WEBVTT - Homelessness is Solvable 0:00:15.076 --> 0:00:24.516 Pushkin. Why can't we feed the world? Is it possible 0:00:24.596 --> 0:00:28.356 to cure cancer? What will it take for governments and 0:00:28.476 --> 0:00:31.996 citizens to commit to act on climate change? Why haven't 0:00:31.996 --> 0:00:34.436 we solved the issue of equal pay for equal work? 0:00:34.676 --> 0:00:37.756 Why are so many people trapped in work that doesn't 0:00:37.796 --> 0:00:42.556 be in one of the world's richest countries. Yes, there's 0:00:42.596 --> 0:00:45.396 a lot to worry about these days, but there are 0:00:45.516 --> 0:00:50.236 so many people working on solutions. I may have Higgins 0:00:50.236 --> 0:00:54.276 and this is solvable interviews with the world's biggest thinkers 0:00:54.516 --> 0:00:58.356 who are working to solve the world's biggest problems. My 0:00:58.436 --> 0:01:01.236 solvable is to get one million women and girls to 0:01:01.316 --> 0:01:04.196 learn how to code by the year twenty twenty. My 0:01:04.356 --> 0:01:09.916 solvable is that refugees and displaced people should have poverty raids, 0:01:09.916 --> 0:01:14.116 inequality raids, lack of opportunity no greater than the rest 0:01:14.116 --> 0:01:17.356 of the population. My solvable is to take energy to 0:01:17.356 --> 0:01:21.036 where communities are. We are not going to solve poverty 0:01:21.196 --> 0:01:24.676 in the twenty first century if we don't solve energy poverty. 0:01:24.996 --> 0:01:28.916 I have a solvable too. It's sharing these solutions wherever 0:01:29.076 --> 0:01:32.196 and however I can. I'm a contributing writer for The 0:01:32.196 --> 0:01:34.676 New York Times and The host of the podcast Maybe 0:01:34.716 --> 0:01:39.516 in America, Immigration IRL and the climate justice podcast Mothers 0:01:39.516 --> 0:01:43.516 of Invention with Mary Robinson. I'm also a comedian and 0:01:43.556 --> 0:01:46.636 I've performed all over the world. Now I live in 0:01:46.676 --> 0:01:49.876 New York, where I write and podcasts about things I 0:01:49.956 --> 0:01:52.996 care about, and I do so with some levity and 0:01:53.116 --> 0:01:57.396 some hope because I think that's important. So does the 0:01:57.476 --> 0:02:01.436 Rockefeller Foundation. And that's why we're making this podcast together 0:02:01.516 --> 0:02:05.116 with Pushkin Industries, to introduce you to some of the 0:02:05.236 --> 0:02:09.076 incredible people who are making a real difference to millions 0:02:09.316 --> 0:02:14.036 of lives around the world. Get ready to be seriously inspired. 0:02:21.836 --> 0:02:26.316 In this our first episode, Malcolm Gladwell interviews Rosanne Haggarty. 0:02:26.796 --> 0:02:31.956 Rosanne is an internationally recognized leader in developing innovative strategies 0:02:31.996 --> 0:02:36.356 to end homelessness and to strengthen communities. She's the president 0:02:36.356 --> 0:02:40.516 and CEO of Community Solutions. That's an organization that helps 0:02:40.556 --> 0:02:43.636 people around the world find what works where they live 0:02:44.036 --> 0:02:47.796 to solve homelessness for every individual who needs that help. 0:02:48.596 --> 0:02:51.276 Now a bit of context, because it's hard to understand 0:02:51.316 --> 0:02:54.796 the scale of this problem without some numbers. More than 0:02:54.916 --> 0:02:58.436 half a million people in the United States experience homelessness 0:02:58.436 --> 0:03:01.956 on any given night, and nearly two hundred thousand of 0:03:01.996 --> 0:03:05.316 those people are unsheltered. That means they're on the streets 0:03:05.356 --> 0:03:10.796 without access to emergency shelters or transitional houses. But Rosanne 0:03:10.796 --> 0:03:14.556 says that tackling this at the individual level is a 0:03:14.676 --> 0:03:19.796 key to solving it for everyone. Her organization builds neighborhood 0:03:19.876 --> 0:03:24.836 partnerships to bring together local residents and institutions to actually 0:03:24.916 --> 0:03:29.876 change the conditions that produce homelessness. It's an approach Rosanne 0:03:29.876 --> 0:03:33.996 has developed over nearly forty years of working on the problem. 0:03:34.236 --> 0:03:36.756 Back in nineteen eighty two, she spent a year after 0:03:36.836 --> 0:03:39.836 high school working in a homeless shelter right here in 0:03:39.876 --> 0:03:44.196 New York. And that's one experience that's really fueled her activism. 