(downtempo music) - Hello, and welcome to "Community Connection."

I'm your host, Shelley Irwin.

Today we talk on the topic of homelessness in West Michigan.

With me to do just that, Adrienne Goodstal, chief advocacy and engagement officer, Mel Trotter Ministries, and Brianne Robach, continuum of care director at Grand Rapids Area Coalition to End Homeless.

Ladies, thank you for being here.

We could probably fill this whole table up with those involved in the field, as we should.

Let me begin with you, Brianne.

How are you and yours involved in this topic?

- Yeah, so I am with the Coalition to End Homelessness, and our mission is to make homelessness rare, brief, and one time in Kent County.

So we do this through providing leadership across the Homeless Response System, engaging with partners who work in the Homeless Response System, serving people, experiencing homelessness, or providing supports to people at risk over experiencing homelessness, so really looking to understand gaps and needs in the system, and then align our processes and align any resources to fill those gaps.

And just some quick data for you.

So in Kent County, in 2021, we had just over 8,000 individuals who came into contact with the Homeless Response System one way or another, and we have seen an increase in those numbers over the past few years as well as an increase in first time homelessness or folks entering the system for the first time.

- Good.

We'll dig into that.

And you as a continuum of care associate, continuum is a keyword here?

- Yup, so the coalition serves as what's known as the Continuum of Care for Kent County.

So this is a federally-designated planning body around the Homeless Response System, so Kent County and most communities across the country receive funding from HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

And so with this funding, we're required to have one planning body.

So we're comprised of over 50 partner organizations, and there's two staff people right now who help run this coalition collaborative, so Mel Trotter's one of our partners and a member of the coalition, and Adrienne sits on our leadership bodies.

- I knew you got along (Brianne and Adrienne chuckling) and rightly so.

Tell us a little bit about Mel Trotter.

- Yeah, so Mel Trotter has been in this community for 122 years, serving people who are experiencing homelessness and are at risk of becoming homeless.

We know that there's many, many reasons and dynamics that go into a person's journey of homelessness, and so we're really looking at over the last 122 years, how do we meet those needs and make sure that we're relevant for, again, as Brianne said, where are the gaps and how can we step in to partner and to help solve homelessness in our community?

- Hmm, I wanna ask right away.

We're using the term homelessness.

I've also heard the term unhoused.

Is there an etiquette here for me?

I'll start with you, Adrienne.

- Yeah, that's an interesting question because you're right, there are many terms that that people use depending on kind of what space you're in.

We use the word experiencing homelessness.

That's the term that we use, and really because it's homelessness does not make a person their identity.

It just happens to be the experience that they are in, the situation that they're in right now.

So for us, it's we want to, again, make your experience of homelessness short, rare, and so for us, we use the terminology experiencing homelessness.

But again, I think it's the truth of the matter is that it's real people who are hurting, and so whatever label you put on it, it's individuals that could be you or I that are finding ourselves in this situation.

- Hmm, Brianne, add to that?

- Yeah, so I would say I would agree with Adrienne, using that person-first language and saying, "The experience of homelessness is not all who you are.

You're your complete own human being.

You deserve that dignity and respect that every person has.

and this homelessness is an experience that you have, and it doesn't define you."

So again, using, saying "person experiencing homelessness," or sometimes I'll say "someone who's unhoused."

You're really putting that person first and then adding on the homelessness or unhoused second.

- Let me be real basic with my follow-up question.

Why is someone homeless in West Michigan?

- I think it's the reality is there's a lot of reasons why people may be experiencing homelessness in West Michigan, and the reality is it's often through no fault of their own.

So I think the biggest reason though is a lack of safe and affordable housing in the area.

So we know according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition that what they define as the housing wage, so this is the wage that a household needs to make to afford a two-bedroom apartment, is $20 an hour for those living in Kent County.

So that's much higher than the minimum wage in Michigan, which just will become $10 an hour starting in January.

So knowing that there's households who are spending more than the 30%, or what we define as affordable, so 30% of your income is spent on housing, when you're spending more than that percent of your income on housing, you're really at a point where you're potentially one instance, one crisis away from not being able to afford your housing.

So maybe your car breaks down, you have a car repair bill, you have a medical emergency and you have to take some time off of work, or you have a medical bill you can't pay.

