2.What is Diversion?

In Pathlight's HOME Team second episode, Carl Falconer and Danny Arroyo continue to tackle homelessness and joke about their football teams.

They define homeless diversion as a strategy to house newly homeless individuals within seven days, emphasizing its cost-effectiveness and quick solutions. They highlight the importance of government involvement in ending homelessness, citing resources and scale as key benefits. They also discuss the challenges of federal government intervention, noting its inconsistent track record in solving social issues. The podcast includes updates on local football teams, a policy proposal to prioritize housing for homeless individuals, and a spotlight on the Hollywood Community Court's innovative approach to addressing low-level crimes related to homelessness.

Reach out to Carl and Danny with all of your questions or comments to: questions@pathlighthome.org

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:04

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

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Today in our podcast, we will discuss two of our passions, football and ending homelessness. Please join us through four quarters with our topic this week being diversion. So, Carl, what'd you think of our first podcast?

SPEAKER_03 0:36

I thought it was okay. It it went better than I expected, but not as good as I'm hoping our next ones and our next ones will be.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

I agree. I think it went good. I think we got good feedback from not only our staff, but family and friends. Um but I think I think we're gonna get better at this. So uh yeah, so let's start with our coin toss.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

All right, fantastic. Are you ready? I will twist the coin and call it. Heads. It's tails, so I'll kick off. Uh welcome to our first quarter. I'm going to kick off by defining our topic of the week, and then we'll cover some headlines from both homelessness and football. Homeless diversion, of course, is the topic of the week, so we're gonna start by defining that for everyone. Homeless diversion is a strategy that assists people who are newly homeless, usually within seven days of becoming homeless, to identify immediate, safe, and appropriate alternative housing arrangements rather than entering the homeless service system. This problem solving approach involves connecting individuals and families to community resources, natural supports, or flexible financial assistance to resolve their housing crisis. Ultimately reducing demand in the homeless system and saving resources for those who cannot be diverted. So uh diversion, Danny. Uh I know you've worked with diversion before. Uh tell us a little bit about your experience with diversion.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

I I it's one of my favorite programs that we've done previously at the other places I've worked at, um, just because it's it you're going to prevent shelter entry. Yeah. Um, it is cost effective and it's quick solutions. So someone who's in crisis um that we can address immediately and kind of place them somewhere, uh put them in housing, uh reconnect them with family or friends. Um so it's it's a great um it's a great diversion is great so you avoid them going into a shelter. I mean it just yeah, and it works. Yeah, it does work. It does work.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

And I do want to distinguish it from prevention. A lot of people uh uh you know confuse diversion and prevention. And the idea is prevention is before someone actually becomes homeless. So they're still housed or still have some kind of housing, even if it's in unstable housing or something like that, they still have housing. But diversion is after they've literally become homeless. But usually, like I said, it's within those first seven days. And so what we're trying to do is get people out of the system very, very quickly. And I've heard it called different things, you know. Uh some people call it rapid rehousing or rapid intervention or something like that. But uh diversion is usually, like I said, within those seven, those first seven days. At least that's the way I've understood it.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Yeah, no, I agree. And I think like you said, people do confuse it with prevention. Prevention is more of that one-time assistance with rental or utilities, it's just they just need that little extra boost. Right, but to keep you in housing, to keep you in housing. That's what the prevention is about, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

As the term you know states. Prevention, yeah. Exactly. All right.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

All right, uh, so now we're gonna do highlights of this week's football games. Oh boy, and look ahead to our team's next opponent. So-called. We our uh a perfect season ended very quickly as it began. Um both of my teams, yeah. So my my team uh yeah, we we had a good game. Um we started off very strong, um, but unfortunately we lost to Philly 24 to 20. Um, yeah, we some key drops that we had at fourth quarter just just killed us, but we played a really good game against um Philadelphia. So um you want to talk about your team?

