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Pathlight’s HOME Team
Pathlight HOME’s President & CEO, Carl Falconer, and COO, Danny Arroyo, tackle homelessness one episode at a time—with football as the playbook. HOME Team blends real talk on housing solutions with stories of resilience in Central Florida, plus highlights of athletes using their platforms for good. The goal: educate, engage, and inspire action. If you care about ending homelessness or love the game, this show connects both worlds. Questions? questions@pathlighthome.org
Pathlight’s HOME Team
Season 2, Episode 2 - How to Access Our System for Help
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
On this week’s episode of the Home Team Podcast, Carl Falconer and Danny Arroyo break down one of the biggest questions surrounding homelessness: how do people actually access services within the system of care? From outreach teams and emergency shelters to permanent supportive housing and coordinated entry, they unpack the realities, misconceptions, and challenges people face when trying to move from homelessness to stability.
They also tackle the debate between shelter vs. housing, discuss Central Florida’s affordable housing crisis, answer listener questions, and highlight both community wins and policy fumbles happening across the country.
Plus, football talk, of course.
Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of community impact and real-world solutions.
Questions? Email us at: questions@pathlight.org
Welcome to the Home Team Fund. I'm Carl Bauker and Daniel Runner and we're tackling homework.
SPEAKER_02Today 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 how do people get services in our system of care? So how's your weekend?
SPEAKER_04Good. The weekend was good. Um did a little bit of running, um, getting back into it, starting to do more running and stuff, trying to get in shape a little bit, you know. During the off season for the summer, gotta get in for the summer. Yeah, for the summer, exactly. Get that bob back. That's right. That beach body. That's right, exactly. Yeah, perfect. No.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, I didn't I uh took my wife's Ocala uh to do some work out there, and then I just stayed home pretty much.
SPEAKER_04And chill. And chill okay, good. Yeah, I mean, it's the off season, you know. You gotta stretch, you gotta, you know, stay stay relaxed, you gotta enjoy the time because once the season comes, yeah, it's gonna be you know, heck.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I watched a little bit of basketball just because the the playoffs uh oh yeah. Okay, but that's it. It's quiet, right? So, yep.
SPEAKER_04All right, all right, okay, Danny. Well, we always start off with our coin toss. So, Danny, call it in the air.
SPEAKER_02Heads.
SPEAKER_04It is tails. There you go. So I will go ahead and I'll start us. Yes, sir. All right, welcome to our first quarter. I'm going to kick off by defining our topic for the week, and then we will cover some news headlines. Let's uh start our discussion this week by describing the parts of our system of care. Um, again, our topic this week is how do people get services in our system of care. So we may as well go ahead and start with the system of care. Uh, so there are many different parts to our system of care, and I'm gonna run down some of these and then we'll talk a little bit about how people might be able to access these uh these services. Uh outreach, intake, and assessment. So that's where people get connected to housing and the services. Uh, we have emergency shelter, which is safe temporary housing. Um, and I just want to point out people are still homeless while they're in an emergency shelter. So it does not solve their homelessness. Uh transitional housing, short-term intensive support for people. Um, again, they're housed, but they're still technically qualified under Hun standards of being homeless when they're in transitional housing. Uh permanent housing, which is long-term stable housing, of course. Uh, and then there's permanent supportive housing, which is housing with services for people with disabilities or more intensive services. There's rapid rehousing, which is where people get into housing and get short short-term financial aid. There's homelessness prevention, which is financial assistance that helps people avoid homelessness. So it's only for people who are still housed. Right. Uh, and then supportive services, a whole list of supportive services. And there's just a couple that uh wanted to mention case management, mental health and substance abuse support, um, legal aid, things like that are supportive services. Yep. And then of course there's the HMIS system or the homeless management information system, and that's our data collection and data management system. So it's basically our our, you know, our software, basically where we keep our database, right? We see the story of everyone. Yeah. So um, so let's just talk about accessing a couple of these different things. So I think uh for outreach intake and assessment, that's pretty easy because outreach workers generally go out to the people, right? And they access them there. Or you call a hotline like 211 or something like that. Um, is it 311 here, 311 here um in Central Florida, 211 in other places, but you generally call a hotline or something like that. Um, emergency shelter, this is one that I think people really have a hard time with because people think that anybody who wants to go to emergency shelter can just get in.
SPEAKER_05Yep.
SPEAKER_04And it's not true. Um I mean, there's a whole process for it, and there's often way too many people on a wait list trying to get into that shelter. And the way we have our system set up here in Central Florida is that it's basically first come, first serve more than anything. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, just working previously at a shelter, you know, um the lines that used to form before we even opened were around the block. Yeah. And usually we started intake around seven. By 7 30 we would die. But yeah. And we saw maybe bought three or four people just because there's no there's no beds. No beds. There's no beds. So that's exactly right. It was a constant turn away of people that, you know, were there waiting, camping out. Right. Absolutely. I used to drive by in the morning, they were just camping out on the waiting to get services.
