5. What is Outreach?

In this episode, Carl Falconer and Danny Arroyo break down the frontline work of outreach—how relationships, persistence, and compassion connect people to housing and services. They tackle the tough questions: Should law enforcement be part of unsheltered homelessness response? How accurate is the annual homeless count? And what can we learn from Denver’s 45% reduction in unsheltered homelessness?

Alongside football highlights, donor shoutouts, and fantasy picks, this episode reminds us that kindness, consistency, and community collaboration change lives.

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

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to the Home Team Podcast. I'm Carl Falconer and Danny O'Roy. And we're tackling homelessness.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

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 outreach. Alright, Danny, so let me uh start it off with the uh coin toss. Uh how was your weekend, first of all? Uh before we get into that.

SPEAKER_04 0:41

It was good. It was quiet. Had my parents over for some dinner and watched some football and typical Sunday at the house. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

You had a you had a late night on uh Sunday, right? Those games are painful, man. So late. They start them so late, too. Uh you know, if there's one thing I'd advocate for, it's an earlier start. Seven ish. Yeah, that'd be nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

And then I always went into overtime, so it went even later.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Even later, so but we'll talk a little bit more about that later. How's your weekend? Uh my weekend was good. Uh pretty quiet this weekend. So uh yeah, just like you, pretty much just you know, watching football, hung out, and just uh, you know, did household chores as usual, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

We have such exciting lives.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

I know exactly. All right, let's go ahead and let's start with the coin toss. Um, Danny, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna flip it. Uh go ahead and call it.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

Uh heads.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

It is heads, so you start us off. Very good.

SPEAKER_04 1:41

All right. So welcome to our first quarter. I'm going to kick off by defining our topic of the week, and then we will cover some headlines for both homelessness and football, including the results from last week's home team locks of the week. So, as Carl mentioned earlier, our topic is outreach. Uh, outreach, homeless outreach is the process of engaging with people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in their immediate locations, such as stress, parks, encampments, or cars, to connect them with vital services, health care, and housing pathways. The core purpose is to build trust and provide support by meeting immediate needs and facilitating access to longer-term solutions, thereby bringing people into the formal homelessness services system. So I know Carl, you you started your career in outreach.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

I did. Uh outreach is one of my favorite things. Um, you really get out there to the people who obviously are experiencing homelessness out on the streets. Um, and it's where I really just fell in love with the idea of helping people. Um, obviously, when people are down, they're at their most vulnerable, but they're also uh they're also most open, you know. They're they'll they'll tell you what they're really thinking, they'll tell you what they're really feeling, and uh, really like the idea of getting out there just talking with people and having a conversation and understanding their lives and trying to help them get get their lives back on track, basically, which is what outreach is about. It's really about that rapport building and building trust. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:09

I I I did it a little bit um my previous places that I've worked. Um, yeah, building those relationships. I think we mentioned before is that once you build that relationship, you can work better with them, but there's always that beginning kind of, you know, I don't want to talk to you, or what is it you need for me? And um, and and just the stories you hear are so different from everyone, you know, everyone has a story, right? So just to hear that, but you know, it's it's great once you kind of start building that relationship with them and they're looking for you, and you're looking for them. The problem with outreach at times is not locating the person. That's right. You know, and have they been moved and uh, you know, did they get incarcerated or so I that's kind of the the barriers that they face a lot of times.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

So yeah, but it's about it's about as human as you can get. Um you know, one-to-one relationships, and you know, like I've like I've said in some trainings that I've done over the years, outreach is uh outreach workers have to be some of the best workers out there because they don't have a lot of tools to work with. It's basically you and me having a conversation, and that's my tool that I have. So um anyway, let's take a look at some of the headlines from the homeless world as well. Yes. Um and I'll go ahead and start first. Uh Danny, I want to give a thank you to one of our recent donors, uh, Rita McCaulay, uh gave us a donation here at uh Path Type Home. And you know, we're really happy about that. And Rita happens to be a New England Patriots fan. So we really appreciate that. Thank you, Rita. Yes, thank you. We appreciate your donation that you gave us. Fantastic. Um, I'd also like to talk about the uh homeless uh round table that I attended last week. Uh Commissioner Semrad uh from uh Orange County, uh District 5 uh held a round table with a lot of providers in the area and gave us a chance to really stand up and talk about what's happening out on the streets, what's happening, what we're seeing, what homelessness looks like uh now. I think was the state of homelessness roundtable. And so we really had an opportunity to get up and speak. Um, you know, we talked a lot about a lot of different things, but it came back to the same things. You know, people can't afford their housing, they can't afford the cost of everything nowadays, and uh a lot of people are becoming first-time homeless. Uh, they really focused a lot on the seniors and uh individuals with disabilities, even veterans uh with disabilities, because a lot of what we're seeing out there is that people with those uh incomes that are that they can't change, um disability income, things like that, they're they're not able to keep up with the with the price of housing and all the costs of everything.

