Homelessness and Housing Insecurity

In this conversation, Hannah and Nayeli discuss what they learned in researching their top questions on homelessness and housing insecurity. Special guest, Nate Fields discusses the complexities surrounding homelessness, addressing common misconceptions, the barriers faced by individuals seeking shelter, and the importance of the Housing First model. He shares transformative stories of individuals who have successfully transitioned out of homelessness through compassion and support, emphasizing the need for community involvement and understanding. At the end of the episode, Hannah and Nayeli share 5 things ordinary people can do to help.
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Chapters

• 0:32 Intro to Today's Topic
• 14:53 Guest Interview, Nathaniel "Nate" Fields
• 42:27 5 Things You Can Do to Help

Transcript

Hannah (00:10):

Welcome friends, and thank you for joining us on Ordinary People with Hannah and Nayeli. I'm Hannah. And I'm Nayeli. Okay, let's get into it. The short version of what Nayeli and I do is we live on a lot of caffeine. Nayeli, what's your drink of choice, by the way?

Nayeli (00:30):

A double espresso every morning.

Hannah (00:32):

I love it. We do hours upon hours of research on humanitarian issues and package it all up in an episode that you can listen to in the car on a walk, folding laundry or whatever works best for you. If you ever feel like you wish you could help more with certain issues, but you are busy and a lot of times you have no idea how to help, we get it. So let us take on that part of the work and you just relax and come hang out with us and get all sorts of useful and inspirational info along the way. Today we're going to be talking about homelessness and housing insecurity. We have an amazing guest that we can't wait to introduce to you, but first we're going to share what Nayeli and I have been learning about and then we'll get into the guest interview. So I started my research wondering why should everyone care about homelessness?

Nayeli (01:22):

Wow. Well, that's a tough question. I think on a certain level, we all care. We all have had an encounter with a homeless person and sometimes we try to help maybe giving away some money or food, but it's hard to get involved beyond that because many times we don't know right way to interact or truly how to really help that person. But maybe we should start with the humanitarian aspect.

Hannah (01:46):

Yeah. So actually the world already came together and decided that housing is a human right. In 1948 after the Holocaust, the United Nations came together and in an effort to make sure nothing like that ever happened again, they developed what's called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 25 says, everyone has the right to a standard of living, adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood and circumstances beyond his control. So ultimately, the world already came together a long time ago and decided that housing is a fundamental human right. Unfortunately in the US we didn't take that international declaration and apply it consistently to our own federal and state constitutions and laws. So it's caused a really inconsistent approach to how we handle homelessness around the country.

(02:48):

There was a really devastating decision on a case that just went through the Supreme Court called City of Grants Pass versus Johnson. The city has laws against camping on public property, so homeless people in Grants Pass, Oregon can face fines and imprisonment for sleeping in a tent on public property. A class action suit was filed against the city saying it violated their eighth amendment right. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court sided with the city, so the result was that the people don't have the protection of the Supreme Court if your city or your state government criminalizes homelessness even when it's beyond your control. So I read the opinion and I wanted to read to you a little bit of the dissenting opinion of Justice Sotomayor. This is her quote, "sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime. For some people, sleeping outside is their only option. The city of Grants pass jails and finds those people for sleeping anywhere in public at any time, including in their cars if they use as little as a blanket to keep warm or a rolled up shirt as a pillow for people with no access to shelter, that punishes them for being homeless that is unconscionable and punishing people for their status is cruel and unusual.

