6.What is Permanent Supportive Housing?

In this episode, Carl Falconer and Danny Arroyo dive deep into Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) — a long-term solution that combines affordable housing with supportive services to help people experiencing chronic homelessness achieve stability and independence. They break down how PSH works, explore its pros and cons, and discuss the government shutdown.

From Pathlight HOME’s proven success housing more than 8,100 residents to real-world stories about addiction recovery and mental health, the hosts reveal why Housing First remains the most effective and compassionate approach to ending homelessness — even amid funding challenges.

NFL Spotlight of the Week, Jon Feliciano, retired NFL player and passionate philanthropist, is giving back through youth food-security initiatives, holiday drives, and school supply giveaways. Plus: football banter, fantasy player picks, and a spotlight on how South Miami reached “functional zero” in chronic homelessness — proof that collaboration works.

“Housing is more than a roof and four walls. It’s healthcare, education, employment, and dignity.”

Listen, learn, and get inspired to be part of the HOME Team.

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, Daniel Related, and we're tackling homelessness.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

Today in our podcast, we will discuss two of our passions, football and endling homelessness. Please join us through four quarters with our topic this week being permanent supportive housing. So how was your weekend, Carl?

SPEAKER_02 0:33

It was good. It was good. So I'm starting an intermittent fast.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

And I know you lost quite a bit of weight in your lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

I did, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

And so you're not cranky. You're not cranky at all. Not yet. I just started it. So it's, you know, I'm So you're preparing me. I'm preparing you for it, yes. Good budget. But you you cut out sugar?

SPEAKER_04 0:56

I cut out sh all of my sugar, uh, everything white bread, pasta. It was a let me tell you, it's a chore.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

That's a chore.

SPEAKER_04 1:06

It's hard. So everything in my house is sugar-free. So everything from drinks to chocolate to yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

No taste in your house. There's no taste.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

Yeah, ice cream is the worst. Like literally no taste. But yeah, I had to do it. I had no choice. But it's it's you get used to it after a while. You know, it's it's it's in the beginning, you're very cranky. But after a while, it's it's the norm, you know. And not that I have, you know, I have some stuff for sugar, it's just not as freaking as I used to. So yeah. Good luck. Thanks. Thanks, exactly. We'll see how you'll be next week in the podcast. All right. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

All right, let's start with the coin toss. Um, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna flip it, Danny. You call it in the air.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

Uh Tails.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

And it is tails, so you get to start us off.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

All right. So welcome to our first quarter. I'm gonna kick off by defining our topic of the week, and then we'll cover some headlines from both homelessness and football, including the results from last week's home team locks of the week. So, as we mentioned earlier, our topic of this week is permanent supportive housing. Uh, it this is a long-term housing model that combines affordable housing with supportive services to help people experiencing chronic homelessness, uh, often those with disabilities, serious health conditions, or other complex challenges, achieving housing stability and improve their quality of life. Permanent supportive housing, as we call it PSH, provides permanent, uh non-time limited housing with where tenants hold standard leases and pay rent, typically no more than 30% of their income, ensuring that they have the same rights and responsibilities as any renter. Supportive services such as case management, mental health care, substance use treatment, and employment assistance are offered on-site or through community partners, but participating is not required to remain housed. The goal of PSH, permanent supportive housing, is to end chronic homelessness by offering stable housing and coordinated services, reducing reliance on emergency systems like hospitals, shelters, and jails, and helping individuals maintain long-term stability and independence.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Yeah. So we have some experience with permanent supportive housing, both of us. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Exactly. Obviously, it's one of the big things that we do here at Pathlight Home. Um, but there's a couple of things in this definition that I wanted to really highlight. Um, one is paying rent. People think a lot of people in the community think that permanent supportive housing is free housing. It is not free housing. Correct. In fact, I would say, I don't know, I haven't run the numbers lately, but over 90% of the people that we're serving in permanent supportive housing have some kind of income and they pay uh income or they pay a portion of the rent. And like we said, usually with uh housing and urban development programs or HUD programs, it's 30% of their income. I've seen as high as 40% of their income in some housing programs, but but um I think that's one of the myths that people have about permanent supportive housing is that it's free housing. It's not free housing. People pay what they can afford. Now, if they have zero, they pay zero because that's 30% of zero. Right. But most of our people do not have zero income.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Yeah, and we've mentioned it in the other podcasts of of you know people living here and not paying rent, but it's that number is so small. Absolutely. Um, the majority of the people, like you said, it's probably 90%, maybe a little bit higher, of people that are paying rent here. And again, it's all about their income. It's about, you know, do they get income after they come in? Do they increase their income when they come in? But everyone is paying some type of of rent with us.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Yeah, I think the other thing, uh, and we'll talk more about this in offense defense, because you know, we have uh a good offense defense this week, but the supportive services piece of it. And it's one of I think the the big arguments that people have about it, both for and against uh permanent supportive housing or housing first in our offense defense today. We'll talk a little bit about you know some of the challenges with those supportive services.

