Mayor Skip Henderson of Columbus, GA - How We Can Most Effectively Help the Homeless (Part 1)

I so enjoyed this conversation with Mayor Skip Henderson of Columbus, GA!  This episode and the conclusion episode next week will dive deep into the bigger picture of homelessness and the many challenges that are so often connected with it (mental illness, substance abuse, etc.).  We'll talk about the impact of homelessness on crime and the economy, the role of city government, the role of private citizens, and so much more!

Transcript

Skip: 0:00

I personally think that the homelessness issue, because it's so diverse and so widespread It is a community issue and it impacts everybody in the community. The entire community needs to get involved. And I'll tell you, I've told my pastor too, I mean, there are 300 plus churches in Columbus, Georgia. If we could get everybody on the same page, all the clergy, all the different religions, I don't care if you're Muslim, Jewish, you know, Christian, whatever it is if you really are here to serve God's children, then everybody needs to work on that.

Phil Shuler: 0:35

HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the Safe House Ministries podcast, where we share stories of the power of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. Safe House Ministries is based out of Columbus, Georgia, and we are a ministry that exists to love and serve people who have been affected by addiction, homelessness, and incarceration. I'm your host, Phil Shuler, the Director of Development for Safe House Ministries here in Columbus, Georgia. Safe House serves over 1, 100 people each month as they transition back into our community. Safe House provides an abundance of services including 213 beds for homeless individuals and families, case management for obtaining job skills and long term employment. Over 300 hot meals every day, free clothing, and so much more. One of the most incredible services that Safe House provides is our free 9 12 month intensive outpatient substance abuse program, which is state licensed, CARF accredited, and has no wait list. Almost 100 percent of individuals staying in our shelters who follow our three phase program become fully employed within a few months. And 68 percent of individuals who stay at least one night with us End up finding work and moving into their own home. Thank you for being with us today and listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoy this week's episode.

1:47

Man, I so enjoyed talking with Mayor Skip Henderson in this episode this week and part two, which will be next week. It's gonna be a two part episode. these two episodes this week and next week. Are going to be some really, really good episodes to help give you a better understanding of the big picture, the complicated nature of really what it takes to help people go from being homeless to being in their own homes. The challenges of the jobs. Force situation, the challenges of getting them some employment, the challenges of affordable housing and trying to find affordable housing. The challenges of dealing with mental health issues, dealing with substance abuse issues. So many things, how homelessness affects. Crime and how it affects the economy in the city. mayor Henderson really does a great job of really explaining the big picture so enjoy these episodes. They are amazing and very, very educational.

Phil: 2:51

Hello and welcome to today's Safe House Ministries podcast. Today is gonna be a little different than usual and I'm really looking forward to today. Today we have a special guest, mayor Skip Henderson, who is with us. So thank you for being here.

Skip: 3:05

Oh, Phil, my pleasure. Appreciate it. Appreciate the opportunity.

Phil: 3:08

So kicking off, I usually ask, uh, my guests, uh, if there was one word that might best describe you, what do you think that word would be?

Skip: 3:17

Ooh. Listen the older I get, the more that word changes. Uh, right now I think it'd be patience because there's a lot of great things going on in the community, but there's a lot of challenges. And, uh, in order to collaborate with the right people, you have to be patient. You have to be consistent. And I think, I think my wife would disagree with this when I say patience, but I'll go with that.

Phil: 3:38

That's a good word. Uh, that's that's something that, uh, is hard to learn sometimes.

Skip: 3:42

Yeah, it is. And, and you know, I I tell you, there's so many when you, I've never been asked to come up with just one word. the other word I think that pops to mind is blessed. You know, we just have been Karen and I, uh, and our family and, and the opportunity to work with so many incredible people in this community like yourself. It's just, I, I try not to take that for granted because not a lot of people get that opportunity.