(04:05):

Under the Eighth Amendment, homelessness is a reality for too many Americans on any given night, over half a million people across the country lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime resident. Many do not have access to shelters and are left to sleep in cars, sidewalks, parks, and other public place. They experience homelessness due to complex and interconnected issues, including crippling debt and stagnant wages, domestic and sexual abuse, physical and psychiatric disabilities, and rising housing costs. Coupled with declining affordable housing options, it is possible to acknowledge and balance the issues facing local governments, the humanity and dignity of homeless people and our constitutional principles. Instead, the majority focuses almost exclusively on the needs of local governments and leaves the most vulnerable in our society with an impossible choice, either stay awake or be arrested. "

Nayeli (05:05):

Wow, this is so powerful. I feel it's summarized the feeling of many of us, the majority of the homeless population is facing daily challenges just to survive, and this adds another layer of concern because just by the fact of being homeless, you can become a criminal

Hannah (05:23):

And then basically that traps them in a cycle of poverty because once you become labeled as a criminal or you have a criminal record, then you're going to have a hard time finding a job and so on.

Nayeli (05:34):

And even beyond that, is the city aware of the cost to taxpayers that this policy is going to bring? If you are funding more police efforts to things like public urination or sleeping on a park bench, both of which can be illegal because they have nowhere else to go to sleep or to go to the bathroom, it can be more expensive to put people through the court system and house them in the jail. Think about all the government workers that will be involved in a situation like this. When a homeless person is arrested for sleeping on a park bench, a police dispatcher will get involved. Police officers, court clerks have to file paperwork. A court appointment attorney gets assigned to the case, a jail uniform housing and food are utilized, guards in-house medical staff, et cetera. This is just one situation. The point is taxpayers dollars are going to fund this,

Hannah (06:31):

And that's just the monetary cost too, right? There's also a cost to our society and to the health and wellbeing of our communities as a whole because housing is generational stability for people. When you have children growing up in unstable housing environments, it causes them to miss a lot more days of school than other kids. So they're really starting their lives off behind. The problem is the cost of housing is easy to quantify and explain. So say the city have to house 10 families in a month and it costs $1,200 a month, you know it's going to cost the taxpayer $12,000 a month to house those 10 families. That's easy to calculate.

Nayeli (07:13):

Yeah, exactly. It's very easy,

Hannah (07:14):

But adding up all the different costs to the taxpayer that you just described, Nayeli, it's not an easy thing to quantify, so I don't think people really understand how much it costs taxpayers to do nothing. Some cities have done studies and they mention things like more people living on the streets will need an ambulance and emergency care, which is way more expensive than getting regular preventative care from a primary care physician. Homeless people die on the streets, they overdose, they freeze to death. They have medical emergencies because often they're not getting medical care until it's an emergency and everything else you just mentioned earlier. All of those costs add up to the taxpayer, but they are harder to quantify and explain to people.

Nayeli (07:59):

Yes, it's complicated, I have to say. I was very curious about the American system. How was the system working to support the homeless population? And first, I want to start with a common misconception. I thought that there was a straightforward correlation between poverty and homelessness in America. I thought that the states with large resources wouldn't have a large population of people living without shelter, and it was going to be the poorest areas that will have the most homeless. But it's surprising to see that California, Florida, Washington, New York, there are not typical considered poor states accounts for more than half of the homeless population. When we look at the American system from above, it appear to be very robust, there are a numerous people and local organizations covering the ground. They do an amazing job providing the homeless population with resources to try to cover their basic daily necessities. If we move a layer up, we will find the big ONGs, the state governments and other organizations allocating millions of dollars to provide a next level of care. This includes shelters, free kitchens, free clinics, and all of these in the hope to help the homeless community. Above all this, we find the interagency boards, the federal government, the agencies that make the big financial decisions that affect the access to housing and other services.

Hannah (09:27):

It's really interesting that we see so many resources overall dedicated to this, but we haven't seen a substantial decrease in the problem. On the contrary, the numbers are increasing, right? As justice Sotomayor mentioned, over half a million people are currently experiencing homelessness in the us. Many of these people are chronically homeless, meaning they haven't been in a house for over a year. Every night, over 200,000 people sleep in conditions that are unfit for habitation families experiencing homelessness increased by 16% in 2023 and families account for nearly a third of the total homeless population.

