10.What is Reunification?

On this episode, Carl Falconer and Danny Arroyo dive into the theme of reunification — exploring how reconnecting people experiencing homelessness with family or loved ones can be a life-changing path to housing stability.

Through their signature Offense vs. Defense debate, they discuss whether families should be expected to care for their unhoused relatives, weighing the emotional bonds and safety benefits against the challenges of financial strain and unresolved trauma. Carl and Danny also share heartfelt success stories of reunification, highlight inspiring community efforts like Miracle Messages, and examine the systemic barriers that make family reconnection so complex.

As always, they mix in football highlights, community inspiration, and a reminder that ending homelessness takes teamwork — from family members to neighbors to organizations like Pathlight HOME.

Key Takeaway: Every act of reunification is an act of prevention — breaking the cycle of homelessness, trauma, and separation through connection and compassion.

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, I'm Danny O'Reilly, and we're tackling homelessness.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

Today in our podcast, we'll discuss two of our passions, football and ending homelessness. Please join us through four quarters with our topic this week being reunification. How's your weekend, Danny?

SPEAKER_02 0:35

It was good. Went to uh Epic with the family, and that was fun. Um, I'm getting older, so the rides are hitting me a little harder. But yeah, no, we had a great time. Really, really nice park, like really, really nice. So we're so used to Disney and you know, and you went to all four parts. We did all four, yeah. We did all four, so they were good. The Vidlands uh monsters was the best one. Yeah, we got on a ride twice there, so it was it was fun.

SPEAKER_04 0:59

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

How's yours?

SPEAKER_04 1:01

That's great. Uh weekend was good, relaxed pretty much most of the weekend. Um, obviously on Friday night uh Halloween. Uh so um, you know, tried to get trick-or-treaters to come to the door. I uh had tons of candy and nobody showed up. I was very disappointed. I just talked with yesterday, I talked with one of our board members, and he had kids lined up around his house and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

My first year where I was, we had nothing but they were building uh everything. This year we had a bunch, we almost built all the candy.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

Oh man, I should come over to your neighborhood and passed out candy.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

So there was a lot of good kids coming by with good outfits, it was good.

SPEAKER_04 1:38

We had nobody this year. So, all right, so we'll start it off uh as we always do with the coin toss. Um, Danny, go ahead and call it in the air. Heads. It is heads, so you get to start us off.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

All right, so welcome to our first quarter where I'm gonna kick off uh 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, as Carl mentioned earlier, our topic this week is reunification. Uh so the meaning for that is for people experiencing homelessness, reunification is a housing stabilization uh strategy. It involves helping them return to live with relatives or close social connections when it is safe, appropriate, and mutually agreed upon. This often includes mediation, travel assistance, and follow-up case management and management to ensure the placement is sustainable. So assessment, uh they determine if returning to a family or friend is safe and realistic. Mediation is addressing past conflicts or barriers to returning home. Support, providing transportation, counseling, or temporary assistance to make reunification successful, and then stability, it's ensuring that the living situation will not lead to renewed homelessness or harm. So it's one of my favorite things to do. I think it's absolutely yeah, it's one of my favorite just yeah, just reuniting friends, families. Fantastic. Yeah, I've sent people from all the way to Miami, to California, to New York. It's it's just a great um I think it's a great program to do. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

And unfortunately, it gets a bad rap sometimes because people don't do it correctly. Yeah. Um, you hear about people trying to move uh people experiencing homelessness around and get them out of their area or whatever. That's not what this is. This is an actual reunification to help them not be be homeless any longer. So, really finding those friends and relatives outside of that area that can support them. And in some cases, at least some that I've experienced or had experience with, um, people were looking for them. You know, their family couldn't find them and didn't know that they were out there. They had support for them, they were able to take them back, but they didn't know they were even there. So, yeah, it's a fantastic program. And I'm really a big fan of uh of reunification. All right, well, now let's take a look at some of the headlines from the homeless world. So, President Donald Trump's administration faces deadlines on Monday uh to tell two federal judges whether it will comply with court orders that it continue to fund SNAP, which is the um supplemental nutrition and assistance program. It's the nation's biggest food aid program, and what they're what they're uh facing is whether or not to use contingency funds during the government shutdown. The U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze those payments to SNAP starting November 1st because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown. The program serves about one in eight Americans and is a major piece of the nation's social safety net. And it costs about eight billion dollars per month nationally to run the SNAP program. So obviously, this is just another one of those things you know that affects all of the people that we serve and and more, quite frankly, uh, in this case, because there's a lot of people who rely on this. Um, I think I thought I saw something about it's usually on average about $176 a month or so that people would receive for this kind of benefit for the for the food stamp benefits.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Yeah, and for those that we have living with us who are paying their rent, you know, with very limited income, you know, reducing or losing this dollar amount is gonna put people in a bind of, you know, now what do they do with their food? How are their rent? You know, what are the priorities? So I hope they get some fixes.

