Speaker 1: Welcome to Force Multiplier, a new podcast about leveling up
Speaker 1: the impact we can have in the world through our relationships.
Speaker 1: I'm Barretting day Thurston and in collaboration with I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Salesforce dot Org, i sit with leaders from
Speaker 1: across the public, private and nonprofit world who are forging
Speaker 1: partnerships to tackle some of the toughest challenges facing us today.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Force Multiplier. You are the force that multiplies.
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna keep saying that until somebody tells
Speaker 1: me to stop. Today we're talking about housing stability. I'm
Speaker 1: consciously not using the term homelessness or homeless people because
Speaker 1: the lack of a place to reside doesn't always mean
Speaker 1: someone lacks a community. In many cases, they feel quite
Speaker 1: at home despite not having a house. Also, their housing
Speaker 1: status isn't the sole way many would describe themselves in
Speaker 1: terms of cap during their identity. Terms like the homeless
Speaker 1: generalize and simplify at the same time. Instead, you're more
Speaker 1: likely to hear in this episode about people experiencing homelessness
Speaker 1: or unhoused people. As a way to lend a bit
Speaker 1: more respect to human beings who lack access to stable housing,
Speaker 1: The unhoused may also include refugees who have been forced
Speaker 1: to flee their own home. That instability is a growing issue,
Speaker 1: so many in the United States are living on the edge,
Speaker 1: just one medical bill, one utility bill, one argument away
Speaker 1: from becoming unhoused, and that precarious nous is about more
Speaker 1: than just residential units. As with our previous episodes on health, equity, nutrition, insecurity,
Speaker 1: and the skills gap, this topic is interconnected with a
Speaker 1: host of issues including mental health, jobs, housing policy, domestic abuse, racism,
Speaker 1: and more. In this episode, we're doing something different. We've
Speaker 1: got three guests with three unique perspectives. Our first two
Speaker 1: guests joined me in conversation at the same time from
Speaker 1: the Bay Area, which I will always honor by calling
Speaker 1: the Ya Area. It's a region filled with contradictions, including
Speaker 1: extraordinary wealth and extraordinarily unaffordable housing options. So if we
Speaker 1: can make progress in the Bay we can make progress
Speaker 1: anywhere in the USA. Theres Ingram is program assistant at
Speaker 1: California State University, East Bay and with the focus on
Speaker 1: the well being of a student both inside and outside
Speaker 1: the classroom, her work provides at risk students with warm meals,
Speaker 1: temporary housing assistants, emergency funds and more, supporting them on
Speaker 1: their path to graduation. Matt Rosen is the chief program
Speaker 1: officer for Habitat for Humanity San Francisco. You may think
Speaker 1: they just build houses, but as Matt shares, they also
Speaker 1: built part otnerships, equity, stability, and legacy. Derese and Matt
Speaker 1: have recently been part of a cross sector collaboration designed
Speaker 1: to address the challenge of housing stability in the Bay Area.
Speaker 1: Later in the episode, we hear from Mike King, President
Speaker 1: and CEO of Volunteers of America, an organization you may
Speaker 1: know little about, the one that deserves to be part
Speaker 1: of every conversation. With a presence in over four communities nationwide,
Speaker 1: supporting close to one point five million Americans, Volunteers of
Speaker 1: America provides a lifeline to so many families facing eviction, vetch,
Speaker 1: struggling with mental illness, and people re entering society after
Speaker 1: being incarcerated. Let's get to it. What's up, y'all? Thank
Speaker 1: you for being here. I would love each of you,
Speaker 1: starting with Therese, to introduce yourself. I am ingroom with kelstices,
Speaker 1: base basic needs and coach leadership and consulting to Hey,
Speaker 1: everybody My name is Matt Rosen. I'm Chief Program Officer
Speaker 1: at Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco. I'm really happy
Speaker 1: that you're both here. So Matt, let's start with you.
Speaker 1: We've all heard of Habitat for Humanity. You build houses
Speaker 1: for people who need houses. It's like the most basic
Speaker 1: and essential function. And some of our listeners may have
Speaker 1: even volunteered in putting some of these houses together in
Speaker 1: their local communities. But there's more to the organization. Can
Speaker 1: you share more about the organ who it serves, and
Speaker 1: more importantly, how do you serve the people in need?
Speaker 1: So Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco focuses on creating
Speaker 1: affordable homeownership opportunities. So what's unique about our work that's
Speaker 1: different from many other affordable housing developers is that we're
Speaker 1: creating opportunities for people to own their own homes, which
Speaker 1: was something we're really proud of. We're an affiliate, which
Speaker 1: means that we focus on a region which is probably
Speaker 1: the highest cost region in the whole country, San Mateo County,
Speaker 1: San Francisco, and Marin County. There's an incredible need for
Speaker 1: affordable homeownership across the spectrum for extremely low income folks,
Speaker 1: for folks that we're trying to serve, and we're part
Speaker 1: of this continuum of housing, but also being able to
Speaker 1: create housing opportunities that allow folks to build equity where
Speaker 1: people can not only have a safe and secure place
Speaker 1: to live, where they're guaranteed a place to live, but
Speaker 1: also where every dollar that they put into their mortgage
Speaker 1: is a dollar that they're going to get back, which
Speaker 1: they can help create a sense of legacy and stability.
