Episode 2: Part Two of Finding Home Live Panel - Transcript

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“If we want to say we value lived experience and we want to say that we value our staff coming from the community, we have to provide tools and provide pathways to grow into leadership”-Sammie Rayner

VOC Finding Home EP 2 (Master Part 2)

Erica Kisch: [00:00:00] Um,

George Koster: so is there something, you know, some piece of legislation, 'cause now everybody's throwing out candy to become the next mayor, right? So is there some piece of legislation or some legislation that you would like to see that the supervisors and whoever happens to be the mayor can, can, do, or is there anything on the ballot here in two, three weeks that people can vote for that would actually change it on the street?

Erica Kisch: well, you know, there needs to be more permanent housing. There needs to be more permanent housing. And there's a lot of, I think, kind of, back and forth about shelter. No housing, no shelter, no housing. But we actually need all of it. we need both of it. and the other area that, you know, folks should be paying attention to is this, you know, the Grants Pass decision and the idea that if you don't have a place to live, even though we're not gonna let you live anywhere near us.

Erica Kisch: You don't have a right to exist. and 29% of the [00:01:00] families that come to us, uh, needing shelter are sleeping in vehicles and living in vehicles. Yet there are 530 families counting probably more since I got here, that are waiting for shelter. So what are we thinking? what are we thinking?

George Koster: Well, now there's a, new movement to basically not allow people to live in their cars or their RVs.

George Koster: I mean, it's, anyway, so, um, I'm, and it turned to, Sammy and have her share a little bit about, solutions you've seen, done what you'd like to see.

Sammie Rayner: Yeah. Um, touching back to the pandemic there, you know, there were pl plenty of challenges, but there was this just like community response that got everyone to one table.

Sammie Rayner: And we were able to see some, results, particularly, women who had [00:02:00] formerly been in our drop-in center. A lot a, a life cycle of like how a woman might engage the homeless service system very often looks like and sadly coming in, doing one of our programs, you know, when we're not the only women's service provider, there's many in there, there are others in the city, but you might be in kind of a cocoon of a gender specific space and then get the golden ticket, get into housing, but be because you're in an, a single resident occupancy, an SRO and you're sharing bathrooms with other genders.

Sammie Rayner: We, we have this time and again where all this investment will go into a woman getting herself stable, getting into housing and she's rea assaulted in that housing and then falls back and. So having investments in what we're, what we're really focused on is, is how can we make that those movements safe [00:03:00] and permanently safe?

Sammie Rayner: And in the pandemic we saw, you know, just the increases of hygiene, mental health, just overall, you know, wellbeing of the, women being in the, this kind of, again, this cocoon of you know, having their own bed in their own room. we were able to see a huge uptick, you know, almost 70% of those women moved on into, permanent housing 'cause they were able to build that stability over several years.

Sammie Rayner: and so we wanna continue to see that kind of progress. One of the kind of strategic things we've done is really focused on coalition building. so we're one of the co-founders of the Women's Housing Coalition and. you know, so much of the homeless response is community based, right? It's, you know, there's, different, different responses in different neighborhoods, different [00:04:00] responses for, yeah, different racial groups within, within women.

Sammie Rayner: And so what we're working on a community forward is like, how can we build a tent for all of these different services so that a woman falling into this system doesn't need to necessarily understand, you know, what's the difference between Mary Elizabeth in, or La Casa de Las Madres or Asian women shelter?

Sammie Rayner: You know, there's so many wonderful programs, safe House, that, what we wanna see and where we see are our response, because we are that safety net, we're that drop-in center that. You know, we, in a given year, we might see 3000 women in our door. and so to be that role, we really wanna move into our vision of a women's center, which would be a one-stop shop, a place where we can really refer and connect women to their next place in their [00:05:00] journey, whether that's with us or with others.

Sammie Rayner: so we really pushed, you know, one of the things we'd love to see is, proposition A is a, funding source that was passed last year, so that, those funds will be issued sometime in the next year. and there's a historic $30 million carved out for victim and survivor housing. so our, aim is to see, that really make a, big dent in the long term safety of women within our homeless service system.

Sammie Rayner: and. And I guess one other other note to add and kind of, echoing Lydia, is that, the population is aging. we are seeing that's the fastest growing home, homeless population is, older adults and just looking at truly permanent [00:06:00] solutions. These are women who aren't necessarily gonna go back and get a job and be able to, you know, have a short-term subsidy that works for them.

Sammie Rayner: So we really, wanna see long-term solutions for older adults as well.

George Koster: So

George Koster: just following back up, so Proposition A,

Sammie Rayner: that has already passed. Already passed, so it's just getting that out the door. But I'd say just in general, voters looking at, any investments we can make in housing, and like Erica said, the whole, all of it is needed transitional.

Sammie Rayner: Permanent, the whole mix is needed.

George Koster: Navigation centers more, you know, project Gubbio's et cetera. So, so anything anyone can do to write, to get money accelerated coming outta project, you know, a,

Sammie Rayner: just continuing to, you know, elevate the need to your local supervisors that, you know, when we do all this, you know, work to get these big propositions passed, [00:07:00] just making sure that those dollars get, get out the door and get invested in the community.

George Koster: Great. Thank you Sam. Megan?

Meghan Freebeck: yeah, I mean, I echo what everyone has said and, you know, I just, I would also emphasize what I see a lot that can feel challenging to me, as I've seen in San Francisco as I've been here the last 12 years, is people want very quick solutions. They want the visibility of homelessness to change, and they want it to happen very quickly.

Meghan Freebeck: And frankly, that's not realistic. But when we make, when we make decisions for our community based on what can make this look different or be different quickly, well then it's not gonna be lasting. Houston, just reported a 63% decrease in homelessness because they made a housing first initiative.

Meghan Freebeck: They did that in 2012. It takes time, but it [00:08:00] works. a really wonderful article came out where a woman who, was a, disabled 80-year-old veteran and she has housing for the first time in decades because of this policy. Now, it would be unrealistic and frankly cruel to say that this person needs to go find income that can provide housing.