SPEAKER_04 5:09

Yeah, and something it says in one of the what I read was that it's offered on-site or through community partners, and we do a little bit of both. Yeah. So we have both things on on our permanent supportive.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Absolutely. So let's take a look at some of the headlines from the homeless world. Well, of course, the big news this week is the government shutdown. Um, and there is no federal budget approved currently. And uh so I wanted to talk just a little bit in the headline section about what that means for recipients of HUD funding or housing and urban development funding. Uh, we are recipients of HUD funding. Pathlight Home is recipient of uh HUD funding, but it's never good to rely on one funding source as a nonprofit. And I think that's one of the things that people don't understand about nonprofits, is the more funding streams that they have. The reason that we go out and we ask for community contributions, for for government contributions, for you know, contributions from businesses is because we need multiple funding sources so that in cases like this where one of the funding sources either dries up or one of the funding sources goes away or whatever the case is, one of the funding sources is at jeopardy, let's say that we don't we don't have to shut down all of our services. And luckily we have a good enough funding, we have multiple funding streams here at Pathlight Home. Uh our founders set it up that way for us to have multiple funding streams. And so luckily it it would not shut us down if we did not get our HUD funding. Now, would we be limited in services we could provide? Yes, and particularly to the types of people that we want to serve. Right.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

Yeah, it it's it's scary, like you said, if if an agency is just relying on one type of funding and even without a shutdown, even if the following year doesn't get renewed. That's right. What is it that you do? Absolutely. So just the shutdown is is it it's scary, but uh like you said, uh Helene and Reverend Maxwell set us up that they did, you know, it it will change a little bit of what we're gonna do, but it's still not gonna shut us down. It's gonna uh you know get people off the street. That's right. Or get people back into the street. So yeah. That's right. So we're just waiting to see what happens with that shutdown.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

So yeah, hopefully it'll be over soon, and you know, uh the federal government will get started again, get rolling again, and we can on about a week already, right?

SPEAKER_04 7:35

Just a week.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Yeah, a little over a week, yeah, absolutely. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

All right, uh, so we're gonna now do the highlights of the week uh football games and look ahead on our team's next opponents. So, Carl, you had a bye.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Yes. How'd you feel? Felt good. Felt good. I got a little rest. I, you know, I took a few days off. I I uh to watch my team. That's right. Got in the cold tub, took care of some of those injuries. You know, I feel good. I feel good after the five weeks.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

So so my team, uh Dallas Cowboys, we played the New York Jets. Um, it was uh yeah, I it was a good game. Um my expectations weren't that high, I guess. Um no disrespect to the Jets. But you got the win. But we got a win, yes, we got a win. Um uh presscott through for 237 yards. Javante Williams ran for 135. We had five um sacks, which was really high. Um but yeah, it was it was a good game, and and yeah, I feel bad for the Jets because they they just did not look good. I mean, they're struggling.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Yeah, they are struggling a little bit, but they got a new coach and a new quarterback and the new system. So, I mean, they're it's gonna take them a little bit of a.

SPEAKER_04 8:44

He's very calm. Like they show up on the sideline, he's extremely calm. Yeah, that's like I want a little screaming and tugging at the players and stuff. I don't like a regular coach, but anyway. Uh so next week you have uh oh Washington.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah, we have the commanders, absolutely. So that should be a tough game.

SPEAKER_04 9:01

So I'll be rooting for Chicago. Yeah. And you have the Panthers, the Carolina Panthers, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:09

So those are games next week. How are you getting such an easy schedule, by the way? You got the Jets, you got the Panthers. It's an easy schedule, but the games have not been easy for us, right?

SPEAKER_04 9:19

Like they You're still getting wins. I know, yeah. You're still getting wins. Yeah, I know. So let them keep coming that way.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

I think the toughest team on your schedule so far has been uh Chicago, right? Oh, Philadelphia. Philadelphia. I don't know about Chicago. But yeah, so we're all right. All right, well, that wraps up the first quarter. We'll be back after this break.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

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_02 10:51

We will each take turns discussing some opposing viewpoints of our topic this week. The topic this week is housing first. Please remember that we're trying to show both sides of the issue. These do not necessarily reflect our individual stances on these positions. Housing first, Danny, this is this is a big one. This is a hot topic. It's a it's a topic that a lot of people uh argue about and a lot of people have different views about. Um, let me first just kind of explain what housing first is. Housing first is a philosophy where of permanent supportive housing, basically, where you put people into housing first, and then you wrap around services with them after they're in the housing. And some people have some, you know, different feelings about that. So uh so you'll take the offense this week, the pros, so why housing first is good, and I'll talk about the cons and the defense afterwards.