SPEAKER_04Well, and I think that's uh that's again a community mis misperception that the community has is they just think, oh, if I find somebody out there, we can just go ahead and drive up to the shelter and you'll just put them right into the housing or into the shelter. No, it doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_04And then these other things here, these other longer-term ones, transitional housing, permanent housing, rapid rehousing, all of those housing options, you've got to go through a process. So you've got to go through what we call coordinated entry, which is basically where uh people get put into a into the system and on a list. And we prioritize people for these different types of housing depending on what's available and depending on what criteria they have to meet. And so it's not just the next day they get into housing. Um, you know, we've talked about here at Pathlight Home, we have two different kinds of housing. We have program housing and we have market rate housing. And again, we use our air quotes when we say market rate because it's way below the market. But literally, the people in market, if we have a unit, they literally could walk in and the same day get into a unit. I mean, it's as simple as that with our market units. But the program units have to come from referrals through that HSN system, the coordinated entry system, the homeless service network. And so it makes it a little more challenging because you got to find the people, you got to make sure they're eligible, you got to get them all lined up, and then you got to get all their documentation together and get that process definitely takes longer than the market unit.
SPEAKER_02And again, it's that hour availability. If we have a you well like for the programs, we have more we have the units available. Yeah. Um, but it's yeah, it's that process of finding the person, getting them ready. Are they ready? That's right. Um, you know, uh the documentation is a big one. That's huge. Absolutely. Just getting an ID or to come and fill out an application just like everyone else to go through the process. So yeah, they need bank statements, they need so if they don't have any of that, it just slows down the process. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04So yeah. So it's not so easy always to get into our system of care. And in different segments here, we'll talk about more about that.
SPEAKER_02Definitely. Um, so now let's take a look at a headline from the homeless world. So uh here in in Orlando, Scott Maxwell and commentary piece in the Orlando Centre on May 6 uh writes this Once again, Orlando has found itself in a harsh spotlight, ranking as the worst metro region in America for affordable housing. So the bad way to start this. Yeah. Exactly. For every 100 low-income families that need affordable housing, only 13 units are available, according to the annual report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Only one other city in America ranks this poorly, and it's a familiar one, Las Vegas. Two cities were in a dead heat for dead last. This is not so funny, this not so sunny reality of tourism economies. Uh hotel whole scale hotel housekeepers and fast food workers struggle to keep roofs over their heads. And Central Florida has about 55,000 of them, a population the size of Sarasoia. When you have that many people living on the edge of a financial cliff, some will topple over. That's why communities like ours also struggle with homelessness. He goes on to write later in the article this community needs solutions, not threats. Obviously, housing is just half of the equation. The other half is wages. Las Vegas and Orlando rank dead last and second to last, respectively, among major metros when it comes to wages. While most communities spend time and money trying to cultivate jobs that offer good salaries, Central Florida has spent billions of tax dollars trying to create more low-wage ones. So we're constantly expanding a class of full-time workers who do not make enough ends meet. As I've written many times before, I think we should aim higher and do better, but we still need more housing. So it seems pretty clear that all the groups and leaders trying to make that happen deserve our support.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And I think this headline is pertinent again, going back to our system of care, because we have so many pressures on that system and so many uh people entering our system because of outside resources and outside things that are going on. You know, 13 units available for every hundred people that need one. That's just you know ridiculous. And again, we talk about this sometimes as uh providers in our system of care. We can't end poverty, we're not gonna end, you know, everybody's you know, ability to you know gain living wages and all those things. We're trying to end homelessness for people who are falling into the cracks, but keeping people from falling into the cracks is uh is at least half of the battle.
SPEAKER_02Right. And the problem and just seeing the housekeepers and the fast food workers 55,000. Yeah, exactly. That's check to check.
SPEAKER_04Oh, absolutely. Hardly that. Yeah, you know, exactly.
SPEAKER_02So if they have some hardship, now they're they're in another place of the world.
SPEAKER_04That's exactly right. That's exactly right. It's uh and again, you know, we try to drive these kinds of economies because we want people to come here for tourism. We want people to be able to access all our restaurants and hotels and and the you know, resorts and all of the Disney Worlds and Universal Studios and all those different attractions that we have, but the people that are there have to make a living wage to be able to stay here and live here. Yeah, you know, the number of people that I've talked to just since I've been here in Central Florida and and the commutes that they have to make. I mean, people are commuting an hour each way or more each way to try and get to a job that's barely paying them enough to be able to pay their bills, even. So it's it could be a big challenge sometimes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's a good piece I agree.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02All right, uh, now let's talk about the schedules for our Bears and Cowboys next season. Right.