Speaker 1: We all know there's an enormous racial wealth gap in
Speaker 1: this country, and that wealth is so critical to allowing
Speaker 1: people to stay in or step into the middle class.
Speaker 1: We're really excited to be able to continue to contribute
Speaker 1: to affordable home ownership in one of the highest cost regions,
Speaker 1: particularly in neighborhoods which have been traditionally excluded, particularly communities
Speaker 1: of color, which is an area that we do a
Speaker 1: lot of work in. Matt hit me with the breakdown
Speaker 1: quickly of how habits At in San Francisco creates this
Speaker 1: pathway to affordable home ownership and equity. It really takes
Speaker 1: a village to build our housing. Because we've got our staff,
Speaker 1: our construction team are volunteers and the homeowners themselves were
Speaker 1: all coming together to build our homes and we're really
Speaker 1: proud of that. Thank you. Deres. You're up here in
Speaker 1: the US, we have an increasing number of people who
Speaker 1: are finding it difficult to have a house, but also
Speaker 1: find that it's important to be a part of a community.
Speaker 1: That houselessness alone isn't necessarily the only challenge. There's this
Speaker 1: based human desire to be part of community as well,
Speaker 1: and paired with housing that allows us to flourish. At
Speaker 1: cal State East Bay, you have this holistic view of
Speaker 1: the student inside, the class and out, and I want
Speaker 1: you to connect the dots between the university's Basic Needs
Speaker 1: initiative and your Pioneers for Hope program and how it
Speaker 1: ties into this conversation about unhoused folks. Yes. Absolutely. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: students as they're making the transition to come to college
Speaker 1: feel that it's so important to be in college that
Speaker 1: they'll make sacrifices to be there because they understand the
Speaker 1: importance of having an incredible education. Cal State East Bay
Speaker 1: as a lot of first generation students who understand why
Speaker 1: it's important to take the education lead and to continue
Speaker 1: their education to either come out of poverty, to advance
Speaker 1: family and to build legacy, and in that being a
Speaker 1: first generation student, they may not have enough financial aid
Speaker 1: or enough finances to make all of those dots connect.
Speaker 1: So that means that they may take the initiative to
Speaker 1: stay in school even when they're unhoused. So at cow
Speaker 1: State Eastpect we have a commitment to our students to
Speaker 1: help them meet their basic needs while they're getting to
Speaker 1: the graduation finish line. So that means that we I
Speaker 1: don't want to say normalized, but we really want to
Speaker 1: make students feel comfortable and know that sometimes there are
Speaker 1: gaps in finding housing, and there are gaps in having
Speaker 1: enough food, and there may be gaps in clothing and
Speaker 1: recognizing that we live in the Bay Area or housing
Speaker 1: is tremendously expensive. We've created systems and programs that engage
Speaker 1: a students in being involved in basic needs. For instance,
Speaker 1: at orientation, we talk about basic needs and that there
Speaker 1: may be a gap and you may have a need
Speaker 1: for food or you may be temporarily unhoused for myriad
Speaker 1: of reasons. We normalize having the conversations, we normalize connecting
Speaker 1: with mental health, and we normalize bringing the whole student
Speaker 1: to cal State East Bay. So you come with your
Speaker 1: family as a backup and support. Maybe you're coming as
Speaker 1: a foster youth and you may not have that same
Speaker 1: family structure. We normalize you belong here at cal State
Speaker 1: East Bay, and if there is a gap, let's work
Speaker 1: together to help feel that need and connect you to
Speaker 1: programs resources both on campus, off campus, and throughout the community.
Speaker 1: I love that you're removing the stigma associated with not
Speaker 1: having your basic needs met. And we have so many
Speaker 1: stereotypes about unhoused people, and you just flip that the
Speaker 1: idea that people would sacrifice their housing to pursue their education.
Speaker 1: It says a lot about us as a society that
Speaker 1: that's a choice people have to make. Yes. I think
Speaker 1: it says a lot about us that the educational institution
Speaker 1: is stepping in to fill some of these gaps and
Speaker 1: not some other part of our society. I d so
Speaker 1: thank you, and I'm sorry that you're in this position
Speaker 1: to have to try to help in this way for
Speaker 1: something so very basic. I feel an honor inner privilege
Speaker 1: to be able to connect and to be trusted. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of conversation happening in all kinds of media,
Speaker 1: social mainstream everything in between about lack of housing, housing, unaffordability,
Speaker 1: housing instability. What do we each of you think we're
Speaker 1: getting wrong in that conversation? Well, for me, I feel
Speaker 1: like we see sort of housing as a commodity, and
Speaker 1: I think we need to treat housing as a right.
