My name is Tim Dinson. I am on the board of the Federation Neighborhoods and I'll be facilitating tonight. I also do work for Advantage at the Homeless Day Service Center with our homeless community but I'm going to be sticking into the role of facilitator since we have this fantastic panelist here who are going to be able to talk more about what's going on. First year we have Lillian Sronkowski. Yes, all right. She's just saying that. I did okay. Who is the homelessness specialist with Athens-Wart County government in the housing community development and we also have Mike Moss who works over at the Homeless Day Service Center and is an extraordinaire and maybe he'll tell you about some of his fantastic dance move, the escalations that he can do too. And then we have John Morris who is also with Advantage Street Outreach and is the president, correct, chair of the Athens Homeless Coalition right now. So folks, I'm just going to throw it over to you. At first we're going to start this off with just some facilitated questions that they got in advance that we'll talk about and the second half of the forum will be questions from the audience and we'll have more of a discussion there. So just to kick us off I'm going to ask this each of y'all to talk about just briefly your role and when it comes to working with the homeless community here and how you got involved in that. Hi y'all. So the housing and community development department at Athens-Clarke County Government, we don't provide any direct service but we do fund organizations who do provide those direct services to the community. So Athens-Clarke County receives CDBG or Community Block Development Grant funds that can fund home projects that apply to homelessness as well as home dollars and then continuum of care as well as ARPA which is American Rescue Plan dollars attached to our homeless strategic plan and those dollars can be given out to different organizations in the community based on competitive request for project grants and then ACC Gov through the Housing and Community Development Department we manage those grants and then provide technical assistance and do several kinds of data projects throughout the year to ensure that you know we're putting accurate data out to the community on homelessness those kinds of things. So yeah, my name is Mike Moss. I'm the Engagement Specialist at Advantage Homeless Days Service Center. I'm a person in long-term recovery not only from chemical dependency and mental health issues but also from homelessness. Before I came into recovery 22 months ago I was in a mix between living out in the woods of Franklin and Habersham counties and couch surfing as long as they would have me but I actually started as a client of Advantage and then I guess about six months ago a little over six months ago I applied for a job with John and the outreach team which I didn't get but they did recommend me for another position and as the Engagement Specialist at the Day Services Center and what I do in that position is basically I'm pretty much the first line of communication for our clients when they come to to gain our services for their needs specific needs showers laundry food clothing mailing address use of a phone sometimes the internet and my ultimate goal almost every day aside from that is to help as many of them find their way into recovery as possible. All right pretty much it. Thanks Mike. My name is John Morris I serve as the community programs team lead at Advantage so I oversee our street outreach program as well as our current hotel voucher program which is nearing the end of its life but we have it was a COVID funded project but we have some additional dollars that we've worked out with the county to help facilitate the first step closure and helping kind of transition folks from there into the hotel and ideally end to housing from there in street outreach our team is out in the woods out in camps we're downtown we're under bridges where wherever unhoused folks are living at meeting them where they're at and trying to build strong relationships and connection with them we have four core values empathy honesty autonomy and advocacy we believe that if we can connect with clients on an emotional level and personal level we can help them make autonomous choices understand what choices they have and make autonomous choices for themselves and we communicate with honesty and recognize that as advocates we might be able to help them open doors that systemic barriers might prevent them from opening on their own and then I also sit as the current and outgoing chair soon of the Athens homeless coalition if you haven't kept up with the homeless coalition it's kind of historically been a volunteer run group of individuals mostly service providers kind of fulfilling checking the boxes of what HUD requires us as a community do to receive a certain set of grant dollars called continuum of care grant dollars we have spent this year really digging deep into community and how can we as a community be more involved and there's certainly a lot of animosity and opinions about homelessness and how our community is responding to homelessness so how can we use that tension and energy to work together towards what are real effective solutions that help get people off our streets and into housing and into successful lives that they want to live so thanks for having us tonight Tim absolutely yeah well thank y'all for being here and also I just want to point out JV Scott was there with us but really wanted to be here but he is not feeling well so able to meet with us tonight but we will push forward and so I think building on John especially where you're going there with your answer you know our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness are often you know referred to as statistic or in more personal ways which it makes it more difficult maybe for all of us to be able to empathize and be able to effectively think about how we can address homelessness so I wonder if I'll go up and just talk about you know really who these people are and what are some of the situations that that you often see that leads them experiencing homelessness okay uh from my experience they're people at some point in time no different than anyone else in this room somebody's mother somebody's father somebody's child to begin with brothers sisters family members friends of course uh for many of them uh there was a life before homelessness very few that I've met were born into it one of the uh one of the things I've heard a lot about misconceptions I think is the proper term is that uh pretty much the homeless are homeless by choice I know my experience was that I did make some bad decisions and I chose to walk away from a life however once you make that decision you can't just un-choose it it's not just as simple as saying okay so now I choose to go back so I don't believe anyone's necessarily homeless by choice uh that stated there are so I call it the trifecta so many of of these neighbors have mental health issues to go along with their homelessness I've seen firsthand in the last six months several cases of full-blown schizophrenia and then you add substance abuse on top of that for many cases uh again bad choices to begin with never a choice to continue in my experience but ultimately uh the rock bottom line answer to that question who are these people is right there in the question they're people thanks mike um yeah I'd you know I'll go off that as as they're people um I'd recognize that I think Mike touched on mental health substance use I'd add trauma um to the mix of that because I think trauma really underlies most of the mental health symptoms um or or diagnoses or experiences dispositions that people have um as well as the substance use you know I find that my privilege suburban upbringing is very different I don't really meet any um clients who had a similar kind of upbringing or amount of privilege that I had growing up and so I find that my experience is very different from many of the people that I serve and that I made mistakes but that my mistakes may not have been as costly or or the environment that I was in may not have been as traumatic we what do we know about mental health what do we know about substance use disorders we do know that trauma is one of the key kind of things that that feed into mental health and substance use disorders and what do we know about trauma is that it comes particularly in marginalized in marginalized communities or folks who lack adequate and stable housing lack adequate and stable supply of food and water um and we think of those basic needs but we also sometimes don't think about the emotional needs when we think of um people that that lack stable caregivers that that love them and that allowed them choice and allowed them to feel comfortable in their identity and who they are I find that many of my clients are survivors of um pretty adverse childhood experiences and childhood traumas too and so when we think about um how kind of a lifetime of traumatic experiences plays in um for some people um getting high is is a way to to cope with that and to deal with that and um they feel that the system has failed them and that it's a lot easier and safer emotionally and psychologically to continue using and that that might deal with the mental health symptoms more effectively but then when they get high then that predisposes them to more trauma which predisposes them to more mental health symptoms or more severe mental health um diagnoses or dispositions which leads to more substance use which leads to more trauma which leads to more mental health and so then that uh those three things kind of I think is what really feeds into into it that that gets these people um stuck where you know they are where they are they don't wind up at our door um like Mike said by by their own choice often um by very complex contextual factors that kind of led into them becoming who they are and where they are um and that that being both personal familial and systemic forces that I think um get people there and I think building on and thank you both for I think that really really great explanation um of those you know deep underlying vulnerabilities you know that come into this and then pair that with a lack of affordability and um you know just right whether it be generational or or situational poverty being you