That really can put your household in a position where you can no longer afford your housing.

- Yeah, I would echo that.

I think, so for last year, 2021, we served 2,700 unique individuals, and 41% of them were first-time homeless individuals that were accessing our shelter.

And we've seen that, especially over the last couple of years with the pandemic and inflation, the cost of rent skyrocketing by almost $130 per month, that families that were able to, families and singles that were able to afford the cost of living, it is one paycheck away from not being able to afford that, and they find themselves in a situation they never thought that they would.

I think the perception can still be in the community that it is individuals that have severe substance use, that are middle-aged white men.

And that while that is a population, we are seeing that the majority of the folks that are coming through our shelter are employed, but it's the fact that they cannot find housing that meets their level of income, and so they're finding themselves being homeless longer than a length of time that they need to be simply because there isn't that affordable housing to meet their needs.

But then I also do wanna highlight that there is a population and a group of folks that find themselves stuck in homelessness because they just simply do not have the support services to meet their mental health needs, their unmet mental health needs, their substance use, their chronic homeless status.

So I think that's something really important for us to look at as we're looking at kind of that broad spectrum of who finds themselves homeless and what those solutions are to help them end their homelessness.

- Because a common most likely fifth grader would ask the question, why aren't they seeking help?

Brianne.

- Yeah, and I think some people are seek seeking help.

I think there's resources available in the community.

I think it's also about how we bring resources to people, how we make sure they know that their resources are available.

So whether that's billboards.

Throughout the pandemic, we had COVID Emergency Rental Assistance, or CERA.

So we had billboards with that information available for those specifically, for folks who needed rental assistance.

We also have really great partners who do outreach, including Mel Trotter.

We also have Pine Rest, the HOT team and the City of Grand Rapids, Arbor Circle, some other agencies who really go out to people who are staying outside, and they meet them where they are.

They try to provide anything they need right then to respect their choice to stay outside, but then also to get them connected to resources, whether that's applying for housing, whether that's to ask 'em if they wanna come to shelter and then giving them a ride to shelter, providing healthcare, getting healthcare to them.

So I think that the help is there.

And sometimes if you're in a crisis situation, you may need someone to be willing to bring that help to you.

- Hmm, let's talk about the cold weather now that we're in a new year and most likely cold for a couple more months.

How is Mel Trotter working here?

- Yeah, so every winter we go into what is called Code Blue, and that really does start in October and goes all the way through March.

It's weather dependent, but as soon as the weather gets to a certain degree, we enter into Code Blue, which means that curfews are lifted, so anybody who is seeking shelter can come in at any time.

We open up our warming center for a longer length of time, so it's from 7:30 AM until 8:00 PM.

- That is located where?

- That's located at 225 Commerce.

We also have the 200 Division, which is a warming center.

That's Monday through Friday from 7:00 until 5:00.

And then again, right, anybody who wants to seek shelter, we have a bed available for them.

If they had a previous no service for whatever reason, that's also lifted.

We work really closely with our community partners to make sure that they know that there are beds available for people who are seeking shelter.

Again, as we get in the really, really cold months, we have the capacity to house up to 620 individuals for people that are seeking shelter.

Another key piece that we do is through our outreach.

Brianne talked about that.

We go in the evening hours and do outreach, and this really is looking for individuals that, for whatever reason, are choosing to stay outside.

We cannot force somebody to come in, but we're there to engage, to encourage them to come in, to provide a ride back to the shelter, should they choose.

If they decide not to come in, then we're providing them all of the warm gear and warm items, and making sure that our local police know so that there can be wellness checks done.

So those are some of the efforts that we do at Mel Trotter to really just kinda help individuals, not only that are unhoused, but people that are also at shelter to make sure that they have warm coats and blankets, and all the things that they need while they're staying with us.

- What is your geographical territory here specifically?

- Yeah, so for the Code Blue, we really do look primarily in the major Downtown area and a little bit on the outskirts.

We're not going directly into the encampments per se for Code Blue.

We do outreach five days a week, and we're out doing outreach into encampments all throughout the day and encouraging people to come into shelter.

But for the Code Blue outreach, it's specific from 6:00 until about 9:30 to go out and intentionally look for people that might be in a doorway to encourage them to come inside and get them back to shelter, should they choose that.