Speaker 1: We need to do whatever we can to ensure that
Speaker 1: we are investing in housing. Housing is part of the
Speaker 1: way that we invest in our young people, we invest
Speaker 1: in our health, we invest in our future. Is really
Speaker 1: a part of how we sustain our communities and how
Speaker 1: do we build and strengthen the kind of units that
Speaker 1: we want our children to have for our folks to
Speaker 1: live in. And the more that we think about it
Speaker 1: like that and reframe it, I think the more likely
Speaker 1: will have the kinds of range of affordable housing options
Speaker 1: that we need in our communities. And to read obviously
Speaker 1: same question to you, what are we getting wrong in
Speaker 1: this conversation? Many conversations we're having a us versus them
Speaker 1: versus and altogether, so I think taking some ownership and
Speaker 1: responsibility for each and every one of us to create
Speaker 1: and build both the sense of community and how will
Speaker 1: that impact both the housing So being able to cast
Speaker 1: off and say it's someone else's issue or someone else's problem,
Speaker 1: whether that be government or whomever you want to blame,
Speaker 1: allows you to escape your own personal responsibility to degrade
Speaker 1: the community. And if you start looking at it that
Speaker 1: I have a responsibility to create community thereby creating housing opportunity,
Speaker 1: And what can I do in my sphere of influence
Speaker 1: to impact that will allow us to take ownership, understand
Speaker 1: our own personal power and authority, and do something with
Speaker 1: that in our spirit influence. Y'all are both in the
Speaker 1: Bay Area the area what's up? And Matt, You've been
Speaker 1: working in nonprofits for a long time, You've been associated
Speaker 1: with Habitat for Humanity for a long time. And this problem,
Speaker 1: this rise of people who have unstable housing or no
Speaker 1: access to housing at all, it's continued, It's gotten worse,
Speaker 1: it's gotten less affordable. What's changed from your point of
Speaker 1: view over these years to make the problem worse. It's
Speaker 1: such a complicated question. It's such an important question and
Speaker 1: one that I think we're continuing to learn more about.
Speaker 1: For be Uh, this area has become more and more wealthy,
Speaker 1: and the gap between the rich and the poor has
Speaker 1: grown so dramatically that the opportunity has really accelerated the
Speaker 1: cost of housing, and we've brought in a lot of jobs,
Speaker 1: but we've failed to create housing for people who are
Speaker 1: often cleading our houses, cooking our food, driving our buses.
Speaker 1: We stopped investing in social housing many many years ago,
Speaker 1: and the amount of money that's available for affordable housing
Speaker 1: has dropped year after year after year. That wasn't always
Speaker 1: the case. There was a time when we did, but
Speaker 1: also at that time, only white folks had the access
Speaker 1: to social housing. And since then, we've made it very
Speaker 1: difficult for communities, particularly communities of color, to get access
Speaker 1: to affordable housing. And then in this country and in
Speaker 1: this region in particular, we've made it even more difficult
Speaker 1: through exclusionary zoning and a whole range of efforts that
Speaker 1: have kept people out of communities where we've got good jobs,
Speaker 1: excellent schools, and so there is an enormous challenge and
Speaker 1: lots of different strategies that we're going to have to
Speaker 1: continue to push in order to level this playing field
Speaker 1: and make sure that moderate and low income folks have
Speaker 1: this opportunity. In terms of the strategies that we use
Speaker 1: to combat the rise of on house people have we
Speaker 1: gotten better any of them. I think we have, and
Speaker 1: I think it's taken the in some ways, the COVID
Speaker 1: crisis to get us there. I think there's a buch
Speaker 1: deeper recognition about the crisis and the crisis not just
Speaker 1: affecting the most extremely low income folks, but also people
Speaker 1: who are working families who can't afford here. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's frustrating that we've had to get to this point,
Speaker 1: but I think that there is a lot more attention.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more focus. I've seeing that attention at
Speaker 1: the state levels. At the local levels, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure on local governments to change their zoning laws
Speaker 1: to open up their communities to low income people, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot more visibility around that. Those are for
Speaker 1: mere reasons to feel hopeful that we are starting to
Speaker 1: see some changes, but we have a long way to go.
Speaker 1: I grew up in d C myself, and I can
Speaker 1: remember the arguments in the eighties over extending the metrorail
Speaker 1: by communities that didn't have it and didn't want it
Speaker 1: because it would bring those people, those people couldn't afford cars,
Speaker 1: undesirables into the neighborhood, and we collectively pay a price
Speaker 1: for that lack of investment and instead of living in
Speaker 1: that environment to day. In so many places across the country,
Speaker 1: I've read thereas that if we threw twenty billion dollars
Speaker 1: at this problem, we could largely resolve the challenge of
Speaker 1: unhoused people in the US. And one of the elements
Speaker 1: of that solution is something called permanent supportive housing, where
Speaker 1: you're pairing housing with case management and supportive services. Have
Speaker 1: used seeing firsthand how this model can help the most
Speaker 1: vulnerable folks in our communities. Absolutely, that is part of
Speaker 1: the process that we use for unhoused students. As part
Speaker 1: of that work, our students work with a care team,
Speaker 1: and that care team includes case managers, it includes mental
Speaker 1: health professionals, it includes every one of the deans of
Speaker 1: our departments on campus as well. There's other supportive services
Speaker 1: on campus just to make sure a student who is
Speaker 1: unhoused has the support that they need, both academically, emotionally physically.