know one paycheck away from homelessness I get 25 emails a day from mothers from fathers from single people from you know people facing various different levels levels of vulnerability and different situations whether it be an eviction or simply I can't afford my rent or um my car broke down and I have no way to pay my rent because I need my car to get to work you know and then you know this the kind of vicious circle that they're speaking to right doesn't get any better with any of those kinds of things affecting you as well um and they all just build on each other so it's a really complicated issue there's no one single cause of homelessness there's no one single solution to homelessness either thank y'all for for expounding on that and I think going in that direction um we talked about some of the you know some of maybe some of the causes um but I think you know there's also a lot of things that you know can once there people are in there they get more difficult than they get out of and be more hurdles and such plus there's a there's a lot of challenges just that you know a communion as a whole faces is trying to address these things so I wonder this is a very broad question to take it over a long but um what would y'all say is in each of you uh what would you say is like the biggest challenge facing our entire community when it comes to addressing homelessness and really kind of finding a solution I'll start and uh say there's there's a loaded that is a big question um you know like like first off I would say that like an adequate supply of housing and I wouldn't just say housing but I would say a deeply supportive and subsidized affordable housing um whether the housing is affordable or whether we're utilizing programs with case managers doing like intensive kind of supportive case management um to support folks with transitioning out of homelessness and into housing um but what I find is that folks with you know who are kind of due to their disposition stuck in their kind of earning potential to like really low wage jobs that you know are not livable wages and not um able to sustain fair market rent um and then having a shortage of housing and not kind of building a lot more housing keeps those rents up and it also allows landlords to be picky and choosy I mean I find right now a lot of the folks where housing are when people get evicted um we're we're not finding vacant units to put people in we're finding that people get evicted and we're counting down the days until that eviction goes through so we can get our client housed and hoping for the best for this anonymous person who just got evicted to us as a case worker um so I would say deeply affordable subsidized housing I would also say with that the safe housing um and a lot of our housing programs it's like you know we're gonna house this person from the woods with a substance use disorder and we're gonna like here's your chance like you've got three weeks of sobriety and some supports around you like you're gonna live in like three people on your hallway in your apartment complex are gonna be selling drugs or alcohol and having you know people in a lot of foot traffic in and out of their rooms like how do we expect that person to like truly be successful um or the person who gets nine hundred fourteen dollars a month on social security disability income like how do we expect that person ever to live off that unless it's fully you know subsidized income based housing and you know we find that the few landlords that are willing to work with subsidized housing you know market based housing programs um they're they get to be very choosy on who they take and so the person with the you know an aggravated assault in 89 you know still can't get housed decades later even if they're legally blind or have had a leg amputated or you know certain just you know physical ailments that certainly prevent them from being the violent criminals that their insurance companies may want them to prevent them from running to one other thing I'll share and that we're hoping to do with the Athens homeless coalition is thinking through housing and housing kind of programs or systems or supportive housing as not just a basic needs intervention but also an emotional needs intervention and thinking through how do we build community amongst people who are transitioning out of homelessness with one another and with the entire community as a whole um there's a lot of folks where it's like we they're living you know trauma bonding in survival mode in rich community out in encampments you know albeit not the best community but living amongst a lot of other people and then we put that person with a substance use disorder and with a lot of trauma and with you know depression or whatever mental you know help stuff is going on alone in an apartment and with a case manager who's going to check in on them once a month twice a month or even weekly um and leave that person alone with their thoughts and no community no sense of belonging no sense of connection um and I'll let Mike speak to this but I know in the recovery community they say that connection is the opposite of addiction so how do we apply that that emotional need of how do we build connection amongst people transitioning out of homelessness um to feel like they belong like they matter and to have those kind of social supports that I I hope that we all have in our personal lives but somebody transitioning out of homelessness may not have well for the most part and again I'm only 22 months into my own new life my own chance at rebuilding and everything's going rather well with it uh definitely not saying that to my own horn but uh connection is the answer to addiction and it's the answer to just about every problem I've come across it's not just a connection uh with what you are trying to gain or the people that can give it to you connection with community connection uh with yourself holistically spiritually if that's if that's you know part of your belief system uh I'll find my answer with that that connecting as a peer and that's a tough word for me because uh growing up as a child I was my I was at adversity with all my peers sorry about that I should have silenced that anyway um you meet you meet people where they're at to find out what they need and you give them the the best you've got to provide that within you know within your ability to do so sometimes that's as simple as uh giving them a smile and getting one back out of them sometimes it's day services sometimes it's helping with the problem of homelessness and I hear so much spoken to this concept of housing first where we work and um that's just like any other system in America from what I've seen that works as a system for those who can and will work it but there's so many of them out there that for lack of that connection that you speak of don't have the desire or the will to do that so going back to the question of what's the toughest issue I think most of the time is that issue lies within the individual themselves the the gaining the desire for change and how do we give them that desire for change Mike what's the answer to that dance fever dance fever connection connection though is what connection is that is the answer always and y'all did such an amazing job of answering those two things the only thing that I'll elaborate on is so the idea of housing first um which is something that they both said so that's a um something that if you're going to receive federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development at a federal level then your program or your service has to abide by something called housing first with basically just needs before we're going to say that you need to do a b c and d to get to a better place or to get into recovery or um you know to whatever that might be then we are first going to say well first you need to be in a stable living situation so that those services will actually make a dip you know make make some sort of of difference because without the idea is that without stable housing you just don't have the I guess you know any ounce of comfort right you need that comfort to be able to then start actually making a dent in um you know whatever your journey might be to um you know pulling yourself out of that the situation that you were in so that's the only thing I'll elaborate on I appreciate y'all bringing it up and sometimes it's the biggest job is that obviously affordable housing to be the first and with that I tack on like you know if we're housing first is really hard and the status quo of a free market system where the only places that will rent to us are not very safe places for somebody who's not yet in recovery or who wants to get into recovery or who is in early recovery there's so many people who we help transition and you know they've even even if they have several months of very very very hard work then gets put where their neighbors are just gonna like draw them right into into trouble and so you know the the model of housing first is includes a lot of case management a lot of wraparound services a lot of support um a safe environment and a lot of connection to keep it up what I do every day is trying to find housing for these folks who are trying to disbelieve or doing the work trying to get it but they're just not housing in our community so I will use this time to pitch right now you've got an apartment you've got an Airbnb you're written up or a house you're written them out you only part of the solution talk to me afterwards you'll have we'll pay the rent you'll get your utilities paid you'll have case management when people are living there we'll make sure that they're good tenants that get trained you'll be part of the solution so we desperately need that so put that spread please um my little plug um okay so there's there's a lot going on I feel like right now there's it's a very busy time there are really taking on this issue is why I want to have this form there's a lot going on ever from different directions so um I'm gonna kind of cue each of y'all up to talk about something that your organization uh is specifically working on um so Lily I'll start with you if you can just speak about uh the ACC strategic plan that just passed recently and just briefly some of highlights of what we're hoping to get out of that as a community absolutely yes so the strategic plan to reduce