Nayeli (10:07):

Thinking about families make me notice a cultural difference. There is a certain countries like my country, as I mentioned before, I come from Mexico, that poverty is the main factor to become homeless, but the experience is different. The family net is very tight and most people will find temporary housing with friends and family. Many times family feels obligated to take them in no matter what. Even when there is a serious chronic use of substance or risks of violence. That approach of course has it pro but also has it cons. The experience in the US is different. You might even say unique, but it has similarities with other developed countries where poverty is not the only reason to become homeless and more surprisingly many times is not the main reason to become homeless. We will talk more about this and other misconceptions with our guests later today.

Hannah (11:02):

I was really curious, how is homelessness even quantified? Like how do you humanely measure the problem so that you can then go and make a list of the resources you need to solve that problem? And I learned that every year on the same night in January, all the outreach workers and volunteers across the country conduct this point-in-time count, also known as the PIT count. It's a really beautiful thing to see the outreach workers put on their working vests. They go out at night with care packages, they go under bridges and alleys and wooded areas behind shopping centers, and they collect information needed to help more people. It was really moving to see the outreach workers collecting this information while still respecting the spaces of our homeless friends. They mentioned even though you're approaching someone in a tent, this is their home. These are all of their personal belongings.

(11:59):

We don't just roll up on them and start asking them questions. We still need to respect the space that they're in, which was really beautiful. So that's the process for counting the unsheltered people. And then also on that same night, anybody who's in a sheltered environment, there's normally a case manager or a shelter manager that's signing people in and collecting information. So then both the sheltered and unsheltered counts plus one more count of how many beds are available in all the sheltered systems get entered into a software called a Homeless Management Information System, HMIS. So getting this data at the very local level is critical in trying to analyze the problem. Data is collected on age, race, gender, the reason and duration of their homelessness. There's a lot of data in these reports that can help key decision makers really get a deep understanding of the issues on a local level.

(12:57):

Change mostly happens at the local level, but there are some pretty serious national challenges going on right now. We truly have a housing crisis and a lack of affordable housing around the country right now we do on top of an already low housing supply, we have investment firms buying up residential real estate, which is also driving up the cost of buying and renting a home even more. In the fourth quarter of 2021, 32% of the residential properties in Charlotte, North Carolina were purchased by corporate investors. It's not like corporate real estate. When there's not enough affordable residential housing, then you have more people sleeping on the streets.

Nayeli (13:37):

Yes, and this is something that is not just happening in the us. Many cities around the world are recognizing that this is a huge problem. Residential properties should be primary for families to live not for profit, especially when they are not enough housing for families and it leaves people sleeping on the streets. I don't know if you heard, but Barcelona just passed the law that they are not renewing any Airbnb licenses, so in five years they hope to increase the supply of permanent residents instead of the short-term vacation rentals. Another great example is what Finland did. Finland had achieved an incredible reduction in national homeless levels through its aggressive investment in housing first initiatives, and in a very profound cultural shift that makes caring for each other a priority. If we can coordinate efforts and work on these macroeconomic issues, also combine with the local issues, we can solve the problem I think.

Hannah (14:42):

I think so too. Nayeli, and I think that's a great place for us to move on to our guest interview. We are so very honored to have Nathaniel Fields joining on this episode as our special guest today. Mr. Fields who goes by Nate started his career in Baltimore, Maryland as a counselor and case manager for youth and young adults in transitional housing while he worked on his Bachelor of Science in psychology at Bowie State University while working on his Master's degree in Social Work, he worked for PSI Family Services in Washington DC and transitioned back to Maryland to work in foster care and homeless services for unaccompanied youth. Nate built a reputation for himself of being someone that the youth and the people he served trusted and someone who was focused on moving people out of homelessness as quickly as he could. When the city of Baltimore was struggling with a homeless problem and needed more support and solutions, Nate's accomplishments in a short period of time made him the perfect candidate. He became the Homeless Outreach Coordinator for the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore and Baltimore Mayor's Office of Human Services. In fact, he helped build out the first Office of Homeless Services for the City of Baltimore. He is now the Director of Homeless Services for the City of New Orleans. Not only has Nate served some of the most vulnerable populations of his community for over 20 years, but he is still passionately working to end homelessness.