- Hmm, Brianne, add to that.

Perhaps other partners that are involved?

- Yeah, yup, so as Adrienne mentioned, Mel Trotter has a great outreach program.

We also have other outreach teams throughout the community at different organizations who serve all of Kent County, who do similar work, who go out and meet people who are staying outside, choosing to stay out there, making sure that they have blankets, they have mittens, they have gloves, they have socks.

They have everything that they need to keep them warm and safe.

We really want to respect people's choice to stay outside but also provide support to the most vulnerable, so really ensure their safety.

So whether that's meeting people where they are.

I had mentioned partners earlier, so Pine Rest reach program, the HOT team, which serves the city of Grand Rapids, Arbor Circle, who specifically serves youth experiencing homelessness.

So there's a great network of partners, and they have really strong collaboration amongst them.

They're always in contact with one another on those teams, like, "Oh, so-and-so, we know someone's here.

You've talked to 'em before.

Can you go see them?"

And again, the connection's there to provide the supports and also say, "Hey, shelter's available."

Mel Trotter makes it known that shelter's available for anyone who wants to seek it, so really making sure they know that that's an option if they choose that.

- Hmm, all right, you mentioned youth a couple times.

Where are we here with the numbers, and why are young kids homeless?

- Yeah, so in terms of the numbers, so over the past few years, we've had between 900 and 1,000 youth experiencing homelessness or interacting with the Homeless Response System in Kent County.

We really know that this is a population that we tend to undercount because youth are less likely to engage with any system of care across the board.

So we know that that 900 to 1,000 number may be a little bit lower than what the reality is as well as we know that there's a lot of youth, specifically those who are ages 18 to 24, there's an overrepresentation of youth who are members of the LGBTQ+ community in the general population of youth experiencing homelessness.

So we know that that overrepresentation there, and that could be because they either choose or are no longer able to stay with family or with friends because of how they identify.

- [Shelley] Hmm.

- But we are very excited that we recently received a grant from the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program grant, or YHDP grant from HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

So this is gonna provide just under $2 1/2 million to our community to develop a coordinated plan to address youth homelessness.

So we're really excited to have that funding as well as we're getting technical assistance or support from national organizations who work and plan to end homelessness.

We're getting their support as well as funding to develop that plan, and we're really excited to really rely on the experience of youth experiencing homelessness right now or in the past, so they'll really guide the development of our plan.

They'll be able to speak into what works best for them, what works best for that population, so we have a plan that we didn't just come up with at some high level and say, "Hey, here's how we're gonna," or, "Here's how we're gonna help you."

We're really saying, "How can we help you?

You tell us what you need, what will work for you, and we can put that plan together as a community."

And then in the longer term, about half of that funding will end up staying in the community on an annual basis.

It will be renewable funding per HUD, so that's just about 1.2 million a year for youth homelessness.

We're really excited to have those funds and resources to address with that.

- Yeah, yeah.

It's great work.

I think that the key piece is that it's gonna be led by youth that have that lived experience, as Brianne said.

So we have a Youth Advisory Council who's really gonna help to guide that work, and I just think that that's really important for any of the initiatives around homelessness, that you have people who have that lived experience to speak into what works and what doesn't work.

And so, again, we're excited to be able to have this, these funds come into our community.

We've applied for it for a couple of years, and so we're just really excited.

It's gonna be quite a game changer for the work that we can do to help young folks and their homelessness.

- Hmm, any other positive move toward solving the crisis of a housing shortage, Adrienne?

- Yeah, I think that there's a lot of great work in our community that's being done.

Housing Kent has come together to really look at the strategic plan and to bring all key stakeholders into the same conversation to say, "We want individuals to go from the continuum of unhoused to housing by choice," right?

And then everything that's in between.

We know that as a community, we have to look at a diverse portfolio of what our housing options are because it's not a cookie cutter.

This housing model is meant for all, and so I think as a community, we're really looking at that.

Do we need more permanent supportive housing for individuals that need those support services?

Transitional housing is also something that we're bringing into the community.

And so Mel Trotter has five transitional houses currently, and by February of 2023, we'll have an additional five because we know that there are some individuals that cannot just go straight from homelessness into permanent housing, and they would choose to have that added support.