SPEAKER_04 5:41

Yeah, absolutely. And and again, it comes down to making those decisions. When you have very, very little income or very little money coming in, it comes down to those decisions you have to make as you're buying food, medication sometimes, transportation sometimes, and then rent. I mean, you know, all of those things are essential for individuals to be able to live, but without this assistance, you got to make some really hard choices uh throughout the month. So yeah, all right. And now let's uh see how our Cowboys and the Bears did this week, Danny.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

We don't we could bypass it, so it's not yeah. So my team played yesterday, uh late game again. The late game, just hard. Yeah, uh, but yeah, we we we played horribly. I mean, we just we're our own worst enemy. I mean, we literally just ruined our games for ourselves, but we lost uh 27 to 17. Um, we're going into a bye next week, so hopefully they can all sit and think about what they've done to us. Um, but right now they are 3-5-1. So just a horrible record. I mean, it's a bad record.

SPEAKER_04 6:49

Absolutely. And just last week we were talking about their offense being so good, their defense being so bad. Their defense showed up a little bit for this game. Uh now, granted, the Cardinals were without some of their players and all of that, but still the defense showed up. I mean, 27 points is not a big thing to overcome. But I saw the Cowboys were averaging, at least before Monday night, they were averaging 40 points a game scoring at home. And they ended up putting 17. 17.

SPEAKER_05 7:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

So just and they were killing themselves. I mean, when I was watching that game, fumbles, drop passes. I mean, it was just it, they it wasn't didn't look like Arizona was doing a lot against them. It looked like the Cowboys were the ones who were their own worst.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

They lost their game on their own, on their own errors, and yeah, so yeah, absolutely. So just another bad loss for us. But we'll we have a bye next week. So let's see what we're doing. The Bears uh tried to give me a heart attack. Yes. I was looking at the score the whole time. I was like, do I text him now? Do I wait? Let me wait till the end of the game.

SPEAKER_04 7:50

They got up big on the Bengals. We're doing fantastic. Again, uh, what is this? This is week nine now. And I said the offense would come around. Now the offense started coming. So that was good. They they were really there. And the offense was there, and then the defense went and let us down. And and the Bengals just started scoring at will until uh right at the end when my Bears pulled it out again with more offense. 47-42. They beat the Bengals, so that's a win. We'll take it. We'll take the win. Again this week, the offense had to pull, had to pull the defense out of it, and that was great. Uh, you know, I'm glad that the offense showed up. Um my Bears are 5-3.

SPEAKER_05 8:34

Good record.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

Rolling. Rolling.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Pretty much the opposite of mine.

SPEAKER_04 8:38

There you go. And next uh week's opponent is the Giants coming to Chicago. So I'm looking forward to that. It should be a really good game, and uh, you know, hopefully my Bears can keep it rolling, keep it going.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Yeah, good. All right, good for you, man. All right, uh, that wraps up the first quarter. We'll be back after this break. This is the second quarter. We are getting a little deeper into a homeless topic with something we call offense and defense. We will each take turns discussing some opposing viewpoints of our topic this week. The statement to discuss this week is should family and friends be expected to take care of their homeless loved ones? Please remember that we are trying to show both sides of the issue. These do not necessarily reflect our individual stances on these positions. So I have offense this week and Carl has defense, so I'll go first. All right, so uh our my offense is emotional support and familiarity. Loved ones can provide compassion, understanding, and emotional stability that foremost shelters or agencies may not. A sense of belonging and connection can improve mental health and motivation. Uh Ian DeJang often says that people who are experiencing homelessness need three things: a safe and affordable place to live, something to do, and something or someone to love. Uh, immediate safety and stability. Staying with family or friends can protect a person from dangers of living on the streets. Violence, theft, weather, exposure. It often offers uh uh access to basic needs like food, hygiene, and rest. Uh reduced barrier to help. Family can help the person navigate resources, medical care, job searches, housing programs that might otherwise be overwhelming. It can buy time while waiting for permanent housing or benefits. I think that's one of my favorite ones. That uh potential for rebuilding relationships. Homelessness often strains relationships, support from loved ones, and can help rebuild trust and communication. So call your defense.