SPEAKER_04 6:00

Yeah, I I saw it online. Um there was a good turnout as well. There was a lot of people in the audience, um, but a lot of the providers that were up there that we've worked with and we're partners with, I mean, yeah, the the story was kind of the same with everyone, what what they're seeing out there and where they're struggling with housing and mental illness. And uh yeah, it was really, really good. You did good, by the way. You did really good, you did really good. I was like, that's my boss up there. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

All right, now we'll go to the highlights of the week and talk about our football team. So, Danny, let's go ahead and start with your Dallas Cowboys.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Yeah, so it was a late night, like we said. Um game started very interesting. Um I didn't think it was gonna go as far as it went the way it started, but uh yeah, we we tied um 40 to 40, which we kind of discussed yesterday why why do they have no time for ball? But unfortunately, that's where we were. Uh press card threw for 319 yards, had a pretty good game. Pickens had eight receptions for 134 yards. Um, so it was it was a good game. It went all the way down to that overtime. Um Parsons um was there. There was some hugging going around. You could tell you could tell he missed the players. That's right. Um not the owner, but the players. That's right. Uh, but it was a good game. So we are tied right now with that. That game was a tie. So uh we have next week the Jets, yeah, uh, who lost yesterday. Right. Um so they're 0-4, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, they're pretty bad. They're a pretty bad team. So kind of might look good for us next week. So we'll see, but they will be playing in in New York or so. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Uh and my Bears, uh my Chicago Bears got a victory. All right, barely. Barely. I was a nailed by the game. I know both of our both of our games came down to the very end. Green Bay almost lost that game in overtime, even with you all. And then for us, it came down to a black field goal at the end to kind of save our game. Uh, Chicago won 25 to 24 over the Las Vegas Raiders. Um, and next week, uh luckily we will not be losing next week. We have a bye. We have a bye.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

You'll figure a way to lose next week anyway. You'll figure something out.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

No, I hope not. Anyway. So good. Give us a chance to rest up. Give us some, you know, uh get some of those nagging injuries taken care of. So, you know, uh looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Well, that wraps up the first quarter. We will be back after this break.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

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 9:34

We are getting a little deeper into homelessness topic with something we call offense versus defense. We will each take turns discussing some opposing viewpoints of our topic this week. The topic this week is should law enforcement be used to deal with unsheltered homelessness? So Carl will give you the offense and I will give you the defense.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

We're each taking sides here. Um and then at the end of this, we'll also talk about Pathlight Homes view on this. But I started off with offense or the the pros of should law enforcement be used to deal with unsheltered homelessness. Um let me start with my first point, which is the enforcement of public laws and ordinances. Obviously, cities often have laws related to loitering, trespassing, camping in public spaces, sanitation, or public safety, even though we don't always necessarily agree with those laws. The law enforcement is tasked with upholding laws. And unsheltered uh homelessness often interacts with those laws that are that we we just talked about. But on the other side of it, I want to say for uh from a positive standpoint, you know, law enforcement also helps handle other more violent or you know more uh egregious offenses. And in those cases, a lot of times homeless individuals are the are the victims. And so it's good that law enforcement sometimes steps in there to help with those situations. Um the second one is the response to complaints from residents or businesses. Um cities receive complaints about encampments or behavior in public areas. Law enforcement is often called to respond to these complaints when other services, um, like either social workers or other services are unavailable or underfunded in particular. So I I have to say this is one also, this is another reason. Both of the the first two really have to do with the fact that law enforcement is out there on the streets. They can't help but interact with people who are you know who are homeless out on the streets. Um so it's really not, I don't think it's necessarily uh intentional per se that law enforcement has to go out of their way to do it. They're just getting complaints and people are breaking the law, and they have to, you know, be able to intercede when that happens. Um the third one is crisis intervention and public safety. Police are sometimes the only responders available for mental health crisis, drug overdoses, or violence that you know, which uh might happen around encampments. Um, in cases of danger to person to the person themselves or others, law enforcement is trained to intervene. And we do have quite a few uh law enforcement officers that are trained, um, whether it's CIT officers, uh community intervention training, um, where who are trained to deal with people with mental health issues or who are in mental health crisis or it's some other crisis that goes along with it. Police officers can be very helpful in those types of situations, not only to calm down the situation, but to try to get people to the actual place where they can get some assistance. Um clearing encampments. Um sometimes encampments need to be removed by city orders, whether it's because of health or fire risks or public safety or whatever the risks are, uh uh law enforcement often are involved in clearing the encampments, and usually that's around safety, and it's around making sure that people are secure and safe while while the camp gets cleared. Um, and then finally, leverage for services. So some people argue that uh legal consequences, jail or citation or some of the other things can uh I guess push people towards treatment or push people towards recovery that they might need or want. We talked about this in a in a uh previous episode where we talked about whether you know people should make people get services or whatever the case is. And unfortunately, I I don't think this is always the most valuable thing, although there are some people who, in fact, have been, you know, arrested or gone to jail and decided that they want to turn their life around there. So those are the reasons for law enforcement to be involved. Um, Dani, I'll turn it over to you and then we'll talk about some of these.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