And so that's what transitional housing will do.

It'll provide some additional support services for them as they kind of continue to get their bearings and get ready for success and independent living.

So I think it's the community looking at and grateful that the community has recognized that there is a need for more affordable housing, and that it's not just being talked about but that the city and the county are putting some dollars into the initiatives.

Like I said, there's the Housing Kent that's really working towards that.

So I think we're well on our way, but that's a longer term solution, so I think we do need to look at what are those immediate solutions that we can do right now to help individuals that are experiencing homelessness.

- Brianne, you mentioned the provision of mittens, hats, gloves.

How are you getting these materials?

- Yeah, so at the coalition, we don't provide direct services, but we work really, really closely with agencies who do.

So we're providing more of that leadership and oversight, and then we're kind of connecting with agencies who do provide that.

So they come in from all around the community.

Each organization would manage their own donations and their own volunteers, so folks are really, if you're interested in providing hats, gloves, mittens or if you're interested in volunteering in one way or another, you can visit each organization's website, check them out individually.

United Way also has a Volunteer Center, which you can access that through volunteergr.org to learn about volunteer opportunities in the community at any point in time.

So those are kind of two main ways that people can plug in.

- Hmm.

How did you handle the pandemic, Adrienne?

- Yeah, so I think the best that everybody could, right?

You kind of jump into this crisis mode of, how do we keep our head above water, right?

And while serving our community's most vulnerable.

We could not have done it without our partnerships with the Health Department and the city as well as the healthcare systems.

They were instrumental in helping us to look at ways to make sure that our guests are safe, providing masks, providing onsite vaccine clinics, multiple, we still actually have them every three weeks, and we do testing, weekly testing through the Department of Health and Human Services.

They have a contract, and so we've been doing that for the last 2 1/2 years.

At the very beginning, it was, okay, all hands on deck.

How do we serve hundreds of individuals, keep them social distanced, educate them, and help encourage that they wear masks, right?

Knowing that the most vulnerable population are some of the highest risk because of underlying health conditions and things like that.

So we worked really closely with, again, our health department, looking at ways for safety mitigation strategies within our own building, and we were able to implement those relatively quickly.

A lot of the strategies that we put into place will always be because we realize that, especially in our population where it's very close and people are transient, we do need to make sure that we're keeping some protocols in place to help just continue with those flu-like symptoms and things like that.

So one of the things that we're happy to say that we learned over the pandemic is we were in the middle of our raising money for our capital campaign, and when the pandemic hit, it shifted our construction actually to say we were going to do one sort of model with rooms, realizing that we need to have individual rooms for individuals, not only to provide them dignity but also to help with the spread of communicable diseases, that they're no longer sleeping with multiple individuals in a room, but they've got their own individual room and private bathroom, and so that shifted.

But yeah, I think that it was an all hands on deck and happy to say that we were able to get through it with the help of our community partners.

- Hmm, and the coalition?

- Yeah, so I would just kind of echo similar to what Adrienne said, just really around-the-clock planning and coordination at all times.

Yeah, and I think we worked really closely with Kent County, including the Kent County Health Department, also the cities of Grand Rapids, the city of Grand Rapids, sorry.

And really, for example, in the beginning, we knew if you don't have a house, you don't have a safe place necessarily to isolate or quarantine, so we really worked right off the bat we need an isolation quarantine center.

So just coordinating with partners, figuring out where's the location, who can provide healthcare services, who can provide support services?

Making sure that stood up for the people who didn't have a safe place to isolate or quarantine, really making sure that they had a place to do that.

And I think that just being part of that core emergency planning team really puts us in a great position for, heaven forbid, another disaster in the future.

Already having relationships in place set us up nicely, and hopefully we don't.

- Yeah, I think that that's really important.

While we partnered with the Health Department on coming in and doing flu vaccines and things like that, this really deepened our partnerships, and so I think that what we've learned out of this is that it does take a village, right?

And so I do hope that the lessons that we've learned and the partnerships that we've gained over the last two years will continue, not only if there's a pandemic but if there's a hep B or hep A breakout in shelters.

We've got our partners that we can say, "Okay, what does this look like for us to kind of execute some plans of safety for our community's most vulnerable?"