SPEAKER_04Oh fantastic.
SPEAKER_02So the schedule's not fully out, comes out tonight.
SPEAKER_04Not fully out, it comes out tonight. You open it was out sooner, but unfortunately they moved it. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02But we do have who we're playing, so that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_04Yes, we do. So you want to go first? Yeah, I'll go first. All right. So my Bears got a pretty tough schedule this year, Danny. Apparently, we won our division.
SPEAKER_02Okay, thank you.
SPEAKER_04We got into the we got into the playoffs. I know that. We even won a playoff game. Did you hear that? Guys, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Last year we did pretty well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we will home.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Well, yeah, exactly. We'll home all meet up on the code. Yeah, you were relaxing. So uh, so of course, this year we get a tougher schedule. Um, that's just the way the NFL works, and I actually like that. You know, the the parity of the NFL has a lot to do with how they schedule teams and and make their schedules harder when they're better teams and and less hard when they're less damned. So I jotted down a few of the Bears uh home and away uh teams that we have to play, particularly the tougher ones, because obviously we have to play Detroit twice, we have to play Green Bay twice, we got to play Minnesota twice. I'm not really worried about them, but you know, we'll we'll deal with that anyway. Um, but our home games, the our big home games that we have are Jacksonville, who had a really good season last last year, New England, who went to the Super Bowl, and Philadelphia, who was right there again at the top of the NFC. And then our away games, we have to play at Buffalo in their new stadium, and then we have to travel to Seattle to play away against Seattle too. That's just nuts, man.
SPEAKER_02I think we're kind of in the same boat. Yeah. Our home team, uh home games, we have Eagles. Okay, we have Jags. Yeah. Uh of course we have Giants and Commanders, which is division sports. Yeah. And then away, same thing. We have Eagles.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02We had the Seahawks.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02The Packers. Yeah. We have the Packers. Okay. Um, so we we yeah, we're kind of in the same playing kind of two people. So um we our first game is against the Giants.
SPEAKER_04Um yeah, they did announce that one Sunday night. Sunday, yeah. And then we in New York.
SPEAKER_02And then we're playing in Brazil.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's right. The Ravens, right? Y'all have won the Ravens, okay.
SPEAKER_02So I got started. I'll be taking some time off. Yeah. Um, and then of course we play um on Thanksgiving against the Eagles. Yeah. It's gonna be a crazy game.
SPEAKER_04Oh, that's gonna be crazy. I've been to that game before. I I actually went to a Dallas Philadelphia game in Dallas on Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_02Uh, the one I go for Thanksgiving was against the Bills. Yeah. We got killed.
SPEAKER_04I was gonna say y'all got killed against Philadelphia when I was there. Try to do it on Thanksgiving. No, no. So it's gonna be interesting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Tomorrow, tonight. No, tonight, the new schedule.
SPEAKER_04Tonight. Thursday night. That's correct. Yes, exactly. So we'll have dates on there and we'll be able to talk a little bit more about that maybe in a you know future show.
SPEAKER_05Yep, definitely.
SPEAKER_04Um, well, that wraps up our first quarter. And now here's a short message about an upcoming event at Pathlight Home. When golfers hear for, it usually means something bad has happened. Like shanking your ball out of bounds or into an innocent crowd. But we have an opportunity for four to mean something much better for everyone. I'm talking about our Pathlight Home Forever golf tournament to help us get more people out. Doing Pathlight Home on Friday, June 12th for the inaugural Forever Golf Tournament is to Golf Orlando, where good people, good food, and great costs come together for one unforgettable happen. And the best part is every dollar raise helps Athslight Home provide safe housing and critical services to individuals experiencing homelessness right here in Central Florida. Subscribe your team, reserve your spot, and come helpless drive change one swing at a time. Space is limited, so register today at pathlidehome.org under the events app. We'll meet you at the T-Box or good.
SPEAKER_02This is the second quarter. We're getting a little deeper into our homelessness topic with something we call offense versus defense. We will each take turns discussing some opposing viewpoints of our topic this week. The question we asked this week is which is more valuable for a community? More access to shelter or more access to housing? Please remember that we are trying to show both sides of the issues. These does not necessarily reflect our individual stances on these positions. So I'm gonna have offense on this one and you got defense. So again, the question is uh which is more valuable for a community? More access to shelter or more access to housing. So on my side is the first one is immediate safety from danger.
SPEAKER_04Now hold on, Danny. The offense this week is more shelter. More shelter. I'll throw it. You're defending more shelter.