0:03:44.916 --> 0:03:48.116 As you'll hear, Rosanna Malcolm know each other. Back in 0:03:48.156 --> 0:03:51.156 two thousand and six, Malcolm wrote a New Yorker article 0:03:51.236 --> 0:03:54.756 called million Dollar Murray about why it may be easier 0:03:54.836 --> 0:03:59.556 to solve rather than just manage homelessness. That piece really 0:03:59.636 --> 0:04:02.716 rang true for Rosanne, and they catch up on development 0:04:02.796 --> 0:04:06.156 since then. All right, let's take a listen and i'll 0:04:06.156 --> 0:04:10.956 talk to you after. I think it's significant that in 0:04:11.076 --> 0:04:13.956 nineteen eighty two, The problem of homelessness in New York 0:04:13.996 --> 0:04:20.396 City was of a very relatively small scale. It was growing, 0:04:20.636 --> 0:04:24.036 It was terrible for people experiencing it, but it was 0:04:24.076 --> 0:04:27.716 possible to believe as a young person that this was 0:04:27.756 --> 0:04:31.716 an entirely containable and solvable problem. No one had good 0:04:31.756 --> 0:04:34.716 information there, but the estimates were maybe three thousand people 0:04:34.836 --> 0:04:39.396 in a city of pushing eight million. My overwhelming impression 0:04:39.516 --> 0:04:44.836 was we're asking the wrong questions. I remember thinking there 0:04:44.916 --> 0:04:48.836 was this huge disconnect between what our ideas were the 0:04:48.876 --> 0:04:52.796 people kind of responsible for identifying or naming the problem, 0:04:52.836 --> 0:04:56.196 and what the young people or the women were saying. 0:04:56.796 --> 0:05:01.156 These young people were looking for help with finding a 0:05:01.156 --> 0:05:05.316 place to live, finding a job, and my instructions as 0:05:05.316 --> 0:05:07.476 a volunteer was how to turn on the coffee and 0:05:07.476 --> 0:05:09.236 put away the cots in the morning. No one had 0:05:09.476 --> 0:05:12.236 given us any information about how to help people connect 0:05:12.236 --> 0:05:14.596 with the things they needed, and so it was that 0:05:14.676 --> 0:05:17.756 sense of disconnect and sort of the gap between what 0:05:18.276 --> 0:05:22.156 people experiencing the problem we're seeking and what we were 0:05:22.196 --> 0:05:25.916 set up to provide that I think really plunge me 0:05:25.916 --> 0:05:28.796 into this work permanently, that you know, there is a 0:05:28.836 --> 0:05:32.076 sense of we're coming about this in a way that 0:05:32.116 --> 0:05:34.556 doesn't match the nature of the problem. You talk to 0:05:34.636 --> 0:05:37.436 me about housing first, because as an outsider it is 0:05:37.436 --> 0:05:40.556 not obvious to us. If you ask me naively, I 0:05:40.556 --> 0:05:42.956 would have said the opposite. You need to get people, 0:05:43.796 --> 0:05:48.796 you know, their mental health issues, address their employment, dealt 0:05:48.876 --> 0:05:51.796 with their family life straightened out before you get them 0:05:51.836 --> 0:05:54.116 stabilized and housing. And you see, and this idea is 0:05:54.116 --> 0:05:57.676 the opposite of that housing first, right, Housing first has 0:05:57.756 --> 0:06:03.356 become a hugely important principle, but still not completely and 0:06:03.476 --> 0:06:05.796 fully adopted. But think of it, this is something we 0:06:05.836 --> 0:06:08.596 all know. How are we going to accomplish anything in 0:06:08.636 --> 0:06:13.236 our lives, hold a job, maintain stable relationships, manage our 0:06:13.276 --> 0:06:15.076 health that we don't have a stable place to live. 0:06:15.516 --> 0:06:18.556 And this notion of stable housing is just so basic. 