SPEAKER_04 11:54

All right, so number one, uh stability enables recovery. So permanent housing provides a stable base from which individuals can address other issues. Once housed, people are more likely to engage in voluntary support services such as medical care, therapy, job training. Number two, it's cost effective. It reduces costs to emergency services, jails, hospitals, and shelters. Studies show that housing people cost less than keeping them in chronic homelessness, which drains public resources. And we've talked about this uh many times of how effective it is in terms of uh cost. Uh number three, improves health and well-being. Housing first is linked to improved mental and physical health, lower rates of hospitalizations, better medication adherence, uh, decreased substance abuse over time, contrary to myths. Uh number four, uh respects individual autonomy, uh no requirement to be sober, employed, or in treatment before getting housing. Respects dignity, choice, and human rights. Housing is seen as a basic need, not a reward. Number five, uh reduces chronic homelessness. Studies show it significantly reduces long-term homelessness. High housing retention rates, 80% to 90% of people remain housed after one year. And then number six, it's supported globally by evidence, successfully implemented in the US, Canada, Finland, and beyond. So those are mine. You got defense.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

So let me talk about some of the arguments against housing first or some of the cons with housing first. Um first of all, there's high upfront costs. Um building or securing housing units can be expensive, uh, especially when you're starting out, uh, especially in cities that have tight housing markets. Governments and nonprofits often face budget constraints or lack of affordable housing stock to actually scale the program widely. And I'll talk a little bit more about that later. Um, housing supply shortage. Uh, housing first only works if there's actual housing available. In some regions, especially where affordable housing is scarce, it's difficult to implement it at scale. Support services can be inconsistent. While housing is guaranteed, support services like mental health or addiction treatment are voluntary and they're not always well funded or available. This can lead to missed opportunities for addressing underlying issues. And again, it comes back to the resources that you have available for the housing. One size fits all concerns. Some people argue that it may not be the best fit for everyone. And I would probably be one of those people actually that would argue that it may not be for every single person, uh, particularly those who aren't ready or able to maintain independent housing without intensive support. That part I would argue against myself a little bit because uh that's the idea of housing first is having that intensive support. But I don't necessarily think that housing first is for every single person. Uh perceived enabling or lack of accountability, this is a big one, and this is a big one that we hear in the news, in the community, so on and so forth, is that critics claim that not requiring sobriety or treatment before housing may enable continued substance use or other risky behaviors. It's a philosophical divide, basically. Some prefer the treatment first model where people need to go to, you know, change their behavior before they get into housing. This can lead to administrative and political barriers. Some leaders resist the idea of unconditional housing, which I don't know if this necessarily unconditional, but um but again, sometimes they they argue that, and especially those with criminal histories or addiction issues.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

So counter Yeah, so uh the first one that you said, which was uh it's not a best fit for everyone, kind of the story you said last week about the gentleman who went into housing and it didn't work, but it took five times.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 15:53

So it it it it's not a fit for everyone at times, but it's uh that continued support to try to get them housed. That's right. Um I I I think with the uh sobriety and the treatment and it's I we've we've seen I've just in my career, it's easier to have someone in a in a a unit, a home to provide all these other uh services than having someone living in an encampment to try to get them to go to some type of you know NAAA. It's it's it's nearly impossible, I think, to to get that just because of what's out there.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:27

Um so it's yeah, again, I agree it's not a best fit for everyone, but I think if for those in our field, right, we continue working with people, eventually they are gonna get housed, and it's yeah, it it it works. For us, it works.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 16:42

Um, I agree with you that the housing units, we've seen that it's just a lack of affordable housing everywhere. You know, we're lucky enough that we have housing here, yeah. But at times we're almost full. Yeah. And so we have to be very creative to start looking for other alternatives, which is building relationships with landlords, building building relationship with property managers. Um, but there's always that barrier of um uh criminal history, uh credit checks, which you know I despise.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 17:11

Um so it's it's those barriers, but building, I think building those relationships, having conversations with outside of here with the landlords and the property managers to just again educate them on what we're trying to do. Right. It it has worked for us um in some of our programs that we've been housing people outside of here when we become full.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

So yeah, I think the I think the the main point I think that I have about housing first in general is that is the which is I think the main argument in the community, which is it's housing only, right? Is that and and it's not housing only, obviously, but let me say this when in order to move someone into housing first and then wrap the uh the support services around them, they've got to have enough support services and resources to be able to wrap around them. And I think that's where we get stuck a little bit, and I say we pejoratively as as kind of our provider network or those who are doing housing first, is we get stuck in not getting enough resources for the people after we move them into housing. And that makes it a real hard issue. You know, that makes it really hard for people to do housing first when they don't have enough resources there to actually serve everybody that's in housing and everybody that's there. So the but the people that are arguing against housing first, if if we had enough resources, if we had enough supportive services, then I think their argument would go out the window because it wouldn't be housing only or it wouldn't look like housing only, because there would be enough resources to be able to actually scale it and actually do it the way it's intended to be done. What upsets me the most in the provider network in our network is when people say they're doing housing first and they're not really doing housing first. Because, like I said, either they don't have the resources, they don't want to have that's fine. Then don't call it housing first. Don't say that you're doing one thing and pretend you're doing and uh or you're doing one thing and pretend you're doing something else.