Sure. Uh so my defense on my side is uh one is uh criticism is is anti-homeless laws often criminalize poverty rather than addressing root causes like lack of housing or mental health. Uh to use police to respond to citizen complaints of homelessness can escalate tensions or push homeless individuals into more dangerous or isolated areas without solving the underlying issues. So again, as officers are going to encampments or we don't know the state of what the person is in, um if they're in a crisis mode, if they're suffering from severe mental health or on some substance abuse. Um number three, most police are not mental health professionals, like I just mentioned, and may lack the training to de-escalate situations safely. Um alternatives, like as you mentioned, uh crisis intervention teams are often more appropriate for those situations. Uh four, sweeps often destroy personal belongings, disrupt social ties, and rarely uh provide permanent housing alternative, leading to a cycle of displacement and trauma, which is kind of what we mentioned earlier a little while ago about outreach and kind of you know locating people and displacing them. And um, you know, we we often forget that people's belongings are on the street, that is their prized possession, that is their what they have, that's the only thing they have. Um so kind of destroying their belongings is it's very difficult. They can have IDs, medicine, um, etc. on that. And then number five, this approach can backfire adding legal burdens and creating distrust in institutions. Uh voluntary service engagement is generally more effective.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

So yeah. And um so again, I I think I think we're talking kind of the again, two sides of the same coin, which is obviously what offense and defense is about. Is we're trying to talk about the pros and the cons of all these different things. And I think I I think ultimately what it comes down to is there's a time and a place for law enforcement to get involved, but generally what we prefer is for social service people to get involved instead. And again, it comes down to professionals. Look, you know, we as social workers are not police officers. We don't enforce laws, we don't carry guns, we don't, you know, keep the peace, so to speak. That's not our role, and we don't want that role. But on the other side of it, police officers are not meant to be social workers, and almost every single police officer I've talked with has said they don't want to be a social worker. That's not why they went into law enforcement to be a social worker, and so they generally don't want to get involved in those types of situations, and so what we're trying to do is marry both of those things together, particularly with outreach workers, and trying to figure out who's the most appropriate for each situation and trying to get that balance is really, you know, where we want to go.

SPEAKER_04 17:07

Yeah. And I think with our three bridges that we have that we're working so closely with law enforcement, and we had a training with them to explain to them our program explaining what we were gonna do, you can see in their faces like, okay, we have someone that we can call now when there's a problem, we don't know how to address it. Can we call them and and they can handle it? But I love the idea of partnering of them going out together, right? Law enforcement and uh a a case manager or an outreach person to address those people in the encampment. So then if there is an escalation, then the social worker can step in and de-escalate a situation, and I have to go to that next time. But I agree with you about what you first said is if there's a complaint made, law enforcement has to go out. I mean, that is their job to go and see what's going on. It's what comes after that.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