Meghan Freebeck: She. You know, she has served her community in her life. Not that I think that that's a necessity to get housing, but it just shows that it works. But it takes time, right? That was 12 years ago, they made that policy, and only now are they reporting the 63% decrease. So we need to believe that these policies that take time are the ones that are gonna be the most effective often.

Meghan Freebeck: I mentioned that I ran a, an interim housing program in Chicago. that program had been around for 40 years and we thought, wow, 40th anniversary, we should celebrate this. So we did a little bit of a media blitz and we invited all the neighbors to come into our site [00:09:00] and see what we were doing. Big lesson learned from one of my first, uh, roles in the sector.

Meghan Freebeck: a petition began, don't bring a shelter to our neighborhood, says Lincoln Park. This is a nice neighborhood. There's no homelessness here. We don't want a shelter here. And I had to say, you know, to this sign, this petition was getting hundreds of signatures and I had to be like. Ma'am sirs, we are here.

Meghan Freebeck: You're trying to prevent us from coming here. But the reason why you don't see homelessness in your neighborhood is because we are here, because we have provided people with a safe space, a roof over their head. It, it was interim housing with no deadline. And as long as, you know, people were working on their goals with their case managers, they had the safe space.

Meghan Freebeck: And so I think we need to stop with this language of don't bring this here to my area because we don't want homelessness here. Well, you have homelessness in your neighborhood, and we also agree that I, don't want someone sleeping [00:10:00] on your stoop any more than they want to have to be sleeping on your stoop.

Meghan Freebeck: so we need to believe in these solutions that do take more time, not the ones that just. And things in three months really invest care about San Francisco. You know, have, have like that city pride that I think is so important. and we also, I would really love to see us get away from us as a, you know, the royal us not us up here, but this language that people are choosing not to accept shelter.

Meghan Freebeck: I have been doing this for quite a while. I've met a lot of people, I've never, ever met anyone decline shelter. That wasn't a poor option for them. That wasn't a less safe option than what they were doing. In fact, somebody that we just connected to recently and then, you know, and then they get added to the data of declined and then that's on their report.

Meghan Freebeck: But this person we met recently, he was offered a shelter bed and you'd been sleeping outside and you would think, phenomenal. A shelter bed. Why wouldn't you take that? Well, the [00:11:00] shelter he was offered, it was, a bunk bed, the top bunk, and he's in a wheelchair. So he said, that's not a good option for me.

Meghan Freebeck: And they marked it off as declined shelter. And, so I, you know, it just, it, it broke my heart to hear it. And we're doing what we can to advocate for that individual, but we are all only so many advocates out there, and it is the policies that are really gonna make this difference. So, yeah, I, I think it's just really echoing what everyone said and just giving my own examples to it.

Meghan Freebeck: But having a safe place to be, that is a space that fits that person's needs is the solution. And we have to be willing to invest the money and the time in doing that.

George Koster: Thank you. And Lydia?

Lydia Bransten: Um, I mean, I wanna, I wanna echo universal basic income. I mean, it's a, there's a, there's something bigger happening.

Lydia Bransten: Across the world, which is that, you know, our [00:12:00] economy is changing and the way people work is changing and, how many jobs there are is changing. And so whether we like, like it or not, the canaries in the coal mine around, homelessness and joblessness has to do with a, a bigger economy. And so universal basic income at some point needs to, needs to become, you know, established.

George Koster: can I, I just wanna hold for a second because just for everybody in the audience and folks listening and watching, your project provides hand up to folks that are, participating. So on hand up there is a Gubbio where people can actually, Yes. So I'll send you the information, but it looks like there's folks that have created a hand up campaign for folks who've been in, in your program.

Lydia Bransten: Oh, wonderful.

George Koster: So,

Lydia Bransten: yeah, I, I, I think that's,

George Koster: you have a

George Koster: hand up expert here. Yeah. So maybe there's an opportunity to do that.

Lydia Bransten: Amazing. [00:13:00] yeah, I think that, it's interesting when we talk about safety, you know, safety is a word that gets bandied about San Francisco these days in terms of, of like, you know, people's sense of safety.

Lydia Bransten: And seeing a person experiencing homelessness makes them feel unsafe. And seeing a person using drugs makes them feel unsafe. And the, the conclusion being that in order to have more safety, you need more policing, and you need more security. And you need all of these things to keep, you know, the people who are housed safe from the people who are unhoused and frankly poor.

Lydia Bransten: and I just. You know, I just want people to have a, reality check. You know, when we look at the overdose crisis where you had 813 people in 2023 die on the streets of San Francisco and in, in, shelters and, and SROs and, and homes. the person who was [00:14:00] unsafe on the street was the person who was using drugs, not the person walking by them.

Lydia Bransten: the safety of the people who are experiencing homelessness is far more at risk than the person who's walking by them, you know, and I ran, the safety team for St. Anthony's for many years, and I learned something. I feel like safety teams often make people unsafe, and the reason is, is because when we increase policing.

Lydia Bransten: It creates an environment where someone needs to be in confrontation with another person, you know? And it creates this environment where, you know, if you live out on the street, I used to always say to my team, I was like, you know, you gotta give people space to be able to walk out because you're not gonna walk into the street feeling like a mouse.

Lydia Bransten: You're gonna walk the, you're gonna hit the street feeling like a lion, right? So if you create an environment where you're asking someone to leave a program because, because their behavior is unsafe or [00:15:00] unacceptable for the community, right? You have to give them that person space to be able to walk out on their own.

Lydia Bransten: But when you hit the streets, you know, we look at all of these programs and we're thinking about, you know, moving people around, shuffling people from here to there. You know, I use this example of like, you know, when you have a person who goes on holiday, they go to the airport, they've been to their lovely holiday, they're coming home, it's, you know, they had to be back at work.

Lydia Bransten: The next day, the airplane is canceled. Right. They're not getting any information at the booth. There's no, it's, it's canceled. It's gonna be 24 hours till there's another plane. There's a line of 500 people who are also waiting for planes. Right? How long until the housed person, the rational person is banging on the desk, screaming and yelling about like, you know, there's no hotels.