SPEAKER_04 19:21

Getting someone off the street into housing is not housing first. It's there's more to that. There's that's just the beginning of the journey for them, is then provide all the other services. But I agree with you. Again, we know that we're limited on some of the services that are out there, so it makes it very difficult. Um, and it's something we struggle as well to try to find more services.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

So Absolutely. Um so I want to go into Pathlight Homes position. Um we've always believed in housing first, as I'm sure you can imagine, even from our discussion here. Uh we realize that having services available to our residents is key to the success for most people. And again, it's not housing only for us. There are how it's housing first, we get them into housing, and then we surround them with support services on site, by the way. So our services come here, even with our partner agencies. We have them coming here to our properties to actually provide the services. And so far, we've housed over 8,100 people with this very model, with the housing first model. So we are definitely proponents of housing first, and we definitely think that it works.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

Yeah, perfect. Thanks, Col. All right, we've made it uh 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. All right, so our fan interaction, uh, this one comes from Maria. Um, is there any data on how long individuals with addiction or mental illness typically remain in supportive housing once placed? So that question is for you, Carl.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

Well, and we just talked about this a little bit in the housing first is about an 80 to 90 percent rate with housing first, which is most of what permanent supportive housing is. Um and people stay in there. Uh the one of the one of the best research studies that I saw uh was, and I can't remember where it was from, so you'll have to forgive me on that. Um I'm quoting it off the top of my head because I I happen to remember it. I read a lot about these types of things. But one of the things that they talked about was the six-month mark for permanent supportive housing, is getting people into housing. If you can keep them in housing for six months, the first six months are always the most challenging. And what they found out is because people don't believe that it's their housing. They've been through so many systems and so many programs that often those first six months, they're kind of testing it, just like you know, a teenager might do with rules that you have around your house. Is they're testing it to find out is this really gonna happen or are they gonna just kick me out like uh And numerous other programs have done to me. So I think that's that's one of the keys that we have to think about is that first six months really is where you have to have those really intensive services. Once you get to that six-month point and people believe it's their housing, then you see them typically start to fight more for their housing. Because then it's theirs and they realize this is mine.

SPEAKER_04 22:25

Yeah, it's it's really difficult for someone who's been chronically homeless, who's been out there for, you know, three, four, five, maybe ten years, to then all of a sudden have a home, have a bed, you know, have running water. It's it's it's very different for them. It's it's not the norm, and it it's something that it's really hard for them to get used to. For us, it's normal, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:45

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 22:46

But kind of the same thing. If me and you were to be out on the street living tomorrow, right, it'll be hard for us because we have to adjust. So it's kind of that same way, the opposite for them.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

So yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 22:56

Um, all right. The second question, uh, again, it came from Maria. If someone uh with addiction or mental illness is asked to leave their housing, whether due to relapse, um, behavioral issues, or other challenges, does that affect future housing placements?

SPEAKER_02 23:13

This is a good question. This is a really good question because it's uh I think there are some myths about this, and I think even in our industry, the homeless service system industry, there are some myths about this. The way that permanent supportive housing programs are supposed to work is that people can be evicted from their housing units, but not be evicted from the permanent supportive housing program. The idea is that when people lose their housing in a permanent supportive housing program, whoever's working with them, whatever case manager or whatever team is working with them, they're supposed to rehouse them. They're not supposed to give up on them. Just because you get evicted from housing, just like if I, you know, didn't go through my substance abuse treatment program, let's say I get halfway through and I decided I quit that, you wouldn't stop working with them. And and I think that's one of the misconceptions, even within our field, sometimes you talk to some case managers, I've talked to some case managers, and they'll say, Oh, well, the person got evicted, so they're no longer in our program. No, that's not the way it works. You're supposed to rehouse people if they get evicted from their housing. Housing is just one of the services that's being provided, but you're supposed to continue to work with them as a case manager to get them all of their services.