So yeah, absolutely. And uh finally we want to talk about Pathlight Homes position. Um, and again, we kind of reiterate this a little bit. Our position is let the police work, let the police do police work and outreach workers work with people who are homeless. We have we have a good relationship with law enforcement officers generally, and Danny talked a little bit about our Three Bridges program. It allows sheriff sheriff deputies to drop off clients to our location when we have beds available for individuals. But when we don't have beds available, what we ask law enforcement to do is give us a location of the individuals so we can have our outreach team go follow up with them and work on getting them into housing because ultimately that's what we want. And again, I I think that's the other thing that I I just want to, you know, uh finalize this uh this with is we want law enforcement's time to be spent on law enforcement that is the most valuable for the community. And if we've got law enforcement officers out there running around trying to do social work and help people who are homeless get into housing, I don't think that's the best use of police officers' time. I think they could be elsewhere primarily working on violent crimes and trying to, you know, prevent or eliminate violent crimes.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

So well, we have 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 19:25

Great. So let's start with the fan interaction. We have a couple of questions. Um I'll go ahead and I'll read the questions and then I'll let you uh start on the comments, Danny. Should I give I'm sorry, this one comes from Robbie. Uh the question is, should I give money to panhandlers?

SPEAKER_04 19:44

That's a great question. So so uh when I started my career in New York, um there's a lot of homelessness out there and and you know it's kind of that stigma and myth, and you know, if you if you give money to them, they're just gonna use it on drugs, they're gonna use it on things that they shouldn't, you know, be using it on, which not necessarily the case. They they might want to get food, they might want to get some type of clothing, some hygiene products. Um, so I I'm not sure how I feel about that. It's two-sided because you see someone on the street and you see someone asking for money and it tears at your heart, right? And you're like, should I give money to this person? I at times give them my business card and tell them to call us to see what we can provide for them, or the or tell them to go to the drop-in center and kind of if I'm at a light's kind of difficult because people start honking and stuff like that. But I try to have conversations with them to especially on the street if I'm walking, like if I'm downtown or and I just start having conversations with them. Um, not case management, but just giving them some options of where they can go, um, but not financially give them anything. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Yeah, I I kind of feel the same way is uh typically it's not gonna solve a whole lot of people's homelessness to give them a little bit of money out on the street. Now, you know, if if like you said, if you feel a calling to do so, if you feel that your you know heart is telling you to to give somebody the money, the one thing that I tell people who give money to panhandlers is actually I tell them two things. Number one, the only way to stop people from panhandling is not giving them money. Because uh someone once told me it's the it's the greatest entrepreneurial uh business that we have in the United States where it's tax-free and 100% of the proceeds go to the owner of the business. So it's I mean it's the perfect business model. It's all theirs. It's a perfect business model. But just like any business, if you don't give them business, if they don't make money doing it, well then they're not going to do it. They're they're gonna stop doing it. So that's the first thing that I that I let people know is that if you give them money, there's a good chance that they're going to stay wherever. They are and continue to pay and handle her. The second thing is, is if you do give them money and you feel called to do so, which is perfectly fine. That's you know your right to do so. If you do give them money, you have to remember as soon as you let that money go, it is not your issue anymore. You talked about the judgment, you talked about what people may or may not use their money for. But once you let that money go, it's gone. It's gone. And so you should not sit there worrying about are they gonna go over to the, you know, to the liquor store and buy some beer? Are they gonna go to McDonald's by hammer? That's none of your business. You're giving them money for them to decide what they want to do with it. And once it's out of your hand, it's out of your hand, and so you shouldn't be thinking about it.

SPEAKER_04 22:46

Yeah, and I think if you're going into it with a negative mentality of I'm gonna give them five bucks, oh, but they're gonna use it for this, then don't. Then don't. Then don't give it to them. But if you're giving it to them just free will, that's right, and just whatever they do with it is their business, then go ahead. But yeah, if you have that negative mentality, it's just no, it doesn't make any difference. Um, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

What's the point of giving it at that point? Yeah, um, the second question comes from Joan. Uh the question is Is the point in time count done each year really accurate? And then there's a follow-up. If not, how inaccurate is it? So just to just to set the stage here before you answer, Danny, um the uh Housing and Urban Development Department HUD uh every year asks that each geographic location does what we call a point-in-time count, where we literally go out on the streets and we try to count every individual and survey uh every individual that's homeless in our area. So that's what they're talking about when they talk about the point in time count.