SPEAKER_04 10:51

Great. I have the defense. Um again, I want to remind everybody should family and friends be expected to take care of their homeless loved ones, I'm giving reasons why they should not. Um, emotional and financial strain. Uh taking in a homeless loved one can cause stress, conflict, or burnout, especially if resources are limited or the situation is long term. It can lead to resentment or guilt if expectations differ between the host and the person being helped. Unresolved root issues. If the person struggles with mental illness, addiction, or trauma, simply providing a place to stay may not address the underlying problems. Without professional support, the situation may repeat or worsen. Risk of enabling or dependency. Providing housing and support without structure or boundaries can unintentionally prevent the person from seeking independent stability. Household safety and stability. In some cases, the guest behavior, whether it's substance abuse or volatility, lack of boundaries, can create tension or risk for others in the household. And then finally, there's legal or housing complications. Allowing someone to stay might violate lease terms, affect public housing eligibility, or create complications around tenancy rights. So uh I'll go ahead and I'll start uh the discussion on your points, Danny. I do like these. I think you know, if the family is in a position to be able to help people or help their their loved ones, I think it's certainly you're right. The emotional support that's there, the safety and stability, even helping them reduce barriers to help, any of those things can be positive. I I guess my my counter to that would be if the family was able to help, why weren't they already doing it? Why didn't they help the person stay or stay housed or keep from becoming homeless? And I understand in some situations, particularly with our with the people that we serve, and I've talked to a lot of people out on the streets when I was doing outreach, and there was a lot of guilt and a lot of shame there, and they were not reaching out. They didn't know that their family member there they wouldn't want their family member to know that they were in trouble, that they could not stay housed, that they were losing their housing, or that they had already lost their housing. And so, you know, but but again, I think that goes back to the whole idea that the family, if they have the ability to do so. Now, the counter, you talked about the reducing barriers and you know helping persons navigate resources. I I would say this is one that I would object to because the family in most cases are not professionals, they're not trained to do these things. And I think without that professional help, I think it can be really easy to burn out your family members, you know, relying on them to to help you get food stamps or help you apply for Social Security or any of those. They're not professionals. And what we used to have to tell people when I was doing outreach is we would run into people who had some connection with their family, and their family sometimes was supportive or not. What we would have to do is we'd have to let them know look, you've got to let us be the professionals here. Let us be the mediator between you and your family member. We'll let you know when we need your help or assistance and support for this person, which will probably not be until we get the person moved into housing. Because we want this person to get stable first so that they're not a burden on you as well as a burden on themselves. We want that stability first, and then we'll reach out. And that's when I found that it was a better, it was a better option for a family.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

I think that there's a lot of different instances. I mean, your unresolved root issue one. I mean, that's a big one just because, especially addiction. Oh, absolutely. Um, there's so many times that families just can't handle that. Yeah, absolutely. You know, end up having the person leave, and then they get worse on the street. Mental illness is also a big one, too. Yeah, um, but I I and also the emotion and financial strain, you know, some people are barely getting by, and now we're adding another person to the household. Yeah, can they support them? Can they help them through that process? So it's very, very difficult.

SPEAKER_04 15:12

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Um, and and I've had a lot of instances of doing reunification where the person's like, I can't bring them in. Right. You know, my house is full. Yeah, we got a bunch of kids, and it's exactly in a one or two bedroom, and I can't do it, you know. So, but I but I think that on the other other side, I think just like you said earlier, there's people that have lost contact with their loved ones, they left to another state. They, you know, just on my side, I personally know that people have left for mental illness just because they left. And and we try to provide that support for them, it just wasn't working. Yeah, you know, and not that we gave up on them, but it was just we couldn't do much for it. But on the other side, we didn't know all the resources that were out there.