SPEAKER_03 4:28

Yeah, it's still a little raw here. Um Monday night, uh Chicago lost to Minnesota at home 27 to 24. Um our our defense looked good until they got tired. Our offense wasn't moving the ball, couldn't move the ball, and then eventually the defense just couldn't keep holding Minnesota over and over and over again. So um we knew our defense was good. Uh I had hoped it wouldn't take as long for the Ben Johnson era, our head coach, to kind of get the offense going, but it looks like it's gonna take him a little while to kind of get that offense going.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

So and usually with a new coach, it it it takes a bit to get kind of acclimated between players and and yeah, yeah, so they'll get there.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Yeah, I hope so. I I hope it's sooner rather than later. I don't I don't know what my excuse is for my team because our coach has been there, but you know, well, you lost a a star defensive player, so that certainly didn't help.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Yeah, and he had a good game too.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

So absolutely and and unfortunately for us and for you, I guess, we're both playing division opponents again next week. So yes, we are our our schedule certainly doesn't get any easier. So talk about this week's opponent coming up for Dallas.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

So we have the New York Giants, um, again, part of our division. So those those games when they're two division games back to back, it's really important because if you lose two of those, it's really hard the rest of the year to kind of get back up there, um, especially towards the end of the year. But it's the Giants, so let's just leave it there and keep moving.

SPEAKER_03 6:03

So so so you have Detroit, correct? Yeah, we have Detroit as our next opponent. Detroit looked terrible against Green Bay. I mean, uh, you know, as much as our offense looked bad with Ben Johnson coming over, their offense looked terrible without Ben Johnson. So I think it's gonna take both of our teams a little time to adjust. I think our defense is a little better than than Detroit's right now. Um, but you know, we'll see. It might end up in a 3-0 game or something. Who knows? With both of our offenses struggling. A win is a win. We'll say a win, a win would be a win, and I would take a 3-0 win at this point. Definitely. Um, you certainly don't want to start 0-2. Um, so uh that wraps up the first quarter, and we'll be back after this break.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

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_03 7:55

We're getting a little deeper into a homelessness topic with something we call offense versus defense. We'll each take turns discussing some opposing viewpoints of a topic this week. So the topic this week, Danny, is should the government take the lead on ending homelessness in a community? Obviously, we've seen a little bit of this in the news, the federal government getting more involved in ending homelessness or you know what they say is ending homelessness anyway, and also on the local level. So go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Yeah. So uh on the offense side or or the pros that we want to discuss is uh responsibility and accountability. That's number one. Um homelessness is a public issue that affects health, safety, and economic development. Uh government exists to address systemic social problems, housing, health care, and public safety all fall with its its mandate. Uh number two, resources and scale. So federal, state, and local governments control our funding streams, um, HUD, CLC, ESG, etc. Uh private charities and nonprofits cannot consistently match the scale and sustainability of government government resources, uh, equity and rights. So housing is increasingly recognized as a human right, and government is responsible for ensuring those rights that are that they're protected. Uh and without government leadership, solution risk uh become patchy, uh unequal and dependent on the priorities of individual organizations. Um and then success models. Cities adopted housing first initiatives with strong government leadership, such as Salt Lake City, Houston, and they reduce chronic homelessness significantly. And then finally, government coordination enables integration with health health care, employment, and criminal justice systems. So I think this is something that we've discussed all the time, me and you, especially what's going on out in the community, and it's affecting pretty much all of us. Um but I think that the government uh should have a part in uh making those laws and yeah, so so your cons.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Yeah, well, I have a different take on it, uh, as you can imagine. Uh um I'll be playing the defense here or the cons of the government taking the lead on ending homelessness. So uh you brought up the idea that the federal government um, you know, covers different uh large-scale issues and things like that. Um but what I would argue is that the federal government in particular has, especially I would say more recently rather than in the past, although over history I think people can agree that they don't have a very good track record of solving social issues. And homelessness is a social issue. It deals with human beings and it deals with how to provide services to human beings. But if you look at uh at examples, healthcare, our healthcare system is not the best it could be. Education, our education system is not as good as I think it could be. Even immigration, budgeting, and you know, other social issues that get involved or other larger issues that are out there, those are all things that I think the federal government has at to at least to some degree failed. Um and so giving them putting them in charge, at least at the federal level, and I agree a little bit about the local level, but I'll get into some of my other issues here too. Um but I think on the federal level, homelessness is too big and too unwieldy of a social issue for the federal government to actually take the lead. And again, this is taking the lead. I'm not saying they don't have a part in it, but taking the lead on it. Uh my second uh point experts in any field should take the lead in solving the issues. In this case, the local experts know their homeless issues better than most people in government. And so for the federal government or even the state government to uh mandate certain you know things or rules or policies around social issues, that doesn't always go down to the local level. Each local level has experts at their level because uh like yourself and myself, you know, I've been in this field for 31 years. And my level of experience working with homeless individuals is will far exceed most of what the government employees um are involved in. Number three, elected officials and government staff have ulterior motives for solving or sometimes not solving social issues. Examples include using social problems against political opponents, scaring voters into voting for them to solve the problems, and overall just focusing on the outcome that will get them elected instead of what's best for their constituents. Let's face it, politicians nowadays, number one priority for most politicians nowadays, whether they say it or not, is to get re-elected. And sometimes the social issues, especially around homelessness, sometimes those social issues are what they use as one of their points of why they should be elected or why they should be re-elected in some cases. So I I don't think homelessness or any social issue, honestly, is that kind of an issue where politicians should be using it to try to get elected or to try and scare you into who their opponents are or who their opponent who who what their opponents think about homelessness. Um fourth is elected officials are not in it for the long haul. Even if they're re-elected or serve long terms, their attention to topics wane from day to day and week to week, depending on the news or the mood of the public or whatever. So from week to week they'll have different priorities. And homelessness is a long-term solution. We're gonna we're gonna uh talk about a quote that's later about commitment. And one of the things that elected officials are notoriously not great at is uh sticking with long-term solutions for things because they either realize that they won't be in office whenever the solution comes out, or again, they're trying to get re-elected, and so they're looking at something, you know, short-term, a band-aid approach. And homelessness with a band-aid approach obviously is not where we want to go. And then finally, government should fund, monitor, and assess nonprofits. And you talked about this a little bit, accountability. I agree with that. I think governments should have some uh level of accountability or or accountability for their funding and for what they're putting into the services. Um, but they need to give the right support and resources to the nonprofits or to the people who are experts in the field around homelessness. So really I think that's where that's where it comes in. So I'll give you a chance to counter some of my points and then I'll talk about some of yours.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