SPEAKER_04 23:54

Yeah. So I think what you just said is we try. That's the key point, is we try to find everyone and talk to everyone. Unfortunately, I I don't think it's as accurate as it could be just because of what we said earlier with uh people being moved, people going deeper into the woods, people living in cars, um in different areas like the parking lots at Walmart, all these other different places. So I don't think it's completely accurate, but but we uh try our hardest as an agency and as a a COC to hit all these points that we possibly can. But there's just it's so big and so broad of people just in different places and what we saw last year to the year before, th there's different encampments or our RV's team sees an encampment one day, they go out the next, they're not there. So it's it's it's very, very difficult to to get an accurate count. And I don't think we can ever I hope we can get to a point that we can count everyone, but I think it's really difficult just because of how especially now how things are just moving around and yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

And and in terms of how accurate it is or inaccurate, I think the the one of the big reasons why uh HUD asks us to do it on an annual basis is that we can get the trend data. That's it that to me, as long as you're doing the point in time count the same way, whether it's accurate or not, it should be just as inaccurate every single year. Correct. Right? So if you're only counting eighty percent every year, well at least you're counting eighty percent, so it's uh so you can see what the trend is over time, and that's really the value of it more than anything. In terms of how inaccurate it is, it varies from place to place. Um what I've heard uh or what I've seen research done is they say uh generally your your number of homeless individuals is about 0.03% of your total population. So if you're somewhere in that neighborhood of 0.03% of your total population in the area, then you're probably pretty close to your to your count. What I think is definitely more accurate is our count that we do within our homeless management information system, which is our data system, and that tells how many people have interacted over an entire year. And there we can get a more accurate count of who's really becoming homeless, how long they're staying homeless, and things like that. And usually uh from the point in time count, it's usually about three to five times what the point in time count is, generally for most areas. So I think that's a more accurate count. Obviously, if people are having contact with you and they're actually you know interacting with you, obviously then you can get a better you can get a better sense of it. So definitely.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

All right, uh, so now we are going to go to the quote of the week. Uh, and the quote is it's a heavy burden to look up at the mountain and want to start the climb. And this is by Abby Wombach. Wombach. Wombach. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Yeah, that's a good one. Um, I when I read this statement, I really thought about it, and and it really struck me as again outreach, right? Is it can be really daunting and it can get it can really weigh on you to go out there and see the same people on the streets over and over and over again. And so I think what what Abby was talking about is look, ending homelessness is a big, big, big chore. And so just to just to think about that and to want to get involved and to start the process of doing that, that's that's a big that's a big lift sometimes. I mean, you're taking on that responsibility. You and I have been in this business, we've been, you know, doing this for a long, long time. And when we started, we probably didn't think it was as big a responsibility as it is. But when you look at it and you look at what we're trying to do and what we're trying to accomplish, it really is a pretty big mountain that we have to climb. But to look at it and say, you know what, I'm gonna try and get there, that's that's you know, that's something. That says something about people.

SPEAKER_04 28:00

Yeah, and like you said, we've been we've been doing this for a while. You've been doing it longer than I have, and we've seen the changes. We've seen how homelessness has changed, how the system has changed. That's right. Um, it's you know, mental health has increased a lot. So it's it's yeah, we we look at the mountain and we keep climbing. And we keep climbing. But sometimes it does seem like it's getting higher, but as long as you keep going, eventually we'll hit that top.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

So yeah, and in terms of this quote, I wanted to give just a little story, a little anecdote from some of my experience. So I went to a conference one year, and uh Dr. Samson Barris, who is uh basically thought of as kind of the grandfather of housing first or the father of housing first, um, started in New York and they did outreach on the streets with people who were seriously who had serious persistent mental illness and uh often co-occurring disorders, substance abuse or disorder that went along with that. And so what they were trying to do is get people into housing, right, from the streets, directly from the streets into housing, working with the people who had the most challenges in their life, the most barriers. And we were at this conference and Sam had a gentleman come up and he told his story, right? He told his story about Sam's team working with him and getting him housed and so on and so forth. And as he was telling his story, it was really unique because he actually told the story of how he had to be rehoused five times before it actually stuck with him. He was, you know, had serious mental illness, had serious substance abuse issues, and he talked about his first time in and how when he first got into housing, when they first moved him into housing, he didn't believe it was real. He didn't believe it. He thought to himself, okay, they're gonna kick me out here any minute now. I may as well just go ahead and just you know, do whatever I want to do, invite my friends over, you know, do all kinds of stuff. He was basically it was a self-fulfilling prophecy because he got himself evicted. But instead of giving up, again, back to like our quote, instead of giving up, the homeless outreach team went back out there, they kept working with him, they got him housed again, he fell out again, got evicted, housed him again, housed him again, housed him again. And the unique thing about this story is not that he they re-housed him five times. And by the way, after his fifth time, he finally got it and it clicked with him. He has a full-time job now, he's been in his housing at that point. He had been in his housing like five years or something like that. I mean, he totally completely turned his life around. But the important part here is the persistence that they had is that they never gave up on him, and they really stayed persistent no matter how big that mountain was. They kept climbing the mountain. That's exactly right. That's what this guy said is he said, Look, I was a mess. I know I was a mess, and I knew, and he could not believe that they kept coming back to him and continued to try to re-house him every single time. And finally, it stuck with him that look, they're gonna keep doing this. I may as well go ahead and hold on to my housing. This is my housing.