SPEAKER_04 15:56

That's we didn't know what to do, we didn't know who to contact and well, and that's why, yeah, getting professionals involved is really important in this process, regardless of you know, if you have someone who has already experienced homelessness, you need to get professionals involved with it. Whether you can take them back in and help them and support them, you need to have some professionals there that can have some level of uh separation between them so that they can see what's really going on and what's really happening there. Um, and let me say the other thing about that that I've really uh noticed in my experience is that there are cultural differences with individuals and family members. You know, in some in some cultures, taking in family members is not a big deal. There you can have two or three generations living together under the same household, and that's not a big deal. That's just part of the culture. And then in other cultures, that's not as acceptable to be able to do that. And so sometimes the cultural issues play into this as well, and you can see that sometimes in in uh who experiences homelessness in a specific area. Definitely. Yeah.

unknown 17:08

All right.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Well, Pathlight's home position on uh reunification is when we find people on the street, we ask about family and friends to determine if it's appropriate to try reunification. If not, after we have housed people and helped them gain some stability, we encourage them to reach out to family and friends to try to rebuild those relationships.

SPEAKER_04 17:25

Yeah, and to me, that's where the key is. And and I mean, we want everyone to have a great relationship with their family members. Absolutely no doubt. But typically it's after they're stable. It they have a much better chance of doing it, calling up your family member and saying, hey, I'd like to get together, I'd like to, you know, at least have phone calls or whatever, if you're already taking care of yourself or you're in a stable situation. So definitely. Yeah, absolutely. 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_02 18:04

All right. So let's start by hearing from our listeners. So our first question comes from Debbie. Uh, take away all current limitations. What would the ideal homeless services system look like?

SPEAKER_04 18:17

Wow. Okay, this is a good one.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_04 18:20

That's a good one. Um I mean, the ideal homeless service situation, of course, would be nobody ever becomes homeless. That that would be the ultimate, of course. But let's say that people are still becoming homeless. Then uh effectively what we have said in the homeless service system is we've said that when you reach what we call functional zero, and I think we talked about this on our on our uh previous podcast, when you reach functional zero, where your system can rehouse every person that becomes homeless within 30 days, then you've basically created a system that's uh you know almost perfect at that point, is being able to rehouse somebody in 30 days. So whatever that looks like, whatever scaling you need, services, and for each uh community, as we've talked about before, it might look different. You know, some communities might need more rapid rehousing, some might need more permanent supportive housing, more shelter, less shelter, all those different things. So each community would have their own version of it. But the ultimate goal or the ultimate way that you would know that the ideal homeless service system is there is if you can rehouse any person that becomes homeless within 30 days.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

I think it's also adding the services, how we say all the time that if we're gonna house people, we have to provide services for everyone. Right. And if we don't have it, then they're the recidivism, they're gonna go back out on the street. Correct. So I think the ideal one, of course, is ending homelessness completely. Sure. But we want to make sure that we not only house people, but we're providing all those services that are needed afterwards, kind of like the reunification, right? That we just say we'll we'll move people with family members, but then we're gonna provide all these other services.

SPEAKER_04 20:06

Yeah, and making it scalable, as you said, with those resources, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

All right. So our next question comes from Dorothy. Uh, where I live, there's not there's not so much panhandling, but it seems like the homeless literally come out of the woods and take up space in my neighborhood park. I'm elderly and regularly enjoy my park, but feel less safe with the homeless there. Can I speak with them without putting myself in harm's way or being taken advantage of?

SPEAKER_04 20:32

Ooh, this is a good question. This is a really good question. Um So uh I I would say yes. There's definitely a way that you can talk with the individuals. Um in fact, if if this is an elderly female, what I would guess is if she started a conversation with one person who is homeless in that park and hanging out there, if she started a conversation with one of them, she would probably find, and this is what I found in my experience, and more more often than not, what I've found is that the other people who are experiencing homelessness in that park, if they're part of that same community and they're all together, is they'll actually look out for her, is they'll actually make sure that she stays safe while she's in that park.

SPEAKER_05 21:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

And they'll talk to her about that, and they'll talk to her if there are bad actors in their in their community or people who might not, you know, have all of their faculties about it, might have some mental illness going on, or something like that. They'll they'll inform her and help her understand who might be, you know, not as safe to approach, or or somebody like that. Um and so, yes, I I think the easiest way for her to be able to do this, though, is to try to pick someone who is I would say who is similar to her, if there's a female in the group or there's a female. You know, person who's who's experiencing homelessness that's older. You know, try and strike up a conversation with them if you if you want to do that. You know, like you said, you regularly enjoy the park, great. They're enjoying the park too, if you feel comfortable, you know. Uh, and again, try not to bring too many things into the equation, like, you know, uh, you know, a whole bunch of flashy jewelry or carrying your purse with you or things like that. Nothing like that. Uh, there's no reason to do that.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