SPEAKER_04 24:36

Yeah, and if someone is getting evicted or a case manager knows that they're getting evicted, they should immediately start planning on the next step. So there's no um there's no time that they're actually back on the street because from one to the other housing. That's exactly right. Um, but I agree with you, yeah, it's not the end of their journey. It's we just gotta find other options for them. So that's exactly right. Yep. So uh well, thank you, Maria, for those questions. Again, if you have any questions or comments for us, please email us at questions at pathlighthome.org. So call you have the homeless quote of the week.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Oh, great. Thank you. Uh the quote of the week this week is home is where the heart is. And I think that's I think that's a good quote.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Um I certainly think that it points to, in terms of permanent supportive housing, it points to more than it just being housing, right? Is that you have to feel like you belong in that place. And um I have a little story about this. Um it's the story of Laverne, and um I worked with Laverne for a long, long time. She was out on the streets for a long, long time. Finally, uh I was doing outreach and case management with her, and finally got her into a housing unit. So I got her into a housing unit. I, you know, moved her in. We got all her furniture, she was all set. She had everything that she needed in her little apartment. It was pretty nice, actually. Pretty nice little apartment. Got her into a little apartment, and you know, of course, I, you know, let her be for the day, let her rest, all that good stuff. Came back the next day, and I was talking to her, and she seemed like she was really down, like she was really sad, like she was really, you know, depressed. And I said, Laverne, what are you doing? I said, we just moved you into housing. I said, You were out on the streets for like five years or a certain number of years. I said, What's going on? I said, Why are you so depressed? And she said, Well, you moved me in so that I could die here. And I said, No. I said, We moved you in so you could live. And and instead of looking at it as the final destination, like she was, is she was thinking, Oh, well, you know, now you're just gonna leave me here. Again, this housing only mentality is she had that mentality that you're just gonna put me in this house and then nothing's gonna happen after this. I'm gonna sit here, I'm gonna stare at four walls until I die. And I'm like, no, no, now's your chance to live. Now's your chance to connect back with community, to connect back with family, maybe, to you know, make a whole new life for yourself. And so we had to get her involved in other things. It's not just that housing, it's the involvement in the community and becoming part of the community.

SPEAKER_04 27:29

Yeah. I saw uh uh The Whiz this weekend, which is uh kind of a revision of uh The Wizard of Oz. Right. So the last song is called Home, uh-huh, and Stephanie Mills first created that song, and then Diana Ross sang it in the movie, and then there's a version now with Brandy Carlo, and it's this it's home is that. And if you listen to the song, it kind of gives you an idea of what the struggle is and what a home is for someone. That's right. So if you haven't heard, it's a really, really good song.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

So great, wonderful, good, good, good. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 27:57

Yeah. All right, and that concludes our halftime. Let's just right jump right into the third quarter. We are ready to highlight the goodwill and good works in the NFL community, look at how our local football teams fared, and announce our NFL home team locks of the week. So we're gonna bypass our uh local teams because they had a buy like your Chicago Bears. Uh but they will be back next week. Um so I'm gonna uh highlight uh the spotlight of the week. Um and the player is John Feliciano. Um he's an active philanthropist uh focusing on youth, food insecurity, and homelessness issues he experienced firsthand during his teenage years. So he is a South Florida native and recent retiree from the San Francisco 49ers. Feliciano partners with local charities and his alma mater to give back to the community. So some of the examples of his community work is he worked with uh Feeding South Florida. Um Feliciano and his family have a long-standing partnership with the Hunger Relief Organization. He has helped pack meals at their community kitchen and has made significant financial contributions, including 25,000 donations and 2,000 along with his wife Shannon. Uh he has done holiday meal kits. For his 2024 holiday charitable event, Feliciano teamed up with Feeding South Florida to distribute 250 meal kits, including turkeys and side dishes, to families in need. The initiative was inspired by a holiday as a child when his family did not have enough food. Uh three, he did annual backpack and school supply giveaway. He hosts a yearly event at his high school alma mater, Western High, in Davie, Florida. His fourth annual giveaway in July 2024 provided hundreds of backpacks filled with school supplies to students and also included snack packs from Feeding South Florida. And then number four, personal motivation. So Feliciano has spoken publicly about experiencing food insecurity and homelessness during high school. He credits his high school with helping his family and emphasizes that these struggles motivate motivate his philanthropic uh efforts. He often volunteers with his wife and daughter to pass on the values of giving back. Uh focus on food security for children. So Feliciano ensures that his initiatives provide food for kids during weekends and summer months when they don't have access to school breaks and lunch programs. So he pretty much is all year round. Absolutely. Whether it's school, no school, holidays. So this is a 365-year kind of giving back.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Absolutely. And the thing I love about this, and again, relating back to permanent supportive housing, is you look at the things food, backpacks, school supplies, personal motivation, um, all of these different things that he's involved with to help families really create that home environment. Because again, it's not necessarily always just about the housing itself, it's about all the things that are involved in that. And uh, having worked in South Florida, I'm very familiar with Feeding South Florida. I think they're a fantastic program. I think they do some really great work. Um, holiday meal kits are fantastic. Um, I want to give a shout out to one of our partners who who we've worked with, who is in South Florida, neighbors for neighbors, because they do a lot of this kind of work as well.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

Um, where they help uh families in need. They have a holiday Christmas drive where they get Christmas gifts for families. But again, it's really about making that that housing a home. And it's about making sure that you've got everything that you need to stay in that home and to make it comfortable for you.