SPEAKER_04 31:11

You're gonna keep housing me. I might as well just stay in one. You may as well stay exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

So, yeah. That's a great story. Yep. All right, and that concludes our halftime. So let's jump right into the third quarter where we're 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. All right, so we're gonna start first with the NFL player spotlight of the week. Danny, I'll let you go ahead and go through this one.

SPEAKER_04 31:41

So the NFL uh NFL player spotlight of the week is defensive uh end Calice Campbell. Uh returned to the Arizona Cardinals to make an impact on the field in year 18 in the NFL. Uh but he will also be impacting the valley of the field during the 2025 season. So we thought he was going to retire last year. Right. Apparently he did not.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

No, and and I did not know this, but he actually started his career with Arizona. Arizona, yes. And so he was going back. I actually watched him this week. He was he's still out there playing and still doing very well, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:14

So on the eve of Arizona's first game at the New Orleans Saints, Campbell announced he will be donating upwards of $100,000 to nine Phoenix homeless focused nonprofits. The launching of Calice Comes Home, a homecoming with heart, will target more than 9,000 people in Maricopa County experiencing homelessness, according to the press release. Coming back to Arizona feels like coming home, and I want to help others find their way home too, Campbell said in the statement. This community embraced me when I started my NFL career, and now I have the opportunity to give back in a meaningful way. Every tackle, every sack, every win becomes a chance to change lives and bring another family closer to feeling safe at home. How will Khalies Campbell give back to Phoenix Homeless Shelters? Well, Campbell's Community Initiative will have team and individual checkpoints when donating this season. Eight shelters will benefit from the in-game success on a two-week rotation throughout the season, receive two home game tickets, and have their nonprofits spotlighted on Campbell's personal and Charles Richard Campbell Foundation social media accounts. So let's look at what the on-field performance will positively impact local homeless shelters. So $2,000 for every team win, $2,000 for every Campbell tackle for loss, $5,000 for every Campbell fumble recovery, $10,000 for every Campbell interception or block kick, and then the following homeless shelters will be included in the initiative. It's UMom New Daycare Centers, Family Progress, Ascend, Gilbert Advocacy Center, Tempe Community Action Agency, One Small Step, Paste Cristo, South Point Elementary School. So he's yeah, I would be fumbling all the time so he could just give money and throw some interceptions and things that. Yeah, I mean that's fantastic that he's doing that back where he first started and he's giving back to his community that embraced him when he came on. Absolutely. So don't know if he's gonna continue playing after the season. I don't know either. But I was reading some other articles about him. He was like, Well, I don't know yet. I can still do it, he said so.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

That's right, exactly. Well, it's interesting. The the last one, $10,000 for an interception, which is pretty unlikely. He's a defensive lineman, so that's pretty unlikely. Yeah, but a block kick. He's actually six foot eight and has blocked several kicks in his career. So there's a possibility there that that one of these shelters, or or I guess a combination of them, could be getting $10,000. So it's pretty pretty good money. Yeah, very cool. Very cool.

SPEAKER_04 34:42

All right, so we're gonna do the fantasy football player of the week. So, of course, this is Mr. Carl.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