Speaker 1: So we take care of the physical temporary issue to
Speaker 1: get you a safe space, and in that housing, that
Speaker 1: safe space has everything that you need from food to
Speaker 1: walking in with toiletries, with blankets. It's set up as
Speaker 1: a home so you can just take a breath when
Speaker 1: you walk in. There's meals available for you, there's meals
Speaker 1: for you to cook, and then there's case managers that
Speaker 1: are assigned to help you walk through the process to
Speaker 1: understand that this may not just be a temporary thing
Speaker 1: or there were steps that we're in play that got
Speaker 1: you to this place. We're gonna work together to help
Speaker 1: you move from this just bumping the road to get
Speaker 1: you to permanent housing. With the academic peace, we actually
Speaker 1: include the deans because if you're going through some challenges
Speaker 1: and you're trying to do finals, you're trying to do homework,
Speaker 1: you're trying to handle all of these other things as
Speaker 1: well as advocate for yourself, then that makes it difficult.
Speaker 1: So having the deans there to say we're working with
Speaker 1: the student, but not retraumatize the student to have to
Speaker 1: tell their story over and over and over again. That
Speaker 1: the deans are here just to say, Okay, this student
Speaker 1: is going to need some extra time and will let
Speaker 1: you know how much time that is. So creating that
Speaker 1: care team across the campus, up and down from administrators
Speaker 1: to everyone else around the campus to just help keep
Speaker 1: you on track with your goals and to understand that
Speaker 1: this is just a bump in the road. I think
Speaker 1: it's a model that is working tremendously. It's also allowing
Speaker 1: our students to learn about advocacy. So through this process,
Speaker 1: they're working with our local Hayward government, they have a
Speaker 1: tiny Holmes project, they're advocating at the state level, they're
Speaker 1: advocating at the national level, and they're much more aware
Speaker 1: of not only what's going on, but their voice and
Speaker 1: demanding that their voice be heard. So yes, sparitunity absolutely,
Speaker 1: the supportive peace to me is the key is the model,
Speaker 1: and it shouldn't just before emergency situations. I want to
Speaker 1: get each of you to define what's a home there?
Speaker 1: What is a home? Consider stuff? It varies. A home
Speaker 1: consists where you feel safe, and I think the definition
Speaker 1: is a little bit different for everyone. So if you've
Speaker 1: been consistently unhoused, home sometimes for you can feel just
Speaker 1: a temporary space that isn't necessarily safe. So with our students,
Speaker 1: sometimes when we provide this respite safe, this is the
Speaker 1: first time they've seen a home in this caliber. Many
Speaker 1: of our students are surprised about the level of care
Speaker 1: that we've taken into decorating, into providing welcoming messages inside
Speaker 1: of the space, to provide a warm blankets and decor
Speaker 1: that says you're welcome here, and it's not hey, you
Speaker 1: have to be here a certain amount of time and
Speaker 1: you have to leave. And the fact that you have
Speaker 1: the ability to create your own safe space, so we
Speaker 1: provide opportunities to put your own art on the wall
Speaker 1: to make a space that feel safe. Yeah, a sense
Speaker 1: of belonging and a sense of ownership absolutely, Matt. What's
Speaker 1: what's your definition of a home in additioned to all
Speaker 1: these beautiful ways that you've described it there, So I
Speaker 1: think it's a place where you can dream. It's a
Speaker 1: place where you can envision a world for yourself and
Speaker 1: for your family, where you've got the security and the
Speaker 1: stability to take risks to grow and be yourself. And
Speaker 1: it's about the community that you create. This work that
Speaker 1: you're both involved in sounds like it's way too much
Speaker 1: for one institution or one type of entity. Who do
Speaker 1: you think the key parties are in actually providing stability
Speaker 1: and affordable housing. You have to have help from both
Speaker 1: community and government right now to build both infrastructure, an
Speaker 1: opportunity for afe and available housing. Matt mentioned some of
Speaker 1: the barriers that we've seen. There has to be a
Speaker 1: partnership with government, education, community developers. But the first commitment
Speaker 1: is be willing to look at the barriers that were
Speaker 1: either erected or that are being sustained for the benefit
Speaker 1: of a few, and be willing to look at those
Speaker 1: and then tear them down. Tear down that wall. But
Speaker 1: when you're tearing down walls, you start talking about collaboration
Speaker 1: and derese and Matt had the chance to do just that.
Speaker 1: In February, Salesforce dot org announced its inaugural Impact Labs challenge.