SPEAKER_02I'm defending more shelter correctly. Exactly. So uh immediate safety from the danger. Shelters provide immediate safe and warm shelter from the elements, protecting people from the dangers of living on the street. Rapid deployment. Building or expanding shelters can be done much faster at a lower initial cost than building permanent housing, making it a critical immediate response to rising homelessness. Next, crisis intervention points. Shelters serve as an essential entry point for care, allowing providers to connect unhoused people with social services, mental health care, addiction treatment, and eventually permanent housing. Uh flexibility. Shelters can be adapted quickly to handle emergency spikes in population, such as in case of asylum seekers or natural disasters. And then finally, prevents further trauma. A clean, well-run, and safe shelter is better for immediate well-being than forcing people to live in dangerous, unsheltered, and traumatic conditions while they wait for long-term options.
SPEAKER_04Go ahead, call. I have the defense, which is arguing more housing is more valuable for a community. Uh, it the first point is it ends homelessness long term. Providing permanent housing with supportive services, permanent supportive housing, is proven to be the only lasting solution to homelessness, providing stability, safety, and dignity. Second, cost effectiveness, taxpayer savings. Housing first policies can save taxpayers money. Studies indicate that unhoused people with severe mental illnesses use roughly $40,000 annually in public services between hospitals, shelters, and other emergency services. And providing housing saves about $1.44 for every dollar that's invested from the community. Next, it improves health and stability. Permanent housing leads to better physical and mental health outcomes, reduced hospitalization, and decreased emergency room visits compared to people in temporary shelters. Next, community integration. Stable housing allows individuals to connect to their community, participate in local life, and gain a sense of ownership, reducing the othering associated with temporary communal living situations. And finally, it addresses the root causes. Affordable housing reduces the economic pressure that forces residents into homelessness in the first place, after offering a proactive approach rather than just a reactive one. All right, so let me talk about some of yours first. Yep. Um, it does in fact provide immediate the the shelter obviously provides immediate uh safety from danger. I get that. And that one I think is probably a legitimate uh reason or rationale for for more shelters is to get people off of the streets and get them out of danger. Um rapid deployment, uh I don't know about that one. I mean, if you're talking about a FEMA shelter, maybe, you know, and you know, something temporary like that, it can be rapidly deployed. But in most cases in our system, we're talking about big buildings that you know have to have a ton of uh services and people and and operations and all those kinds of things. So it's not really rapidly deploying. Crisis intervention points, yes and no. Um, I would say that there's still some trauma that goes on when people are staying at a shelter. I mean, you know, if you talk to people out on the street who don't go to shelter, one of the reasons they don't go is they're they fear for their belongings getting taken, they don't have privacy, you know, uh, you know, different things like that, or they can't bring their pets, you know, the rules. Generally, yeah. Exactly. Um, different things like that. And then flexibility and preventing further trauma. I I do agree that it does alleviate some of that trauma. Again, going back to the idea of immediate safety. So I think the the most the most uh compelling point about having more shelter in an area is that immediate safety, I think. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think for us for the more housing, I think the long term it's which is what we do, right? Yeah, absolutely. But I think one of the major the not the major, but one of the issues we see with this is that we see and I just said earlier, is the person ready for that?
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_02And so we put someone in just because we think it's gonna work for them, right? But then they're not ready for it. Yeah, and they end up going back on the street, yeah. And you know, so it's it uh it depends. I think on both sides of it, the shelter and the housing, it depends on the personal oh yeah, absolutely because I do some people don't want shelters just because of bad experiences. That's right. All the examples you gave. Yep. But I think with the permanent one, and we've seen that is someone's just not ready. Yeah, you know, we put them in a unit and they're just not yeah, they don't know because they've been so long on the street, they don't know how to function being alone, they're not alone their peers. Yep. Um, but I think that's one of the major ones that stood out to me is yeah, I agree about figuring out what to, you know, do.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yep. Yeah, and I think again, I think uh it really comes down to that housing as the end of homelessness, because that's the other thing about the shelters, is you don't end homelessness with shelters.
SPEAKER_02Um, and that's basically kind of where it and and I think like what you said earlier, I think a lot of people think, Oh, well, you're in a shelter, you're house. Well, no, you're not. No, you're not. No, you're not, you're just that's a temporary that's a mandate. Oh, absolutely, yeah. Just get you off the you better be in a shelter down the street, of course.
SPEAKER_04Yes, you know, in most cases that's true. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02But I think it's yeah, a lot of people that's kind of that misconception of you're in a shelter, you're house.
SPEAKER_04No, you're not have your own place. No, you're sharing it with a bunch of other people, and you know and I think that's a an important distinction to make for the community is when the community says we we need more shelter, uh they often confuse. Use shelter with housing and say, okay, we've gotten people off of the streets. Now we don't have to worry about them anymore. Well, that's not true. I mean, the reality is those people are still homeless. They don't have their own place to stay, and it's not a long-term solution for that.