If she's a regular at the park, she's noticing them, but they're noticing her. They're noticing her. So they know she's there every day. They know she comes and sits at this bench at a certain time. That's right. Eats her sandwich, or feeds the pigeons. But I think it's just a conversation like you would have with anyone. I mean, it's you're not you're not gonna do any case management with them or it's just have a conversation about the day, the park, the that's right, you know, the weather or whatever it is. And and they'll strike something up and you eventually they'll probably start sharing some more information with them. That's exactly right. But yeah, just have a conversation, and it's not being scared of them, right?

SPEAKER_04 23:06

You know, so I think the only thing, and again, being taken advantage of, I think that's the other thing, is if you start to have a conversation with them and all they're interested in talking to you about is whether you have money or whether you have something for them or things like that, then just cut off that conversation. Just move on. There's uh, you know, see if there's somebody else that you can have a conversation with, but uh, you know, don't get too wrapped up in that conversation necessarily because then you know that that person's only looking for one thing. Just looking for one thing exactly, you know, and that's not what you're interested in. You're interested in you know getting to know who that person is and and maybe you know building some kind of a relationship with them. Definitely. Absolutely. Well, it's time to get inspired by our quote of the week. Family means, sorry, this uh quote comes to us from David Ogden Steers, who's an actor and a conductor. Uh, family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Um that's kind of the theme, right? Reunification. So I I have a story that happened in my previous uh place that I worked. We did reunification. We had a director there, um, case manager who did a fantastic job and just went out of his way to get people back to their family. So we had this one gentleman who came in, was coming to the drop-in uh to get services for a while. And we started having conversations with him and figuring out what his next steps were, and he had very little income. Um, he had his girlfriend, she hardly had any income or fiance. Um, and then we ended up asking him about family and who did he have. And he said, you know, he had a mom down south, but couldn't remember where it was because he was, you know, he struggled for mental illness. So social media came into play and we got at least her name um and just started digging. And we literally we were looking for about two weeks, just about searching everywhere. We finally located her in Miami, um, reached out to her, and her just she just flipped on the phone. Just, I can't believe it. I haven't seen him in a couple of years. I had no idea where he was. And we were like, Well, can you bring him in? She said, Do I need to buy a plane ticket? Do I need and we were like, Nope, nope, we cover all of it. Don't worry. But we asked her, you know, the the the the right questions, you know, can you support him? Can you take care of him? We told him kind of where he was in his state, you know, he was taking medication while he was working with the case manager. We got him on medication, and then we told her, Well, you know, he's coming with a girlfriend. And she was like, I don't care. She's family, send them to. And we ended up putting him on a bus and send them down. And then we checked on him about maybe a couple of months later. He was fine. His mom was saying he was behaving, right? And he was doing good, but it was a good story because she just was looking for it for so long. But because she was older, she just didn't know where to look. You know, she, you know, young people have more access to social media. She had no idea, but as soon as I mean, it wasn't even a question of can you before we even finished the sentence like send them. She was like, I'll pay for it. I we're like, no, we're gonna cover it. Just meet them, and then you know, we gave her all the information of um, you know, we got her address, make sure we validated where she lived, yeah, uh, make sure it was legit, and yeah, and we send them down and they both left together. So yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_04 26:18

And again, that's where you know, that's where we talked about before is is oftentimes family don't know that the person's in this situation, they don't know that they're struggling, that they're having these issues, and they're more than willing to try to support any way they can. And some families more than others um are willing to support the person as much as they can, but they just don't know that they're in the situation.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Yeah, and with her, I remember her asking us it when she gave us a story about why he left or why they had a falling out. It was because of substance abuse. Right. And one of the questions was, is he still using? And we were like, no, he's not using. He goes to NA and AA and all that.