Nayeli (16:10):

When Hannah says we are honored to have him, it is an understatement. Nate popped out in our research on local cities like Baltimore and New Orleans, and the more we learn about him, the more we have to talk to him. It was such an inspirational interview. Unfortunately, we only have time to play the highlights in this episode, but we will upload the longer version for our Patreon subscribers. So subscribe now.

(16:37):

Thank you and welcome.

Nate (16:38):

Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate you.

Hannah (16:41):

I was wondering, what do you think is the biggest misconception about people who are experiencing homelessness?

Nate (16:49):

Everybody is on drugs and mentally ill,

Nayeli (16:51):

And also don't you feel like many people think that that people wants to be homeless? I have heard it so much. People say, oh, they want to be homeless. Do you think it's something real?

Nate (17:03):

There has never been in my entire time of doing this work. I've never come into one person who says, you know what? I woke up one morning was just like, forget it. Just want to be on the streets. Even my people who call themselves travelers went through a unique situation to become a traveller, so it's not just a regular thing to have a person who is on the street just because they feel like comfortable being on the street. Most issues that I've seen, the persons that I've come in contact with, the criminal justice system, those persons who either have a felony and can't find a place to live because of that felony or they can't find a job because of the felony and they can't afford to get it to a place to live. Those are the biggest issues. The other ones that come up are felony domestics or issues that have happened with warrants, and then you get into the drug and the mental health issues.

(18:03):

Reaganomics really did a number on United States of America when cutting funding for those long-term care facilities were taken away, and because of that, we're all now paying for those persons who are severely mentally ill who are currently on the street. Because of that, the hospitals are overtaken and don't have enough room for individuals. We have people who are waiting in the hallways instead of waiting in the actual bedrooms and hospital facilities and mental health locations, literally at hospitals have been so overran that people have higher turnover, and we start seeing people drop out all together or programs shut down just because they can't keep up. Which becomes even more problematic when we start talking about how we are now having this large influx of people onto the street who are severely mentally ill because the families can't afford to take care of the individual longer. So all of these things to save money and backfire individuals who are severely mentally ill, but everybody who's on the street isn't mentally ill and everybody on the street isn't ill with addiction.

Nayeli (19:09):

There are certain circumstances that put more in risk a person to become homeless?

Nate (19:16):

I mean race, that's the biggest one. I mean, when you look at numbers and statistics, you talk about 67% of our entire population who are homeless are black and brown or Native American. We talk about BIPOC all the time, is black, indigenous and people of color. That's what BIPOC stands for. That is the largest group of individuals who experience street homelessness throughout the United States and the islands every single year, and it is a direct correlation to poverty. These are the persons who have been impoverished forever, generational poverty, families who have been historically speaking, living on the streets. This is what we come in contact with day in and day out, and because of that, we see the addiction rates are going up, the mental health rates are going up, the criminalization is going up, but it is all still black and brown communities who are still dealing with generational poverty. So those are some of the biggest things that come up when we look at demographics and the whys that people are experiencing homelessness.

Hannah (20:29):

We were really surprised in our research that there were so many barriers just to getting people in a shelter. Can you talk a little bit about what that's like for a case manager to try to find shelters that have all these barriers?

Nate (20:46):

Yeah. The national model is everybody's moved towards low barrier sheltering and we have a low barrier shelter new provider instantly went into the shelter and created all these rules, which no longer makes it a low barrier shelter so that I have to go back and teach them why the low barrier model is important to the entire continuum because what we're trying to do is eliminate barriers for entry to persons who are from the streets, and that's the reason why we have large numbers of people on the streets that are dying day in day out is because we have providers who instead of wanting to create a harm reduction model, want to control people. When you find out that it doesn't work, that it makes people uncomfortable, it pushes people further and further away instead of drawing them in.