0:06:18.676 --> 0:06:23.676 But in fact, for many years it became inverted, as 0:06:23.676 --> 0:06:25.676 you say, Malcolm, where you know, there's a sense that 0:06:25.796 --> 0:06:27.956 people needed to have insight into their mental illness, or 0:06:27.996 --> 0:06:30.556 needed to be clean and sober, or needed this needed 0:06:30.596 --> 0:06:35.196 that housing was conditional on behavior, and in fact people's 0:06:35.636 --> 0:06:39.476 other conditions they vastly improve, you know, once there's a 0:06:39.516 --> 0:06:43.756 stable environment for them to live in and to manage 0:06:43.796 --> 0:06:47.876 their other needs from and the fact that this still 0:06:48.036 --> 0:06:52.196 is contested is one of the things that really needs 0:06:52.196 --> 0:06:56.116 to be challenged everywhere. You'll still find places where like, well, 0:06:56.196 --> 0:06:58.396 let's study it one more time. But in fact it's 0:06:58.396 --> 0:07:01.316 something that we all know. Imagine our lives without a 0:07:01.316 --> 0:07:03.876 stable place to live. There's three things and you can 0:07:03.916 --> 0:07:06.076 add to this list. One is the housing fresh principle. 0:07:06.116 --> 0:07:08.596 Two is the question of the resources argument, and third 0:07:08.676 --> 0:07:11.036 is the question of tools. And I realize that tools 0:07:11.076 --> 0:07:13.436 is the new one, the really interesting one that you've 0:07:13.436 --> 0:07:15.556 gotten very involved in. But let's talk a little bit 0:07:15.596 --> 0:07:20.236 about this resources question, because the second great impediment to 0:07:20.356 --> 0:07:24.316 communities addressing their homelessness issue is the notion that it 0:07:24.396 --> 0:07:27.716 will bankrupt them. Well, the interesting thing, Malcolm, and you're 0:07:27.756 --> 0:07:31.956 actually a character in this story, is that communities are 0:07:31.996 --> 0:07:36.316 spending a fortune not solving the problem of homelessness. The 0:07:36.476 --> 0:07:39.636 costs are showing up typically and most profoundly in the 0:07:39.636 --> 0:07:42.996 healthcare system, but also in the criminal justice system. And 0:07:43.036 --> 0:07:50.116 when you look at across communities, the burden of this unresolved, 0:07:50.836 --> 0:07:56.756 solvable problem on communities is profound. Ask any librarian the country, 0:07:56.796 --> 0:08:02.156 any emt, any police officer, any court officer, our public workforce, 0:08:02.276 --> 0:08:06.556 teachers dealing with children who are living in shelters, the 0:08:06.716 --> 0:08:09.676 emergency room, nurses. You just go down the list of 0:08:09.676 --> 0:08:13.916 our public workforce and the degree to which their jobs 0:08:13.916 --> 0:08:19.156 are consumed trying to respond in a humane way to 0:08:19.516 --> 0:08:22.956 those in a situation that is itself solvable. So the 0:08:22.996 --> 0:08:26.436 costs are spread all over the place, and yet communities, 0:08:26.836 --> 0:08:30.996 i think, seeing to build housing or to subsidize it, 0:08:31.076 --> 0:08:33.316 or to attach mental health resources, we can't afford to 0:08:33.356 --> 0:08:38.436 do this. You are paying these costs anyway and creating 0:08:38.756 --> 0:08:44.556 an environment of everyone losing, as well as trapping individuals 0:08:44.556 --> 0:08:47.796 and families in a state of limbo, which is so 0:08:47.916 --> 0:08:53.276 much more humanely and efficiently addressed with just dealing with 0:08:53.636 --> 0:08:56.796 getting them into a stable housing situation. So this proposition 0:08:56.836 --> 0:09:00.556 that homelessness is more expensive to ignore than it is 0:09:01.236 --> 0:09:05.396 to solve. Tell me why. That's what's hard about making 0:09:05.396 --> 0:09:09.676 that argument. Well, let me go back to the point 0:09:09.716 --> 0:09:13.356 of your being a character in the drama Malcolm You 0:09:13.436 --> 0:09:16.676 who wrote really a seminal piece in The New Yorker 0:09:17.436 --> 0:09:21.036 called Million Dollar Murray and explored through the life of 0:09:21.076 --> 0:09:24.596 this one sort of iconic figure in Reno Nevada, who 0:09:24.676 --> 0:09:28.396 was known to everyone, this individual who needed someone to 0:09:28.516 --> 0:09:32.716 basically take responsibility for seeing that his rent was paid 0:09:32.796 --> 0:09:35.196 and that he had some structure in his life and 0:09:35.316 --> 0:09:38.196 the counseling support he needed when he needed it, that 0:09:38.276 --> 0:09:41.676 he was actually doing well with just a basic structure 0:09:41.676 --> 0:09:45.836 of participating in a community program. For want of that 0:09:46.676 --> 0:09:51.276 kind of coordination and accountability, this poor man bounced in 0:09:51.276 --> 0:09:55.636 and out of the emergency room, rehab programs, the court system, jails, 0:09:56.276 --> 0:09:59.236 running up a bill of over a million dollars in 0:09:59.436 --> 0:10:03.436 municipal services over the period of time before his premature death. 