Speaker 1: Impact Labs is a program designed to co create technology
Speaker 1: solutions that help address some of the toughest social issues
Speaker 1: we're facing. That collaboration involves nonprofits, educational institutions, Salesforce partners,
Speaker 1: and employee volunteers. The initial cohort focused on how they
Speaker 1: could use technology to reduce friction for people experiencing homelessness
Speaker 1: and strengthen the work of the service providers and organizations
Speaker 1: who support them. Both case workers and unhoused people deal
Speaker 1: with repetitive data collection, antiquated systems of paperwork, frustrating separation,
Speaker 1: of databases across county lines, and the painful expectation that
Speaker 1: people have to constantly retell their traumas in order to
Speaker 1: get and keep access to essential supportive services. With a
Speaker 1: focus on the San Francisco Bay Area as a test case,
Speaker 1: the hope was to create a scalable solution that could
Speaker 1: be leveraged by nonprofits and communities all across the country.
Speaker 1: They basically applied a lot of the thinking that goes
Speaker 1: into making our online shopping experiences smoother and simpler, but
Speaker 1: applied it to the much more consequential situation of a
Speaker 1: lack of housing. The result with service match and open
Speaker 1: source app that streamlines the process of finding, making and
Speaker 1: following up on service referral, freeing up a case manager's
Speaker 1: time for more meaningful client interaction. While the tangible output
Speaker 1: is so important, I wanted to understand more about the
Speaker 1: experience the reason that shared, so let's hear how it
Speaker 1: really works. Matt. Let's start with you here. Why did
Speaker 1: you decided to be a part of this collaboration. I
Speaker 1: think I was mostly compelled because I wanted to get
Speaker 1: a chance to meet people like Therese and all the
Speaker 1: other incredible folks who are on the front lines addressing
Speaker 1: affordability and homelessness, And so for me, that was why
Speaker 1: I joined. What about you? Why did you join? I
Speaker 1: saw it as an opportunity to really find some systemic
Speaker 1: or technical tools to help impact an issue that we're
Speaker 1: all very passionate about in a very real way. What's
Speaker 1: the process y'all went through to arrive at this distinct
Speaker 1: solution that ended up being called service Manage. It was
Speaker 1: a lot of question and answer. Are us digging deep
Speaker 1: about needs and pain points? I think out of pain
Speaker 1: sometimes comes very great solutions. So we talked about our
Speaker 1: pain points that we had in serving our communities and
Speaker 1: what each one of us knew, and that all came
Speaker 1: together in a way that provided a technical tool that
Speaker 1: was accessible. Anything else stand out to you, Matt, about
Speaker 1: the process of kind of identifying this and coming to
Speaker 1: service Match as as possible solution. Sure, one of the
Speaker 1: things we did was we got a chance to either
Speaker 1: learn about or sort of relearn a concept cult design
Speaker 1: thinking where we had a chance to really think about
Speaker 1: the end user, what they needed, what they wanted. We
Speaker 1: all got a chance to sort of think about how
Speaker 1: that applied in our community, and then brought this all
Speaker 1: together into a set of thoughts and ideas about what
Speaker 1: was the sort of the most important, but what was
Speaker 1: the most practical strategy that we could offer both as
Speaker 1: sort of nonprofit folks on the affordable housing side and
Speaker 1: tech people who could deliver the solution. We call this
Speaker 1: show force multiplier. So mad I'll start with you. What's
Speaker 1: been the force multiplier, that thing that provided more leverage,
Speaker 1: level of distinction, and level of value from it that
Speaker 1: made a bigger difference in this collaboration. Well, I do
Speaker 1: think that it's this opportunity for folks who don't normally
Speaker 1: come together in the same place. We're pushed together from
Speaker 1: really different sort of universes. We sort of had to
Speaker 1: bring our different approaches and insights and and that I
Speaker 1: think is pretty cool chemistry that was really helpful. It
Speaker 1: would be lovely if we had a chance to continue
Speaker 1: to do that. We've got to keep creating those incubators
Speaker 1: where folks who are really coming out this work from
Speaker 1: very very different perspectives a chance to do that, because
Speaker 1: I think there is amazing things that can happen that way.
Speaker 1: The reason your work with CSU you and helping meet
Speaker 1: these basic needs especially around housing stability. What's been the
Speaker 1: force multiplier there? The commitment to collaboration as we came
Speaker 1: into this inside of the start of COVID. Having that
Speaker 1: opportunity also meant that we were able to do some
Speaker 1: national work and pivot on a very national way that
Speaker 1: I don't know I would have been able to happen
Speaker 1: without that sort of collaboration and commitment. How did you
Speaker 1: get started in public service? Thereas what was your road?