No, I I I agree with some of those points. I think one of the things what you said, I think every city and state is different. Yeah. Um homelessness is different in every city and state. Like you said, you've been in this for 30 years, I've been in it for 12. Homelessness is not the same as what it was five, ten, fifteen years ago. We see changes every year, you know, especially with during the pay count, we're finding different um outcomes, and I think that the government has to also adjust to that.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Um and if they're because again, every city and state it's it's different. You know, the we can see elderly here, more elderly homelessness. That's right. Another state you see young people. So it it it varies. Um but I yeah, I I think they should be involved, um, but to your point, yeah, it's they might not have to be as involved as I'm saying to be. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 15:34

Well, and and again, to to talk about your point is I think they definitely have the ability to bring things to scale, which is the important part that government should really play is bringing solutions to scale. Let the local individuals, the local experts, be the experts on that social issue or whatever that issue is, and but bring the resources. They have the resources to bring to scale, they just don't bring the resources. And again, I mentioned some of the reasons why they don't, elections, you know, political parties, you know, whatever their differences are, things like that. But they don't bring those things to scale. But I think in in your case, one of the pros really is the scale that they could bring to the that they could bring to bear on homelessness. They really could bring a lot of resources and a lot of scale to it. Unfortunately, we haven't really seen that. Um and again, that goes back to some of the cons that I have is that they notoriously have not been bringing things to scale for any kind of social issue really in our country, or I don't want to say any kind, because they have to some degree brought some things to scale, but for most uh social issues, they've far they've uh left us far behind as far as the resources that are needed for each area. We've made it to the halfway point, and during halftime, we want to take a moment for fan interaction and highlight an inspired quote related to our work.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

All right, so now we're gonna take some uh talk about some fan interaction and some questions that came in through our questions at pathlighthome.org. So one question that came in from Esmeralda was once what's one myth you constantly had to debunk when talking about homelessness? Uh I think for me, when I'm out talking to people and and having conversations, it's oh well, they fell into this because they just wanted to fall into this. It's it's not they wanted to be homeless, and I think it drives me a little bit crazy because nobody wants to be homeless. Um, it's just situations. Um and I think that's one of the things that I constantly have to kind of educate people on and explain, you know, the side of mental illness and substance abuse, and you know, everybody has a different story of why they became homeless, but no one's asking for it. It's not that they're looking to live on the street, it's not that they're you know, they want to live in a tent. Um so that's one of the ones that I think it's constantly out there, and I think it's just educating folks of of what it is that happens.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Yeah, when I mean you think about it when you're growing up, you don't say I want to be homeless and sleeping on the street. That's not something that you you know typically think about. We all have dreams, we all have aspirations, and the reality is that most of the people that are currently homeless or have experienced homelessness were housed before that.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

And so they know what it's like to be housed, and uh what what we found when we were doing outreach, when I did outreach back many, many moons ago, back in the 1990s. You remember those, right, Danny?