Phil: 4:04

Yeah. Amen. The blessing of the Lord is a wonderful thing. Oh, man. Yes. And speaking of patience, uh, that's a perfect word because in the, the work of ministry that Safe House does, safe House Ministries, just trying to help dealing with people who are, have been affected by homelessness and addiction. Patience is something that is greatly required.

Skip: 4:26

Well, it is, and, and for a lot of reasons. And there's one I think that may even be a lot of folks don't think about. But, um, but you know, you have to be careful in how you react to the issues because the, the, my impulse, probably yours, is to just go fix it. I, I've, I see this one individual, this one family. Let's just go fix it. And in reality, it doesn't work that way. You really have to be thoughtful and you have to be methodical, in my opinion, about putting together a plan and finding the right people who help to implement that plan in order to try to impact people who are unhoused in our community.

Phil: 5:01

Yeah. There are several issues that intertwine when you think about homelessness, addiction, substance abuse issues, mental health issues just so many things that are so often all tied together. I would love to ask in your personal life, what are the experiences that you have had that really have shaped the way you think about homelessness?

Skip: 5:27

Oh wow. Yeah. I think there's, it's not one, one thing I, I'll give you a couple of answers, but the first one is, is not really an an instant or a period of time that I've gone through. I was raised in a military family, and so we were expected to serve, right? We were, we were, it, it's kinda, Calvin Smiley says often that you know, service to others is the rent you are due for living this life, right? Yeah. God doesn't put us here just to kind of float through life. You're supposed to try to return some of the goodness that comes to you. So I think, I think living in an environment, pardon me with, um, my mom and my dad. Growing up as a kid, we saw them work to try to improve the lives of other people. So I think that has gone a long way towards shaping me. But I think you and I were talking just before we came on my term as mayor started almost the same time that COVID came came across the, the pond and landed in, uh, in the United States. And that was just a, that was a really interesting period to try to lead anything, lead a family, lead a classroom, lead a church or lead a city.

Phil: 6:38

Yeah, no doubt. What are a couple of the key lessons maybe that you learned through that challenging time? Just about leadership or just how to handle and navigate leading people?

Skip: 6:49

Yeah. You know, I think we all know that you, we've all heard you can't please all the people all the time. And I think where people fall into a real negative situation is when they try you, you just can't.

Phil: 7:02

Yeah.

Skip: 7:03

But I think one of the most critical aspects of any leader is to listen. I may not agree with you all the time, but, um, I owe you the respect of listening to your thoughts. And then once we gathered all the information, then you have to make the best available decision at that time. And uh, and it's interesting because during that time period, I, for example, I may have made, if it was just me and my family, I may have made one decision. But when you're making a decision that impacts over 205,000 people. It changes your perspective a little bit. So much. Yeah.

Phil: 7:36

Yeah. I love that answer too. Listening. Uh, I was reading a biography of Winston Churchill, and one of the things that the author pulled out was how he would go even to the front lines of the Navy personnel and just ask them questions and listen to them just to get that, the understanding.

Skip: 7:54

We, we used to call that leading by walking around, you know? Yeah. Just walk through the halls of the, uh, of the organization that you lead. And, and I'm telling you, I, I'm, I'm a firm believer in that everybody is, people say, are leaders born or they made? I say yes, because everybody is born with a capacity and a, an obligation to lead. Now, some work at cultivating that a little harder than others do, but I mean, you if you're a parent, you're a leader, you know? Yeah. And if, if you're a kindergarten teacher, you're a leader because you are, you are helping to order the steps. Of those that are gonna fall behind you. Yeah. And I, I love the, the, the quote that, uh, you know, we need to be planting seeds for trees under which we'll never probably sit in their shade. Yeah. So

Phil: 8:41

That's so

Skip: 8:42

true. It's, uh, it's, yeah, it's, it's kind of, it's, it's kind of an interesting, interesting, uh, commitment to try to lead in some fashion.