Lydia Bransten: I have to sleep on this, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, it's stressful. This is the life for many people who live every day. They have to go from program to a pro, go to a program to eat, go to a program, to shower, go to [00:16:00] a different program, to like, be able to sleep, to go to a different pro.

Lydia Bransten: It's incredibly stressful, you know, and then you add this kind of like, security element on top of it. It's like, it's volatile, you know? And I think that, I think one of the things that needs to change, again, it's really hard, but I like people need to take a good, hard look at like, what is safety? You know, and, and when you see someone who's acting out on the street who's having, you know, a mental health crisis, you know, I, I watched a guy who was having a mental health crisis walking down the middle of, of, um, of Julian, which is the street that we're on, and there was a police car behind him on their speaker saying, get outta the road while this person is walking down the street screaming and yelling.

Lydia Bransten: You know, and I'm thinking to myself, well, that's helpful. That's a good de deescalation technique. Like, you know, that person's behavior went from not good to like [00:17:00] really, really crazy, you know, because they're being yelled at on a speaker in the middle of the street. Right? What can the city do? You know, hot team does great work when they're funded.

Lydia Bransten: Crisis team is a great idea. You know,

Lydia Bransten: conserv con, you know, conserving people is complicated, but more importantly, where's the infrastructure? Once the person has been connected, right? Crisis team picks someone up on Valencia Street, who's acting out on the street. They deescalate that person. They'll bring them to us. We give them a place to rest.

Lydia Bransten: At the end of the day, they're, they're back on the street, right? Where is where's, because we, we don't have the ability to say that this person who's having a mental health crisis needs a safe place to be for a while. You know, [00:18:00] a person who has means, who has money, who is struggling with substance use disorder, sees a psychiatrist, see's a clinical psychologist, see's a, you know, treatment looks different.

Lydia Bransten: Abstinence only Faith-based social model treatment programs are often the programs that are free to people. They're great for some folk, but folks that need like clinical care, you know, it's a different level of care. Where is that care being provided? Where's the medication being provided? If, someone has a mental health crisis that needs to be on medication, they're living on the street, where are they getting their medication?

Lydia Bransten: Were they keeping their medication when there's a sweep and that everything is taken, their medication is gone. Now you have a person who, who is forwardly psychotic because they're not on their medication anymore, you know? So the infrastructure isn't there. And that's why I keep talking about the big money.

Lydia Bransten: It's like, where's the infrastructure? We're gonna conserve people. Where are they gonna go?[00:19:00]

George Koster: Thank you. Any,

Lydia Bransten: I know that's not really a solution.

George Koster: No, it's, it, it's great. It reminds me actually in 2014 as part of our show, it's a three partner called Homeless in San Francisco back in 2014 when we first interviewed, Sammy, we also interviewed Emily Cohen, who was the acting director of Project Homeless Connect.

George Koster: And she had mentioned a study, and I'm trying to remember back, but the study was on for every year that someone is unhoused and living in the open, they lose around 10% of their cognitive ability. So then I think the city and county of San Francisco says that if you've lived in the street for three years, you're a chronic unhoused person.

George Koster: So let's say that you've lost 60% of your capacity, your cognitive capacity to have a conversation, to ask for help, to, you know, not walk down the street screaming, you know, et cetera. So,

Lydia Bransten: and,

Lydia Bransten: this is one of the reasons why Drop-ins. You know, are, are part of a stepping stone to a solution because people can't always come right off the street, [00:20:00] into, into a, into a housing facility.

Lydia Bransten: Right. There's, we've worked, I, worked with one gentleman, he's been on the street for 18 years. Honestly, he was one of those people that I'd be like, this person's never gonna be housed. Right? Like, they have so much of that street culture kind of in their veins, and their, their behavior is problematic.

Lydia Bransten: And they have substance use disorder, and they have mental health, they have all kinds of stuff, and they have a specific area they'd like to, but after three years of coming to us almost every day, right, we started to have these conversations. I'm like, what are the barriers? Like, why don't you live inside?

Lydia Bransten: Oh, I need to live on a roof. I need the open sky. You know, I'm like, oh, I don't think anyone's gonna give you housing on a roof. You know what I mean? But the conversations continued. Continued. Like, what are the sums you'd like? Oh, you know, he's really into music. He's really into this. He's really into, you know, and, you start building this rapport.

Lydia Bransten: Then talking with the folks from the best team, which is a, combination of, of, DPH and, the, hot team. You know, we were [00:21:00] like, you know, I can get you, he can get a radio. He can, like, we started like building this narrative of what housing could look like to him. You know, he is now housed. But it took three years, right?

Lydia Bransten: It took three years of conversation. To your point about this is not a, the quick fixes don't exist. The people who are, the people who, who the folks in San Francisco see on the streets acting out that are considered to be really problematic, right? And are, and people are referring to as scary, are the most complicated folks, right?

Lydia Bransten: They need a lot of care, but spaces like Goia, what's nice about what we do for them is that it's, optional. They come in when they're not, you can take, you can go through your bag 450 times, you know, and they tend to come in pretty aggressive. But after, after a couple of [00:22:00] times, you know, they start to slow down and they realize we're not gonna bug 'em.

Lydia Bransten: And then they're like, oh, okay. Couple weeks later we couldn't start having conversation, you know? And then partnering with other organizations who are already doing the work, we're able to connect them to services by bringing organizations to them, right. Having them onsite instead of referring out.

George Koster: Thank you, Lydia and Mary coming to you.

Mary Carl: well, I just wanna, what we've heard so far on the panel, there's been some incredible ideas and solutions put forth. I think like going back to the pandemic, just. Some of the things, what do we learn in trying to continue to implement those moving forward? So one thing is around the funding streams, funders were creating an opportunity for there to be more flexibility and less restrictions and, on how you were using the funds.