SPEAKER_02 18:42

It's slightly housed.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Um is what we found is that uh what people were really saying to us when they said they wanted to be homeless was they were saying, I don't believe that you can get me out of this situation. Right. And because they had tried before. Like 99.9% of the people that we ran into as street outreach workers had already tried to get out of homelessness. And so really what they were saying is we don't want to go through the effort and the time and the energy and put everything into it, get our hopes up, and then get dashed again because you can't help us. That's really what they were saying to us when they were saying, No, we don't want your help, whatever, is you can't really help us.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Yeah, and I think to your point, just like our nobody left behind program with the gentleman we met and we were doing outreach and we told him we were gonna help him, he didn't believe us.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

That's exactly right. That's exactly what I think.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

He didn't believe us because I think he's been offered this before, and it just but we came through and we housed him, and it was fantastic. And now he has that trust back in the system, in us, and what we do.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

Um, so yeah, that's that's definitely and we talked in the earlier segment about professionals being involved, and that's why you always want to try to have professionals involved. So even if someone says to you on the streets, no, I really want to be out here, we want you to reach out to us. We want the the professionals, the nonprofits who are doing this work, want you to tell us about these people so we can send professionals there who can work with people and talk to them and convince them and overcome that feeling of hopelessness that they have.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

And it's building that trust with them. It's it's making sure that they they trust you enough to let you help them. Absolutely. Absolutely. So the second question we have from Esmeralda is if you had the power to change one policy tomorrow, what would it be and why?

SPEAKER_03 20:27

So I'm gonna hand that over to you. Not on video, Danny, but I got my hand. Yeah, I've got I'm gonna hand that over to you.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

I think you you have a good answer for this.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

Yeah, the policy that we could change. And and this is something that I've uh gotten on a soapbox before. And it's a simple policy, and I hope everybody's sitting down because this could in fact end homelessness in the entire United States. And it's a policy change that would not involve increasing any resources or funding. And basically, it's the policy of the housing authorities giving priority to homeless individuals. Right now, housing authorities have the capacity, at least with their total inventory. I'm not saying that they have vacancies or occupancies. What I'm saying is with their total inventory, they have the inventory to be able to house all of the homeless people uh that are unsheltered or sheltered in the United States right now. But the problem is that the way their system has been set up and sometimes the way their policies are set up, homeless people or people experiencing homelessness don't get the opportunity to get into those resources, the public housing units, the vouchers that they have, um, any of those types of things. If they change their policy, if the federal government, and this is where coming to scale and bring resources, if they change their policy to make it a requirement that housing authorities had to house homeless individuals first and could not house other people. People with their resources until all the homeless people in their area were actually housed, it it could end homelessness for us. It literally could end homelessness across the entire United States. And it's a policy change. The only reason that they don't do it is because each each local jurisdiction, each housing authority, has control over its own policies, and so they determine whether they want to give priority or who they want to put into their housing units. But the federal government could make that change and make it a requirement that they don't serve anyone except people who are homeless before they serve people who are already housed. And about when I uh I did some research on this a year or two years ago, and what I found is at least 90% of the people that were in housing authority units were housed before they moved into those units. Now, I'm not saying they were stably housed, and I'm not saying they weren't paying more than they should have paid for income. Right. But I don't see why they should get priority. Anyone who's housed should get priority over anyone who's homeless. That doesn't make any sense to me. True. And we have systems with our continuums of care where we could make referrals for all of the people that are that are homeless to the housing authorities and get them in.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

So do you think that that I've never thought of that ever. So do you think that addressing that policy, that changing the policy to that, do you think that then the people that are housed that you said might be struggling, do you think they're gonna then it they'll end up homeless as well? Is that another thing?