SPEAKER_04 31:31

And I think providing all of these um, you know, the meal kits, the backpacks just for kids going to school, it changes their whole day, their whole year in school. Oh, absolutely. Because they struggle when they don't have those other, you know, a hot meal at home or all the essentials for school. That's absolutely right. Um, so it's it's it's fantastic. So John Feliciano, fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Absolutely, good job.

SPEAKER_04 31:55

All right, so call, Mr. Guru of Fantasy Football. Don't even get me started.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Let's see how you did this week. So my fantasy football player pick of the week last week was Kenneth Walker, running back for Seattle. They were playing Tampa Bay. Um, he was ex Danny. I this is this is just getting to be the comedy section of the entire picking some people for you. I don't know. Maybe so. Maybe I should just pick all Cowboys. How about that? Or maybe not. It might be a curse. Yeah, let's listen to it anyway. He was expected to get nine points. He scored five points. So I'm I'm just not doing very well. Um, but I'm gonna try it again this week. Uh we have Alvin Kamara, Alvin Kamara, who's a running back for New Orleans. Um, they're playing New England this week, and he's expected to get 11 points. I think he's gonna outperform that. Kamara has been doing well. The Saints had a little bit of offense this last weekend, and so hopefully he'll he'll pick it up.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

It's like the expected numbers are getting higher.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

I know, and and the and the scored numbers are getting lower, yeah. That's unfortunate. Anyway, um, onto our fl fantasy flashback. Um, this week, um, I have one near and dear to my heart this week. This week is Walter Payton, running back for the Chicago Bears in week six of 1977. He ran for 275 rushing yards in one game and scored one touchdown. In fact, and the score of that, that which is the interesting part to me, is he ran for 275 yards, one touchdown, and the score of the game was 10 to 7, which means he scored the only touchdown and had 275 rushing yards against the Minnesota Vikings. But here's the real kicker he was playing with the flu on that day. 275 rushing yards and a touchdown with a flu. He was great to watch play with that. Oh my gosh, he was very excited. He was exciting to watch. Fantastic, absolutely. And now we have a new segment called Our Officials Time Out. And this is where we're going to talk about a random fact of the week. According to Outside Magazine, experts say you need a minimum one liter of water per day to survive. What does that have to do with housing and homelessness? Well, when you're homeless out on the streets in particular, it's very challenging to get good water, to actually get drinkable water out there. And we don't think about these things. It's just like you said before. We take certain things for granted. I can go to the tap, I can run some water, I can, you know, go to the store and buy some filtered water, whatever the case is. But something as simple as one liter of water per day just to survive is a challenge for people that are out on the streets. And so when we think about these things, and and that's one of the things that we'll be talking about with these random facts, is how it we may not think about what the challenges are while people are homeless out there.

SPEAKER_04 35:10

Yeah, and I think one of the things that we get asked a lot is what they can donate to us, and water is one of those watering ones. Um, just with our reach team, they go out with water every day, that's right, talking to people, especially in the Florida heat.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

Um, and you know, just engaging people and giving just that that bottle of water kind of changes their their mood, it changes their, you know, so it's yeah, water is essential for all of us. All of us, all of us, absolutely but more quantity those out on the street.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

Yeah. And like you said, the local football teams, our our teams are on by this week, so we don't have any updates there. Um, but we do have locks of the week uh where we predict the home team each week. Um our lock of the week results. Uh unfortunately, we both did an over there.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

Man.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Uh Seattle lost. I had Tampa Bay, or I had Seattle playing Tampa Bay at home, and you had the Philadelphia Eagles playing at home against the biggest.

SPEAKER_04 36:07

You jinxed it last year. Maybe that's what it was. Maybe that's what it was. Yeah, but they were the last team that were uh uh hadn't lost a game. And yeah, so it was a it was a nail by there. So yeah. Does that make us what does that make us? I think we're with we were three and one last week. Oh three and one? So now we're three and two? Yeah, we're gonna two now.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Perfect, right.

SPEAKER_04 36:29

We're going we're going at the same pace both. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

We're we're not exactly going in the first best pace, but we'll we'll get there. Um this week I'm selecting the Los Angeles. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm selecting the Baltimore Ravens to uh isn't that what your Super Bowl is? That's my Super Bowl. So I'm taking the Baltimore Ravens this week against the Los Angeles Rams. This one's gonna be a pretty tough week, but Lamar Jackson is coming back for Baltimore, so I think they're gonna have an opportunity this week.