and prevent homelessness was passed at the beginning of October and it has um a little under five million in American Rescue Plan dollars attached to it that are going to be for different we're calling them buckets but different kind of topics of projects um that we're going to put out RFPs into the communities or rep rep request for projects um for these different kinds of projects the strategic plan had six goals with then 10 key strategies associated with those goals one of the goals was strengthening the continuum of care which John has spoke to or strengthening um the Athens homeless coalition specifically acting as a you know a force for coalition building and advocacy um and the ability to kind of unite different service organizations together and the community towards a common goal of reducing and preventing homelessness as well as you know other things like increasing funding into the community lots of different things but um there's also a function of the strategic plan that involves increasing um low barrier non congregate shelter um for folks um there is let me just use my cheat sheet because why not there's also two there's kind of several things that involve um doing kind of landlord outreach and support but also increasing um diversion and rapid exit out of homelessness which involves getting people very quickly into housing situations that are you know perhaps these are more simpler cases to get people into those kinds of things um and yeah if you have more questions about the strategic plan it is on acc gov if you search acc gov dot com slash home strategic plan to reduce and prevent homelessness or acc gov dot com slash arpa you'll be able to see that strategic plan as well as the cdo that um commissioners attached to the strategic plan um that has a couple more things added to it as well so as i've seen you at the day center you become like kind of the master like uh bridge builder connection maker kind of thing finding these different programs different organizations different employers that that you've been able to make kind of partnerships with to be able to benefit our clients who are coming into the day center can you speak about a little bit about that about some of the different organizations and entities that you've been working on just to partner with to help out the clients so the only tool i really have in any of this to help me with this because i'm i'm just winging it here is lived experience uh so i go with what i know right uh now being a person in long term recovery i have a sponsor that i have worked my 12 steps with and he's out of the north atlanta area and he has an organization called coming home ministries that is hooked up with hope link dot org for our clients that wish to try to get a grip on their chemical dependency their substance use disorder um we get them sponsored through that through that uh process that application for their entry fee into a sober living environment there are at present four different sober livens in the athens and north atlanta area that i personally know of that we've been able to get clients into drop of a hat all they have to do is get a behavioral health assessment just make sure there's no underlying uh unattended to mental health disorders that might cause uh you know cause them to to for lack of a better word fail defeat them in their process in their attempt but uh sometimes it's work we've recently linked up with staff zone and uh staff zone is now uh every morning monday through friday pulling indoor parking lot at the homeless day services center at 10 after 5 a.m to pick up any clients that wish to go and work for a day um and normally their process is to come the first day fill out the paperwork show your documents and what have you some of these clients don't have documents so we help with that i take them uh once a week i take our clients to department driver services where advantage has uh uh an ongoing uh what's the word i'm looking for agreement to to to get them a state issued photo id staff zone waves that first day of showing up they say look if they show up with the documentation we'll pick them up bring them to work we'll deal with that after the first day being in the rules form a little bit so we can get them into recovery we can get them day labor i don't know much about the housing that goes on an advantage it's just not my forte uh got some really great people hint hint did to do that but uh working on other other processes too but through that right there um they're getting you know and of course upstairs we got the nurses clinic attending to their medical needs uh we have i know that we've got ricky willis in the back he helps them get their uh social security check started if and helps them get insurance lots of times and uh supposed to begin uh get them taken to the eye doctor it uh coming soon too it's just there's different opportunities arising and the great part about that is is for every achievement we come to everything that we actually accomplish it opens the door for another one they see a success they want to be a part of that so they give us a chance for another one connection thanks mike um so i'm going to talk just about one big development that advantage has i mean we have a number of of housing programs already but you might have seen the mental health transitional like recovery facility that's been a up for vote recently for some concept designs with the mayor and commission so that's a roughly 60 bed facility of transitional housing for treatment specific treatment specifically so for these folks to get them off the streets directly into a safe environment to receive like transitional housing and like treatment on site we're trying to build it at 240 Mitchell bridge where our current outpatient and inpatient facility is so i think that will be awesome right now we have a couple of transitional housing programs that are for people with pretty severe mental health needs that are housed in master least into some not great apartment complexes which again makes it really hard for somebody in early recovery or who desires recovery to be successful when we put them you know in the lion's den per se um at a couple of these apartment complexes that we just happened to to be able to have gotten some master leases with um so i think that's a really exciting project in terms of being able to give people a like safe and like intensive co-occurring mental health and substance use um transitional housing treatment program for some of those more kind of chronic um and more intense like higher level of needs but the issue with that is when they graduate we will not have housing for them to go to because even when people do everything right with their treatment and with their case worker and that we ask for them it's still very difficult to find a lot of these people housing whether they're criminal background or again their earning potential or their disability check um or whatever kind of systemic limitations and the fact that you know if we do get them housed it's probably because someone got evicted and that's that's really the status quo right now um i do want to talk a little bit about the homeless coalition and some of the efforts with that if you've again i've mentioned it already a little bit before but really moving from like i think there's been a lot of good you know a lot of tension um in the community and energy around homelessness in general um and it's it's kind of all fallen on service providers backs to be the the primary kind of leaders of like doing this work um but if it's a problem that does affect all of us how can we create space um for the entire community to collaborate participate be connected with one another um and figure out creative ways of like what skills resources perspectives experiences connections do i have um that can help contribute to building a better tomorrow um because whether you're a business owner who deals with um the the unhoused person that you don't want to have to bar get arrested from your property um or who steals from you constantly while in a in pursuit of meeting their basic needs or your the landlord who you you know one of your tenants kids or family members constantly comes and causes problems to the house um or or your your concerned citizen about you know your taxpayer dollars you know seemingly not going to effective use or or dealing with people coming to our community from outside of communities because our community is the closest one that has a shelter that has a hospital or that has um some basic resources these things aren't going to change um if we if we complain about it or or kind of point fingers at service providers we're doing our best with what we got um but if we ever want to make some change it's going to take that community approach um so you know i dream of a day that we're not arguing or talking over each other at city hall on tuesdays but have have actually sat at the table together um a number of times and had some good round table discussions to come out what are some sensible um steps that we can take um step by step um to make some progress um one other thing i guess two other quick things um recognizing that people with lived experience of homelessness are the experts of their own experience and we have a lot to learn um from i hope just hearing from mike tonight shows you like i've learned so much from working with mike and and being friends with mike um and i say that to a number of people who i know have an experience that's different from my own so being willing to to have humility and recognize that i certainly don't know it all uh and probably never will but i have so much to learn from people with different experiences from me um and we as a community have a lot to learn from people with lived experiences of homelessness some of whom um are living as our neighbors or co-workers or friends and we don't even know it um so how can we have more honest dialogue to learn from one another and recognize and empower people with lived experience as the experts and and leaders um in building kind of this this grassroots community movement towards a better future and the last thing is um equitable entry into the continuum of services um our status quo right now is that our our service providers are overwhelmed and we have a lot of people outside of our door every day and deciphering how do i figure out