SPEAKER_03 23:33

Well, it's uh it's ironic because yeah, because that's what you might think, is you might think, well then those people would become homeless because they didn't get the voucher. What what research shows us though is that most of those people don't become homeless.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:44

They figure out a way. And and here's a telling tale. You know as well as I do that sometimes it takes years. Once you've gotten approved for a voucher, let's say you have a Section 8 voucher, which is a subsidy that you get to help pay rent at a unit or something like that. Sometimes people are on a waiting list for two years or three years for the Section 8 voucher. During that entire time, they're housed.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

They're housed. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 24:10

And so just by the fact that they're moving into the housing authority unit, sure, it helps them with the rent, and I'm not saying that that's not a case, but I'm just saying who should get priority first. And if we did that, if we made that one policy change at the federal level, mandating that all housing authorities could only house homeless individuals before they housed anyone who was or before they yeah, housed anyone who was already in housing, it could change the entire landscape of homelessness. So that's pretty good. Yeah. And again, no more funding. We're talking about the same vouchers they already have. We're talking about the same monies, we're talking about the same thing. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Well, we want to thank Esmeralda for her questions. And again, if you have any questions or comments, please email us at questions at pathlighthome.org.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

Absolutely. And now we'll go to the homelessness quote of the week. Um, this is a good one. This one, this quote of the week is about commitment. Yeah, that maybe you made me read it twice because I was like, wait a minute. I had to listen to it twice when I heard it. Uh, this comes from a good friend of mine, uh, Ian DeJong, who is the uh uh executive director of um Org Code, which is a uh nonprofit organization, or actually it's not a nonprofit organization, but it's an organization that helps homeless individuals. And uh Ian said, uh I heard him say this one time, and and I thought it was an interesting uh quote. He said, Commitment is the difference between bacon and eggs. He said for the pig, it's a lifetime commitment. For the chicken, it's a day's work. And when you think about it, when you think about commitment and you think about what we do trying to end homelessness, it's about that commitment. And we certainly have some people here who have committed their lives to ending homelessness. But we also have some people who you know stay for a little while, realize it's not for them, and then they go on their way. Look, we want all as many resources and as many people helping us as we possibly can get. There's no doubt about that. We need everybody involved, we need the community involved, we need everybody to do as much as they can. So whether it's a day's work, volunteering, uh, you know, donating, you know, any of those kinds of things, that's perfectly fine with us. Or whether it's a long-term commitment and a long time or a lifetime commitment, we love those, we love those individuals as well.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Yeah, I I agree. I think any any little bit helps, um, whether it's small, like a donation or volunteering, or and again with staff, we we have some great staff that have been doing this for many, many years, and this is what they do, like me and you, right? This is what we do. Um, this is what we love doing. So I I love that quote. I I read it a couple of times and I was like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

Exactly. So very good. And that concludes our halftime. So let's jump right into the third quarter. 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. Danny, to you for the spotlight.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

Uh so the uh spotlight is this week we recognize the Kansas uh City Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, and his 15 and the Mahomes Foundation. I like that name. The Mahomes. Uh in April of this year, they launched uh a new fresh start fund for kids experiencing homelessness. Uh, we've seen an increase in youth homelessness um here in Orlando. Um the their initial uh 15,000 donation will help 50 kids experiencing homelessness get new wardrobes. They are partnering with the Halo Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping thousands of children who are homeless and at a risk around the world. We are so grateful for the 15 and the Mahomes Foundation for giving our kids a fresh start when they move into the Halo into a Halo home, said Halo founder and CEO Rebecca Welsh. This fund allows our staff to provide important moving items and take youth shopping for new underwear, socks, shoes, and clothing to get them the things that they want and so desperately need. Imagine being a teen with only a garbage bag of everything you own. Every child deserves to be confident, every child deserves dignity. The fresh start fund gives these kids precisely that.