Speaker 1: My mom and church? It wasn't an option in my household,
Speaker 1: and so I didn't realize it had a name. I
Speaker 1: just knew I needed to serve and volunteer, and I
Speaker 1: fell in love with it. It's part of my life,
Speaker 1: it's part of my passion. My job is to release
Speaker 1: advocates and leaders and help them see their own personal brilliance. So, yes,
Speaker 1: it was a childhood thing that I didn't realize was
Speaker 1: happening an so it was an accident on purpose, big
Speaker 1: and small at the same time. A lot of contradictions
Speaker 1: wrapped up in Matt. What about you? How did you
Speaker 1: find your way into work like this? I think I
Speaker 1: always had a vision for service, but where I've ended
Speaker 1: up now had a lot to do with the work
Speaker 1: that I had a chance to do in Detroit, where
Speaker 1: I worked for community economic development corporations doing both housing
Speaker 1: and community building work and really getting a chance to
Speaker 1: learn from folks on the ground who are trying to
Speaker 1: repair homes, rebuild communities, and just got really inspired by
Speaker 1: folks who were working at the grassroots with no resources
Speaker 1: and no investment, pulling together communities, organizing them and it
Speaker 1: just seems like the place to be. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of folks tune into this show because they're inspired
Speaker 1: by people both of you, and they want to invest,
Speaker 1: they want to do more. They hopefully they want to
Speaker 1: take ownership and build that community. If someone's listening to
Speaker 1: this and they're all fired up and ready to go,
Speaker 1: what advice do you have for them, Whether it's how
Speaker 1: they approach their career path with their current role, who
Speaker 1: want to more directly get involved in some service work
Speaker 1: like this something related to this topic. I think that
Speaker 1: folks need to look as closely in their neighborhood and
Speaker 1: their communities as they can, and not just think about
Speaker 1: the folks who are in your community, but maybe the
Speaker 1: folks who aren't. How do you create space and opportunity
Speaker 1: to welcome new people into your community. How do you
Speaker 1: fight to build a community that you want and you envision.
Speaker 1: There's so many opportunities for all of us to work
Speaker 1: with our neighbors to make our connections. I think the
Speaker 1: mutual aid networks that have emerged around COVID have been
Speaker 1: it's always the most one of the most beautiful things.
Speaker 1: It's sort of a shining example of what we can
Speaker 1: all do with each other and for each other. And
Speaker 1: so I think those are really great examples of us
Speaker 1: collectively helping each other in our communities. And theres somebody's
Speaker 1: out there wants to do more. Where are you pointing them?
Speaker 1: I know a lot of times when you want to
Speaker 1: get involved in something, you run gung hole, but really
Speaker 1: do some internal work about the space that you are
Speaker 1: or are not creating for those around you. Getting to
Speaker 1: know your immediate neighbors, starting small, looking at your local government.
Speaker 1: Can you get involved in your community economic development? Can
Speaker 1: you get involved with helping your neighbors stay in their
Speaker 1: housing and that could be just helping to help them
Speaker 1: pay a bill or help them to connect with resources
Speaker 1: in and around your community. Changing the inside to help
Speaker 1: change the outside and acknowledging the humanity of our fellow
Speaker 1: human beings. Thank you, Theres, thank you Matt. It's been
Speaker 1: a real pleasure talking to both of you. Likewise, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Been a pleasure. Thank you. You're listening
Speaker 1: to a podcast called Force Multiplier, Action meets Impact. Now
Speaker 1: you've probably grown to expect ads inside your podcast, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna do something a little bit different to walk
Speaker 1: the walk. We're gonna take a quick break and hear
Speaker 1: from one of the organizations featured in this episode. Be
Speaker 1: right back. This is my house. My parents helped building. Now,
Speaker 1: you don't get wet when it rains, I don't get
Speaker 1: too hot or too cold inside, and I don't have
Speaker 1: to worry when the winds blow. This is my house.
Speaker 1: This is my house. This is my house. This is
Speaker 1: my house, my house, my house. I can play with
Speaker 1: my sister, I can play with my brother. I can
Speaker 1: play with my mother, my father, my and my family,
Speaker 1: my family. This is my house. This is my house.
Speaker 1: I can study, I'll can be safe with my family.
Speaker 1: This is my house. This is my house. This is
Speaker 1: my house. This is my house, night house, Night House.
Speaker 1: That's my house. Visit habitat dot org to find out
Speaker 1: how you can help more families like mine have a safe,
Speaker 1: decent place to call home. Hey you, it's Baritone Day,
Speaker 1: host of the podcast you're listening to right Now. When
Speaker 1: I was a kid, my mom told me to come
Speaker 1: up with a system we could live under after democracy
Speaker 1: had failed. Yeah, my mom was intent. I haven't finished
Speaker 1: that assignment, but I did make a podcast. It's called
Speaker 1: How Do Citizen? With Baritone Day. It reimagines citizen as
Speaker 1: a verb and reminds us how to wield our collective power.
Speaker 1: Find seasons one and two and whatever podcasts after using
Speaker 1: right Now? In season three, All about Tech drops in October.