who gets this these limited resources is very difficult and what i have found is that in our best efforts um our system i guess rewards the most able bodied or able positioned people to get housing um and so you know there's there's certainly some kind of first steps we can take towards um opening up the access or doorways into our continuum of services um that i i do believe that the Athens homeless coalition canon should um take charge and figuring out and doing and and also with the Athens homeless coalition how do we instead of just looking at our own community community and complaining about the people that are that are here um or coming here from surrounding communities how do we start to take more of a regional approach um and build inroads with with our neighbors and other communities and i recognize that's easier said than done um but i i certainly think that there's and i've met with people in other communities that are good people and interested in how to help but simply don't have the resources so how do we partner with with people around us um to to better care for their own and and better be part of the solution with us can i bounce right back off of there real quick i just i would and i don't have the big words you know uh but i will say this i do have evidence of what has worked in my experience you know change comes in uh big forms but it starts in small seeds of hope and if you meet an immediate need with one of these individuals in the moment uh a sleeping bag a tent that can spark up that connection that we keep talking about and blossom into change in such big ways street love bigger vision sparrows nest these are people with organizations that get involved every day what about us that don't have organizations i was in downtown about a month ago walking by little idly and uh there there's right next door to little idly there's those two columns there's a building looks like a bank to me i don't even know what the building is but i do know there were two individuals sleeping on the concrete there in the early morning on that sunday cardboard underneath nothing no nothing to cover up with so i had an idea and i started to go fund me all i wanted was 50 sleeping bags and i found them decent sleeping bags on amazon 10 for 110 dollars buying them bulk before i was able to get and i started to go fund me i put it on social media that demon before i was able to get the first hundred and ten for the first 10 sleeping bags i had one individual stepping and buy me 40 sleeping bags so i bought the other 10 we got the goal of 50 they left over money went to buy snap lid containers for soap so that they could carry with them for these individuals that are leaving the uh encampment and now we have emergency fund dollar general gift cards sitting at the day center for those individuals who need spur of the moment you know minimum cost uh you know needs to be met but what it boils down to is most of the time the great distance between us and them can be diminished with the gift something as small as a bottle of shampoo uh again a tent a sleeping bag or five minutes of your time thank you mike thanks for this and you and you brought and you brought up uh the encampment i think set two more questions that we'll do that we're going to open up to the audience i think this won't be more for uh well then john but um the first step encampment i think most folks but i've heard that is being transitioning away it's really hard to hear sorry that the first step encampment is being transitioned away uh by the fourth end of the year and so i'm gonna ask that uh lily and john kind of talk about where that's at and what our uh hope is going to happen before the end of the year so acc gov is working with or the housing and community development department is working with advantage and then um our other organizations that do provide housing whether that be emergency shelter transitionary housing or rapid rehousing in the community um to work with the individuals who are still staying at first step to transition them into a housing situation that's hopefully fit for them as john said before the funding for the hotel voucher program that was um originally set out with covid dollars is being continued beyond the original contracted time to try to hopefully adapt to the situation and hopefully get some of those folks into you know a transitionary you know kind of housing situation that's not a permanent housing situation and then hopefully continue to work with case management from there to get folks into something more permanent as well obviously every individual that's staying at first step is an individual right so they have individual needs that need to be thought about um as we're putting folks um you know into somewhere other than the tent that they've been staying in for however long um but yes our department is working to try to make sure that we get everybody into a safe um place it's going to be a hard couple months y'all uh to put it to put it i mean just bluntly in that how hard it is already for us to house the individuals that we already have in our hotel program that i've been trying desperately to get out of the hotel program and into housing so we can move first step residents out of first step and into the hotel and then into housing hopefully um is very difficult um that's just just start by saying that um i can say to in the past i think three weeks we've housed three people from first step and we got a few more hopefully with um housing tracks destinations you know starting to be worked out um but again the systemic kind of like forces the lack of of you know accessible or the lack of accessibility of like housing or vacant units um you know kind of banking on people getting evicted again i'll say it to to get folks housed um or banking on you know an indefinite timeline with the housing authority where i've done you know intake certifications and people are like next on the list and it's supposed to be like next 30 to 45 days and sometimes it is 30 to 45 days and sometimes it's for five or six months um and so there are certain kind of things that it's it's really hard to predict um how many of those folks actually will leave first step um to to the hotel or to to housing um by the end of that timeline and so our team's doing you know we're out there doing case management working with folks going outside of our regularly scheduled hours to be there to meet with people trying to connect them to mental health supports to behavioral health supports to IDs documentation employment supports all the things throwing everything at the wall trying to help people get whatever they need and connected to whatever they need getting folks into recovery couple folks want bus tickets to reconnect with family you know we were you know we're trying to explore any and all possible steps in the right direction for for people um but the reality is that um already right now with with you know first step aside with any almost any of my clients their best efforts put together with my best efforts um when there is that connection there when there is that desire there when people are doing everything that they can to help themselves um partnered up with me and our team doing everything that we can to help them isn't always successful um and that's the status quo and and you know this is kind of unrelated but like when people say like oh yeah those people want to be homeless those people choose to be homeless or those people um I asked people and they said they prefer to be homeless or live in the woods I find that most of the people that say that are people that have tried a few times and found themselves unsuccessful and found it's psychologically safer um to say I choose to be in the woods when it really comes from a place of hurt rejection and hopelessness um and and John I think that leads into the last question that I had for you all which um and and Michael I'll start with you if that's okay what it which is uh what is what is one misconception about people facing homelessness and homelessness in general uh that that you would like to correct that honestly that question just got answered uh the rock bottom line of it is uh after so much rejection the hope you know it these are lots of times very resilient people they're survivors uh they're overcoming a lot of the same things a lot of the same disasters that we are and in some because to us uh loss of a wallet might be a pain in the butt to them it's an it's a complete restart of everything um so honestly I think the biggest I think the biggest thing I'd like to see changed uh yeah it's pretty much what John just said maybe maybe there's too many too many steps in the process you know um there's no immediate answers y'all so many people come in and ask for these imaginary vouchers or uh even within even within advantage they're sent to us okay so we've got your behavioral health assessment done I go to the day center and they'll get you housed these people are coming in thinking that they're about to spend the night either in a hotel or in their in their own apartment but there's so many hoops that have to be jumped through each and every one of these steps has conditions so to be able to to go to get the behavioral health assessment they have to have transportation to get there lots of times they can't take the public bus they people make mistakes but um it's just a small the small little steps add up until finally you've got this whole mountain of obstacles in front of in front of you and uh what can what can you do that's a rejection in and of itself so uh yeah that's um I don't know if that answered the question right I'm nervous as a tick um yeah I think that building off of that idea of that home it's not always what it seems right folks that you see are not always the only folks who are experiencing it as well right you've got a lot of kids who are experiencing homelessness and whether that be you know the homelessness as in on the streets or homelessness as in you know not a permanent house right that couch surfing that you know they don't have a permanent stable place to live every night um you know families living in their cars or you know people just on the brink of homelessness as I said before I can't remember the statistics specifically about what percentage of people are one paycheck away you know from experiencing homelessness