SPEAKER_02If you build a shelter for 500 people, then you should have 500 units. You gotta have at least 500 to move people in because then what they're just gonna sit there. They're gonna sit there. That's exactly right. So whatever amount of shelter space you build, you hopefully should have enough of that. Multiply to start moving.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you gotta get people through there. Absolutely. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So all right. Well, Pathlight's position. Uh uh Pathlight Home is in favor of getting all people off the streets, but to do so without housing at the end of the journey is to keep them homeless. Housing is the final answer, uh, even if people must go through shelter first.
SPEAKER_04And that's exactly right. You gotta you gotta have housing at the end of it. So I and to your point, and I I think this is a a strong point to emphasize, is if you're going to build more shelter, you're going to have more shelter, you've got to think about where is the more housing gonna come from. In fact, that uh sorry, I'll tell this little thing the other day I went to uh uh here in Orange County, we're thinking about building a new shelter, 150-bed shelter, and one of the questions came from the audience of people in the community, and they said, Where's the affordable housing that all these people are gonna go to?
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_04And it was a great question, and honestly, you know, our staff, our county staff who were talking about it kind of sidestepped the question because there's not a whole lot of affordable housing available.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think that's the first question you should be asked every time you want to build.
SPEAKER_04Every time you want to build shelters, where's the affordable housing? Where are you moving then to?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know?
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. All right, well, we made it to the halfway point, and during halftime, we want to take a moment to highlight an inspired quote related to homelessness.
SPEAKER_02All right. So time to get inspired by a quote of the week. The quote comes from Leo Tolstoy, uh noted author of War and Peace. So his quote is my piece of bread only belongs to me when I know that everyone else has a share and that no one starves while I eat.
SPEAKER_04I think that's a good quote. And I I think it again, it goes back to again, I'll I'll go back to our topic of the system of care, is we've got to have a system set up for everybody because as long as there are still people out on the streets, our community is not the best community it can be. And it affects everything. It affects our businesses, it affects our schools, it affects our hospitals, it's it affects our police officers. I mean, it affects everybody in the community. People think that sometimes they think anyway, that it's an individual problem that, you know, one person out on the streets, that's their problem. That's not my problem. Well, guess what? It is your problem. You live in this community and you're part of this community. And while there are still people out there on the streets, we are not the best community we can be.
SPEAKER_02And I think I think that when we have these discussions about shelters, then it becomes the problem for the community. That's right. Because now they're like, they don't want it in their backyard. That's exactly right. It's not coming to them, they're like, let me turn a blind eye. That's right, exactly. It's over there, it's over there. But when it's coming close to you now, now it becomes your problem. Not as upset about it.
SPEAKER_04And not realizing that it's your problem anyway. Wherever it is, it doesn't matter. It's affecting our community and our lives here. Because guess what? Businesses won't come here, tourists won't come here, you know, all of these other things that are affecting other people in their lives, whether it's close to you or not, those things are affecting your community and and how our community responds to you.
SPEAKER_02And again, back to to Maxwell. 55,000 people, yeah, low wages, almost losing their homes.
SPEAKER_04Exactly.
SPEAKER_02That's a family member. That's you know, that's exactly right.
SPEAKER_04Yes. That's exactly right. You have to look at that all the time. That's exactly right. Yes. All right. Well, that concludes our halftime. Please stay with us after this short message.
SPEAKER_01Hello, I'm Gigi Ramirez, the Senior Director of Fundraising and Engagement here at Pathlight Home. For over 30 years, we've helped more than 8,000 people transition from homelessness to hope. But when someone moves from the streets to their own home, they often have nothing. That's why we provide immediate essentials, everything from bedding and food to soap and cookware to help them truly feel at home. Beyond housing, PathLite offers career training and supportive services, like our 12-week culinary program, helping residents gain skills, find jobs, and rebuild independence. You can be part of the story, volunteer your time, donate essential goods, or become a monthly Pathlight hero. Ensuring every neighbor has a chance to thrive. Visit pathlighthome.org to donate today.
SPEAKER_04All right. Well, I'll start it off with our NFL MVP. Uh, this week, our NFL spotlight is actually an owner, uh, Arthur Blank, uh, the owner of two prominent Atlanta-Georgia sports teams, uh, uh including our Atlanta Falcons uh for the NFL. Uh he has reportedly donated $1 million to the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth advocacy organization. Retired NFL defensive end Carl Nasib, who is also the first NFL player to come out as gay while playing in the league, announced the donation on his LinkedIn page, praising Arthur the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation for its extraordinary donation. The Trevor Project is a leading nonprofit organization concentrated on suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQ plus young people, according to its website. This donation helps fund counselor training, enhance volunteer services, and ensure our critical programs reach LBGTQ plus youth in their most vulnerable moments, Nasib wrote. Thank you again to the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. This gift will save lives. Blank owns both the uh National Football League's Atlanta Falcons and Major League Soccer's Atlanta United. His foundation has a history of supporting charitable initiatives, including donations for youth development, assistance to disadvantaged communities, and mental health programs. In December of 2025, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation announced a $25 million investment into youth mental health and well-being. So fantastic. The owners aren't giving back. That's absolutely right.