0:10:03.956 --> 0:10:08.276 And so it's because no one sees the picture hole 0:10:08.676 --> 0:10:12.516 on home less, we're allowed to think that this is 0:10:12.556 --> 0:10:16.196 actually kind of a marginal or a low cost problem, 0:10:16.316 --> 0:10:19.116 or dwell in the myth that these are individuals who 0:10:19.116 --> 0:10:23.876 are making a choice to opt out of society or services, 0:10:23.916 --> 0:10:28.636 and in fact, what we've found is someone taking responsibility 0:10:28.636 --> 0:10:31.916 for seeing that each person who is in this overwhelmed 0:10:31.956 --> 0:10:35.556 state actually has a stable place to live in enough 0:10:35.676 --> 0:10:39.316 structure and support in their lives. Costs a fraction of 0:10:39.356 --> 0:10:44.396 what all of this diffuse misery and municipal burden actually 0:10:44.556 --> 0:10:47.676 ends up costing, but it's getting to that point where 0:10:47.716 --> 0:10:50.836 everyone is accounted for and everyone has a plan. And 0:10:51.316 --> 0:10:53.476 the thing that we have discovered in our work with 0:10:53.516 --> 0:10:56.276 many communities around the country now is that it's very 0:10:56.276 --> 0:11:00.516 possible to get there. That in no community, even communities 0:11:00.596 --> 0:11:03.916 that feel overwhelmed by homelessness, is the number of those 0:11:04.316 --> 0:11:07.716 experiencing homelessness more than a fraction of one percent of 0:11:07.716 --> 0:11:11.156 their population. This is a total last mile problem. And 0:11:11.196 --> 0:11:15.036 if we grab the picture whole and have that community 0:11:15.116 --> 0:11:18.356 level accountability, we find that there are many more assets, 0:11:18.436 --> 0:11:22.156 many more solutions than communities have imagined. I'm trying to 0:11:22.156 --> 0:11:25.196 get a sense of the level of kind of baseline 0:11:25.236 --> 0:11:28.956 resistance to these arguments you're making. Are you saying that 0:11:29.676 --> 0:11:33.076 this is a tough sell? I'll say where the resistance 0:11:33.116 --> 0:11:36.796 typically comes from, that it's a leadership gap that that 0:11:36.916 --> 0:11:40.236 person who or a group of people who are well 0:11:40.276 --> 0:11:44.716 positioned to basically call it out, that you know, they 0:11:44.756 --> 0:11:48.836 are blocked from doing that for whatever reason they don't 0:11:48.836 --> 0:11:52.956 feel they have the political support. There are internal conflicts. 0:11:53.316 --> 0:11:56.636 I did not coin the phrase the homeless industrial complex, 0:11:57.036 --> 0:12:01.396 but as in so many areas of failure, frankly, in 0:12:01.476 --> 0:12:06.076 terms of our civic life. You are, as an organization 0:12:06.276 --> 0:12:09.676 or an agency rewarded for maintaining this at us quo. 0:12:10.276 --> 0:12:17.956 So there's resistance for reasons of leadership, inertia, fear about 0:12:17.996 --> 0:12:21.476 you know, what will happen to my organization or my 0:12:21.636 --> 0:12:26.396 job at the agency. And there's also just in larger cities, 0:12:27.156 --> 0:12:31.636 still this myth of the overwhelming nature of the problem, 0:12:32.196 --> 0:12:36.796 and that's the way the problem is reported, typically bad 0:12:36.836 --> 0:12:41.436 getting worse. We've done media scans to look at you know, 0:12:41.556 --> 0:12:45.116 where are the solutions stories on homelessness, and I would 0:12:45.116 --> 0:12:48.476 say community solutions and the communities we're working with who 0:12:48.476 --> 0:12:51.156 are seeing these profound shifts. We have a job to 0:12:51.196 --> 0:12:54.156 do on communications that I think is part of what 0:12:54.276 --> 0:12:57.556 needs to happen next. That there are these communities that 0:12:57.596 --> 0:13:01.356 are now solving the problem, have ended chronic or veteran homelessness, 0:13:01.436 --> 0:13:04.916 are seeing steady month over month reductions, but we are 0:13:04.956 --> 0:13:08.156 still in a world that is convinced that this is 0:13:08.556 --> 0:13:11.916 not a solved problem despite the evidence, but with no 0:13:12.036 --> 0:13:15.396 clear endgame. Let's talk a little about these tools that 0:13:15.436 --> 0:13:19.716 allow you to