Mary Carl: They were kind of like moving away from sometimes their, like, their organizational [00:23:00] missions and really we're drawing to like, what is the community needing and trying to provide the opportunity for the organizations and the community to define what that is. And also the requirements. And, you know, reporting requirements were often, streamlined and tried to make, made more easy, creating more simple, processes.

Mary Carl: And I think pulling those through would be a real positive thing on like, how do we continue to make it easy and the funding to meet the needs of the community. I think is an incredibly important thing. and then I think we, which has already been mentioned on, the panel so far, is just really this cross sector collaboration.

Mary Carl: I think if we look at housing and homelessness just in one silo, you're really not able to address the full individual and the full solution. So the more that we can start to go across systems and bring people together across public health, healthcare, education, dv, mental health, homelessness, that the more effective our approach will be.

Mary Carl: and being able to solve the, homeless problem. And being able to [00:24:00] translate across like, what, what, do we mean by, by this factor across the different systems? 'cause each one has its own language and own complexity. at Miracle Messages, what we've been looking at doing, so we were able to, we've had an, an incredible gift from a family that's been able to support us and continuation of our services, with the basic income.

Mary Carl: And as we were starting to grapple with like, how do we want to continue to meet the need and expand our services, we were really looking at like, what are our fundamental priorities and principles as an organization? And one of those was about not increasing, being really careful about minimizing the increase in our staffing infrastructure and looking at the opportunity to get the money into the hands of the community as much as possible.

Mary Carl: And so we've been looking at employing, ambassadors, people with lived experience to help us do outreach in different communities. We've been also like piloting and testing different kind of financial, incentives to engage and enroll into our services. But really with like. Or potentially partner with and potentially [00:25:00] provide funding to local organizations to help, provide some outreach for us versus us trying to like enhance or like increase our staffing infrastructure.

Mary Carl: There's so much already that's happening across the community. And, the other thing that I would suggest, you know, moving forward and thinking about like how do we continue to do this is, really getting to know individuals who are experiencing homelessness and understanding the complexity around that.

Mary Carl: And, so we've talked a lot about people who are on the streets homeless, but that is just like the, tip of the iceberg around homelessness. And it is such a complex situation and people's experiences, but vary drastically. And I think the more we are under able to understand that complexity allows for us to understand what those solutions might look like moving forward.

Mary Carl: and then the, you know. The last thing that I'll, really say is that we need to hear what people are saying that they need and create solutions around that. And so if people are [00:26:00] needing potable water, then we need to provide them with that. Or the people are looking for having a job that we don't need to categorize that.

Mary Carl: Like we can start to put away our own judgment and maybe provide them with the opportunity that they're putting in front of us versus us telling them, no, no, you need to go get treatment before you get a job. But how do we start meeting people with where they are and identifying and providing them with the services that they're needing?

Mary Carl: So. Yeah.

George Koster: Thank you Mary. I just wanna conclude this portion of it by, where each organization is going. So a big part of our in-house community and slightly poverty in general, is, is, you know, basically racism and and people of color. So, you know, what I'd love to hear from each of our organizations is how you are working to diversify your, workforce, and to bring in more people, you know, of color and, more L-G-B-T-Q and, trans folks to work with the community that's on the street that reflects that.

George Koster: So, I'm gonna start with [00:27:00] Sammy.

Sammie Rayner: Yes. Thank you George. And such an important question. And I, think for us at Community Forward, really it's like how are we, how are we supporting future leaders? and, and less in a like savior way and specifically in an empowerment way. And that really looks like, having, like for us, over 80% of, promotions or of, our, sorry, of our mid-level management are all promotions from within the organization.

Sammie Rayner: and so when we look, when we talk with funders, we're also, we're not just talking about what we're doing in the community in support of our clients, but we're also saying how are we mirroring that within our staff? Because if our staff, our co you know, if we wanna say we value [00:28:00] lived experience and we wanna say that we value, Our staff coming from the community, we have to provide tools and provide pathways, to grow into leadership and to grow into, the organization. And so, yeah, a big initiative for us has been just like management training pathway and it's, it's really been amazing just in the last five years we've gone from, we've rebranded the organization and had new leadership.

Sammie Rayner: and to just see this, you know, folks who've been at the organization for 20 years and to move up and up and up, to where, you know, one of our chief executives has come all the way from a, frontline position. and, really to match, investments in education and in, training opportunities.

Sammie Rayner: because it's.[00:29:00]

Sammie Rayner: You can't make good decisions unless those decisions are rooted in the community that actually has walked the experience. and, and it needs, but it needs, it needs many voices to make good decisions, I guess I'll say. Like trained, licensed clinicians and, you know, business folks and folks from the community.

Sammie Rayner: And so I think creating structures in your organization that, value and put worth on all different types of experiences, getting opportunity, I think is really important.

George Koster: Thank you. Sammy. Would any of the other panelists like to talk a little bit about what they've visioned? Megan? Yeah.

Meghan Freebeck: Go ahead. Next.

Meghan Freebeck: yeah, I, think that's really important. I, I do want to, talk about a program that's simply the basics. Has created in the last, year, it's called the Hygiene Bank Association. [00:30:00] we were really recognizing that there's a lot of services across the country that do provide hygiene care, and these are mostly small community-based organizations.

Meghan Freebeck: and in creating this, we kind of created a coalition, a network of all of us working together to support one another, to uplift one another. I do reflect that our, our, you know, 20% of executive positions and nonprofits are held by people of color. And so I think you can see that a lot of work needs to be done.

Meghan Freebeck: You can see it here on this panel, that a lot of work still really needs to be done. in addition to that, black led organizations receive $8 for every a hundred dollars of philanthropic giving. That is, that's horrifying. so one action and it's only one. And, and we do continue to learn and grow and try to do better.

Meghan Freebeck: We are a two person organization. Staff wise, we're mostly volunteer based, but so simply the basics has developed, grants that [00:31:00] we provide to all of our network hygiene Bank association members are eligible. However, we prioritize those that are led, by people of color. we prioritize those in rural communities that don't otherwise get much funding, and we prioritize black led organizations to receive those grants that we, uh, that we fundraise for, that we know that we have had opportunities to have accessible.