SPEAKER_02And getting involved in youth and homelessness and LGBTQ and all that other absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Doesn't think about kind of the people who are the smaller sub-populations of that. You know, about the only one I think that we've seen that's been successful is veterans.
SPEAKER_02Veterans, yep.
SPEAKER_04Um, the veteran subpopulation has gotten a lot of money, has gotten a lot of funding, a lot of resources thrown their way. But these other subpopulations, youth, LGBTQ, um, you know, even other subpopulations that are out there don't have the skin. And we're slowly seeing that being addressed.
SPEAKER_02Like SALT has a great program that's right for LGBTQ. You're exactly their own location. Um, uh Zebra has for a very long time. So it's it they're talking about it more and addressing it more than a couple of years ago.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but but but literally we have to carve out these subpopulations for some of these. And what it looks like and how we can help them and services and exactly and all those different types of things instead of thinking it on the overall system level, yeah. Because that's really what we should be doing from the very beginning is thinking about it overall from the system of who's everybody who could have access or who needs access to the services and how do we serve them.
SPEAKER_02So definitely all right. So now we're gonna take a few questions from our listeners. So call the first question comes from Patty.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_02What should I do to get someone into shelter or housing?
SPEAKER_04Oh, okay. This is a good one. Yeah, yeah. Um, wow. So we talked about this a little bit before. Accessing shelter and accessing housing, first of all, two different animals. Uh definitely two different animals. Um, the shelter uh uh the answer is it depends more than anything. It depends on if it's a single male, if it's a female with children, if it's, you know, a couple. Uh there's all kinds of different access uh issues, I guess I would say, with each of those groups. A single male is basically gonna have to wait in line. He's just gonna have to go somewhere, find a shelter that will take single males and wait in line like every other single male in the entire area. A woman with children or a female might have an easier time because most shelters try not to turn away women and children more than anything. And so even if they get to a shelter or can get to a shelter, um, a woman with children will often find even other options sometimes because they'll have hotel rooms available, they'll have other other shelter type things available for you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think I agree that just again coming from a shelter, yep. I knew it the the men's side was always pretty much at capacity. Oh, yeah. It was and but the women, and I told you the story before I used to get in trouble a lot because they used to drop people off after hours. I was a woman with a child, right? We had no space, and I did not care. I brought them in and I'll take the brunt of it after, yeah. But I used to always bring them in because I just didn't want them out.
SPEAKER_04Put them on a cot in the dining room or yeah, whatever you do.
SPEAKER_02But but we usually had more space when it came for more of women and children and women and infants, right? Because we had separate dorms for them, and there was usually always availability for that. But on the men's side, yeah, it was always always packed, always packed, yeah. But we used to try to accommodate as much as with it, especially in those situations with with a single mom and yeah.
SPEAKER_04So so on the shelter side, that's that's uh, you know, uh again a a different kind of challenge. And um on the housing side, uh I don't want to say it's more complicated, but it is more complicated. On the housing side, really the only way to access housing in our system here in Central Florida and in most places is to go through the continuum of care lead agency or go through what they we call the coordinated entry process. And sometimes that starts with again a 211 or a 311 call and trying to get connected there. Um outreach person. That's right, or talking to an outreach person, you've got to figure out who it is. Now, I'll give a general blanket answer though for this whole thing is how do you get someone in shelter housing? You connect them to someone who professionally does this. You cannot do it yourself. A community member who does not know our system is not going to be able to access these things.
SPEAKER_02We used to have that at the shelter at someone who come in with a friend and say, Hey, they're homeless. Right. No case management. No case management. They're not in the system, don't know anything about they know that they're in the street.
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_02They mean well. Yeah, oh, absolutely. Well, they want to them. Um, one of our first questions used to be, Well, can you take them in? Right, can you take them at the yes exactly? Yes, can you take them in? Yes. But a lot of times those people that were bringing them in were having a hard time financially themselves. That's right. And probably on the bear of their plane, yeah. So they couldn't absorb that's another person coming at home or they had children, they didn't have some needs. But a lot of times people just brought them in. It was like, Can you take them? And I'm like, it's not that easy. No. Even here for us, our market, yeah. We have people refer people over to us and say, Hey, do you have an apartment thinking that we're gonna give it to them right away? Right. Doesn't work that way. It's it's just that education piece.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and but again, getting connected to a professional, yeah, you gotta get connected to a case manager, an outreach worker, somebody who does this for a living, and have more resources because that's right, because they'll be able to tap into those things and they'll be able to get the process started.