Phil: 8:50

Yeah. So diving back into homelessness I believe that the 2025 point in time count was about 303. I think that's right. That which were recorded in shelters and out of shelters. I know it's a challenge and. There's no way to really be able to find everybody in all the hiding places. Yeah. So how much higher do you maybe think that the actual number might be? Well, and,

Skip: 9:15

and the short answer is, I don't know. Yeah. Uh, you know, because when, when we hear the numbers, uh, and then when I drive through the community in different areas I see people on the streets, different people. It's not like you see the same folks transient from one section of the community to the other. But, but I'm told by, uh, one thing that came outta the point in time count this time is we are about equal with where we were in 2016. But that's not, that's not necessarily a good thing because we had actually reduced over a that period of time the number of folks that we could identify as being unhoused. So it really means we've sort of made a bell curve and we're, we're back up to where we were. And I'll, I wanna mention, I. So much respect for you, what you said coming in about how all these, there's different components. There's dots are connecting all these different symptoms or aspects of homelessness. And I think that's one of the hardest thing to deal with.'cause when you do what you do and what what I do and we're trying to identify ways to help as many people as possible get, get shelter there are constituencies in that group that, that have unique issues that, um, cause them to perhaps not want to change their circumstances right now. Yeah. And uh, we go back to that patience thing. You know, you just gotta be consistent. You gotta be patient, you gotta continue to try to urge them into a situation where they can find the kinda resources. Yeah. And are willing to undertake that at that first step. Um. It's, uh, yeah, it's, it's kind of a challenge.

Phil: 10:54

Yeah. So I'm a thinker and I, and I love really kind of thinking through things. Um, and I would love to pose a bigger or deeper question for you to think about. Obviously there's a great burden upon a city, just a society to, when it comes to homelessness, substance abuse, all of these things, there are costs that are going to have to be paid however you decide to either deal with it or not deal with it. Jails, those cost money, guards cost money, uh, housing costs, money, like so many think crime, the judicial system, there's, there's money that's gonna have to be paid. Thinking about, I guess the, the way to approach the root issues when it comes to homelessness and addiction. What do you feel like is the role specifically for city or local government in really trying to address and just deal with those kinds of things?

Skip: 11:54

Yeah, you know, it's, it is such a, it's such a hard issue to kinda wrap your arms around because as you just pointed out, there are so many different aspects and different pieces of this, this challenge. And, uh, you know, you, you touched on a lot of things. You touched on the mental, mental health. You touched on, uh, substance abuse drug dependency, uh, crime. Uh, all of those things have a cost. And I'll tell you now if, if your entire focus is on enforcement, you're in a lot of trouble because you can't just. Take the attitude. We'll, we'll build bigger jails. One is the cost. Yeah. And the other is just not the right approach. You know it, if you think about it being housing first, you know, get'em. Shelter. I, I'll give you an example. We've worked, uh, through our Muskogee County prison. Uh, we have a tremendous leader there uh, warden Walker and, um, and, uh, he has, we are grad, he's graduated more prisoners through programs in his facility than anybody else in the state of Georgia. Wow. I went to a a graduation about a month ago and there were 66 of his inmates that either got a certificate in welding janitorial services, GED, because we understand and he gets it. He understands that if when these men get out of his prison. If they don't have access to work and a place to stay, they're gonna end up right back through recidivism into his, in his facility. Yeah.

Phil: 13:29

Yeah. Thinking about the, the, the money piece you know, you're, you're gonna spend money, it might be on the back end, it could be on the front end. How do you feel about preventative money? Maybe just, do you, what do you feel is the role of the city maybe in, in helping just with initiatives organizations who are kind of trying to head it off on the front end to help those get off the streets into housing, deal with their addiction issues, get clean. And maybe prevent them from going back into the cycle of the prison system and others.

