my cleats. Absolutely. Mike Cause my cleats. That's one of the better ones. I have to agree with that. All right. Now we go on to the fantasy football. All right. So last week obviously was our Thanksgiving episode, so I didn't have a uh choice for fantasy football player of the week. Um, this week I'm choosing Trey McBride. He's a tight end for the Arizona Cardinal Cardinals. They play Los Angeles Rams, and he's projected to get 11 points. I think he will probably outperform that. Trey McBride is one of the top tight ends in the NFL, and he's he's good. And against the LA Rams, they're gonna need a lot of offense to really, really get that going. So I look for Trey to to really, you know, uh outperform that 11-point projection that he has. Um now we go to our fantasy flashback, which is a really good one. Uh one of my favorite players uh used to be anyway, uh Julio Jones, uh wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons in week 14 of 2014 versus the Green Bay Packers. He had 11 receptions, 259 yards, and one touchdown.

SPEAKER_06 41:13

Good game.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

The downside is they lost the game. They lost the game. But it probably but it also speaks to why he probably had 11 receptions and 259 yards. They were getting beat. So they just kept throwing it to Julio. And uh let me tell you, he was uh one of my favorite players. He's a good player, yeah. Um, really, really good players, especially back in 2014. So if you had Julio Jones in week 14 of 2014, you probably won your fantasy football uh uh game for the week. Now we'll take a look at the local football teams. Danny, it feels like this is my whole section here. It's all me. It's okay.

SPEAKER_04 41:49

It's all you, it's all you.

SPEAKER_05 41:50

It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

Uh, but the local football teams to watch, of course, uh Jones High School still winning. They won. Uh they won again. Uh Jones beat Lake Wales 24 to 10. Uh they're now ranked 32nd in Florida, and in Orlando, they're ranked number six. Their next game coming up is gonna be uh obviously Jones versus Port Charlotte. And remember, this is the playoffs. So they're both 11-2. They're both 11-2, and they should should be another good matchup. Uh, but I look for Jones to keep on rolling, and hopefully uh we'll be we'll be in the championship soon. I bet so good. Absolutely. Yeah. All right, Danny, take us away.

SPEAKER_06 42:31

All right, so my boone high school was eliminated, so we can move on from there. Exactly. But let's let's go into locks of the week. Um, so this is when we're predicting the home team uh to win each week. So uh call you had uh Houston versus Indianapolis, and Houston won that game 20 to 16.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

I don't know how they did that. I mean, Houston's got a really good defense, uh, don't get me wrong, but Indy just really laid an egg at home, and and that was a division game and a tough game. I mean, that was just yeah, that one really wasn't a blowout. No, it wasn't a blowout, but it surprised me though. It really surprised me that they couldn't pull that out.

SPEAKER_06 43:10

So uh I had uh the Packers versus the Lions on Thanksgiving Day.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Thanksgiving Day.

SPEAKER_06 43:15

And yeah, the Packers won 31 to 24.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Yeah, I was sad to see that. I was hoping they'd pull it out.

SPEAKER_06 43:24

So Call's record right now is six and seven, and I am seven and six. So I'm getting closer to 500, which is not good. I'm I'm going the opposite way right now. Uh so next week's selection or this week's selection, yeah. Uh call you have Seattle against Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

I do. I'm taking the Falcons at home. Uh, I think you know, hopefully they will they will have enough to muster. Seattle's been playing really well. Um Seattle, you know, blew out uh the team that they're playing. I think they played Tennessee this last year last week, and they pretty much blew them out. So I think at this point, uh I think they should be. Ready to you know play a good Atlanta team.

SPEAKER_06 44:02

All right. And then I have the Commanders against the Vikings, and I'm picking the Vikings for that one. Just because the Commanders are not playing very well this year. So that's true. They are not that whole yeah, that whole Giants, Commanders. Yeah, but that's good for Dallas, right? Exactly it. That's perfect for Disney. We're scraping up a little bit at a time. So if they keep going the opposite way.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

That's right. They might be able to make it into the play. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 44:29

Yeah. Who's the number one seed in F.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

I don't know. I can't recall. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Okay. Just one didn't. All right, just checking in on that.

SPEAKER_05 44:36

All right, let's move on. So let's stay tuned for our wrap-up after this message.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

Hello, everyone. I'm Carl Falconer, the president and CEO of Path Light 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. PathLite 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 pathlethome.org. Thank you. All right, Danny, you have the homelessness MVPS.