- Hmm, question you often get.

I'm running into a soul at the end of an exit ramp.

He or she has their sign and is awaiting a hand up.

What is my action item?

- Yeah, so I think, first of all, just approaching it with compassion and empathy is the most important thing.

So every person, not all people who are panhandling are experiencing homelessness, but I think no matter what, you're at a point where you can make an individual decision.

So are you gonna help someone?

You're gonna provide support, whatever they're asking for, that's up to you whether or not you do, but I think just recognizing that there's a fellow human being in front of you and just approaching that, whatever their experience is, that they should be treated with compassion and empathy and really deserve dignity and respect that you would give to any other person you came across Downtown.

- Yeah, and I think to add to that, that's spot on.

I think the other thing too is, is community members to be knowledgeable of the resources.

We're very rich in resources in our community, luckily, and so just having some knowledge of even just the 211 flyer that you have in your car, that you can provide to an individual.

We often tell people too, in the hot months, obviously carry bottles of water and granola bars, and those types of things so that you can hand that out.

Similar to the winter.

Do you have hand warmers that you can keep in your car?

So those types of things, right, where it's so you feel like you're at least providing something, and if you don't feel called to give money, at least you're providing something.

And again, I think it's, which is really important, to recognize that it is a human being and that they, for whatever reason, they're standing there.

They are looking to be seen.

And so, yeah, so that's always our recommendation.

- Hmm, how do you judge success, as we look to wind down, of the good work that you're both doing?

Numbers are important, but again, so are the people.

- Yeah, so we would define success as what we call reaching functional zero for ending homelessness.

So it's kind of got three pillars.

You have homelessness as rare, so rare, brief, and one time.

So first of all, homelessness is prevented whenever possible with whatever means possible so people can stay where they are able to be stably housed.

And if homelessness does happen, if people do experience homelessness, because we recognize that there is going to be, that is going to happen, that it's brief so people are quickly connected to any type of supports, shelter, and then permanent housing to quickly move back into a stable housing.

And then that third pillar is once people move into housing, that they don't return to homelessness.

So homelessness is one time, they have supports to stabilize and to maintain their housing, and then move them to housing, housing by choice, not just housing we give them, but housing by choice.

So that's our three pillars that we hope to reach.

And I think, really, homelessness is solvable.

That's what we recognize.

We have the tools, we have the resources, we have the community will.

We just have to come together to solve homelessness together.

- Hmm, how do we find out more about the coalition?

- Yeah, so you can visit.

Our website is endhomelessnesskent.org.

You can visit our website, learn more about our work, our partners, and what we do.

- Hmm, Adrienne, how can we judge success through the work of Mel Trotter?

- Yeah, I think for us, certainly it's ending a person's homelessness and ensuring that they're not returning to homelessness.

I think for us, too, we've done a lot of work around prevention and diversion.

For us, it's how do we get kinda upstream, right?

We've been a shelter that provides emergency shelter and food, like I said, for 122 years, but we've really looked at some areas of focus around prevention and diversion to help a person who's at risk of becoming homeless from ever having to enter into the shelter system, which is traumatic.

It's definitely more costly to house somebody in shelter than it is to help them maintain their housing through prevention and diversion, so we've really put a lot of resources into that.

So for us, success is preventing somebody from actually entering into the homeless system.

And then on the back end of it is helping an individual really get the tools that they need to be successful in their housing, and so how do we equip them while we're working with them at Mel Trotter, at the shelter or in one of our transitional houses, to really get them the tools and the community resources that they need so that when they do find themselves in another situation, that they've got the tools to not have to enter back into homelessness?

So those are the ways that we measure it.

And of course we want to look at it being rare, that the individual is not seeking shelter services continuously.

- Find out more information how?

- Www.meltrotter.org, and on there you can find ways to volunteer, to give back, all of the different programs and services that we offer, and any additional phone numbers and contacts that you might need for follow-up from this conversation that we're having.

- Continue the good conversation that you all had together in addition to the other partners in our own backyard.

There really was a Mel Trotter one year in time.

- There really was a Mel Trotter.

He is a person, yes.

He's been long gone, but, yes, he is the one who started the rescue mission here.

- Thank you, ladies.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

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