Skip: 14:02

And I think the city's the government's responsibility is to create partnerships with other organizations and resources. We do have a program that we are putting together where we're identifying the funding sources, and we plan on launching it, hopefully by the first of the year. And it will be a, uh, vehicle that will have a police officer, a licensed clinician a mental health clinician and a paramedic. And so the hope is, is so many of, of Indi, the individuals in the jails and the jail's a holding facility, the jail's not a penal institution. So when somebody stays in there, 200 days. That's not good. Um, but, uh, but if we, um, if we're able to, to identify some of the individuals who are going through a emotional or mental distress or some type of disorder then we can respond with that group and keep'em out of the jail. That's not where they belong.

Phil: 15:02

Yeah. They

Skip: 15:02

don't belong in general population in a jail. So that is costing the city money. We are, we are working on that. I personally think that the homelessness issue, because it's so diverse and so widespread government can't do it. Organizations like Home for Good can't do it. It is a community issue and it impacts everybody in the community. The entire community needs to get involved. And I'll tell you, I've told my pastor too, I mean, there are 300 plus churches in Columbus, Georgia. If we could get everybody on the same page, all the clergy, all the different religions, I don't care if you're Muslim, Jewish, you know, Christian, whatever it is if you really are here to serve God's children, then everybody needs to work on that. I mean, I, and, and a lot of people think they're doing a, a, a really kind thing for folks and you know, sometimes you step back and you look at it and assess it very frankly. And maybe there's a better thing that, something else that could be doing to try to help cure or fix some of these dependency issues. I, I saw a church, it was letting an encampment live on their, on their property and on the surface. That's, that's a good thing. If you dig a little deeper there, the, the folks in that organization might even tell you that they're unintentionally enabling folks to continue to live in an environment that is not gonna improve unless we can put them together with some of these resources.

Phil: 16:27

Yeah. You bring up an interesting thought. I think in Columbus, Georgia, I, and I feel certain that I could say that I know there are a lot of people that have a heart that want to help others. There just really are. And I think sometimes maybe we just don't know the, the best way to do that. And, you can walk around the streets or go in different places of city and you can see homeless people and there's no way that I could go to my wife and say, Hey, can I bring 10 fellas into the home and you just make'em dinner tonight? It's just not practical, right? I mean, I got seven kids to begin with, so I, we, I can't add that many people in my house. Or I can't just say, oh, hey, come stay in, you know, stay in my house. And, but what I could do just as a citizen and individual is partner with an organization like Safe House Ministries, who, who really is working in effective structure and is giving, showing great results of helping people. I can say, you know what, maybe I can't bring'em in and feed them, but I can give 15, 30 bucks a month and be a partner with a ministry like Safe House to help them. And I think just from a business pragmatic viewpoint, the results are gonna be a lot more, a lot more effective, you know, like you mentioned. Yeah. You know, instead of, instead of maybe being an enabler or, or just helping them one night partnering with a ministry that can help them for more than one night to, and it may take six months, it may take 12 months, but getting them into that program. To deal with the root issues that are, have caused their circumstances and then really helping them to get out. And the goal would be to help them to get on their feet and stay that way.

Skip: 18:06

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And be a contributing member of our, so our society, uh, you know, I, I went, I guess about two weeks ago, I rode, I rode with our community policing unit. And, uh, these are the ones that, they don't have a specific beat. They just, they'll go into neighborhoods. They introduce themselves to the people that live in neighborhoods, just creating that connection with police and with citizen. Uh, but they also respond or go check on known homeless encampments. And so we went and visited, I think three or four that day. And one of'em had nobody there, but the others, we had a chance to interact with the individuals that were there. And it was a, in, it was very much an eyeopening experience for me. I mean, I, I knew what I expected. And so one gentleman, they called him up'cause he's sort of the leader of that small group. And he came up and I just I just, he kept looking at me and he said, do I know you? I said, I don't think so. And he, but he finally, I I, somebody told him that I was the mayor of Columbus and he was so apologetic for not having a shirt on, not having shoes on. I said, no, no, no, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're good. Don't worry about that. But I use that as an opportunity to start engaging him in conversation.

Phil: 19:20

Yeah.