SPEAKER_02So they can figure like if it's a vet coming in. That's right. Okay, well, let's connect you with SSVS. That's exactly right. There's so many different resources putting together. So absolutely. All right, our next question comes from Tammy. How long does it typically take for someone to go from homelessness to house?
SPEAKER_04Oh, this is a good question. Yeah, yeah. Um, well, I mean, uh, it depends, obviously. It depends on their situation and you know what what's going on with them in their life. And and let me clarify that. Let me let me you know make that clear to everybody. Each housing type that we have has different criteria, correct? Different eligibility criteria. So and again, I go back to this. That's why you got to connect into a professional.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_04We understand these things. Our people are trained to understand that every different type of housing has a different type of criteria, and so they know they can in the first 30 minutes of talking with somebody, they can tell almost how long it's gonna take for somebody to get in.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, so somebody who's trying to get into permanent supportive housing might have an easier time because there might be more access to permanent supportive housing in different types of programs. Somebody who doesn't have a disability, somebody who's first-time homeless, they might have a harder time getting in because there might not be as much housing available for that type of individual and that type of eligibility.
SPEAKER_02And so I think getting an assessment done when it's a good idea.
SPEAKER_04Getting an assessment is huge.
SPEAKER_02Sets it up of where where that person is going, how long it's going to take.
SPEAKER_04And usually I want to say our staff probably give people an idea of that. They shouldn't, and we tell them not to give people any false hope or anything like that. Yeah. But the reality is they'll probably be able to tell people about how long they're seeing for for a person to be able to get into housing. But it takes a while. Um, you know, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. It you've got to have identification, you've got to have income verification, you've got to have verification of your homeless status, you've got to have all of these things in place before you can get into most of our housing programs. And so if if people have all those things in place, then it's faster. If people don't have those things in place, it's longer. Um, in terms of time frame, I would say it's gonna take probably at least a month for somebody to move in, if not longer than that, depending on where they are and getting all of their all of their information together.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think documentation is one of the biggest headaches for someone to get just because again, they're on the street. Yeah, they have nothing. Yeah, so they probably lost their ID. Yep, not gonna have all this uh documentation that a leasing department's asking for. That's right. So and to then go get it, you know, it it just it takes a while.
SPEAKER_04It takes a while, absolutely. But again, gotta get connected professionals because they can get you through the system faster than somebody who doesn't know anything about the system.
SPEAKER_02They know how to connect you to social security, they know how to connect you with, you know, people like i dignity for ID. That's right, exactly. So they they know they know the system, they know the system, how to sometimes bypass the data.
SPEAKER_04That's right, and how to work it, yeah, absolutely. That's right, exactly. Yeah, all those things come into play. Yeah, all right. Well, stay tuned for our wrap-up after this message. We're now at the end of the third quarter. Hi, I'm Carl Falconer, president and CEO of Pathlight Home. Have you ever wondered what it really takes to end homelessness? Why don't you come see for yourself? At Pathlight Home, you can tour our communities, volunteer your time, and be part of real lasting change. Whether you're serving a meal, supporting our residents, or making a gift, every action moves someone closer to a place to call home. Visit us, get involved, and help us light the path home for our neighbors in need. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02All right, welcome to the fourth quarter where we will wind down this episode by reflecting, my first reflecting on a homelessness MVP, discussing a fumble, and finishing up with our key takeaway.
SPEAKER_04All right. Well, I'll start it off with our homelessness MVP of the week. This week's MVP is the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners. On April 21st, they approved a vote, uh, they approved by a vote of five to zero a budget transfer in the amount of one million dollars in the general fund from Human Services Senior Supportive Housing Center to Human Services Financial Assistance. The county budget for fiscal year 26, 2026 included these funds for wraparound services for the senior supportive housing LaQinta Inn project. The project did not move forward, and as a result, these dollars will support rental assistance for those experiencing homelessness in Palm Beach County. Very cool. So, yeah, it's very cool. And let me explain a little bit of this for people who are not as familiar with these types of services or how these types of things work. First of all, this is $1 million from their general fund, which means this was taxpayer-raised dollars that they have flexible uh ability to be able to use or not use. And the reason that it's an MVP is because instead of because they had this million dollars earmarked specifically for a capital project to turn a hotel into affordable housing, the project didn't go forward, and they could have easily pulled that money back and used it for something completely different than homeless services. They could have. Giving themselves raises if that's what they wanted to do. But they did not. They, in fact, all unanimously voted to now switch it to rental assistance for people experiencing homelessness in Palm Beach County. So effectively doing the same thing that they were going to do with the Capital Project is try to get people into housing and and you know use this funding that way. I think that's that's fantastic. It's fantastic. It's I don't want to say it's unheard of, but I do want to say that it's unusual. That's right. That you would that you would take this money and actually continue to use it for what the main purpose was was to get people out. All five of them, which is absolutely fantastic.