SPEAKER_05 26:56

That's great.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

And he's clean, he was just suffering from mental illness, but he was on his medication. But that was kind of the first question. You could tell that that was the only hesitance that she had was is he gonna come back and start using again? That's right. But we, you know, we assured her that, you know, he was he was clean, he was good, and he was so yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:11

So yeah, that's great. That's fantastic. That's a great story.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

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

SPEAKER_04 27:22

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 pathlethome.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.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Looking at how our local football teams fared and announcing our NFL home team locks of the week. So our NFL player spotlight of the week is Nakobi Dean. Uh, he may just have recently returned to the field for the Eagles, but he's been busy this season, both rehabbing his injury and making an impact in the community. He spent the offseason attending most of the teammates' philanthropic events and hosting his own through his Kind Heart for Life Foundation. Uh and they pulled off two big events leading to the Eagles' LB being named uh week nine F NFLPA Community MVP. Dean teamed up with the Oral Health Impact Project to launch their second annual school tour. A tour that will travel to five different schools in Philadelphia and provided free dental cleanings, screenings, and supplies to over 100 students. And if that wasn't impactful enough, four days later, Dean hosted a give back event that donated 1,000 winter coats to local youth, as well as provided 600 meals, 200 free haircuts, and 300 blood pressure and diabetes screenings for attendees. Giving back affords me to the opportunity to uplift others by showing the small acts of kindness can make a big difference, Dean said. My mom instilled in me the priceless value of helping others, which motivates me to continuously find new ways to serve and inspire others.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

That's fantastic. That's absolutely great.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Let me give back.

SPEAKER_04 31:01

That's right, may as well give back, yeah, while he's rehab, and that's fantastic. And again, you talked about, you know, uh giving back in your local community, giving back in your hometown. Yep. And the third thing I would say that is almost in every story is their family. Is their family and how their family instilled these values in these players to make sure that they give back whenever they're become successful.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

I think because a lot of these players do come from poverty. They they have come from homelessness, they have come from single family homes where the mom is just barely getting by. So they understand what these kids are going to, yeah, and they just want to give back. So I I mean he did a lot. Yeah, he did. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 31:42

That's great.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

All right, Mr. Call.

SPEAKER_04 31:44

All right, the fantasy football player pick of the week. You had a good week. I had a good week. I had a good week. Mine is the opposite. All right. I'm starting to turn around a little bit. Uh last week I chose uh Josh Allen, quarterback for Buffalo. Uh the it was uh the game was Kansas City at Buffalo, and he was expected to get 20 points. He got 27 points. Yes, exceeded his expectations. So definitely the player pick of the week. Nice. This week I'm picking Sam Laporta. He is a tight end for Detroit. Detroit is playing at Washington this week, and uh, Sam is expected to get seven points. Okay. Now it's a little less than the quarterback. Quarterbacks get more points in our league anyway. Um and so uh, but I think he'll I think he'll exceed the uh seven points. I know Washington's defense has not been doing really well.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

So he might he might go above that.

SPEAKER_04 32:40

Yeah, hopefully he will. Um our fantasy flashback for this week, um the great Jerry Rice. Jerry Rice, wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, in week 10 of 1995, he had 14 receptions for 289 yards and three touchdowns against the Minnesota Vikings. This happened to be in the whole in his whole career his only 250 plus yard receiving game.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

He was so good to watch.

SPEAKER_04 33:12

Absolutely. And let me tell you, if you had Jerry Rice that week, you probably won your fantasy football uh game for the week for sure.

SPEAKER_05 33:22

Very good.

SPEAKER_04 33:23

Now on to our local teams. Um, yeah, my Jones High School rolled again. Uh Jones scored 28 points versus a Koey who scored zero. That makes us eight and two uh in Florida.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

We're still that's the third shutout street, I think.

SPEAKER_04 33:39

I think it's the third shutout. Yes, I think so. Absolutely. Uh Florida, uh, we're ranked number 20. In Orlando, we're ranked number three. Um unfortunately, Daney, your Boone High School uh Street Came to Came to Man.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

I mean, they played a really good team who was undefeated as well. Um and they did play at Boone. I was wrong last week, but they did play at Boone. But yeah, we lost 28-7. So we are nine and one, still not a bad record. Yep. Better than the Cowboys. Yeah. But we we dropped this week in our ranking, so we dropped down to 40. Um, and then Orlando, we dropped uh eight. I think we were nine last week, so we dropped one spot.

SPEAKER_04 34:18

So and Edgewater's a really good school. Um, and so I mean Edgewater beat Jones as well. So I mean, it's uh they're obviously a really good school. They're still undefeated. The 10-0. Um and now I think we're getting ready for the playoffs, I believe, coming up, Danny. So we'll have to watch our teams as they go through the playoffs.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

I didn't see any uh upcoming games for them.