Nayeli (21:39):

Even we have seen people, they have their pets or their companions, they cannot get into shelter, and it's hard for them to leave that behind. It's probably the only source of comfort they have, and they're like, I'm not leaving that. It's family for them. So that's a hard one.

Hannah (21:58):

Can you talk a little bit about some of those barriers we had read in addition to pets that people are expected to be completely clean and free of drugs or families could possibly be separated into different shelters, or if you are a trans person and you don't fit in a male or female shelter, that is this still a large problem or like you said, things are moving towards lower barrier shelters, but can you talk a little bit about the challenges that you guys face in the field trying to just get people in housing?

Nate (22:37):

Oh, all of the above. I mean, we still have people who are still, they're not caught up on L-G-B-T-Q-I-A rights, and the way we supposed to work with those individuals or don't care to learn. We have some people who are super religious is pushing people away or forcing religion on individuals or forcing people into treatment, which is one of my current issues right now. We also have groups who want people to pay certain amount of dollars every night, and we wonder why we see people on the streets panhandling. It's a direct correlation to the shelters that make you pay or force you to pay to stay the night. It's a huge burden on the community when we have individuals who can't get into the shelters because of the barriers that are in place. But yes, we have families who are separated when the son is 13 years of age or older. Oh, wow. Yeah, 13 ain't talking about 15 or 17, 13 years or older. They separate your family because you're a young man, you're a teenager, so you can't be with mom and her children who are going to the family shelter. You got to go to the youth and young adult shelter by yourself,

(23:54):

And everybody knows, if you know young men alone, 13 years old is just two years away from being 11, but you put them in a shelter with other youth and young adults to prey on them.

Nayeli (24:08):

Wow.

Nate (24:08):

So if a 13-year-old with the mind of a small child going into a place where you have 17, 18, 19 to 20 year olds who are going prey on those young youth like they did, they were in juvenile, they were in juvie. A lot of these older youth are coming out of Juvie

Nayeli (24:27):

Hmmmm.

Nate (24:29):

They see these kids that like, oh yeah, I'm going to take his money. I'm going to run his pockets. He going to do everything I tell him to do because if you don't, I'm a hurt 'em.

Hannah (24:38):

That's really sad.

Nate (24:39):

So we have families who run away from the system because it puts more barriers in place to harm the family than they do to assist the family and single individuals. That's why everybody's moving towards the low barrier model because families have traditionally become afraid of working in the shelter systems, and that's why we here, especially in New Orleans, we're putting the money to the change of those shelters. I paid $1.1 million to change our shelters to move towards a low barrier model.

Hannah (25:13):

Amazing. Do you think it's those barriers that give people the impression that people want to be homeless when the reality is it sounds like they may just not be able to get the shelter that they need?

Nate (25:28):

That is correct. I mean, honestly, they don't want you bringing in a whole lot of stuff. They don't want you to get in and get too comfortable. They don't want you having sex in this shelter. If you're a single adult, that's tough on you, and we have to change a lot of that. Our L-G-B-T-Q folks don't even go to a certain shelter because they are the super religious or they're too restrictive.

Nayeli (25:52):

That's true.

Nate (25:53):

These are the reasons why people stay on the street. They become harmed. They get targeted because of their sexuality. They get targeted because of age, race, demographics that they can't control, and this makes street life super hard.