Speaker 1: Learn more at how does Citizen dot Com. I can
Speaker 1: tell you I've been thrown out of more neighborhood meetings
Speaker 1: that I can count. Most of neighborhoods don't want affordable
Speaker 1: housing being built down the street, and yet right now
Speaker 1: they probably drive by affordable housing every day and don't
Speaker 1: realize that's what it is. As President and CEO of
Speaker 1: Volunteers of America, Mike King has seen firsthand the struggles
Speaker 1: of America's unhoused people. With so many people living paycheck
Speaker 1: to paycheck, the margin of error, as he describes it
Speaker 1: is super thin. One illness, one bad case of the flu,
Speaker 1: one missed rent check, and you can find yourself without
Speaker 1: a roof over your head. Understanding that this life circumstance
Speaker 1: could happen to anyone, and that we should treat everyone
Speaker 1: with a level of respect and dignity is what Mike
Speaker 1: cares about. Passionate well. Volunteers of America was literally formed
Speaker 1: a hundred twenty five years ago, always to serve America's
Speaker 1: most vulnerable. We were formed in there was an incredible
Speaker 1: income gap in America at that time. Sounds familiar, doesn't
Speaker 1: it to today? So therefore we were involved in serving
Speaker 1: the homeless, dealing with housing, serving addition treatment, and literally
Speaker 1: the first organization to ever do what's called prisoner re
Speaker 1: entry programming, and that is working with folks coming out
Speaker 1: of federal incarceration to help them re enter society and
Speaker 1: is still today serving those same populations. Volunters of America
Speaker 1: literally serves and touches the lives of one and a
Speaker 1: half million people annually. And we do that not just
Speaker 1: with volunteers. We do that with actually I call it
Speaker 1: a sixteen thousand member family. We have sixteen thousand employees
Speaker 1: in over four hundred communities nationwide. We love being in
Speaker 1: the housing business and being in the affordable housing business
Speaker 1: in Volunteers of America. Housing to Build means that you
Speaker 1: can identify housing that truly you can afford without totally
Speaker 1: making you pour to the point that you're going to
Speaker 1: be challenged in providing food and clothing and everything else.
Speaker 1: So it must be a reasonable percentage of your income.
Speaker 1: It can't be of your income. But the reality is
Speaker 1: that shortage of affordable housing creates more homelessness. So we
Speaker 1: truly look at trying to support affordable, permanent supportive housing.
Speaker 1: We literally house over twenty people every year, good dignified,
Speaker 1: affordable housing that we would all be proud enough to
Speaker 1: put our mothers in and be happy to go visit
Speaker 1: her there and be proud that she was there. But
Speaker 1: there is just this dramatic shortage throughout the nation. Most
Speaker 1: of our properties have waiting lists. At the same time,
Speaker 1: we actually operate numerous shelters in major cities and hear
Speaker 1: all kinds of stories from people coming to us, and
Speaker 1: many times it's just one illness away, one bad case
Speaker 1: of the flu. If you're an hourly wage worker and
Speaker 1: then you have to miss work and you don't have
Speaker 1: paid days, and then you've you miss one rent check
Speaker 1: and you fall behind, or any stating an illness of
Speaker 1: a child where you've had to stay home and be
Speaker 1: with that child. It's such a delicate balance because it's
Speaker 1: not unusual in our country, as we know, for folks
Speaker 1: to live paycheck to paycheck, and so the margin for
Speaker 1: ERA is so thin. It is so thin that literally
Speaker 1: people you would have never imagined would be in this
Speaker 1: case can suddenly find themselves in that circumstance. So it's
Speaker 1: not the kind of thing that we should ever look
Speaker 1: down upon as we look at these folks, we could
Speaker 1: all find ourselves in that circumstance. So we want to
Speaker 1: make sure that everyone who is housed with us understands
Speaker 1: that we always want them to retain their dignity, their respect,
Speaker 1: and to be respected and treated in a dignified manner
Speaker 1: by the folks that work with them. I continue that
Speaker 1: with luneers of America, we couldn't do hardly anything without
Speaker 1: a partner. We must have those partnerships. We're serving folks
Speaker 1: that are in the safety net, if you will, and
Speaker 1: maybe even below the safety net of services many times
Speaker 1: we are we are partnering with federal agencies. Good example
Speaker 1: of this would be the Veterans Administration with their voucher
Speaker 1: programs in providing housing and then services to serve our
Speaker 1: servicemen and women, and then give services in the area
Speaker 1: of PTSD and moral injury. And then when what we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier around our work with the incarcerated, major major
Speaker 1: partnerships with the federal Bureau of Prisons, where in most cases,
Speaker 1: when you'll hear about someone in a community serving in
Speaker 1: a federal halfway house, much of the time that's the
Speaker 1: Volunteers of America facility that is contracting, if you will,
Speaker 1: with the Bureau of Prisons to provide those re entry
Speaker 1: services to allow that person coming out of incarceration to
Speaker 1: reconnect with their family, reconnect with job opportunities, and start
Speaker 1: to connect back a society in a successful way. And
Speaker 1: at the same time, we have a wonderful relationship with
Speaker 1: the Home Depot Foundation and the Home depailt Foundation actually
Speaker 1: provides volunteers, and they are volunteers that are knowledgeable, Okay,
Speaker 1: they know what they're doing. They are absolute contractors, if
Speaker 1: you will, in their private time, and they are magnificent
Speaker 1: they have been key in helping us reinforce housing properties
Speaker 1: for veterans. They have been a major source of that
Speaker 1: over the last seven eight nine years and they literally
Speaker 1: saught us out and since then they have funneled millions
Speaker 1: of dollars but frankly also millions of volunteer hours and
Speaker 1: helping refurbish and expand the housing capacity for our veterans
Speaker 1: and families with veterans in our properties nationwide and continue
Speaker 1: to do it to this day. And so we don't
Speaker 1: even try to do any of this alone, okay, I mean,
Speaker 1: we can't even begin to do any of this alone.