see the problem. That's what you're talking about, right, 0:13:19.756 --> 0:13:22.196 You need to be able to see this problem. How 0:13:22.236 --> 0:13:26.876 does one go about visualizing in real time the problem 0:13:26.876 --> 0:13:30.876 of homelessness in a given community. What we have found 0:13:31.236 --> 0:13:34.676 is the real breakthrough moment, and we learn this with 0:13:34.756 --> 0:13:38.036 our communities. We've been working this problem a long time now, 0:13:38.556 --> 0:13:41.596 and it was realizing that you need by name, real 0:13:41.636 --> 0:13:46.836 time information on who's experiencing homelessness in a community and how. Now, 0:13:46.916 --> 0:13:49.996 homelessness we've come to see is like saying we've got 0:13:49.996 --> 0:13:52.716 a sickness issue in our community. It tells you nothing. 0:13:52.836 --> 0:13:55.676 You need to know exactly how and what. Was there 0:13:55.716 --> 0:13:58.596 a family break up issue last night and that needs 0:13:58.676 --> 0:14:01.996 some quick intervention in repair? Or is there a chronict 0:14:02.036 --> 0:14:04.116 mental health problem and you've been on the street for 0:14:04.156 --> 0:14:07.556 thirty years, Totally different conditions that require different groups of 0:14:07.596 --> 0:14:12.356 people to collaborate and respond, and often organizations that have 0:14:12.956 --> 0:14:14.516 not a whole lot to do with homelessness. You know, 0:14:14.596 --> 0:14:18.276 it's domestic violence agency, it's it's medicaid. You know that 0:14:18.756 --> 0:14:21.036 these other failures show up in homelessness, and if no 0:14:21.036 --> 0:14:25.716 one's asking the right questions, then the problem just compounds. 0:14:25.756 --> 0:14:29.116 And so the first step we discovered is helping communities 0:14:29.396 --> 0:14:33.116 develop quality data that means you basically need to know 0:14:33.636 --> 0:14:37.596 with a very high degree of reliability. Are you accounting 0:14:37.636 --> 0:14:39.796 for everyone? And so that means that you need to 0:14:39.836 --> 0:14:43.116 have in the room all of the outreach teams, the 0:14:43.196 --> 0:14:46.236 soup kitchens, the shelters. Everyone in a community who is 0:14:46.236 --> 0:14:50.676 touching the problem needs to basically share information on who 0:14:50.676 --> 0:14:54.316 they're working with and get signed releases from those individuals 0:14:54.316 --> 0:14:56.836 and families so that they can be helped to get 0:14:56.876 --> 0:14:59.796 out of the situation or avoid it altogether. Getting to 0:14:59.796 --> 0:15:02.916 a point where you know in real time what's actually 0:15:02.916 --> 0:15:06.716 happening and how the problem is moving and changing, because 0:15:07.156 --> 0:15:12.156 that very highly specific information will allow you to see 0:15:12.636 --> 0:15:16.876 where you're housing placement rate needs to be increased, where 0:15:16.916 --> 0:15:20.396 you have problems with certain agencies, or certain conditions or 0:15:20.436 --> 0:15:24.996 certain events in your communities that are creating incidents of homelessness. 0:15:25.396 --> 0:15:29.876 And in that context of having the full picture and 0:15:29.996 --> 0:15:33.116 being able to see the shifts, communities can be trained 0:15:33.396 --> 0:15:37.276 and have been trained to use quality improvement human centered design. 0:15:37.356 --> 0:15:41.876 How you facilitate meetings across different sectors, basically, how you 0:15:41.956 --> 0:15:44.196 keep coming back to that shared goal of are we 0:15:44.316 --> 0:15:47.076 reducing and getting closer to zero. Let's walk through a 0:15:47.436 --> 0:15:52.716 hypothetical example. I am the mayor of a city of 0:15:52.716 --> 0:15:56.796 two hundred and fifty thousand in Ohio, I have a 0:15:56.836 --> 0:16:01.236 homelessness problem. I'll call you up. Question number one. If 0:16:01.276 --> 0:16:04.556 I have none of these systems in place, do I 0:16:04.676 --> 0:16:07.636 know how many homeless people I have? Probably not. You 0:16:07.716 --> 0:16:12.116 probably are relying on your annual point in time count 0:16:12.556 --> 0:16:17.196 that is mandated by HUD, and that's at best an estimate. 0:16:17.356 --> 0:16:20.476 We have found it's wildly off on a general basis. 