SPEAKER_04 37:00

They're having a rough season. They're having a rough season considering what they thought.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

They have a lot of injuries on their team, though, a lot of injuries.

SPEAKER_04 37:06

So all right. Well, I have the 49ers against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So I'm they're both four and one. Yeah. So I'm picking the Bucks this week.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

Oh, the Bucs. I'm picking the Bucks. The Bucks at home. Okay, fantastic. So we'll see how that goes. All right, fantastic. Well, stay tuned for our wrap-up after this message. 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.

SPEAKER_04 39:29

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

SPEAKER_02 39:41

I do, and the homelessness MVP of the week this week is the City of South Miami. Uh, South Miami officials on September 23rd announced that the city has reached a milestone in its fight against homelessness, referred to as functional zero, and I'll talk about that in a minute. Experts say it's a designation that signals when a community has successfully ended long-term homelessness. According to the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, their biannual census, their HUD point-in-time census, that was conducted on August 22nd. Sorry, but that's not HUD census. That's a different one that they do separately on August 22nd, showed that only three people experience homelessness in the city of South Miami. The latest numbers are the lowest recorded in recent history, and past surveys reported 15 to 20 people who experience homelessness. The homeless trust said the census final numbers will be released later in the year. Uh, in so I want to talk a little bit about functional zero. Functional zero has three benchmarks that a community can use uh to determine whether they've reached functional zero. Number one, chronic homelessness is reduced to zero. Number two, there are fewer than three people that are homeless. Or number three, there is less than 0.1% of the city's total homeless population that meets this criteria. Uh in 2021, South Miami adopted a housing first approach, which focused on providing permanent housing for people. As part of the approach, a community policing officer was designated by the city to coordinate with the homeless trust to make sure people who are homeless had permanent supportive housing. Other institutions like Baptist Health, South Miami, and others helped to give shelter beds and services year-round. A plan to reach functional zero was approved by the City Commission to achieve it by 2026. After achieving their goal ahead of schedule, city commissioners are now focused on sustaining progress. This is tremendous news for our community, said Vice Mayor Brian Corey. South Miami has stayed committed to executing our strategic plan, and the results are clear in the latest census. This milestone reflects the dedication of our city staff, outreach team, and police department. So a couple of things here. Yeah, this is absolutely fantastic. Number one is functional zero. That's how most people in our industry, the homeless service provider industry, have now started thinking about ending homelessness. Uh, ending homelessness for us in our system is not necessarily there's zero people out on the streets, although we would love that. What it is is functional zero, which is uh what I've heard in layman's terms is functional zero is a system that you've set up where anyone can access housing within 30 days of being homeless. And again, they have very specific criteria and how you can declare yourself in functional zero, and we went over that criteria there. But I think the other thing here is that they focused on housing, is that they really focused on housing. Now, granted, look, South City of South Miami did not have a lot of people before, 15 to 20 people. Right. But even the fact in a small area that they can scale something up and they can target something and create a system, they may never have 15 to 20 homeless people ever again in the city of uh South Miami. And the reason is because they built a system around getting people off of the street into housing quickly and maintaining them in that housing.

SPEAKER_04 43:26

Well, and if they didn't focus on these 15 to 20, it'll eventually be 40, 60, 80, 10. That's exactly right. Which will make it harder for this functional zero to work for them. You're exactly right. So addressing it at this point, it's gonna be successful, you know, and it's it it's worked.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

And that's a hundred percent how I've always tried to couch it with uh areas that think that they have lesser homeless numbers. Look, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, these places did not have homelessness like they have today. Yeah, and at one point they made. May have been at the point where they could have turned around homelessness and gotten to functional zero. But right now, their homelessness is so out of control in terms of numbers that it's really, really difficult for them to go back and get to functional zero at this point.

SPEAKER_04 44:15

Yeah, no, this is fantastic what they've done.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 44:19

All right, so I have the homeless fumble of the week. Last week we didn't have one because of this week we do. So in Salt Lake City, a controversial proposal for a new 15-acre homeless campus has sparked intense debate, uh, intense debate among residents and city officials. The Salt Lake City Council is considering the site, which aims to provide essential housing and services for the city's homeless population. However, many community members are expressing serious concerns about its location and potential impact on their neighborhoods. The proposed site, located near the intersection of 2100 South and 900 West, has become a focal point for community opposition. Critics argue that the campus could exacerbate existing local challenges such as crime and declining property values. Local resident Sarah Johnson articulated a common sentiment during a resident council meeting stating, we are not against helping the homeless, but we not do not want it, do not want our community to suffer as a result. The closure of the Road Home, a Salt Lake City primary downtown, has heightened urgency for alternative solutions. With the city's homeless strategy under scrutiny, the proposed campus is expected to house around 400 individuals while providing critical services, including job training, health care, and addiction recovery programs. Yet, the local location choice has led to fears that it may attract homeless individuals to the area, potentially straining local resources. Salt Lake City has struggled with homelessness for years, a situation worsened by rising housing costs and economic challenges. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, homelessness in Utah rose by 7% from 2020 to 2021, resulting in approximately 2,000 unhoused individuals statewide.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