SPEAKER_03 28:23

That's great. That's a great story. And it also highlights something, Danny, that you and I have talked about. We have a flex fund here at Pathlight Home. Correct. And it's for those little things. You know, people think when you move into housing, oh, we just need to pay the rent. But you need furniture, you need clothing, you need hygiene items, you need towels, which is why also in-kind donations are so important to us and getting those donations regularly. Because a home isn't a home if all it is is four walls and you're sitting there and looking at everything. You have to have clothing, you have to have bedding, you have to have you know items that make a home an actual home.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Yeah, we want we want to make sure they move in and they know that it's theirs. Absolutely. And they're comfortable coming in and and seeing frames on the walls and their own kitchenware and it's right. But this is a great foundation.

SPEAKER_03 29:14

And another thing I just wanted to point out about that spotlight is they donate $15,000. It might not seem like a lot of money, but that $15,000 can start a trend. It can start a fund, it can start something going, and uh a little amounts add up. And and that's one of the things I think that's really important about this, also. Yeah. But thank you, Danny. Um, let's go to the fantasy football section. This is the case. All you all me. All you um unfortunately, I didn't do uh very well on my fantasy football player pick of the week. Uh pick Joe Flacco.

SPEAKER_04 29:49

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Um Joe had a good game. I'm not going to say he didn't have a good game, but he didn't have the stellar game that I thought he would have against Cincinnati. Turns out Cincinnati's defense is a little better than I thought they were. So um Joe kind of, you know, uh did kind of his his average Joe kind of thing, right? There you go. Right in the middle. His average Joe. Exactly. Um this week I'm picking from my fantasy football player pick of the week. I'm picking Chuba Hubbard. He's the running back for the Carolina Panthers. Uh, he didn't have a great day against uh Jacksonville this last this last week, but I'm looking for him to have kind of a breakout. They're playing Arizona this week. He's expected to get 14 points. I think he'll overproduce in those 14 points. So if you got Chuba Hubbard sitting on your bench or, you know, uh trying to pick between him and somebody else, I say go with Chuba this this week.

SPEAKER_04 30:41

Very good.

SPEAKER_03 30:42

Uh our flannet our fantasy flashback this week goes back just one year to week two in 2024. Uh and our fantasy flashback player is Alvin Camara. He's a running back for New Orleans. Uh in week two, he had 180 scrimmage yards and four touchdowns versus your Dallas Cowboys, Danny.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Thank you for that. Thank you for bringing that up. Just just just dig in the city.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

Not a stellar week for the Cowboys, but uh but it was a stellar week for Alvin Kamara last year, only one year ago, uh again, scoring four touchdowns and 180 scrimmage yards. So he had a fantastic. If you had Alvin last year, you probably won your week in week two. Um now we'll go on to our local teams that we want to uh talk about. Uh I'll start with uh Jones High School. Unfortunately, Jones suffered a setback this week. Uh they played Evans and they lost 28 to 25 at home. Um they were on top of the rankings. I don't know where they rank now, but I'm sure it probably will not be number one. Uh they they're still two-one. I think they're still a strong team. Uh next week they'll be playing Edgewater. So okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

So my dad is team lost, but Boone, Boone High School, uh are three and oh. So they beat Olympia last week uh 42 to 6. Wow. So it was very close. Um they had uh 188 of passing yards, 80 yards rushing. Uh they moved up in the ranks, 14 points to number 94, and are number 20 now in Orlando. They were 24 before. So they're they're doing great. So their next game is on the 12th. Um they are playing West Orange, who is also undefeated. So that's gonna be a good game.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

So yep. There you go. Exactly. All right, now we go to the locks of the week, uh, where Danny and I each pick a home team uh lock of the week. Uh we actually did really well last week. Yes, yes, and we again for entertainment purposes only. Yes. If you followed mine and Danny's advice, uh I won with Denver over Tennessee and Danny won with Washington. 21 to 6. That's right, you beat the Giants, exactly. So that was fantastic. Yes. Um and who do you got this week for your pick?