Meghan Freebeck: And we wanna make sure that that becomes accessible to, all of our leaders, our co-leaders in this work.

George Koster: Thank you. Who else? Lydia.

Lydia Bransten: Yeah. I, I think one of the things that's really important is that often the work that's done by people who have skills that you cannot learn in school, people with lived experience are, underpaid and don't have a living wage and often have to work two jobs.

Lydia Bransten: and so one of the things that was really important post pandemic when we reopened the Gubbio project was, and the reason we stayed so small in some ways, is that we wanted to make sure that we were paying a living wage and that we didn't grow [00:32:00] outside of our ability to be able to hire staff at a living wage, make sure that they have insurance, make sure that they have time off, make sure that they have all the things that, that, that transition them to a healthy life.

Lydia Bransten: The folks that, that, that work at Gubbio, you know. we all came from somewhere, but those folks that we try to hire people who have lived experience. and then, and then the way we do training is based on skill base, right? Skill base and, and not trying to put someone in a box, but rather look at who they are and what they bring to the table.

Lydia Bransten: And then build up those skills. You know, give them some, give them some stability around what they do well. And once we have that, you know, then start growing those edges that need to be grown. It, it takes, you know, it takes being able to be, to be really engaged with your staff, you know, and to really sort of support them through, [00:33:00] supervision, you know, and build and building up.

Lydia Bransten: And also, you know, knowing that when you're working with people who have a, who have, you know, a history of drug use or, you know, a history of, homelessness, that, that, that, that, that is a mental health issue that needs to be, that needs to be addressed as well. Right, like a person may resume use. What do you do when a person resumes use, you know, how do you respond to that?

Lydia Bransten: Do you respond to that by saying that they have to stop or they lose their job? Like, do you push them back out onto the street, you know, or do you support them through what they're going through? You know, and there's, it, there's a philosophy of care that has to come. I feel like, you know, you, you build, you build the community with your staff that you want reflected in the, the, service that you provide.

Lydia Bransten: But I do think in terms of, in terms of, of leadership, it's like you, you, you grow it, you know, and, you bring, you bring [00:34:00] to the table. you, you, you bring people up behind you. I started as a volunteer 20 years ago, you know, with very little work experience, you know, and still cleaning bathrooms. It drives me crazy, but I'm always like, I get the biggest paycheck.

Lydia Bransten: I'll clean up the biggest mess. And when I get that call, I'm like, oh God. but yeah. You know, it's like, it, it's, it becomes more challenging as the, as the operations get bigger. Right. And the operations get bigger and you have a development, the folks in development get almost the highest payrolls.

Lydia Bransten: Right. And how many people of color are in your development program? Right. And the foundations, again, I come back to like when you're asking for money from foundations that have a lens in a certain area, that's why you get eight, $8 on the hundred.

George Koster: Thank you. Anyone else, Mary?

Mary Carl: Okay. yeah, so I mean, I've been with Miracle Messages now for 10 months and, really looking at the DEIB practices within our [00:35:00] organization, and understanding how we are addressing racial equity at every level of our organization.

Mary Carl: From the board composition, the staffing composition, the volunteer composition, the individuals that are being served, and ultimately are we having the impact on the most impacted community members that are being served. So really, and looking at the data, looking at it through practices and policies, looking at the data, looking at it through race and ethnicity, and being able to ask ourselves the really difficult question like.

Mary Carl: I mean, I have this belief that no data is good data. And so even if it tells you the story that you're wanting it to tell you, you need to ask really difficult questions if you're actually having the impact that you're desiring. so we're fundamentally like looking at the organization through those practices.

Mary Carl: but since we've started, we've been able to, implement a Miracle Messages Advisory Council. So we have the first council right now being recruited with people with lived experience who are going to be paid for their time to provide advising on [00:36:00] us, us on the strategy that we're making and decisions, difficult decisions that we're making as an organization.

Mary Carl: we've also looked at pay equity across the staff positions and understanding, who's getting paid what and what the composition of the staff, racial, ethnic, LBGT, et cetera, like, we're taking that into consideration, around their salary. and then also the other thing that we've been looking at is people taking time off.

Mary Carl: That our employees who are often working, they are very vision and mission driven individuals that, and they are used to working around the clock, but that doesn't fuel them. And that we're really starting to establish boundaries where they can turn, take off time, and they're not going to be like pinged for doing that, so that they can be able to make sure that they're, like the healthiest person that they can be when they're coming in.

Mary Carl: So,

George Koster: thank you Mary.

Erica Kisch: I mean, some of the same things, I know just starting with as a [00:37:00] white leader, I know I have to lead from a place of deep, deep humility. I have to lean upon my staff, the majority of whom are of color, especially because, you know, almost 90% of the families that we serve are bipoc.

Erica Kisch: we are fortunate at Compass to be able to have a full-time, director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging on staff. And, you know, he and I work closely on all sorts of things to try to create a work environment where everyone feels comfortable, wants to be. we have some similar things like management training.

Erica Kisch: Most of our managers wind up working their way up from, you know, starting as a case manager, or a teacher. and you know, recognizing like it's great to promote people, but if you don't give them the skills and the support that they need, then it's sort of a disaster for everyone. So really investing in all of that.

Erica Kisch: but I think a lot of it goes to the wage [00:38:00] thing. you know, if you can't pay people a living wage. And what's a living wage in San Francisco? It's a lot. Yeah. we don't, you know, we don't actually pay people what a real living wage is. We have great benefits. We have like fully funded, healthcare.

Erica Kisch: for, our staff and their children, which I think is unusual. our other benefits are really great, but like, you know, we have government contracts. we're like 80% government funded. We have 200 employees and, you know, we do our best, but it's not actually good enough. And then, you know, there's the issue that government workers, especially since the pandemic are making a lot more money than any of our staff, and most of them are working from home, and our staff have to come into the office every day.