Speaker 1: It is truly a village for all of us and
Speaker 1: we must embrace it. You know, technology is an opportunity
Speaker 1: as the way I would define it. So right now
Speaker 1: at Mooliteers of America we have a special Technology task Force.
Speaker 1: We are studying that to really challenge ourselves and say
Speaker 1: what do we need to do in the next three
Speaker 1: or four years to be ready for the next decade.
Speaker 1: And so really the force multiplier is to truly embrace
Speaker 1: leveraging the collective force and bargaining power of our organization
Speaker 1: through a common use of expanded technology, where we could communicate, design, embrace,
Speaker 1: and engage all across the nation the kinds of resources
Speaker 1: that it must take to be the game changer. But
Speaker 1: to do that effectively, we must embrace technology, and we
Speaker 1: must embrace the unknowns are unknowns about that technology so
Speaker 1: that we can truly become that force within the housing
Speaker 1: industry and within the industry of providing these wonderfully and
Speaker 1: more equitable in ronaments for people to live in and
Speaker 1: raise a family and thrive. It's gonna take that kind
Speaker 1: of collective capacity. I would encourage people to absolutely get
Speaker 1: involved with nonprofit organizations that are working in an area
Speaker 1: that they have a dramatic interest in, because literally, by volunteering,
Speaker 1: joining the board of directors, joining a committee or a
Speaker 1: task force, I have witnessed many times in my career
Speaker 1: someone who was on my board or on a committee
Speaker 1: became my next great staff member and literally have a
Speaker 1: whole new career in funal and also seeing how good
Speaker 1: it makes them feel. Frankly, you can't put a price
Speaker 1: tag on that, and so I'm always looking at my
Speaker 1: board members and volunteers and what not. Of boy, wouldn't
Speaker 1: it be great to have them doing this all the
Speaker 1: time because there's just gifted, talented people, and I have
Speaker 1: so many good friends and folks on staff who literally
Speaker 1: came to us that way by being engaged as volunteers first.
Speaker 1: So I am feeling a lot of things after these conversations.
Speaker 1: On the one hand, I'm upset. I'm upset that so
Speaker 1: many people's basic needs are not being met, and when
Speaker 1: they are, it's by institutions which should literally be the
Speaker 1: last resort, colleges, nonprofits. I just have to acknowledge my
Speaker 1: disappointment and our system which places that burden so far
Speaker 1: at the edge of society. On the other hand, I'm
Speaker 1: feeling really grateful and impressed that people like Therese and
Speaker 1: Matt and Might exists and are so committed. They share
Speaker 1: so much in common with their different approaches, but what
Speaker 1: they all land on is insisting on dignity agency ownership
Speaker 1: for the people experiencing homelessness in different ways. They're taking
Speaker 1: holistic approaches to this problem by offering these comprehensive sets
Speaker 1: of services that go well beyond just a place to sleep.
Speaker 1: They're offering people pride, ownership and belonging, something we all deserve,
Speaker 1: and it's an important reminder all of us deserve that
Speaker 1: because all of us could face housing instability in this society.
Speaker 1: It's not just the extremely low income people, it's all
Speaker 1: kinds of us who could end up in this situation.
Speaker 1: Our guests today remind me that when we come together
Speaker 1: with our different perspectives focused on the same problem, we
Speaker 1: can emerge with different solutions, more effective ones. So please
Speaker 1: do what they say, volunteer. Contribute your strengths to our
Speaker 1: collective capacity. Start with your neighbors. Let's work together to
Speaker 1: create stable, secure, and welcoming homes for all. Do you
Speaker 1: want to dig in more on today's guests and the
Speaker 1: work they're doing, or maybe you want to understand what
Speaker 1: action you can take in your community. Either way, go
Speaker 1: to Salesforce dot org slash force Multiplier. That's one word,
Speaker 1: force multiplier. Force Multiplier is a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Salesforce dot Org. Hosted by me Barritton Day Thurston.
Speaker 1: It's executive produced by Elizabeth Stewart, produced by Van Chian,
Speaker 1: and engineered, edited and mixed by James Foster. Join us
Speaker 1: next time for more stories of how we can change
Speaker 1: the world, one relationship at a time. Listen to Force
Speaker 1: Multiplier on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcast. M