0:16:20.476 --> 0:16:25.676 When you can off by two hundred wow. Yeah, so 0:16:25.796 --> 0:16:28.396 like you really don't know what's going on, but you 0:16:28.476 --> 0:16:30.836 have that snap off just because this population is so 0:16:30.916 --> 0:16:35.756 transitory and hard to find, and well, there are various 0:16:36.076 --> 0:16:39.436 methodologies that HUD will accept as an acceptable way of 0:16:39.436 --> 0:16:42.076 getting to an estimate. So there's great variability in that. 0:16:42.796 --> 0:16:47.636 And then there's a coverage issue. Typically communities don't have 0:16:47.996 --> 0:16:51.596 in one night the ability to really understand fully what's 0:16:51.636 --> 0:16:54.836 going on. And then, as you point out, there's the variability. 0:16:55.036 --> 0:16:58.236 Just what's happening on you one day is not what's 0:16:58.276 --> 0:17:01.436 happening across the course of a year. As someone has said, 0:17:01.756 --> 0:17:04.236 you know, a snapshot is the wrong method. You need 0:17:04.276 --> 0:17:07.196 a video to understand what's going on with with homelessness. 0:17:07.876 --> 0:17:11.116 As a mayor, you're probably the best information you've got 0:17:11.236 --> 0:17:15.596 is wildly wrong plus or minus. And then the second thing, 0:17:16.196 --> 0:17:18.876 that point in time count tells you nothing that's actionable. 0:17:18.916 --> 0:17:21.876 It doesn't tell you who in that population you think 0:17:21.916 --> 0:17:25.716 you have that is experiencing homelessness actually has a one 0:17:25.836 --> 0:17:29.716 night problem versus a thirty year problem, And so you 0:17:29.756 --> 0:17:32.156 have no idea like who's going to correct the problem themselves, 0:17:32.156 --> 0:17:35.036 which is the principal way people escape homelessness by the 0:17:35.076 --> 0:17:38.036 way they sort it out, versus who we're going to 0:17:38.076 --> 0:17:40.876 need to actively intervene to help and kind of get 0:17:40.876 --> 0:17:43.516 everybody around the same table in order to accomplish that. 0:17:43.876 --> 0:17:46.116 Here's the people that you need to bring to the 0:17:46.156 --> 0:17:49.916 first meeting. You need the coalition of not for profits 0:17:49.916 --> 0:17:52.076 that's receiving money from HUT. You need the head of 0:17:52.116 --> 0:17:54.836 your housing authority, and you need your local VA Medical 0:17:54.916 --> 0:17:58.796 center director. Get those folks in a room, and that's 0:17:58.836 --> 0:18:01.716 the starting point. They're the core team, and it's that 0:18:01.796 --> 0:18:04.396 group that has to commit to solving the same problem. 0:18:04.716 --> 0:18:07.196 Like we're all here to actually get to an end state, 0:18:07.236 --> 0:18:10.236 which is zero, which is that we don't have chronic homelessness. 0:18:10.756 --> 0:18:15.556 When you say collect data on these people talking about 0:18:15.596 --> 0:18:18.196 that means so you need to know one's name, you 0:18:18.236 --> 0:18:23.556 need to have a medical history, a background, you profile 0:18:23.596 --> 0:18:27.836 of me correct. Most communities are using a common assessment 0:18:27.836 --> 0:18:29.596 tool now I think they're about two hundred a least 0:18:29.596 --> 0:18:32.356 two undred community who were using an assessment tool that 0:18:32.556 --> 0:18:37.236 basically gets your identity, but also self reported medical conditions 0:18:37.236 --> 0:18:40.596 that correlate with what we know about premature death. Homelessness 0:18:40.676 --> 0:18:44.596 is a more lethal condition than most cancers, frankly, and 0:18:44.676 --> 0:18:48.116 also some of the critical information that can allow a 0:18:48.156 --> 0:18:53.116 community to help match you with resources that can enable 0:18:53.156 --> 0:18:56.556 you to escape homelessness, like do you have a history 0:18:56.556 --> 0:18:59.276 of being in the foster care system? Are you over 0:18:59.316 --> 0:19:01.996 the age of sixty or sixty five and therefore qualify 0:19:02.116 --> 0:19:05.116 for senior housing programs? For instance? Are you are you 0:19:05.156 --> 0:19:09.876 someone who's a veteran. That information already surfaces for communities 0:19:10.076 --> 0:19:11.916 more than what they had to go on in terms 0:19:11.916 --> 0:19:15.236 of the range of housing resources they already have access 0:19:15.276 --> 0:19:19.636 to that maybe are not fully deployed or efficiently matched 0:19:19.716 --> 0:19:22.756 to people who would qualify for them. And so it's 0:19:22.796 --> 0:19:25.796 that basic information like a LinkedIn page for the that's 0:19:25.796 --> 0:19:28.116 a good way of thinking of it for homeless population. 