Erica Kisch: So that is difficult. and then we also, we created also, we have a family advisory committee that I'm really proud and excited of how that has turned out. You know, you can have an advisory [00:39:00] board of clients that is sort of just kind of like you're checking a box. and this has been really exciting and really great.

Erica Kisch: It's been like a whole program and there's a lot of learning to be advocates. And actually, you know, they all went to the, and met with all the supervisors and the headed department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, and we give them a stipend to participate. So something that we need and we, lean on, but you know, that we're not just asking them to do that, you know, out of the goodness of their hearts.

Erica Kisch: So,

George Koster: thank you Erica. So now is the time we're going to turn to the audience for folks to ask questions. And since we are videotaping this and audio taping it, I'm gonna come down and ask you to, to step to the white tape.

George Koster: Have questions.

George Koster: If you sit, stand there and then look that way, then the cameras will be able to get you.

Guest (Ammani): Okay. [00:40:00] my question to y'all is, how do you work together and, as organizations doing good work, what are the kind of the limitations of working cross organizationally and what is the capacity like for you?

Guest (Ammani): What are the challenges that come with that?

George Koster: Thank you and your name,

George Koster: so that way we can get it on film.

Guest (Ammani): My name's Imani.

George Koster: Okay. And are you with an organization?

Guest (Ammani): Yes, I am with Miracle Messages. It's a pleasure to meet all of you today.

George Koster: Thank you, Imani.

George Koster: Who would like to take the question?

Meghan Freebeck: I can, I can speak to it a little bit because

George Koster: Go ahead.

Meghan Freebeck: simply the basics is a formal partner with every organization here. so the way simply the basics is so efficient often is we, distribute to service sites where people are already going to get services. We provide different [00:41:00] supplies to every service site that becomes a receiving site of ours.

Meghan Freebeck: So the ways that we provide to our receiving sites is we, every quarter send the items requested. So that can be in bulk for a lot of our outreach teams. It might be in a, a reusable hygiene kit, or you can make a request for a specific client's needs. So if somebody needs, you know, toothpaste for dentures or a different type of shampoo, you can put in that request to us and we send it directly to your client.

Meghan Freebeck: we host public hygiene markets at the service sites. We bring all the hygiene there. It for every 50 people there, we would probably bring like. 5,000 products. So there's a lot of choices. So there's a lot of options there. but we do consider this not a donation to the organizations, but a partnership.

Meghan Freebeck: The organizations we're working with, you are our connection to people that you're already serving. We let people know about your services. we have you on a hygiene locator on our website. People can, they can search on the hygiene locator and say, [00:42:00] I need, I need diapers and I need, I'm Spanish speaking and I need a place that's ADA compliant and also would be great to get some free legal support.

Meghan Freebeck: And you search by that and it filters to the closest organization in your area where they provide that. It's also helpful for donors who are looking for somewhere to donate products. You can search as a donor to see where to drop off. but we do ask our partners every year, have we saved you time?

Meghan Freebeck: Have we saved you money? Have we helped you work on your client's goals? which is how we learn that we've saved them an hour, average eight hours a week, which is really great, but. I truly love working with partnerships. We have had over 80 receiving sites in the Bay Area. This is where we were founded.

Meghan Freebeck: one of our very first ones was at Community Forwards Drop-in center where we met a, director there. I met her, I sat with her and I was just kind of helping her sort through this like big room of a mess of donations and took us hours. And I kind of asked her, I was like, so what actually is your background [00:43:00] here?

Meghan Freebeck: And she said, well, I have a, a doctorate degree with a focus on substance abuse. And I was like, girl, get outta here. Like, what are you doing with me? I can sort tampons. You go do your job. and that kind of started this idea that we can use volunteers and community members to help the organization staff work on their goals.

Meghan Freebeck: So yeah, these partnerships are, are crucial and I'm just really grateful that we have the trust of the organizations to do that.

George Koster: Thank you Megan and Lydia.

Lydia Bransten: Yeah. So we, we have, you know, a. Are partnering with a purpose program. And I think it's, it's been vital to what we do. And I, it's something that we really learned during Covid, during Covid was working as the, manager of the dining room at St.

Lydia Bransten: Anthony's, you know, and congregate eating sites at the Shut. And so we went from overnight, from being, you know, a congregate eating site to sort of a food factory where we produced food that was packaged and was able to go out the door. But also people who are in SROs who would [00:44:00] come to eat in the dining room could no longer come in, right?

Lydia Bransten: So we had to create these systems and speaking with all the other agencies that are our food providers, you know, and coming up with a plan, we were able to like, get food into, into the hands of the folks who were either in shelter hotels or in SROs and encampments and all these kind of things.

Lydia Bransten: Things that we would have always said, oh yeah, no, that's something that we won't be able to bridge that gap. Right. so. And then partnering with the city for things like fresh water. Like there was no, for people who weren't, who weren't, um, housed or weren't sheltered, there was no fresh water, right? porta-potties, things like that.

Lydia Bransten: All the things, you know, people think that, oh, people all went into the sip hotels. Well that's, that's not the case. The vast majority of the people were still on the street. And that's how these big encampments kind of developed is human nature to come together, and providing people with water and stuff like that.

Lydia Bransten: So partnership was very much sort of at [00:45:00] the forefront of our mind when we reopened Gubbio at St. John's. And building good partnerships is about building good relationships, you know, and in San Francisco, San Francisco's a very relational city. I feel like if you wanna get something done, you kind of, you have to know the process, but then also having a name at the other end of it is so important.

Lydia Bransten: Right? So what's really great is like building these relationships with people who are already doing the work, whether it's street medicine or, or it's you know, the Women's Drop-in shelter. Being able to provide space. Like, you know, we have, we have women who come into our program who don't want to, you know, don't know where to go at night.

Lydia Bransten: Like, and we'll walk 'em over, you know? So, and we build these relationships. So having the relationship, I think is key. When we talk about doing a warm handoff, it should never be like a piece of paper with an address scribbled on the side and you pass it over. When you have a partnership, you really are doing a warm handoff, right?

Lydia Bransten: And even better if they can come to you or [00:46:00] if you can go to them.