Hannah (26:12):

What's interesting is a couple years before Katrina, I had read the article, said Utah solved their homeless problem, which was a bit of an exaggeration, right? They didn't completely solved it, but they drastically reduced their homeless population by doing this housing first model, which is similar to what we talked about with the low barrier shelters. And when I read that, I think that was back in 2011, I thought, well, that's Utah. Let's see if that can happen anywhere else. It sounds like New Orleans after Katrina adopted that same housing first policy, and what really struck me about that policy is they took those barriers and said, we're going to treat you as a human being first. Come as you are with all of your needs. We're not going to force you to change first. We're going to house you first, and then we'll deal with the other issues that you need to be a successful part of our community to be healthy to thrive, to make sure that your family thrives. And it seemed to have worked and have great success, but I haven't seen that be replicated at all in every city around America. It seems like it's been implemented in some cities, but it's taken a decade or two for other cities to start to catch on. Can you talk to us a little bit about that housing first strategy?

Nate (27:43):

So with the Housing First model, what it teaches us is that it's housing first, not housing only. And a lot of cities got caught up in the early stages of it because they house people in large groups and numbers that people fail out of housing. But housing first model is house a person, then attach 'em to services, then attach 'em to the mental health and the addiction and food, and in doing so, we can secure this person's housing permanently. A lot of cities think it's housing only because a lot of 'em did get bombarded with housing a lot of people, and then the people would be back on the street a couple months because nobody did what's called the transition. But we call it bridge Housing here in New Orleans where we use rapid rehousing and we bridge it onto voucher. Once we finish getting the person in off the street, we pay their security deposit and a couple of months rent.

(28:37):

We then see if they qualify for permanent supportive housing, which in New Orleans, 81% per our lead agency, 81% of all those individuals are eligible for permanent supportive housing. And what we do is we spend most of our day getting them document ready, finding the landlords that'll work with them. So heavy lift for us as a city and with our CoC lead, a group called Travelers Aid of Greater New Orleans. But the outcome has been very successful. It has been very comforting to be able to house 167 individuals over the last couple of months, and we hope that in the next six, seven months that we've housed more than half of the individuals who were street homeless in the city of New Orleans. That's

Hannah (29:28):

Amazing.

Nate (29:29):

It will be a large success. Right now we just decreased the street homelessness by 12%. We're hoping that 2025 you'll be hearing us in the newspaper. New Orleans is almost completely done away with street homelessness, and we want to be a functioning zero city, the best one that exists throughout the country. Once we finish doing this the correct way, if we can get our provider who and our lead agency to get on board with what we're trying to do, I think that we could be the first ones to have a functioning zero community.

Hannah (30:04):

That's amazing. And what do you need from people to be able to do that

Nate (30:09):

20 million

Hannah (30:10):

And where do we get that from? Where do we get 20 million from?

Nate (30:14):

We need No, it is a combination of money from philanthropic dollars and HUD, HUD can't give us everything, and we know that. But if we can get philanthropic organizations to step up and really help us break up the need for our community, $20 million will make sure not only we house these individuals, we keep the housed from here out. And I think that's a beautiful commitment for the monies that we're trying to go after.

Nayeli (30:44):

Definitely. Have you find any resistance in the communities when you are housing people? Sorry, All time?

Nate (30:53):

All the time. Because people think that it's a waste of taxpayer dollars to do this continue doing this year after year. That a lot of these folks just want to be on drugs and they just want to be out there. And they just wanted that. I'm like, we'll never know if we don't try.

(31:14):

But usually what happens is that when I've housed individuals in the past, the person will get into housing and straighten their own lives out, they just need a starting space. People get high out of the convenience of getting drugs. It's a mask, all these dramatic things they have going on in their life. But it's something about moving into housing. Once you get in there, it helps to transform your mind and your body and you start to see yourself in a better situation. So you want better for yourself and then you start getting better outcomes because of what you set your mind to say, I'm not going back to these old ways. And that's how I got into the technical assistance side of housing first, because we have a lot of outreach teams who are like, oh yeah, it's going to be a whole hurricane come through here next week. You want some shelter?