themselves so I think that it's it's closer than you think the vulnerability is more widespread than you think and um it's a yeah it's it's not a far way to fall sometimes so um yeah I'm gonna go off that and some some stuff Mike said too about thinking about who who are these people and what does their day to day look like and for a lot of people like Mike said these people are survivors not just of their past traumatic um and difficult experiences but they're survivors of their present experience um they're trying to figure out how to stay warm tonight they're trying to figure out how to stay warm without burning down their tent tonight or getting the fire department called which would lead to their camp probably getting shut down which will lead to them moving 50 yards down the road and maybe losing their stuff depending on who the landlord was and how much time they want to give them to pack up their belongings and find another place to illegally camp at these are people who are trying to figure out how to get over to Mitchell bridge at 8 a.m for behavioral health assessment when in reality if you get there at 8 a.m there will be 10 people in line in front of you and there's only the capacity to see two or three but that's a step that they got to take to actually get mental health treatment or to see a clinician or to get prescribed medications or to get a diagnosis on file to you know to to get into a supportive permanent supportive housing program um these are people who are trying to figure out how to get food um these are people who are resilient and are survivors um these are people who we like to look at as criminals as crazy as addicts but these are people who have to figure out a way to meet their basic needs these are people who um their their brain chemistry has has physiologically changed in response to the traumatic trauma that they've experienced um that caused them to have maladaptive thinking patterns and respond to things that we would not understand and we have to recognize that if somebody does something that I don't understand they're you know they may seem irrational right now but there is some physiological thing going on in their brain that's causing them to defend themselves in this way where their fight or flight response has been activated and they're they've gone into autopilot to protect themselves or these are addicts who uh you know people with a substance use disorder who if they don't have that drink that day or get that fixed that day um they will be very sick and very angry and might turn into criminals are crazy for not having that um and so as we think about that um I I you know I wrote these words down and asked Mike if anyone had ever called him a criminal a crazy or an addict at any point in his life and he said absolutely yesterday yesterday well you know I I like to think that Mike is someone that we might have one day called a criminal a crazy or addict um but I call Mike my friend and I call Mike a leader in this community um who's changing lives every day so I'm thankful for you Mike so I found the words that I was looking for when I stumbled a moment ago and it's really like this um you know for for any of us and I'm going to use an I statement here you know I'm I'm a graduate and house supervisor at the sober living for which I still remain um I'm not ready to transition back out there into the rest of the world uh normal society uh still trying to be a productive member from where I said and that's good enough for me right now uh still seems like light years from the people I work with daily um served daily one mistake from being right there with them at any given moment and the words I think that the stigma that surrounds them that I think I I think it'd be the most important for me to see changes that they are hopeless cases loss causes the value of human life is no different whether you are living in the streets in a penitentiary in a tent in someone's backyard on their couch or in your own home I know that because I have lived in every single one of those situations I'm a son I'm a father I'm a brother I'm a friend I've even been an enemy there was a time yeah yesterday no there was a time when I uh in my heavy addiction where I was running from the police and taunting them catch me catch me if you can and they did about an hour later but that's not the point I'm getting at um running from the police committing petty crimes doing it sometimes for survival sometimes just because that's what my screwed up chemically induced mind to thought was the right decision at the time now uh I'm in a situation where daily there is a 50 50 chance that I'm going to have to be calling the police to work with them meeting with the district attorney's office for uh different events working with different rco's and uh sober livens whereas instead of hunting for drugs I'm now hunting for ways to get people that are hunting for drugs into a similar situation to my own again I cannot stress enough the value of the seed of hope in a human life so we're going to open it up for uh questions so we really I think learned a lot about the very real challenges that we're all facing and how important it is in general what I'm curious about we also have heard about the plan the strategic plan is described as it has been recently approved by the community and I wonder if there's some highlights of what its hope and expectations will be accomplished under the strategic plan that could make a significant difference in meeting some of these challenges definitely so one I think of and something that your question kind of poses to is data right data is something that we are kind of lacking in this area it's a difficult thing to collect data on in a lot of ways it's there's there's a lot of different systems kind of working together to capture data that are hard to bring together however one of the hopes of the strategic plan and some of the funding that we're putting towards is to have a better data collection system in place and part of that could be through an employee of the continuum of care the or the Athens homeless coalition part of that could be and and you know there's there's some there's options within that part of the strategic plan I think is that it's you know the idea of a strategic plan is that it's a starting point right it is a means to create action from it um there's a lot in this 90 plus page document right there's a lot of different um you know facts and and figures and and ideas right but then we have to take actionable steps from those ideas and I guess I can speak to more specific kind of details of the plan if you would like I can name more um but uh I think that's kind of like an overarching idea I guess of the starting point of where we're at with that it's a starting point it's not the solution in the 90 page document it's a starting point yeah anyone in here a developer or have history building um building physical housing okay well I don't know how many units we could build if we put all five million dollars towards building housing units but I can tell you it's not very many um and so when we when we say that like there's I think that you're hearing us you know talk about housing as like one of the biggest kind of issues at the root of this problem so there's very little that we can strategically plan to do with five million dollars now the idea is that the strategic plan is more than just an allocation plan for the funding and is a longer term kind of plan for as a community if we want to figure out how we need to get creative towards making an actual impact on building more housing an actual impact on building more community amongst people um and learning from experts um and building more connection experts with lived experience and figuring out kind of like these longer term solutions I think it takes our actual whole community coming together and starting to figure out what those kind of steps are to build more housing support these individuals more to make it so that we're not just housing people when people get evicted but actually housing people because we have an adequate and safe supply of housing for people um so really looking at what does it take to like create opportunity for there to be things that that make that larger impact um I don't think we've ever you know I've been following mayor and commission meetings for a few years now and I very rarely see a lot of people from different perspectives coalesce on any agenda items so what would it look like if we all actually decided that what does success look like with the issue of homelessness does it look like getting people off our streets and into housing okay what can we as a community do to take steps towards that goal is it that no one should sleep outside or that no one should be forced to sleep outside like what are our values as a community and how can we start to take tangible steps towards policy that that does that I think we have really smart policy people I don't know that they know a lot of people with lived experience I think we have really concerned citizens that want to make sure no taxpayer dollars go to waste how can we partner all of these different perspectives together to figure out what are those sensible solutions that will actually start to make a dent and I would I would point to key action items one two and three in the strategic plan to doing that which is you know centered around the Homeless Coalition I think our collective imagination around solutions is sometimes limited by our societal like freedom's position a lot of times we think about addressing it we think about it from a place of abundance or our abundance instead of like find the tangible solution that happens right there like a greater impact what I mean by that is like I think there are some policies that could be explored within a reason like with zoning zoning specific area for a certain density of type of housing like pods there was a professor from our west that came and talked about building pods and they're like five thousand dollars a piece of building what if we built a community center in the center of these pods that had bathroom in front of the water and that that communal straits but they also had all these costs around it if you find the elements and so when we don't think about those type of solutions as people are climbing the steps to get back into society like how do we