SPEAKER_02 33:07

So I am gonna go with the Giants versus Cowboys because we are the home team. Wow. Um, so I'm picking my Cowboys. I I just am. We we we last week was, you know, it was it was okay, but this week we're gonna do really good. So I'm picking the Cowboys this week.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

Wow. Fancy.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

It's at home. It's at home.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

So and my pick this week is gonna be the Kansas City Chiefs at home versus the Philadelphia Eagles. I think Kansas City's gonna bounce back. I think they had a tough game against the Chargers. Uh Philadelphia obviously coming off a high over your Cowboys. Uh big win for them. Um so I think Kansas City at home is gonna get it done this week.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

I think I originally had them. Okay. Uh I put them first, but then I saw Cowboys. I was like, I gotta go my Cowboys out. Fair enough. Fair enough. That's gonna be a good game, though.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

Kansas City and it should be a really good game, and I think uh Philly, yeah, I think Kansas City will get it done at home. So those are our picks of the week. Um stay tuned uh for our final quarter after this message. Hello everyone. I'm Carl Falconer, the president and CEO of Pathlight Home, and I'm often asked by many in the community, what can I do to help end homelessness? I would like to invite you to join Pathlight Home's efforts. Pathlight Home is a 501 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_02 36:25

So call MVP of the week.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Thank you, Danny. Our homelessness MVP of the week comes from my old stomping grounds in South Florida, uh, actually Hollywood, Florida, and it is the Hollywood Community Court. Uh it's hosted by the Carrying Place, another nonprofit in the area. Uh, and what they say is justice here looks different. Instead of focusing only on punishment, this court addresses low-level misdemeanor crimes and municipal ordinance violations such as trespassing, unlawful lodging, petty theft, and park after hour citations by offering innovative alternatives such as community service, mental health counseling, or substance abuse treatment. So basically, instead of going to jail or paying a fine, you basically agree to get into one of the other social service programs that might help you out of homelessness, and then you get that you get that uh that charge waived. Um Judge Corey A. Cawthon is uh presides over the court, and by addressing the root issues of homelessness, the court creates opportunities for long-term stability and success. So let me give you a couple of the statistics from the court. They serve 572 individuals. They welcomed 70 um NTA clients referred to court. What's NTA stand for? NTA stands for notice to appear. Yes. Uh stands for notice to appear. Uh they held 1,010 court hearings. They celebrated 17 graduates who completed all of their community service, secured housing, increased their income, and built stability. So they did everything. These 17. I'm sure there are many, many more that are still working through that system. It obviously takes a while to get back on your feet. Um, and there were 1,114 services that were provided by Broward County Partners. Um they say this work is only possible thanks to a strong network of community providers, including the City of Hollywood, Hollywood Police Department, Broward Sheriff's Office, Memorial Health Care System, Henderson Behavioral Health, the Task Force for Ending Homelessness, where I used to work, and many others. The Hollywood Community Court is proud to work in partnership with over 60 service providers within the local community. Community courts exemplify how compassion, innovation, and collaboration can transform lives, offering not only justice, but also support and opportunity to Broward County residents, in this case, in need. The 17th Judicial Circuit also has community courts in Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach as well as Hollywood. So that's our MVP. And that's great. And I know we have some community courts here in Central Florida as well. And I think, you know, again, they're they're a great alternative. Look, let's face it, uh homeless people who are not making a lot of money, but sometimes employed, not making a lot of money, they're not gonna be able to pay big fines, they don't have the time and the resources often, even the transportation to get to and from court hearings and things like that. And jails are already filled enough with low-level misdemeanor offendants who are gonna stay there a day or two and then get out. There's no reason to do this. This is a great alternative to be able to, we talked about diversion.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Right.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

To be able to divert people or move people towards a longer term solution rather than keep them in a static or keep them in just a circle.

SPEAKER_02 40:03

When I think this shows partnership, it shows you know that 1,114 people through partners, that's right, which we what we discussed earlier is we all have to work together as a community, shows the results on this and how positive it is when everybody comes together and works to to address the issue that's in front of them.

SPEAKER_03 40:20

Absolutely. And and you see uh again to your point that we made earlier, correct. The the local jurisdiction, the city of Hollywood, is involved in this, but there are also so many more partners here.