SPEAKER_04 34:40

So that's I think it's a playoff season now, and so uh they should be gearing up to play. I think both teams are gonna be in the playoffs this year, from what I can tell. Should be good. Um, and now on to our NFL home team locks of the week.

SPEAKER_05 34:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 34:54

Uh the lock of the week results. Last week I chose uh Washington. Uh Seattle was coming to Washington, and unfortunately, Seattle put a hurt on Washington. Uh I was unhappy to see that, but you know, at least they got Jaden Daniels back, so Washington uh Commanders fans don't have too much to gripe about at this point.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Yeah. So I had uh well, who do you have next week?

SPEAKER_04 35:22

Oh, sorry. Next week I have uh I am taking uh Tampa Bay, they're hosting New England. That's gonna be a really tough game, yeah. Um especially without some of the players for Tampa Bay. But I think Tampa Bay was on by this last week, so hopefully they get a little bit healthier um and have some of their people back.

SPEAKER_02 35:40

It should be a good game.

SPEAKER_04 35:41

And it it should be a really good game in Tampa, right down the road from us here.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

Yep. So I had the Jaguars at Raiders came down to the end. It did in overtime. In overtime, and unfortunately, we lost uh the Raiders lost. Um so our uh next week I have the Giants against your Bears. Oh, you're taking my bears just because it's against the Giants. Okay, all right, fair enough. I'll take that. So I hope I don't jinx it every day. All right. Uh but yeah, right now our uh standings are college four and five, and I'm five and four. You're catching them.

SPEAKER_04 36:19

Man, I'm catching them, but still it's like I'm still under 500. I don't like to be under 500 for sure. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

All right, well, let's stay tuned. Uh stay tuned for our wrap-up after this message.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

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, Pathlight 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_04 37:34

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

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Yep. So let's start with our MVP of the week. Uh when Kevin Adler saw a homeless man in San Francisco, he flashed back to his uncle Mark, who lived on and off the streets for 30 years. It wasn't until after he passed away that I really started thinking. Gosh, I'm walking down the street here in San Francisco. I see a person experiencing homelessness. That could have been my uncle, he recalled. Kevin's uncle, often the life of the party at family holidays also battles schizophrenia. Seeing the homeless man just started to bother me too much, Adler said. I couldn't unsee what I had seen. So the tech entrepreneur summoned his faith. I wondered how would Jesus use a smartphone? The answer? Use the video recorder. So three years ago, Adler quit his job and launched a nonprofit he called Miracle Messages, seeking to reunite the homeless with their loved ones. He hit the street and recorded a homeless man's message. The miracle came after he posted that video to Facebook, social media, like we mentioned earlier. Within the first 20 minutes of that post, his sister was tagged, Adler explained. We got on the phone the next day. She said that Jeffrey had been missing person for 12 years. Three years later, Adler and his team of 1,000 uh digital detective volunteers from the streets, roam the streets, record the homeless and their messages, and post the videos online. So far, they've reunited 120 homeless people with family members. A person is not a problem. A person is a person, Adler reminds everyone, and we need to re-embrace them as a community. So, yeah, we can end homelessness.

SPEAKER_04 39:20

That's fantastic. And miracle messages, I've worked with them before. Yeah, okay. When we were in South Florida, we use miracle messages to help people get reunited. Um, and my story from that is we used miracle messages to get a gentleman who had been um lost by his mother, who was in California, had lost him for I think about seven years he had been out on the streets. And it was very similar to the story that you just told not long ago is that when we reached out to her, she couldn't believe she thought he was dead. Yeah, she honestly thought he was dead. And when we reached out to her and said that we had found him, she said, send him to me because I can take care of him here. Yeah, and it was, I mean, it was fantastic. But we use miracle messages.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

Yeah, and you you think of the people that are out on the street that are struggling and they're they're they're having such a hard time, but we forget about the people back home that think their family members are dead and just have no idea where they're at, and it's it's hard on both sides. Lost contact with them.