find organizations we can partner with that provides that employment support that we're talking about all the time like Mr. Moss is this story so enlightening to me when we talk about applying for one position not in that position it was offered another opportunity like that you know it goes so much further than in terms of hope for a person to recover and be sustainable on their own than just doing the other small tangible things which are needed too and this is not a critique of that we need those small tangible glimmers of hope but then at some point we're going to need to offer people stable jobs at liberal liberal wages but that doesn't match what our politics we talk about politicians we don't talk about that when we're talking about people who are experiencing home and so my question was leading though to like when we started to put out these RFPs like we start to apply for these projects like what are some of the things that you would like to see in terms of solutions and like even when you think about corporate dollars like isn't allowed with the use of market funds to build a structure that someone manages you know like is anybody like submitting those type of projects related to this form so the RFP process we're still in the process of developing the language and the I guess what those will look like right and the specific different buckets the descriptions for what we're what we're asking for however I can speak to specifically I have been approached by several nonprofit developers that develop tiny homes and you know the pot like they're they're made of like you know old shipping containers you know those kinds of places and they've worked in communities where that's been very successful and you know I am I say that's really cool you should look out for when we put our RFP process out you know and you know and I can't necessarily you know I'm not saying that your project will be chosen but it sounds really cool and you should definitely submit something like that right and you know we put them on our nonprofit server list and we encourage them to look out for when those funding opportunities come about one of them is called the oh my gosh I'm going to forget it I will look it up and I will find you and I will tell you what the name of it is I've been approached by like two or three and they've had great success stories and whether it be from you know specifically tiny homes or rehabilitating you know old hotels or old apartment buildings that have been vacant and you know dangerous for years and years and years right and then developing them into livable spaces that are not just you know short term but long term a lot of the times for folks permanent supportive housing kinds of situations so there's definitely those folks out there who want to do those kinds of projects and who are aware that you know Athens is an opportunity for them. Appreciate the comments and the feedback in question there Bradrick I think that when we think about how do we develop and push forward creative solutions I think that's the hope of coalition building particularly when I say recognizing people with lived experience as the experts on this matter recognize that they have they can tell us where they slip through the cracks time after time after time after time again before being successful or people with living experience can tell us where they're still slipping through the cracks I find in street outreach hanging out with people in the woods all day five days a week my clients have some great ideas like absolutely great ideas in terms of what if we did this and it would be really cheap and people could could just do it this way or this way and we could you know we don't need all that stuff that y'all want to try to do like we just need this or and and those are ideas that I feel like I I feel this dilemma of like I almost feel like I'm a gatekeeper of good ideas because they just kind of I'm just the person they share their ideas with because they think I can just make things happen I guess but how do we create space for those people to be included in the dialogues I can think of at least one I think it's either a homeless coalition meeting or like kind of big homeless listening session and I think well there's there's two there's one where I knew six people in the room were currently experiencing homelessness and five walked out within 30 minutes because of the way the discourse was going and some dehumanizing kind of language about them there was another dialogue that I was in that after we spent 90 minutes talking about housing and homelessness the only person in the room who was actually currently homeless raised their hand and said so what are y'all gonna do about housing and homelessness and so clearly there are problems with our discourse and the ways we're having our conversations if the people actually affected by the policies we're talking about are not able to participate and are asking what are y'all gonna do about this after we spent 90 minutes talking about it so with that I think also finding clearly it's a problem that everyone's mad about so how can we all work together to identify solutions that kind of meet all of our kind of perspectives because I found that there's a lot of value to people that I would have a lot of people that I would have thought I will never agree with you on anything we have totally different perspectives I found that by spending time with these people by talking with these people that there's actually a lot of things we do agree on and there's a lot of sensible first steps we can take in building our relationship and finding genuine true effective community solutions that are cost effective that involve people with lived experience to tell us why it will or won't work and what to prioritize and help us fix it when we do have problems with it so again I would say coalition building really really is is my answer to that all around my body and and so I think they actually feed on me so because of the generosity of the community and the success of good people who are in it that success breeds more at least that is at least one of the perceptions in the community but if we get better at this we'll have more people and there are evidence there's evidence of that in some community so I just I want to touch on that concept of volume it's the homeless situation is no different than the recovery scene in Athens it's not only volume it's condensed volume so you've got lots and lots of these situations in such a small area what we need is more involvement we need more shelters we need more we need more bigger visions more street love more sparrows nest because right now I'm thinking at the end of the day we got salvation army and bigger vision where they can stay the night looking you're bad and busted the criminal trespass rate has gone way up and I'm giving you right now an honest 80 to 85 percent of those people are our clients so I appreciate the question and the concerns there about volume I think you and I share that frustration of there's nothing I guess it's really overwhelming and frustrating to have people who aren't Athenians with that are human beings that have intense needs medical mental health housing income like all the things wandering our streets because they just showed up here because they heard that Athens had housing or had great services so I do think that there that is certainly by nature I think of being a city and by having two hospitals we're never going to not have unless we want to stop being a city or stop having hospitals so it's going to keep happening and unless we start to figure out ways to mitigate against it and build it up and so when I think of whose job is it to go out and build relationships with our surrounding communities or to meet with hospital discharge planners in Gainesville and in Monroe and in Barrow County and in all these different places I've met with hospital discharge discharge planners at these hospitals by the way and they they are people who are like well I have a client and I can't just discharge him to quick trip this is a person who came to me from another community because we were the closest hospital that was an emergency receiving facility for a 1013 for a psychiatric patient for someone who wanted to kill themselves that day and was at imminent risk of harming themselves so that person winds up in the ER or winds up in their behavioral health unit they make it through their stabilization seven day stay and then they get to the end of that stay in the hospital discharge planners legally you know can't just send them send that high risk for suicide patient to the quick trip or to the McDonald's or wherever they came from even if that's what they want and so they send them to the closest shelter that they can secure a bed at which usually is bigger vision because bigger vision is night by night so if I don't know if anyone here knows how bigger vision started but it started from from some church folk who wanted to let some people stay in their their church overnight I'm sure I know there are great people in Jackson County and in Barrow County and in Walton County who want to help and don't know how I know there's people in those recovery communities who want to help and don't know how we um we may not you know build as large of a social service scene or help build as large of a social service scene in those communities but I met with the street outreach lead in like seven different counties one dude cover seven different counties up in Hall County Gainesville all and then Habersham and all those counties and he's like we have nowhere to put people we have no shelters and they want it they're eager for help but they don't have ways of uh competitively applying for grants or or you know coalition building in their own communities to figure out what they can do so I hope that Athens can be a model of coalition building and then we can take that model and meet with uh community leaders in these other communities because right now it's no one's job to go and do that work we're all mad about it but someone needs to be responsible to go out and help support some of these surrounding communities to take that more regional approach I would say and I'll also just share that in the status quo a large number of the individuals we are housing is outside of Clark County because we simply do not have housing here