SPEAKER_02That's understanding what's needed in their community back. Absolutely and the need that they have.
SPEAKER_04And and it's and it's appropriate because they had already earmarked this to help people get housed, and then they just switched it and said, Okay, we'll help people get housed a different way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's fantastic. And now their their homelessness population is gonna decrease.
SPEAKER_04It's gonna decrease because of it.
SPEAKER_02That's if that million wasn't used, then we would have seen an increase.
SPEAKER_04Then they need a year. That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_02So there's there be and then they wouldn't have to invest more money. That's right, exactly. Yeah, get the multi because it increased. So that's exactly right. Absolutely, yeah. All right, but thanks, Carl, for giving me the fumble this week. Now on to the fumble of the week. So this week's fumble comes uh by the way of the New York Times. We just talked about this yesterday, in Utah, outside Salt Lake City. A proposal was submitted by the state legislator to create a 1300 capacity campus to force people experiencing homelessness into accountability centers or forced treatment for addiction or mental illness. This proposal has gone back and forth, but has reached a point where it is now in jeopardy of moving forward at all. Originally intended to utilize funding from the federal government, it now appears with recent shifts in HUD funding priorities that money will not be available. Along with Republican tax cuts approved by the state, the funding of this facility, $75 million to build and $34 million to run annually, is all but dead. As one Democrat said uh in the state senate noted, you can't just throw out a lot of rhetoric, put them in camps and think you're going to solve homelessness. That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_05That's okay.
SPEAKER_02State lawmakers have now shifted their attention in the meantime to providing $45 million to increase shelter and housing capacity and expand mental health care options. But it must be matched by local contributions to be used. One program called Project Connect identified the 50 people most frequently arrested and assigned social workers to provide intense casework to help them access housing and care for mental illness and addiction.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And again, the reason that this is a fumble is they went through this process, and this has been years going on. Where they're trying to build this campus on the outside of say Salt Lake City, away from everybody, so they don't have to worry about NIMBY because there's nobody that lives there. There's no access to anything there, and basically force people to go into this, you know, this campus, this accountability center, as they said.
SPEAKER_02I know Rosebold.
SPEAKER_04I know. And and And again, that's what the argument has been back and forth with advocates who are saying you can't just force people to go into these, you know, centers and everything. But then it comes down to funding. And it ends up that as they get through this entire process and they go through the legislature and they pass all this legislation, they do all these things, and then they don't even have money to be able to fund the thing. And now they're switching and providing money for what it should have been intended to do to begin with, is to provide shelter, housing capacity, and more mental health services for the providers that are already out there on the streets doing this. Absolutely ridiculous. You know, uh, I think it was Winston Churchill said something like uh something to the effect of uh America will always find the right thing to do after they've tried everything else. You know, and it's like this is this is a perfect example of that. After you've tried everything else that you've got, you finally get back to the right solution. But you should have started with, but you should have started with and not wasted all this time and all this energy and everything like that. So yeah. Absolutely, yeah. And finally, here's our key takeaway for this episode. Systems intended to help people often have challenges inherent in the design. We must always be challenging and improving those systems in order for our communities to be better. So I think that's again, that just speaks to it. Look, systems are hard, they're challenging, they're they're complex, they're big.
SPEAKER_02They're always changing.
SPEAKER_04But the reality is is that is that you've always got to be challenging them. We've always got to be trying to improve them and trying to move forward. You know, we just added a quality improvement committee to our board here at Pathlight Home, and that's the reason we do it, is because we want to always be improving. And if you're not trying to improve your system, then your system is falling behind.
SPEAKER_02And figuring out what works and doesn't work and how we adjust to it. That's exactly especially in our population that we serve, it's always changing. Yeah, it's always we always have to figure out how to change with the time. Absolutely. Because if not, we're just we're never gonna go. You're falling behind. Yeah, that's exactly right. And we have to play catch-ups.
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_02Kind of like this the fumble we just ran.
SPEAKER_04That's right, exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02All right. So this concludes our episode of the week. Uh, remember, if you have any questions or comments for us, please email us at questions at pathlighthome.org. As always, we leave the last words for our beloved co-founder, the late Reverend Fred Maxwell. Take it away.
SPEAKER_00I'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.