Skip: 19:21

And I won't use his name, but, uh, but I, I told him, I said, listen, you don't have to answer me. If I ask you a question, I'll give you, I'll give you complete license to tell me it's none of my business. I said, but you, you don't seem like you're exceptionally happy. I said, would it, would you feel better in a, in a. In a, a shelter or somewhere trying to get some treatment. And he, he said, you know, I'm tired. I think I would. And so I said, well, this is the lady with home for good. I said, you talked to her, she's gonna get your information and they'll get you to one of these facilities. So I walked over to one of the police officers, I said, what do you think the odds are?'cause they were gonna wait till tomorrow. He said, I can't do it today. He had to take care of his dogs. He said, but I'll, I'll be here tomorrow. And I asked the police officer, I said, what do you think the odds are? He said, probably less than 25% that he'll be back. Well, flash forward the next day he came back and he's in Freedom house. Or, or he was, yeah. And I felt like I, you know, it's football season scored the winning touchdown on last second play. Uh, but it's, it's, that's the objective in my mind. Yeah. The objective is to make contact, to treat'em, uh, the individuals you're dealing with. It. Like the human being they are. And then try to get them to view different options. Yeah. To take a lot of courage. I mean, face it, if alcoholism, drug dependency, that's a disease. And so trying to get them to get involved in a situation where they know they're gonna go through a lot of pain to get to where they want to

Phil: 20:52

go. Yeah.

Skip: 20:53

Um, but it was, it, it was an eyeopening experience because then the other folks we saw at the encampments, they were the other end of the spectrum. They we're good. We're good. I don't, we don't need anything. Nope. I've been here two years. I just, we're good. Yeah. So, um, we got, we just gotta keep pushing. The idea that there's another way.

Phil: 21:13

Yeah.

Skip: 21:13

And the only way you can do that, we go back to that patience and consistency.

Phil: 21:17

So true. And that's

Skip: 21:18

what has to happen.

Phil: 21:18

Yeah. I, I find, as I, as I do the podcast every week, the stories that individuals share of their journey through homelessness, dealing with addiction, so often it takes them coming to that one fellow described it as falling so far down to the, to rock bottom that he found himself on the rock at the bottom, which is Jesus. And the only way he could get back up. And, you know, I just, things that I've never slept out on the ground a single night in my life, ex, except for, unless I was purposefully camping in the woods or something. Right. And so there are things that I think most of us, we don't even think about. There was a fellow that shared. One experience he had in the middle of the night. He was, had been in the woods, I think just homeless for about a year. And one night he hadn't eaten for days and he said he was starving. So he left his tent to go, found a dumpster, dove in the dumpster, got some donuts, then ate some of those donuts. And he got back in the woods and he said he couldn't find his tent. So he was just wandering lost and he was panicking a little bit. He said finally he found his tent unzipped. The door went in and he said he was so tired, he just collapsed. And a couple hours later in the we hours of the morning, he wakes up with fire ants all over him because some of those donuts had gotten on the ground and, and just getting bit. And, and then he said he is running through the woods trying to tear off his clothes. Finally, he finds a gas station and there was someone that was, pressure washing or something. And so he gets the hose and just hoses himself off. But experiences like that, I mean, that's. I, I don't even think about things like that and what it would be like living just with nothing.

Skip: 23:00

Well, and, and what, what's really, to me, what's really sad about that is, is the odds are that this individual, you're, you're describing has been offered other options in his mind, at least up to that day. The alternative has been easy, an easier choice for him. And I talked I've got a friend of mine that owns a business and he tells me about the folks. He'll send me pictures that are trying to get some shelter and, um, here's, here's the other part of homelessness though, that makes it so extremely difficult in this particular point in time. That is the cost of housing has gotten so outrageous. I used to be able to go to somebody on the street and say, listen, I'll get you with somebody right now who will get you in some job training, who will get you temporary housing, and we'll get you a voucher and get you into an apartment. Can't say that anymore. The vouchers don't even really cover the cost of the apartment. When you figure that the average two bedroom apartment in Columbus is probably somewhere around 1200 bucks a month, these people, if they're working, you know, an hourly wage job at, at, you know, McDonald's or, or one of the fast food places they're not gonna be able to afford that. So now you've got an even bigger challenge because you can't really, you can get them into the shelters, but Right. But now the stays are gonna be longer. You know, we've talked about transitional housing. The city could partner with organizations to create an environment where we offer transitional housing. Well, right now. Because of the cost to move into permanent housing. It's just a really, it's just a really difficult jump. It's, at least from my perspective, the people I've talked to, it seems a, a longer jump than it was just five years ago.