um so a lot a lot of the times I'm facing my client some of whom are lifetime Athenians or have been here for a you know a decade and I'm telling them hey the only place we can find for you is in Barrow County or is in Jackson County or is in um Macon or or Augusta for some people for our Georgia housing voucher program and some of them it's been fine and they've moved there and been great and other of them they go there and they have no connection and they spiral and they do very poorly and then they find themselves either back homeless in Athens or homeless in that community too I know that's not really an answer but the status quo is bad and we need to do something about it just real quick I think that also you know it's important to say that this is not a and as you said right of that we're you know we see examples of places where it seems like because there's more services than there's more people right but this is a national issue there's people in every single state in every single region in you know every single large metropolitan area of the country that are experiencing homelessness and then communities that are experiencing the effects of increased homelessness in their community as well right but you know Athens is not only a you know a hub for service providers but it's also a hub for culture for education for art for you know a mere sports exactly a myriad of other things which you know the the connection there is that people want to come here for many different reasons and even when you're in a vulnerable situation like experiencing homelessness those things are still you know a plus in your reasons to come somewhere okay and I'll also like work like the advantage here is the community service board for a 10 county area that's state designated there's what 20s community service boards across the entire state so we actually are required by the state constitution to accept people suffering from mental health addiction issues from a 10 county area and they come here so part of all this is by design that's that's implemented by the state just because it's the best way to be able to implement services but I also say I've I've been able to work with three clients are getting housed this week one of them was from Oconee County they're going back to County one of them was from Walton County they came here they're going back to Walton County so I think the idea that somehow that like we're we're keeping them all everybody here it's just not true actually in the practice of us serving folks yeah I appreciate the question of it so we have time for three quick questions I'm going to go Gwen uh Seth was there anybody okay yeah ma'am that's okay we'll do four four quick ones if we're doing quick everybody keep your questions quick keep responses quick right away I'm going to stand like the most heartless person here because I know the wonderful job that John Morris and I don't know why but I know what they're doing because we've worked with them through our park the Cobham triangle has introduced us to an overflow of people who are probably using the sparelessness and then use our car and we have very little problem because we pay a daily guard but I'm just wondering if in addition to these wonderful things that go enjoy but we recognize the time period that's going to take to build housing to solve the housing problem to to create a culture that's able to give them immediate response and take out some of those conditions that are nobody but I'm just wondering if there's any way that we can take some of that money or some of our energy and as a local problem clean up the trash the the symptoms of this like around North Avenue um or near new visions uh it's horrible it's insulting them it makes it creates a very negative feeling in the community and we see that all along the greenway our greenway it's just polluted and I'm just thinking that really there should be some way I think where are the results of the problem are alleviated from the rest of the community while we're solving the problem and that's just the question I have. I'll just answer that briefly when I appreciate that question um it's it's difficult there's trade-offs to everything we do right like if we if we clean up that trash and clean it up every day then people leave more trash and then we spend more money cleaning it up every day but then there's also the issue of if we want to put trash cans on homeless camps that are not sanctioned then the landowner might get frustrated that we did that without their permission and want to pursue legal action for such activity if we you know anything that we do to try to like implement this ends up having some kind of negative consequence so like if we spend I guess I guess it's you're right it's it's complex and it's hard to do I appreciate the Spairs Nest for having their program where they pay folks to you know go around the city and and help clean up but I don't know that it's it's that it's like making a I wish Jamie were here to talk more about it but um you know with homeless camps it's like do we really expect this person to like like one of the biggest supplies we give is like trash bags so people can bag up their trash we met with a community educator with a fire department today about all right well like you know that the only clean homeless camps are the ones where people are burning like really you know toxic trash into their fire pits and so like do we really expect that person to like bag up their trash like haul it like a quarter mile or half mile out of the woods to illegally dump it in someone else's dumpster where they might get a you know in trouble there it's hard I don't have the answer to that question I think it's a good one to think about and consider and I hope that there's some smart people with lived experience that may have good ideas about um what we could do to mitigate against the trash accumulation in the community and help beautify our our city thanks John it's us it's this community we're the ones who pick up the trash we're the ones who make our community better like what are we going to do we can talk all we want but it's all of us this group of people in here and all our friends and all our networks and all the people we know we make it better we don't rely on the feds to do anything we don't rely on anybody else from any other county who can we do it please we've got to fix this it's ridiculous it's insane we live in the richest country in the world and there are people living on the street with children who don't eat unless they go to school that's ridiculous we should exchange them ourselves and with the what hundreds of thousands of uh incoming refugees from other countries and the fentanyl crisis on top of that I have to agree I'm proud of my state of course last morning I attended a program where I don't know if you remember what I made a suggestion on assistant living is basically for mental health you take a location you benefit from one of the warehouses where you renovate into sections of apartments to your apartments and here's the thing you get the grants the grants renovate well start from the city building it's called every domain you take the brick of building you get a grant you renovate then what you do is you use the social security use the medicare and a medicate will cover this this has been done in New York for over 30 years I'm just down here nine years now I'm watching and it's for the mentally ill if you can just pull that section out it will leave you need more resources to deal with the rest now I landed to someone that was at the meeting and they said that you guys were seriously considering I hope you do because what happens with living assistants one they're able to go and come as they please they're able to have their own apartment they also have medical assistance there so they're on medication they are responsible for taking medications part of living there okay they have a cafeteria environment so they're with your community they also have the medicine things that they can do you know and they can stay there currently until they're older and then they transition to a nursing home and the reason why I know this is because my grandmother lived that way about 20 years she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and she had to be medicated without it she was lost the agreement is you live here you have a nice old they had um two bedroom you had to share you know two bedroom apartment but or two bedroom room but it was done and it was successful at it and here's the thing happens doesn't happen you don't have to get grants to continue to continue to continue the initial grand investment is to renovate it's a city property taken over renovated and then the medicare and social security and medicaid pay the less and it's continual I think that's an excellent excellent idea and I think the legalities are figuring that out it clearly new york can do it I'm curious to figure out what it takes to figure that out yeah yeah so like I'm all on board like advantage would be who would run something like that because we already are building medicaid or state contracted services for mental health services already to have a sustainable source of income so I think that that is a an excellent idea and that we as a community right like what does it take to actually see a project like that to life it takes a lot of people making a lot of noise about brainstorming figuring out coming together figuring out all the details so it's a polished proposal and a lot of people at city hall to make sure it gets pushed through whatever it takes so as a coalition as a community we can come up with great ideas like the one just shared and then actually take steps to advocate for it and to make sure it's a polished proposal when it goes before the government or before the powers that be that would typically prevent something like that but it takes thinking about it brainstorming it figuring it out and then all showing up you know saying we believe in this as a tangible next step very last question yeah absolutely um so for those who don't know Susan's referring to the Georgia housing voucher program I'm sure all of you have heard of section eight or the housing choice voucher program which is a federal program so you know it's it's essentially subsidized housing vouchers where where individuals pay 30 of their income as their rent it