George Koster: Thank you Lydia Anyone else in the panel like to take that question, Sammy?

Sammie Rayner: Just to, shout out to corporate partnerships can be really beautiful opportunities of collaboration. We've talked a lot about like the community based and I think, you know, all of us working to link to each other is so important.

Sammie Rayner: And then also, like we have a corporate partner who comes in and every pride and they, you know, host a educational event with our, clients and they bring, you know, provide, you know, that connection to community. So I think, having partners not just within the homeless service, um, nonprofit world, but also partners, outside, who can bring your employees time and talent to help us is really important.

George Koster: Thank you, Sammy. Erica?

Erica Kisch: yeah, absolutely. we rely upon our partners. the problems are huge and we certainly can't solve them ourselves. we [00:47:00] operate, you know, we have services across multiple service areas, so, you know, there's the housing and homeless space, but there's also family resource Center.

Erica Kisch: There's 26 family resource centers across San Francisco, so that's its own space. And then early childhood education is totally its own space and behavioral health. So, we're fortunate to have a policy team, otherwise there's no way that we could, you know, cover all the ground. and, you know, just wanna, there was an article that you might have seen today in the standard about, you know, that kind of old hack about there's so many nonprofits, why, you know, why are there so many and blah, blah, blah.

Erica Kisch: and, you know, I just wanna give a shout out to, yes, there are a lot of nonprofits. They do all different things. And this is like working with people and trying to create individualized solutions and having like one massive organization that, you know, great, we can consolidate. It's not, that doesn't make [00:48:00] sense.

Erica Kisch: It's, not gonna work. And why this keeps on coming up is really frustrating. You know, if we're gonna be doing work where we're trying to, you know, be individualized and take care of people, smaller organizations that work together in collaboration is the way to go. So,

George Koster: thank you Erica. Anyone else?

George Koster: Mary? I just,

Mary Carl: yeah, I'll just add on the, the partnership side. I mean, it is, it is essential for Miracle Messages. We have to be partnering with local organizations, with the government, with corporations, that we are in addition to the other services that are being provided around homelessness, like addressing the relational supports.

Mary Carl: it's, it's an. Is a key and add-on to the other services that are provided for people around their homeless navigation. and then I just wanna, again, like it is essential for us to be partnering with our house community members, and they're a key piece of this puzzle and a key piece of the solution.

Mary Carl: They can both like, support and be a part of the [00:49:00] solution and they can also block you in trying to make decisions around homeless services. And so they, it's, it is a, it is an invaluable part of the, the picture. So,

George Koster: yeah. Thank you Mary. Any other questions from the audience? So please just let everyone know who you are and what organization.

Guest (Rebecca): my name is Rebecca and I'm with Community Forward sf. my question is a little broader. I, respect and appreciate that none of our panelists really touch the question around the, upcoming election. Potential propositions. My question for any of these panelists are what do they do to sort of counter the negative narrative around homelessness and the general fatigue?

Guest (Rebecca): that is felt. One of our [00:50:00] panelists did mention not in my neighborhood, and so as the need is so great and it is at its highest, how do we as nonprofits or as organizations that are serving, how do we combat that sort of negative general, you know, narrative and fatigue to, in order to be able to expand.

George Koster: Thank you. Great

George Koster: question. Who on the panel would like to take that one? I can go, go ahead Mary.

Mary Carl: So I think. As an organization, we, a key component of our organization is narrative change. And so really looking at how do we change the hearts and minds of our house community members around the, face of homelessness, around the homeless component of the work, around homelessness at itself.

Mary Carl: and that is through volunteering, getting to know our unhoused community members. That is through talking to individuals who are unhoused to understand the [00:51:00] complexities around homelessness. and then we also provide, storytelling and sharing information about people's experiences. and like in our organization can do so much.

Mary Carl: And it's also for us as community members, it is our responsibility to get to know. The complexities around homelessness to get to know the policies that are the pro, the propositions that are in front of us, among the mayoral candidates that are in front of us. And to ask ourselves really difficult questions about what does that mean?

Mary Carl: What are, what is not being spoken about? What is being put in front of us? And to ask those difficult questions right now. So thank you Mary

George Koster: Lydia

Lydia Bransten: Yeah. I mean, don't go on Twitter. that would be one I, I used to engage and then it was like, you know, you can only be called names so many times in murder and this, that, and the other.

Lydia Bransten: But, you know, working with people who, use drugs [00:52:00] and creating a caring environment for them while they're using drugs and, you know, providing them with healthcare that they need while they're still using drugs. You know, with, with the goal to be, to create a healthier life for the, for that individual to give them opportunities for a healthier life, which may include abstinence.

Lydia Bransten: Um, it's really, it's really challenging. 'cause the narrative is really hard. You know, it's that, that these people are X, y, Z I don't even say it anymore because it's, pointless, but, but it's really, it's almost like one person at a time. I, at some point you put your blinders on and you just do the work.

Lydia Bransten: Because if I get involved with every person who, you know, I mean denying science, there's this, there, there is scientific evidence to harm reduction and, to treatment and to. Homelessness and all of these things. [00:53:00] There's, scientific evidence and whether you're denying climate change or you're denying harm reduction, you know, once you get into a person who is absolutely a hundred percent like, no, it doesn't work.

Lydia Bransten: They're just X, Y, and Z and therefore they should be sent off to prison and get into this authoritarian, kind of like this viewpoint, you, you're not gonna change that person. So move on, move, move on to the next person. And the other thing is volunteerism. You know, and you know, I remember, you know, when I go to sort of corporate venues to talk about volunteerism, you know, I try to say like, you know, the group volunteerism is great.

Lydia Bransten: However, I recommend that a person pick an organization with a mission that speaks to them and volunteer for a year. Because become part of the community. Get to know the, people that. That you're interested in. You know, you can go and paint a wall and that's great. [00:54:00] It's helpful, but actually getting to know people changes hearts and minds.