Phil: 24:39

Yeah. So you think affordable housing really is one of the biggest hurdles to, to making that transition and helping people to,

Skip: 24:45

I think when you get to that stage, it is, yeah. You know, once you've accepted that I need a little bit of help, I need some, I need to be able to develop some skills so that I can get a job, I can support myself. Because so many people in this community and communities across the state of Georgia and even across the country, they're one missed paycheck from being homeless.

Phil: 25:05

Yeah.

Skip: 25:06

Yeah. And I, and they're not, and they're not all these the individuals that people talk about living in tents in woods, uh, there was a guy that, uh, lived just in off in some woods with his wife and child. And he'd get up every morning, put on a shirt, he was going to work, but he had been sick and he'd missed a couple of weeks, lost that income'cause it's hourly income. And, um, he ended up, now the fire department saw him and met him and got him into, uh, some transitional housing. So he was able to, able to find permanent housing. But it's so many times they don't really even know what their options are.

Phil: 25:41

Yeah, you're right. And that, that's, uh, an interesting consideration too. A lot of times we think of homeless individuals just like just a man by himself in the woods, but there are families that are going through really hard times.

Skip: 25:55

Pat Frey, uh, with Home For Good, indicated that the biggest jump in people this last point in time ca count was, uh, women with children. Yeah. So there were more kids. That are finding themselves as part of a family that doesn't have permanent housing.

Phil: 26:13

Yeah. And one of the things that is unique that I really appreciate about Safe House Ministries is, um, most shelters are either kind of a women's shelter or a men's shelter. And with the women's shelter, you can have kids up to a certain age, but boys can't be beyond a certain age. But one of the things that Safe House Ministries is able to offer is apartments for families that the family can actually stay together going through that time of, of transition, which is hard enough on its own, let alone to think if you had to go through that, if split your family up.

Skip: 26:44

Yeah. You know, and, and I always tell people it sounds heartless, but I urge'em, and I, I don't give folks that are homeless or out asking for funds. I, I don't give them money, but I'll put'em in a car and take'em and give'em something to eat, and then I'll give'em the number for 2 1 1. I said, there are shelters out there. You call this number, it's not gonna solve every issue that you've got, but it will get you out of the cold. It'll get you out of this heat. Yeah. Uh, and um, and, and that's, that's, that's sometimes hard to do because if, unfortunately, if there, if they're suffering from addiction, and it is, it is a sufferance it's too easy for them to stay in that lane if you give them money. Yeah. So I, and this is a personal viewpoint, this is not, this is not necessarily supported by Safe House. I know, but, uh, but I, I, I just feel like the value of giving them money for a meal or I've, I've taken people to shelters. Uh, there was a, uh, a private shelter years ago that they, for$8 a night, they would let them stay. And so I, we, young lady, we saw on Second Avenue, my wife was with me, we took her down, got her something to eat, and then took her to that shelter. Wow. It's, but. Going back to your intro when you talked about how many people in Columbus look for opportunities to help people like that, I just think they just don't necessarily know the best way to do it.