is you know free market based where once people get that housing choice voucher they go out or section eight they find a landlord that's willing to work with it on that landlord takes them and they renew their lease they pay 30 of their income the state pays the rest of the rent rentals have to be below the fair market value um so I'm getting there so GHVP is like the state of Georgia's version of that for people that have a diagnosed severe and persistent mental illness and then meet another qualifying criteria so uh severe and persistent mental illness depression schizophrenia bipolar schizoaffective disorder etc they have that they have functional life impairments and then they also are either chronically homeless have exited jail or prison in the last 90 days have been hospitalized three or more times in the past year or 10 or more times in their life so specifically these high needs individuals and so it is a huge part of who we are housing and the number of people we are housing because housing choice vouchers just had like nearly 200 000 people apply in the four day or week that they were open and only like 13 000 people I think I read in the news are going to get it in our state um but Georgia housing voucher is almost an endless supply at least as of now um where we are constantly referring people who are able to make it over to Mitchell bridge at 8 a.m to get that behavioral health assessment done and be one of the first three of 10 people in line to actually get it done then make it to their follow-up appointments engage in that mental health um outpatient treatment um so it has become a huge a huge huge part of our housing track and like Susan mentioned it is across the state so advantage covers the entire dbhtd region too with that program so we cover from makin to augusta and when I referred to housing clients in makin or in augusta because we can't find them housing here that's the program I'm talking about housing them on all of our other programs are within our 10 county region that Tim alluded to um but it is a widely I think very successful program um in terms of like when I think of like how am I housing that chronic person who's been on the streets for years and has had lots of barriers and is never going to jump through all the hoops to make it through one of the I guess are kind of typical more typical housing tracks over the past year and a half we have um really what since we since we took over Georgia housing voucher for our region have seen dozens and dozens and dozens of households or individuals who are the most high needs get into housing again the issue there though because it's income based but the issue there though is finding landlords that will take the program um and finding landlords that will you know that will take the person right they may take the program but if they get 50 applicants for their like three apartments you know they're not they can easily throw out the people with the felonies even if it's 30 years old they can throw out the people with whatever kind of they pick and choose who they want right and then on top of that the units that they have available I cannot stress this enough are when someone gets evicted and so even people that are getting housed on Georgia housing voucher in our community and our surround immediately surrounding communities are often because they are evicting the person before and that person becomes and fills a unit where that person has now hopefully not become homeless but more than likely has become homeless or couch surfing or whatever okay thank you we've got it we've got it and I have to go to the bed y'all it's my night um so uh thank y'all I think there's things that all of us can do here the homeless coalition is doing lots of community engagement taking more members than last night um the day center desperately to use more volunteers and and and this contribution going to coordinate yeah there we go important ideas don't just show up so work with Mike contact Mike and then uh as Louis was we have the the um the strategic plan is on the website so lots of things in there so we can have more understanding and be able to plug into that rfp process especially above great ideas to be kind of fleshing those out that's what those ideas would be inserted into the rfp process so uh just please everybody give a good round of applause these fantastic


Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Adam Navas. And I'm Katie Blake. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live. What do you think is the most common disease in the world? It is not cancer or heart disease or malaria. It is tooth decay or dental caries or cavities. Half of the world's population has problems with their teeth. The doctors and experts who treat these issues are dentists. Dr. Wagner Marcenes is a professor of dentistry at the University of London. He is part of an international research team. They study tooth or dental health around the world. In a study from 2010, he explained how big this issue is. There are close to 4 billion people in the world who suffer from untreated problems with their teeth. These problems cause tooth pain. They prevent people from eating and possibly sleeping properly. We are facing serious problems in the population's mouth health. Dental caries are a very painful and unpleasant problem. But one main reason for them is sweet. It is eating sugar and sugary food. Eating sugary food is bad for teeth. But sugary food is becoming more popular around the world. So how can people prevent these tooth problems? Today's spotlight is on your teeth and sugar. Most adult humans have 32 teeth. Teeth help our faces keep their correct shape. They help us communicate through talking or smiling. And, of course, they help us eat food. Everything we eat and drink passes through our mouths. The Mayo Clinic calls teeth the window to your overall health. They explain on their website. Did you know that the health of your mouth offers clues about your overall health?   Most of it is harmless.  Some of these bacteria can cause disease. Your oral or mouth health may add to other diseases and conditions, including problems with your heart, lungs, or difficulties during pregnancy. So how do we keep our mouths healthy? What we eat and drink has a great effect on our whole body. And it has particular results on the health of our teeth. One way to see these results is to look at what humans have eaten over many years. As our diet has changed, our dental health has changed too. Middle income countries have the highest level of tooth decay in the world. But levels of tooth decay in lower income countries are increasing quickly. Habib Benzian is the Director of Global Health and Policy at New York University's College of Dentistry. He explained to NPR how diet changes affect people's teeth. Low income countries usually have traditional diets. They eat more plant and meat based foods. They eat less sugar and processed foods. But each country's social and economic conditions change. As that happens, there is a change in what people eat. It is a part of convenience. If you work all day and come home, you want quick food. Fast foods are fried, high in fat, sweet, and very cheap. Eating a lot of sugar is one of the most unhealthy things you can do. The World Dental Federation says eating and drinking sugar is the main cause of tooth decay. And globally, people are eating and drinking more and more sugar. The World Health Organization suggests each person should eat and drink less than 25 grams of sugar a day. But in many countries, the average person eats and drinks much more than that. In some countries, the average person eats two, three, or even four times more than that. As a result, there are a lot of ideas about how to reduce the amount of sugar people eat and drink. One idea is to put higher tax on sugary foods and drinks. Another idea is a legal limit on the amount of sugar in foods for babies and children. Another idea is to stop selling sugary products to young people and children. Sugar is a big part of one of the largest health crises in the world. But sugar is also one of the most important agricultural industries in the world. Many people make money from this industry. They do not want to sell less sugar. This makes dental health a complex global issue. Sugar is only one thing that affects people's dental health. A person's dental health depends on many things. An individual can usually make their own decisions about diet and hygiene, such as tooth brushing. But people cannot always control their economic situation. They cannot always control how much money they have or where they live. They cannot control their access to dental care. The effect of dental decay is much worse in very poor populations. This is true even in wealthy countries. There are many large systems that affect people's teeth. These problems can seem too big to solve. But the World Dental Federation says we can improve people's teeth around the world. In their document, The Challenge of Oral Disease, they give ideas of what groups can do to help on different levels. They think that everyone around the world should be able to pay for good ways to prevent tooth problems, such as treatment with fluoride, a mineral that protects teeth. They also think everyone should have health care that will help them pay to see a doctor for their teeth when they need to. The World Dental Federation thinks that caring for our teeth and mouths should be connected to caring for the rest of our bodies. Strong, healthy teeth are important for the health of our whole body and sense of well-being. Most people cannot change the global dental system. But they do have some control over how well they take care of their teeth. And one easy thing everyone can do to take better care of their teeth is reduce how much sugar they eat. Do you eat or drink a lot of sugar? Do you have any teeth problems? You can leave a comment on our website or email us at radio at radioenglish.net. You can also comment on Facebook at facebook.com slash spotlight radio. The writer of this program was Reena Dam. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again and read it on the internet at www.radioenglish.net. This program is called Sugar and Your Teeth. Visit our website to download our free official app for Android and Apple devices. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.