SPEAKER_04 40:32

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 40:32

And and uh they're acting, I think, more as a convener than they are an actual service provider because the city I don't think is providing the services, they're relying on the experts in the area to provide the services. Yeah, that's great. And now let's go to the homeless fumble of the week. Uh this one is uh again uh from week to week. Uh we highlight something that didn't go as well or might not have been as positive. Um we're calling the homeless fumble of the week for the HUD that's Housing and Urban Development, Federal Government, releasing their continuum of care builds NOFO application. And it's not the application itself, it's the way the application's been released and it's the way the application is being handled. And so uh I want to give a little bit of background so people understand why this is a fumble. From year to year, HUD, the again, Housing and Urban Development Department, puts out a notice of funding opportunity. So they put out this big application to local communities to be able to apply for federal funding. And and rather than go into too many details, this specific notice of funding opportunity is to actually build housing, which is great. That's fantastic. It's the first time that they've done one of these kinds of applications in quite a while. Yep. But the problem is the way that is being executed. That's where the fumble comes in. Last fall in October, they actually uh put out this application, and people submitted, and people were scored, and people were ranked, and uh the only thing that didn't happen was the funding didn't get uh pushed out. So what they did is the federal government pulled the funding back, reissued the application later, and then upon reissuing the application, changed all of the requirements for it or a lot of the requirements for it. Right. So normally when HUD releases a notice of funding opportunity or an application, they have a scoring process, and the people who score the highest, which makes sense, should in fact get the funding that they need. And it's a competition, it's a true competition. Well, they're doing a little bit different this time, Danny.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

Just just a little.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

Uh the first fumble comes from the fact that they're giving one week to complete this application, and for anyone who's ever done this kind of an application or any kind of application, honestly, to any government agency, one week is uh absolutely not enough time to get these things done. The second thing is there is no scoring criteria. So what they're doing is they're asking a series of questions, and if you can answer yes to all of those questions, then you're eligible for the funding. No scoring. No scoring. And it might be the easiest application ever that you turn it in. Now here's where it gets a little bit even wonkier is they are literally going to decide who gets the funding based on who turns in their application first. If you've answered yes to all of the questions and you turn your application in first, then you get the funding over people who turned it in afterwards. It doesn't matter what your project looks like. As long as you can answer yes to these questions. No score. No score. No nothing. You basically Just have to say yes, I'll do all these things and then turn it in before everybody else. Which is just absolutely absurd. And, you know, we talked before, we talked before about, you know, uh should the government take lead on these things. And and honestly, with all of the talk that people have about accountability and you know making sure that we're getting our resources in the right place and all of these things, I don't see how this fits any of those those criteria. You know, uh we don't know what kind of applications are going to go in. We don't know how they're gonna be put together in a week. We and again, it just leaves it up in the air and it makes it sound like they're just trying to get this money out the door and they don't care who gets it, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

Yeah, and we and we've done these before, and we know that it takes more than a week to submit a good application that is going to give you great score for you to get this funding. And so when we spoke me and you yesterday a little bit about it and kind of told me how all this now is looking, it's just I I don't I don't understand it. I don't get it. Um, you know, you submit first, you get it.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

I mean it's just it's it doesn't even make sense to me. And again, accountability and validity and really trying to get the best products out there and use the money the most wisely, uh that doesn't make sense to me with with how they're doing it here. So uh anyway, that's our fumble of the week. Um our key takeaway this week, Danny?

SPEAKER_02 45:32

Uh our key takeaway this week is that our team lost. That's the main thing. But no, I think that um I I the policy that you spoke about earlier was just fantastic. I never heard of it. It just it you had my brain going thinking how that'll work. Um uh we we got some questions in, which were fantastic. Right. Um so please keep them coming. Uh questions at pathlighthome.org. Uh I I think we're getting off stride in in our podcast. I think we're getting better at that. This is good.

SPEAKER_03 46:03

If there was one key takeaway that I would say for this week, I'd say it's about that collaboration. Because again, we've talked about who should take the lead and who should be involved and things like this. But honestly, it needs everybody. I mean, we need everybody to be involved in this process and everybody to be involved in ending homelessness. It's going to take the entire village, as they say, to really make this work. And so whether it's federal government, whether it's community support, whether it's local nonprofits, all of us, faith-based organizations, all of us really need to be involved in this. So I think that's safe.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Yeah, and just the community coming in and and you know, giving their time and learning about what we do, what about homelessness, like we talk about myths, you know, learning a little bit more about the population that we serve and and how they can give more uh to to not just us but all the other nonprofits in our area.

SPEAKER_03 46:54

So thank you for tuning in with us. Uh we had some pleasure this week, and um uh we want to uh thank all of you for listening. And again, if you have questions or comments about the podcast, please listen. Please send it to questions at pathlighthome.org, and we'll be happy to answer your questions or read some of your comments up here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 47:17

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