0:19:28.556 --> 0:19:30.236 So you say to me, Malcolm, you've got to know 0:19:31.156 --> 0:19:34.356 the names and backgrounds of your homeless population, and then 0:19:34.396 --> 0:19:38.356 you have to create this kind of video as opposed 0:19:38.356 --> 0:19:41.236 to a snapshot. What do I learn from my video? 0:19:41.636 --> 0:19:44.996 How much movement is there in this video that you're creating. 0:19:45.796 --> 0:19:49.276 What you will see in communities that have this quality 0:19:49.356 --> 0:19:54.196 by name data is every month, at the very least 0:19:54.636 --> 0:19:58.196 often every week or every day. You'll see how many 0:19:58.236 --> 0:20:02.796 individuals are moving out of homelessness. Who has been directly 0:20:02.836 --> 0:20:06.116 assisted housed in a variety of ways, first months, run 0:20:06.196 --> 0:20:09.556 security deposit, or we've reconnected you with family, or we've 0:20:09.556 --> 0:20:12.796 matched you to a housing resource. How many people have 0:20:12.876 --> 0:20:16.676 been housed, How many people that you have had in 0:20:16.716 --> 0:20:20.396 your system since you first had that quality data established, 0:20:20.596 --> 0:20:23.516 who have just gone off the radar, they remain on 0:20:23.876 --> 0:20:26.556 what we call an inactive list, but accounts for the 0:20:26.636 --> 0:20:29.796 first time for this phenomenon that all of us who've 0:20:29.836 --> 0:20:32.636 been doing this work have always understood that most people 0:20:32.676 --> 0:20:36.596 who experience homelessness resolve it themselves, and so at least 0:20:36.596 --> 0:20:40.516 by moving people to you're still aware of them, but 0:20:40.636 --> 0:20:43.236 you're not like holding a voucher for them. You're not 0:20:43.356 --> 0:20:45.756 like jamming up a waiting list, thinking where are they. 0:20:46.076 --> 0:20:49.316 The assumption becomes they have self resolved, but they come 0:20:49.316 --> 0:20:51.476 back and they don't lose their place if something else 0:20:51.476 --> 0:20:54.836 has happened, and so on. You have outflow information to 0:20:54.916 --> 0:20:59.156 show how you're performing in ratcheting up your housing placements 0:20:59.236 --> 0:21:02.756 and the effectiveness of your matching system. And then on 0:21:02.796 --> 0:21:06.716 the inflow side, you're looking at who is new into 0:21:06.756 --> 0:21:11.516 homelessness this month or this week, who has returned to homelessness, 0:21:11.556 --> 0:21:15.516 who we assisted in the past, and who have we 0:21:15.796 --> 0:21:18.476 seen come back from that inactive list. I want to 0:21:18.476 --> 0:21:21.156 go some for examples. Let's do some very specific so 0:21:21.196 --> 0:21:23.236 I'm going to give you a for example and tell 0:21:23.236 --> 0:21:26.116 me whether it's realistic. You come to me and you say, Malcolm, 0:21:26.116 --> 0:21:28.716 in your city, we've looked at your movie and we've 0:21:28.756 --> 0:21:35.516 discovered huge percentage of your homeless population is disabled bets. 0:21:36.436 --> 0:21:40.036 That is a great example to unpack, for instance, throughout 0:21:40.036 --> 0:21:43.196 the country. And it's been a commitment of the VA 0:21:43.396 --> 0:21:46.836 since two and ten to end veteran homelessness. There are 0:21:46.876 --> 0:21:53.556 sufficient resources allocated to house every remaining veteran who's experiencing homelessness. 