All right, great. Thank you, Danny. Yes. Um, so last week I picked I have to say, I'm not having a very good record at this stand. You would think that I don't know how to play fantasy football. Well, we can tell everybody he's the expert at this. Last week I picked Keenan Allen, wide receiver for the Los Angeles Chargers. They were playing against the Giants, who I thought, again, since Dallas beat him, I thought probably we're not going to do very well. Um, he was expected to get eight points and he only got four points. And I think the Giants actually ended up winning that game. It's crazy. Um, anyway, this week I'm picking Kenneth Walker. He's a running back for Seattle. Uh, they play Tampa Bay this week. He's expected to get nine points. Um, I think Kenneth Walker have a big week this week and uh hopefully exceed those nine points. You're just not getting close to these expectations. Not even. They're not, I don't know. But anyway, I guess on an individual basis, I'm not as good as I thought I might be. So um the fantasy flashback this week uh comes from week five of the 2020 season. Uh Chase Claypool, a wide receiver for Pittsburgh, scored four touchdowns in one game. But here's the amazing thing about it. He was a rookie that year. He scored three receiving touchdowns and a rushing touchdown for his week five uh debut as a rookie or his week five uh output as a rookie. So if he had Chase Claypool that week, there's a good chance that you probably won your fantasy football league. Although I'm not even sure if he would have started him. He may have been sitting on your bench in your fantasy team because as a rookie, he probably hadn't done much by week five, honestly. Um, but that's that's the uh fantasy flashback. It just takes one game. It just takes one game, exactly. So now let's take a look at our local football teams to watch. I'll go ahead and I'll start it. Uh Jones High School, uh again, close to where we are here at Pathlide Home. Um, they won uh 37 to 3 versus Auburn Dale. They're now 4-2. Uh in Orlando, they are number eight, and in Florida, they're number 43. Um, and next week they play Lake Wales. Good.

SPEAKER_04 37:06

Uh so my Boone High School uh played Timber Creek and we won 35 to 7. So we are 6-0. We have not lost yet.

SPEAKER_05 37:14

Good for that.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

Uh they have moved up 52 uh in Florida and are number 11 in Orlando. So they're moving. I know. I saw that, and I was like, hey, we're catching up. Uh they don't have a game this week. Um I guess they have a bye like Chicago. Yeah, same as Jones. And so they are playing uh Winter Park on October 10th. So next week we won't have an update on that, but the following one we will.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

So absolutely. And our locks of the week this week, uh, where each week we predict a home team to win in the NFL. Um, my lock of the week last week was the Atlanta Falcons, who won. Uh, so that makes me three and one. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 37:56

And I picked the Los Angeles Rams. They won again. That was a close game as well. That was a close one. I'm more invested in these locks of the week than my own team. Let me just tell you, I'm very stressed out with these games. I'm like, oh my god, we're gonna lose. And then at the end they pulled it out. I was like, yes, I'm three and one. So for some reason, I'm more invested in the lock of the weeks. But uh yeah, so they they uh they they won. Um so next week, call you have uh you're picking Seattle.

SPEAKER_02 38:19

I am, I'm picking Tampa Tampa Bay uh plays at Seattle, so I'm picking Seattle. I'm doubling down. Uh Kenneth Walker is my my fantasy player for Seattle, and I'm picking Seattle at home as well. All right, Danny.

SPEAKER_04 38:32

Yep, so I have the Broncos versus the Philadelphia Eagles, who is my pick for the Super Bowl. So I have to go with the Eagles. They are the home. I have to go. I have to I've already picked the Ravens, isn't that in farewell? I swear, Danny.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

I know we're not on video, but yeah, I swear most people probably envision you in green right now. Yeah, because of all the Eagles picks that you've made throughout this season.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

They're doing a great game. They're having this great season so far. That's my pick, so for for the Super Bowl. But I don't know about that. So the Eagles, yeah. If you all see the looks I got, we're not good. Yeah, so those are our picks for the week. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

Uh stay tuned uh for a wrap-up after this message. Hello everyone. I'm Carl Falconer, the president and CEO of Pathlight Home. And I'm often asked by many in the community, what can I do to help end homelessness? I would like to invite you to join Pathlight Home's efforts. 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. Welcome to the fourth quarter where where we will wind down this episode by reflecting on a homelessness MVP. And unfortunately, or fortunately, I guess, Danny, this week we don't have a fumble of the week, which is I guess good. Yep. Um, and then finally, we'll go to the wrap-up of our key takeaway. Uh Danny, look go ahead and start us off with the homelessness MVP of the week.