So this fumble is all about NIMBY. For those of you not familiar with this term, it's not in my backyard. And there's been this argument for a long, long time, probably as long as I've been in the field where people are say, anyway, say they're compassionate, say they want to do something, say they definitely want homelessness to go away. They just don't want to have any services in their backyard or in their community. And we hear it here. But we do not want our community to suffer as a result. And the reality, and and we've talked about this on other on other podcasts as well, but the reality is that a lot of these concerns are unfounded. And what really needs to happen, at least in my opinion and and what I've seen work, is the community needs to come together with the service provider community and determine what's best for that community. Every community has their little niches or little things that they're that they could provide or they could do whatever. Now, certainly 400 uh individuals housing or you know uh helping 400 individuals seems that's a that's a pretty big lift for one community to maybe have to bear. So maybe it's about getting something smaller, maybe it's about having a 50-bed or a 50-unit housing complex there, or maybe it's just for families, or maybe it's for veterans, or you know, there's all kinds of things that I think the community might be okay with. And also allowing the community to be able to come in and say, this is how we want it to be built, or this is how we want it to look. We want security, we want to make sure people are staying on their property, we want to make sure that there's not a lot of coming and going from the property, or if there is, maybe there's some transportation that's set up. All of these types of things are things that communities can have input into and should have input into, and service providers should be listening to that. So, to me, what this really comes down to is a lack of communication between these two parties. If you've got homeless service providers who want to provide services and want to provide housing for people, and then you've got a community who's scared that there might be negative effects from that on their community.

SPEAKER_04 48:39

Yeah, and again, most of this that's written here is a lot of what me and you discuss all the time is again, people wanting to help but not wanting it in their community. And that's okay, that's fine. You know, everyone's worries about their kids and their property value, and but like you said, it this com the communication between local officials and the community is so key of give them an outline of what this place is gonna look like. What are the services? What you know, get their feedback, what works, what doesn't work, just uh again, education. That's right. It's educating them on what is, but I agree 400 is a lot. Yeah, so where can you meet in the middle and kind of do something smaller? We've discussed that about shelters, and possibly opening smaller shelters to focus on a certain population. So that's right. Um, but I I hope they come to some type of conclusion. I hope that they meet somewhere because just dragging it on is not helping anyone on the street.

SPEAKER_02 49:34

That's right, and it's not a zero-sum game, it's not everything or nothing. It's you've got to come to some compromise here about what can be done in that neighborhood, what that neighborhood can sustain, and how that neighborhood can be involved in helping these people. Because ultimately, the goal here is not just to get people into this campus, it's to get people reintegrated back into the community. And so the community needs to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_04 50:04

So yeah, and and I would love to see what their um results are now because this in 20 to 2021 was only 2,000. Right. So I'm assuming this number is possibly increased if they haven't found any kind of middle ground to get people up to street.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

So absolutely. So now we're on to the key takeaway for the for our episode. Uh, housing is more than a roof and four walls. Um, we say this is kind of a tagline sometimes in terms of uh what housing is, but housing is a lot of different things, and it's not just the four walls and a roof. Housing is healthcare. Where are you gonna store your medications? How are you gonna be healthy? How are you gonna get to your doctor's appointments? Housing is education. You talked about this. Statistics have shown and and data has shown that that homeless children or children who are experiencing homelessness uh struggle far more with their educational uh achievements than people, than kids who are in stable homes. Housing is employment. Think about trying to get up every day and trying to go find a job or getting dressed or getting ready or showering even. All of those things is housing. Housing is mental health. Uh people, again, safety and security of people when they're inside their own home and they have a place to actually call home. Housing is substance abuse recovery. One of the easiest ways for people to to fall off the wagon or to get back out is to have to go out and hang out with a whole bunch of people who are still using. But if you have a home you can go to with your own lock and your own place and you can sit and you can be in your own space and get away from that for a while, it certainly helps with your recovery. And finally, safety and security is just having a lock on the door, just knowing that it's your place, that nobody can come in who you're not inviting in. Those are things that make people feel comfortable, make people feel whole, and make people feel part of the community.

SPEAKER_04 51:58

Yeah, it's supportive services, it's providing everything after someone's house, which has been the theme of our episode.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 52:04

Um, is making sure that people are safe, getting all the health care, the education, just everything. So that's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 52:12

That concludes our episode for the week. As always, we leave the last words for our beloved co-founder, the late Reverend Fred Maxwell. Again, if you have any questions or comments for us, please make sure to email us at questions at pathlighthome.org. Reverend Maxwell, take it away.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

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