0:21:53.876 --> 0:21:56.556 The number is just under forty thousand based on the 0:21:56.556 --> 0:22:01.396 best estimates. The problem has been finding and connecting those 0:22:01.516 --> 0:22:06.156 individuals or heads of families two housing resources, and so 0:22:06.516 --> 0:22:09.716 immediately you see you need this kind of collective, accountable 0:22:09.756 --> 0:22:13.556 structure in order to get the job done. So if 0:22:13.836 --> 0:22:17.476 there are veterans remaining homeless in a community, that's not 0:22:17.556 --> 0:22:20.556 a problem of resources. It's a problem of do you 0:22:20.596 --> 0:22:23.676 have landlords who are unwilling to accept the VA support 0:22:23.676 --> 0:22:28.556 of housing vouchers? Do you have programs that are inadvertently 0:22:28.956 --> 0:22:32.196 keeping veterans homeless because they are operating a shelter and 0:22:32.236 --> 0:22:36.476 they're not plugged into the housing resources. What this data 0:22:36.516 --> 0:22:41.116 will surface is why are we not connecting the dots 0:22:41.236 --> 0:22:45.116 in more effective ways? Because what I really am describing 0:22:45.116 --> 0:22:47.516 I think that's happened in communities MALACOLM is a cultural 0:22:47.556 --> 0:22:50.516 shift where once you say like this is actually a 0:22:50.516 --> 0:22:53.676 solvable problem, and it's on us, the people who are 0:22:53.836 --> 0:22:57.316 awareness of the resources, including where are the private landlords, 0:22:57.356 --> 0:22:59.796 who are the different organizations have resources. It's up to 0:22:59.916 --> 0:23:04.156 us to coordinate and be accountable for a result, not 0:23:04.396 --> 0:23:08.716 up to people who are overwhelmed and been turned away 0:23:08.716 --> 0:23:11.956 from programs because they're not eligible, and it's left on 0:23:11.996 --> 0:23:15.436 these overwhelmed people somehow to navigate the system. Once that flips, 0:23:16.196 --> 0:23:21.116 you begin to realize that it's many different problems and 0:23:21.756 --> 0:23:24.916 many different resources can come into play to solve them, 0:23:24.956 --> 0:23:27.156 and that in no one community is the number so 0:23:27.236 --> 0:23:30.956 overwhelming that once you see the problem clearly, are you 0:23:31.036 --> 0:23:34.876 unable to solve it. Give me a good, really specific 0:23:35.436 --> 0:23:39.756 thing you might learn from creating this movie of your 0:23:39.796 --> 0:23:44.716 homelessness problem, and how that might inform my job as mayor. 0:23:46.956 --> 0:23:50.116 Let me lift up a community like Bergen County, New Jersey, 0:23:50.436 --> 0:23:56.756 or Rockford, Illinois, or like Montgomery County, Maryland, or Gulf 0:23:56.796 --> 0:24:01.396 Coast Mississippi, places that have all ended chronic or veteran 0:24:01.436 --> 0:24:04.716 homelessness or not, and I think the mayor of those 0:24:04.756 --> 0:24:08.876 communities would see, after significant numbers of their municipal work, 0:24:09.556 --> 0:24:12.756 people working in homelessness have learned how to work as 0:24:12.876 --> 0:24:16.676 a team, have grasped the fact that this is a 0:24:16.756 --> 0:24:19.356 population level problem that we have to be all in on, 0:24:19.796 --> 0:24:23.596 and have learned frankly twenty first century problem solving skills 0:24:23.676 --> 0:24:26.756 like using data for problem solving, not for judgment, and 0:24:27.276 --> 0:24:34.516 quality improvement. That mayor will see that there is this enlivened, 0:24:34.796 --> 0:24:40.276 empowered municipal workforce that is able to problem solve not 0:24:40.316 --> 0:24:43.716 just homelessness, but the problems that contribute to homelessness. Because 0:24:44.036 --> 0:24:47.396 it's all of this same thing of fragmentation. They're going 0:24:47.436 --> 0:24:51.516 to see that they're spending money in ways that makes 0:24:51.556 --> 0:24:56.316 sense for the whole community. They're not randomly developing housing 0:24:56.356 --> 0:24:59.236 policies or homeless policies and throwing money against the wall 0:24:59.236 --> 0:25:03.196 and hoping something actually works out. That they are embracing 0:25:03.396 --> 0:25:08.156 with members of their community, this spirit of accountability for 0:25:08.556 --> 0:25:12.676 taking off hard problems that can't be solved with a 0:25:12.716 --> 0:25:16.396 single program or you know, an app, but require people 0:25:16.676 --> 0:25:20.716 to really think and work differently in teams, using real 0:25:20.756 --> 0:25:25.076 information to drive their understanding of problems as opposed to 0:25:25.276 --> 0:25:30.756 ideological views. That those are communities that are actually positioned 0:25:30.796 --> 0:25:34.916 to thrive in many ways, and that homelessness we've come 0:25:34.916 --> 0:25:37.956 to see after so many years, you know, and personally 0:25:37.956 --> 0:25:41.636