SPEAKER_04 41:39

Sure. Uh the Denver Mayor's office recently announced a 45% reduction in unsheltered homelessness from January 2023 to January 2025. In Jan in July 2023, following multi-year increases in unsheltered homeless homelessness, Mayor Mike Johnson announced the House 1000 initiative to move 1,000 people indoors, followed by the All-in-Mile High Initiative in January 2024. AIM High, as it's called, is a citywide strategy to effectively end unsheltered homelessness by the end of 2026. The initial evaluation analysis show analysis shows a substantial reduction in the number of large encampments in the city. 98% fewer groups of 20 or more people, and 89% less groups of 10 to 20 people. So here are a few takeaways. Number one, it used real-time data to locate and prioritize encampments by size, composition, and public health risks. They also focus on encampments with significant numbers of structures and reported health risks, including sanitation and mental or behavioral health concerns. Number two, they coordinated outreach groups across municipal agencies and nonprofit service providers. Number three, they developed and scaled non-congregate shelter options. Several residents of the non-congregate shelters shared they were grateful for a safe place to stay and support they were receiving from their case managers. Number four, they prioritized connecting people in shelter to permanent housing through voucher and rapid rehousing. Once people were in shelter, program staff connected them with permanent housing through rapid rehousing and vouchers. Maintain cleared encampment. I'm sorry, number five, maintain cleared encampment locations. Denver has prevented encampments from returning by continuing outreach to those locations when reports of people returning arise. I think this whole thing that I just read pretty much covers every single podcast we discussed about outreach, non congregate, um, just the how everything ties in together to get people off the street and into housing.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

Well, and again, that's one of the things that I wanted to point out as well to your point is they had a plan for the entire system. It's not just a plan about an Encampment resolution because that's really what this initiative was about was clearing out encampments. It wasn't just getting people out of an encampment, it was how do we get them all the way through the entire continuum from encampment to shelter to permanent housing and figuring out how we get them through those stages and all the way through. So, and again, we've talked about this in the past. If you're going to have resources for any of these things, if you're going to have outreach resources, if you're going to have shelter resources, if you're going to have rapid rehousing resources, you got to have that end of permanent housing available to everybody. Otherwise, it just breaks down all the way through. And you notice uh the other thing that I really wanted to touch on here, particularly talking about outreach this episode, is coordinated outreach groups, is talking with the different outreach groups, the different outreach agencies. I almost guarantee that included law enforcement officers in that and talking to them and how they coordinated the whole effort. It wasn't just one agency, it wasn't two agencies, it had to be the entire system working together to be able to do this.

SPEAKER_03 45:09

Yeah, that's a great story. Yeah. And they reduced it by 45%.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

That's pretty good. That's quite a bit. And and we've been seeing a lot more stories like this in the news where uh large cities in particular are starting to look at encampments and how they resolve that encampment. But again, it goes back to developing the entire system for that group of individuals. But the other thing that it tells us Danny is that if you could do it for this small group of individuals, if you had enough resources, you could do it for everybody. Yeah, you could do the same thing for every single person that's out there on the side.

SPEAKER_04 45:44

Yeah, and if we mentioned before, we're we're seeing encampments growing more and more and more. And if you start addressing all those people in encampments, you're gonna have some success of getting them off the encampments and into housing.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

So as we mentioned, there is no homelessness fumble of the week. Um, so we'll go right into our key takeaway. Danny.

SPEAKER_04 46:04

Sure. So key takeaway for this uh episode is all it takes is one person to change the direction of another person's life. Whether it be an act of kindness or just a kind word, sometimes it can make a huge difference in someone's life.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Yeah, and that I think that's the essence of outreach. I think it's it's really about that one-to-one connection. There were plenty of times I did outreach. Like I said, when I started my career, I did outreach for about seven years. And one of the things that I noticed out on the street is all it took was one person connecting with one other person. And sometimes it wasn't me, I'll be honest. Sometimes I would go out there. I certainly got cursed out by a few people who I was trying to approach in a way that was unagreeable to them. And so I backed off and I let one of my other fellow co-workers try to approach them. Somebody who they saw as more amenable or somebody who they saw as as more friendly towards them and create that relationship. Because all it takes is one person. One person can change the another person's life.

SPEAKER_04 47:11

And it's similar to the to the quote of the week about climbing the mountain is you go out there to talk to someone and it might not work that first time, but if you keep climbing and keep having conversations, eventually you're gonna hit the top with them. That's exactly I agree with you. It might not be you, but it could be someone else. But just continuing those conversations is so important. So it could change, like it says, it could change the direction of their life. It could change it completely.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Totally changing. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 47:35

So thank you for listening. And as always, if you have any questions or comments for us, please email us at questions at pathlighthome.org. That concludes our episode of the week. And as always, we leave the last words for our beloved co-founder, the late Reverend Fred Maxwell.

SPEAKER_05 47:54

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