SPEAKER_04 40:20

And you know, yeah, he quit his job.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Miracle Messages, pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 40:24

No, that's fantastic, and it's a great, great organization, and anybody who can get involved with that or really help them out. Uh, we we absolutely, they're they're very, very valuable. Absolutely. So now on to not so inspiring uh work with our fumble of the week. Uh, this one comes from Nashua, New Hampshire. City leaders in Nashua voted to ban public camping and certain recreational vehicle parking in an effort to address homelessness in the city. Before the vote, many people in the community shared their opinions and concerns about what the ordinances would mean for those experiencing homelessness. According to preliminary 2025 data from the state, there are 1,053 people experiencing homelessness in Hillsborough County, where this is located. The meeting lasted several hours Tuesday night and into the early hours of Wednesday morning before the Nashville Board of Aldermen voted to pass the ordinances. One of the ordinances prohibits camping on public property. Those in favor of the proposal said parts of the city have become unsafe and unsanitary, while those who oppose the ban said it would criminalize homelessness without addressing the root problem. Things we've heard before, right, Annie? And we know that both of those sides exist. The proposed ordinances do not criminalize homelessness and do not punish homelessness, said Nashua resident Carrie Baxter. Please do not lose sight of the fact that there are thousands of other people who live, work, and visit Nashua. You have an obligation to us as well. That one, that one. I don't know about that one, Danny. I don't know about that. Yep. I live at the encampment. I walk the line between both of your worlds daily as a business owner and an active member of the community, and one of the homeless people said Nashua resident Sam Burndon. If we're all a community, then we should act like it. That I think is that that could have been our quote of the week right there. If we're a community, then we should act like it.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 42:35

And you know, I I grew up in a small town in in South Dakota. I may have told this story before to you. Uh I don't think I've told it on the podcast, but I grew up in a real small town in South Dakota, and uh I never experienced anyone becoming homeless. And when I got into this field and I look back on it and I thought about it, I thought, you know, it's really odd because I never saw anybody who was ever homeless out on the street. And I'm sure we had people who were struggling in our community. Right. But the reality is that our community wouldn't allow it. We would not allow people to be homeless out on the streets because we were, they were part of our community, they were part of our family, and everybody there was willing to do whatever it took. There were certainly times when people went through hardships. We had fires that people went through. We had, you know, uh people lost their jobs, you know, all kinds of disasters that were going on. Not one time did I ever see anybody out on the streets. And it's because of that mentality. It's because, as this Nashville resident said, we were a community and we acted like a community. We took care of our own and we made sure that people were not out on the streets in the town that we lived in. And I think if if we had more of that feeling in the world today. About our neighborhoods, about our own communities, I think we could we could definitely end homelessness.

SPEAKER_05 44:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:06

Because taking care of our own is is part of what we should be doing.

SPEAKER_02 44:11

And we say that a lot on this podcast is we need community to step up and work together to address the problems. Not just homelessness, just in general. Everything. Everything. Absolutely. And I think if you do that together, it it you'll see the the results. You'll see the people getting off the street. You'll see people, but if you're gonna turn a blind eye, if you're gonna say it's not my problem, it's everybody's problem. It is. And we have to work together. And that's a perfect story of that, you know, just like your town. It's small, and you got that, you know, that family field.

SPEAKER_04 44:40

That family field, that's exactly right. And and here's the other thing is even the resident who talked about areas of the parts of the city becoming unsafe and unsanitary, the community should deal with that as well. Yeah. But it's not about alienating a part of the community, it's about bringing everybody together to figure out how we can all solve this problem. We we can solve the safety issue, we can solve the sanitary issue, and we can solve the housing issue if we're all working together to solve this problem.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Yep, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 45:10

And that's definitely what it should be.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

Yep, so all right. And finally, here is our key takeaway for this episode. So every act of reunification is an act of prevention, preventing the cycle of homelessness, trauma, and family separation.

SPEAKER_04 45:26

Absolutely. It's about getting people reconnected. And again, we've talked about this before and and how we've talked about homelessness, is obviously it's a housing issue, right? I mean if you can't afford the housing, then certainly you're at risk of becoming homeless. But it also is a community support issue. And if you don't have those community supports in place, if you don't have those things in place, you know, we've talked about this before. A lot of people are not one paycheck away from homelessness. And the reason they're not is because they have that support from their family, their friends, their, you know, people who love them and people in the community who are connected to them. And so that's what we're trying to do through the reunification. And it's the reason why we ask the questions that we ask. Right. Can you take care of the person? Do you have the resources? Will this be a burden on you? Do you need more help? It it are there things that we can do to make this reunification successful. It's not just about sending people back a place or sending them somewhere. That's not what it is. It's not fixing the problem. It's about sending someone to not be homeless and get out of their situation.

SPEAKER_02 46:34

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 46:34

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

SPEAKER_01 46:59

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