SPEAKER_06 46:58

All right, so students with JAG KY in Kentucky programs at Mullins School and Pike Central High School joined members of the community on November 19th to help raise awareness of homelessness and hunger issues locally. The participants in the Feed the Need for Change Walk in Pikeville walked along the bypass road, stopping at the West Care Perry Klein Emergency Shelter, the community's homeless shelter, where they learned about the services the shelter provides the week before Thanksgiving, according to shelter prevention specialist Rick Branham, is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Annually, Branham said he has tried to do something to promote awareness of the issues in Pike County. Still to this day, people don't realize that we actually have a homeless shelter here in Pikeville, Branham said. The West Carrie Klein uh emergency shelter at 173 Ridale Road in Pikeville houses men, women, and families and can hold approximately 35 people. That's a pretty short small shelter. This time of year, especially the shelter is full. As temperatures change, people need a place to go, Branham said. Many people are not aware of the issue's impact locally. We do have hungry and homeless people here in eastern Kentucky, he said. Maddie Ratliff, a student advisor with the Pike Central uh Jag KY program, said the event also included a food drive. Both Mullins and Pike Central, we did a food drive, she said. We're gonna take the food that we got from the school and take it to the homeless shelter. Kennedy Hamilton, treasurer of Pike Central Jag KY uh program, said the experience felt good for her and her fellow students. It feels really great to help people in need and to be part of them moving forward, Hamilton said. JAG is all about opportunities, especially for our high school kids, but also the community. So I wanted to I wanted to put something there just to show the younger population and how they're giving back and how they No, that's fantastic. And it's it this is it's a small shelter. Absolutely, but it doesn't matter. It's it's what you're giving back, especially during this time with Thanksgiving and not being around your family. It's it's just helping out. And I what he says is it it's a I took it as a plus and a negative because he said that people till to this day don't know that there's a shelter there, right? Which I think is good because maybe there's not a lot of homeless people there. Sure. But also it's bad because you want people to volunteer, you want people to give back and donate and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

So yeah, and and again, pointing out rural homelessness. You know, people think that all of the homeless individuals in the in the country are uh are in you know big urban areas. But there is homelessness in these rural areas, these small areas, and we need more of those services there. And again, going back to our our topic, the continuums of care, is a lot of these are covered by continuums of care that are linking these smaller areas with larger areas so that they can get that that uh service effect so they can have more services there. So, yeah, absolutely. Very good. Great job by them. And now on to our fumble of the week. Uh, I feel like this is gonna be a recurring pattern that we have from pretty much week to week, basically. Uh Tyson Whitaker is the founder of Seeking Him Outreach, a nonprofit organization that provides food for the end-house population. What is up, my man? Can I get you a water? said Whitaker while talking to a man living in a Santa Ana, California parking lot. How many dogs do you have? I got some dog food if you need it. On November 4th, Orange County Supervisors adopted an ordinance, Orange County, California, by the way, uh, adopted an ordinance that will allow law enforcement to arrest and fine individuals who are camping in county parks, flood channels, and other county properties. Again, here we go with the ordinances. Under the ordinance, the county can arrest and fine those struggling with homelessness up to a thousand dollars. Because, you know, most of the people that we know that are homeless out on the streets just carry a thousand dollars around in their pockets. Yeah, obviously. Um, and and I'm sure they're gonna get a huge windfall from that, the county. You know, they're gonna get a whole bunch of money from people who can't pay them. Anyway, just days after after the ordinance went into effect, Whitaker said the number of people on the streets seemed much lower. This last week there was trash all over right here because there are so many of them. But they have been kicking everyone out, said Whitaker. He said that most of the in-house population struggles with mental health and addiction issues, and that he feels this ordinance is a step in the wrong direction. All you're doing is giving them a record now, and so the next time a cop pulls them over, they're automatically going to assume that they have this background, said Pete. They're going to get messed with by police, and you're not going to be able to get a job. This ordinance follows last year's Supreme Court ruling, grants passed versus Johnson. We've talked about that before, that lifted a ban on arresting people for sleeping in public places when there were no bed shelter beds available. Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said a big part of the reason she pushed for the anti-camping ordinance was to combat crime. She said not everyone camping on county land is struggling with homelessness. They might be disguised as unhoused, but really they're using it for property theft and drug dealing. Boy, and we know that for a fact, and we are trying to root that out as well, said Foley. Yeah, okay. She said that the for those who are struggling with homelessness, there are resources available to get them back on their feet. It is not just sending law enforcement out there to issue tickets and arrest people, said Foley. It is sending out our care and coordination team to ask people, do you want help? Here's how we can help you. Yeah, but if you look at Orange County, California, just like almost everywhere in the country, there aren't enough shelter beds, there aren't enough resources, and sure, you can send a care team out there, but unless they have keys in their pocket for apartments that people can actually afford, they can't do it. What good does it do to send an outreach team out there? Exactly. They're not putting people in housing, and they can't put people in housing. And so to target people like this who can't get housing or can't get into shelters, is just, I mean, it's criminal to do this, to to target people.