Lydia Bransten: And then the other thing I was just gonna say is our mission has to include the people, all the people in the community, right? We serve, we are there. Our mission is to serve the folks who are coming to us for safe space. And in order for our space to continue to be safe, we have to be welcomed in the community.

Lydia Bransten: And so, like, I'm having tea tomorrow with a guy who regularly on the weekend, sends me hateful texts about our organization and the people we serve, you know? And I'm like, let's go have coffee. you know, I mean, like, you have to engage. You just have to engage and it's part of the work, you know? And it's like you get a patina and you put on your armor and you go to work, and that's, you know, and then when you get home, hopefully you can take it off.

George Koster: thank you, Lydia. Anyone else? Erica?

Erica Kisch: well, I can say first of all, working in family homelessness. You know, we have an [00:55:00] advantage that, you know, that we are absolutely going to be exploiting for fundraising because people, you know, respond differently to children and babies. but you know, you still wind up in those conversations where you're saying, well, this is our population and we are always really, really careful to make sure that we say, and no one should be homeless.

Erica Kisch: Everyone's experience. And, you know, we don't want to ever have one population pitted against another population. and, I was gonna add to that, you know, you also, you wind up in conversations where you can also do that, that educating and reminding people that, you know, if you don't help these kids when they're kids, the chances are that they're gonna be homeless as adults.

Erica Kisch: Like, that's the biggest indicator of adult homelessness as childhood homelessness. Thank.

George Koster: Thank you Erica. so I'd like to wrap up the show by asking each of you how folks who are here in the audience today, and also watching and listening can support your work, get [00:56:00] engaged in your work. So I'm gonna start with you, Mary.

Mary Carl: Sure. you can come to our website, miracle messages.org and you can support us, as a volunteer to get more information about resources that are available, or we also are always looking for some financial support too. So, through all those different mechanisms. So

George Koster: Sammy,

Sammie Rayner: similar response, our, our website community forward sf.org.

Sammie Rayner: we are always looking for, partners. we have a upcoming end of year holiday campaign, so we're looking for, if you like, doing kinda like crowdfunding or fundraising within your community. we also love coming to your place of work and. educating. I think education is really important to humanize homelessness and, help your community understand the problem, so we would love to partner and come to your space.

George Koster: Thank you, Sammy. Erica, I.

Erica Kisch: so our [00:57:00] website is compass sf.org. We love, financial donations. we also seek volunteers and we have lots of different opportunities, working with our families. And then we have two events that are coming up, one on November 3rd. we've created this Families for Families events and it was in response to the fact that there are a lot of people out there in the community who have kids and they wanna engage their kids and, you know, build the next generation of philanthropy.

Erica Kisch: And we're like, we're here to help. so, but there, you have to find ways to do that, that are appropriate and not intrusive to the population that you're working with. So it's a day, where, people can come with their kids and they do all these things. They build lasagnas and Apple crisps and, do other things.

Erica Kisch: And all of those get frozen and take to our residential sites. And we do a little bit of education for the families, and it's. Kind of headed by a youth committee of fourth to sixth graders who are like really powerful, and amazing. So we have that. [00:58:00] And then we do a very big, kind of almost industrial sized adopt a family initiative over the winter holidays.

Erica Kisch: We have like well over 500 families that get adopted by, donors in the community that can be like work partners or corporations or families or anyone. it's also a nice kind of family friendly thing that you can get your kids involved in and you get a wishlist from a family, a little bit of information about them and you do shopping for them.

Erica Kisch: And it's, you know, the toys and the things that kids want, but also like clothing that families need and household items and all that. and all of that you can sign up for on our website. given the way our numbers are growing, our need is also growing on that front and we don't wanna disappoint our families.

George Koster: Thank you Erica and Megan.

Meghan Freebeck: Thank you. well that sounds delightful. so simply the basics website is simply the basics.org. we are [00:59:00] small, privately funded. so donations really do make a tremendous difference. We are also community based, so volunteerism makes a tremendous difference. we have a platform on the website called the Hygiene Locator.

Meghan Freebeck: I mentioned it a little earlier, but if you, if you would like to donate products directly to a site where people are going, just hop on that website, whatever products you might already have on hand, or maybe you're gonna stop at a store and search. you can just put in that you're a donor and it will pull up the organizations including how to appropriately donate them so that you're not burdening an organization like their drop off times, how to make an appointment, things like that.

Meghan Freebeck: So that's a really way that you can, continue to spread that need. I would do a disservice to how hard our volunteer team works on creating our social media. We are very small, but most people in need learn about us on social media. so if you could follow us on Facebook or Instagram, our advisory [01:00:00] committee of volunteers who are people lived experiences I promised, I would make sure to ask you all to follow.

Meghan Freebeck: they're telling their stories, they're sharing the services that we do, but I do get emails when they're like, we got five follows today, so follow along. It's how a lot of people learn about us, and I know, I would be very grateful.

George Koster: Thank you McCann and Lydia.

Meghan Freebeck: so our

Lydia Bransten: website is, the Guo, G-U-B-B-I-O project.org.

Lydia Bransten: And we gratefully accept donations. we love to have individual volunteers. We're too small for really group volunteers, but folks come in and serve coffee folks come in and help. Just being present when people are sleeping. people come in and do all different kinds of services, including organizing our donations.

Lydia Bransten: currently our church, there was a, there was a fire a few months back and so we're re the church is [01:01:00] being repainted and corrected. And so we're, our folks are outside, sleeping outside right now, on the cot. So we need blankets. if there was one thing I would ask for, it's blankets and we are at the corner of 15th and Julian, between Valencia and Mission.

Lydia Bransten: we're open right now from, from 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM So blankets, blankets, blankets. right now we can't accept other donations because we just don't have the space because we're not able to be in the church. but yes, come on by. We're a wonderful community. people really enjoy their time with us and we have.

Lydia Bransten: Really good freshly roasted coffee, that comes every week from a local, a local vendor. So, so come on, come on by and spend some times with the community.

George Koster: Thank you. So I want to thank all of our panelists today for participating in our panel and our wonderful audience members. And thank you all for everything that you [01:02:00] do.

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