Phil: 28:07

Yeah. Which I, I really do believe, I mean, obviously I'm biased because I work in the ministry of Safe House Ministries, but, um, but I think partnering with an organization like Safe House and just being a monthly partner financially is one of the most effective ways. The Safe House ministry's budget since, probably since, I don't know if, if post COVID is a term that could be said, but if you, if you can say it, post COVID, our, the ministry budget has just grown, almost tripled. Doubled for sure. In closer approaching tripling, just with the. The burden. I mean, there were, there were organizations that were just meeting various needs and some of those organizations had to discontinue services or maybe even fold up entirely. And, and just, so it seems like the, the burden is growing. But you mentioned 2 1 1 and I think, um, that's a great system of entry to help. But with that good system, obviously there's more that's getting funneled efficiently to the, the places like Safe House that can help them, but it's taxing the resource. It's just taxing the limits of ability.

Skip: 29:18

Well, I think and we know this just from talking to organizations like Safe House and, and the, uh, salvation Army and Valley rescue and home for Good, that these shelters are busting at the seams. Uh, there, there seems to be more people, maybe trying to get off the streets than there were years ago. Because I, I know anecdotally the, the individuals like yourself that we speak with, talk of, um, talk of a bigger challenge.

Phil: 29:49

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, thinking about the, the results that have been able to been, to be accomplished of the past 18 months, safe House Ministries have been able to help almost 300 people go from being on the streets to now being in their, their own housing. That's a big number, but there's still so many more.

Skip: 30:08

There are. And, uh, and I think that, um, one of the things we have, have, I believe we need to do is we need to update our resource, our resources in our toolbox, right? So, I think I've talked with some individuals with United Way and some others, and they're. Kinda reconvening. Uh, years ago, about 10 years ago, there was a, uh, 10 year plan to end homelessness. Well, we knew that was a grandiose plan and it was very likely to fail if that was your true goal, but it really wasn't. The idea was just to get people focused on Yeah. On the, on the issue. And I, I, right now, there's an organization of folks that are pulling together and have a very small working task force, and then they have sort of ancillary groups that are feeding into these individuals and giving them some, uh, real life stories of what's going on in the community. So I think as, as you pointed out, whether it's post COVID or whether it's just a shift in the economy, a lack of affordable housing the scope and the shape of the issue has changed, and I think it makes really good sense to go back and reevaluate and see, all right, are we still doing the things that are making positive change? 300 people, getting them into housing is incredible. The scary thing is there's still a lot of people out. There's a lot, a lot of vouchers that are available through these organizations through the CHA Columbus Housing Authority with these individuals and organizations being the conduit, there's so many available because there's, it's not enough to, to take care of the cost of the housing. Yeah. So, but it, it's all connected. We, we, we haven't talked about jobs, we haven't talked about some of the training. We haven't talked about education. We haven't talked about delinquency. We, all of those things feed into this because if you don't, if you don't develop, if you don't develop the skills that are gonna put you in a position where you can be employed then it's gonna be really hard.

32:04

Thank you for being here with us this week. It's been so great. Talking with Skip. Next week is gonna be just as good if not even better. We're gonna talk about some additional things. We're gonna dive deeper into mental health and the challenges there. We're gonna talk more about crime. We're gonna talk about some things that business owners are doing that are just really, really helpful and good, and so much more. We look forward to being back with you again next week. If you liked this podcast, if you thought it was helpful, insightful, please share it with others. Please give us a five star review on whatever platform you're listening to this podcast on. Maybe even write some positive comments. We would love to hear what you think. Thanks again for being with us and have a great week.

Phil Shuler: 32:47

We look forward to being with you again next week as we share another testimony about the power and the goodness of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. if you are someone listening to this podcast that loves to hear these stories of the great things that God is doing in changing people's lives for the better, and if you would like to be a part of that work, please reach out to us You can reach us at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus, Georgia, 31,904. You can call us at seven oh six three two two. 3 7, 7 3, or you can email us at info@safehouse-ministries.com.

Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone)-2: 33:26

Thank you so much for being with us this week for the renew restore and rejoice podcast of safe house ministries, we pray that God will bless you this week. And we look forward to having you back with us again next week for a new episode.