SPEAKER_06 53:17

Just to comment that they might be disguised and housed. Right. Because they just somebody wakes up and says, Let me just disguise myself as being united.

SPEAKER_01 53:25

Because I want to go out there, I'm gonna pretend to be homeless so that I can go out there and and get arrested. And get arrested, exactly. Yes. It just it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_06 53:36

But again, we keep we keep seeing these stories of these ordinances and it's just spreading all over the place. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 53:42

And if they really wanted to root out the criminals, we'll then put all of the people who legitimately are homeless in housing. And guess who's going to be left? Criminals. Exactly. People who want to be out there. Then she then she can make that comment. Then she can make the comment. Then she can make the comment. But until then, no. Come on.

SPEAKER_06 53:58

All right. You see how we get riled up with these, right?

SPEAKER_01 54:01

Every once in a while.

SPEAKER_06 54:02

All right. And finally, uh, here is our key takeaway for this episode. So every day, thousands of people are being housed by caring providers and systems of care in local communities. Unfortunately, the attention is focused on the public perception of homelessness. As housing cons housing costs continue to rise, the number of people being housed is having less an effect on the public because more people are losing housing than ever before. We should think about all the places where homelessness is and not and not realize that there is a system of caring people behind that happening.

SPEAKER_01 54:34

That's right. Well it is again, I drove into work today and did not see one homeless person out on the street. Now I can pretend that that's because I drive some special way or something, Danny. But the reality is there are lots of places in our community where there are not homeless people out on the streets. And the reason for that is because of our continuums of care, it's because of our providers, it's because of the community members who are involved with us, it's because of all of us doing this work. And the problem is that we just keep focusing on what's not getting done.

SPEAKER_02 55:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 55:16

You know, there's lots of things that are getting done out in the community, you know. I mean, again, to use that football analogy, right? People get penalties, right? Players get penalties during the game. But of the overwhelming number of plays that go on during a game, there are not that many penalties that happen. Yep. But what do people always point out? What the penalty is. That's it.

SPEAKER_06 55:41

Oh, my team had 10, 10, 10 calls against them, and they lost 100 yards.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

Out of 70, out of 70 plays, they had 10 penalties, right? Nobody looks at those other 60 plays, they're looking at those 10 penalties. And absolutely, we want every single person to get off of the street. But the reality is, is we're doing a lot of work and there's a lot of system behind what's happening here to make sure that homelessness isn't worse than it is. Because there are definitely places where homelessness is significantly worse than in other places. And where the stronger continuums of care are, where the stronger agencies, providers are working together, that's where you see that homelessness is not as prevalent as other places.

SPEAKER_06 56:27

Exactly. Yeah, I think with us when we started this podcast, we talked about how we were going to format this, right? Right. And how we would we didn't want to just show the negative, but we want to show the positive. So all these MVPs of the week. And but we also want to address these, you know, these stories that just are horrible. But but there's a lot of good going on in the community. Look at the veteran one that I just read. Absolutely. There's a lot of good going on, but people always focus on that negative. We you saw one person on the street, oh my God, there's too many homeless people in the street. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 56:55

You know, it's like just that's like what about the other 12 street corners that there was nobody to stop that, but nobody was acting.

SPEAKER_06 57:01

But you see the one and that's all you remember. That's all you remember. So that's exactly there's a lot of good going on, and there's a lot of the again, you like you said, the continuum of care with all the partners and all the agencies that are working together. There's a lot of good going on. Absolutely. We're just not out there bragging about it. You know, we're just doing the work because we just want to get people housed. You know, that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

Yeah, yeah. 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 Magnum. Take it away.

SPEAKER_02 57:43

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