(32:09):

I start, I sit and talk with the individual. I want to know who I'm talking to. Who are you? How'd you get here? How can we help you? I'm not a guru of talking to all people, but I've learned a model that allows me to be able to break down barriers between two people so they can see each other in their process. And in doing that, it's allowed people to feel more comfortable with entering the process with my team. And in doing so, we have leveled the playing field. We've given people back their power. We've made people feel, felt and heard and present, and that it has allowed persons their humanity back. The beautiful thing about the word humanity it's broken into two pieces. One piece is human, human being. The other part of that means understanding and we can all understand how to be a better human being. So humanity is lost on those individuals who don't want to take the time to find out what humanity is, but we can all learn how to be better human beings, and I think we can learn better when we do better.

Hannah (33:21):

Yeah, that's a beautiful thing. It sounds like you're also building some trust when you're building those relationships. It sounds like they're wary a little bit of different people that they've come in contact with and that you've got to build some trust with them before they'll say, okay, I'm willing to hear you out and hear what options are open for me. I do have another question. We are going through a housing crisis right now, I'm wondering the challenges you might've been facing before covid and before inflation and all of that might be different than they are today. Have you felt it?

Nate (34:06):

Absolutely. I mean, before in New Orleans, before Hurricane Katrina, the rent was 500. Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, it went from $500 to a thousand bucks. Immediately, we have to educate people that yes, although being on the streets can be free, every day that you spend on the streets, it takes away 20 years of your life. The reality of what we're dealing with are people dying of, preventable diseases, because they're aging quicker, their heart is going through a lot of stress, their brain is consistently on alert, they're attacked. If they're a woman every single day, you smell bad or somebody's trying to rape you or somebody trying to take advantage of you because of your status. It's always this fighting that's going on every single day. You wake up and then the elements, right? We're in New Orleans, it's a warmer state. It can be a wonderful thing, but it also means that we're in a pathway of hurricanes

Nayeli (35:11):

yeah

Nate (35:12):

It only takes one of us to get back to a Katrina. So we try to educate people all the time, is like there are so many variables that a person has to come in contact with experiencing homelessness. One variable we can change, and that's the people who will come in contact with who are unhoused. We can change that variable and how we assist and work with them. We can't control everything, but we have hopes that they can get inline with what we're trying to do.

Hannah (35:45):

So I have a question that wasn't on my list, but I just thought of it now while you were speaking is do you have a favorite story with of someone that you've encountered came out on the other side and just was a great story?

Nate (36:00):

Well, I got several of 'em, but I can give you a short one or two of,

Hannah (36:05):

Okay.

Nate (36:06):

I have one individual and another one that's in family. My individual story, he said it is okay to share his information, but I would say Greg, Greg used to be a heavy, heroin user in downtown Baltimore, and he was this older gentleman, always smelled bad because of the incontinence on himself, got real bad at drugs to the point where he was overdosing every other week. And I was the person who would come up and be the one who would see him and be like, alright, I got to do something about this. But I never pressured him to go into rehab. I didn't even pressured him on housing. I just wanted him to be safe. So every time I presented to him, it was, Hey man, you hungry. Go get some food real quick. Sit down and talk. Man I smell bad. I don't want to be around you.

(37:07):

I smell soiled. I was like, alright, so what would make you feel comfortable being around me? I need some fresh clothes. Okay, take 'em into my clothing closet. And the beautiful thing about my clothing closet is that Downtown Locker Room of Baltimore and Old Navy and Banana Republic used to donate to us their old inventory from seasons. That's right. I had a clothing closet in my office, very expensive, very nice garments that hung up 90% of the time. The week before, I had a 2000 shoe donation from Downtown Locker Room, so I had brand new shoes, brand new clothes I walked him in. Immediately he's crying and I was like, what did I do? He was like, I'm getting emotional because I can't believe that a person like you would even put up to me like this. I don't deserve it. Months later after this consistency and never pushed him, never pushed him on treatment. Mr. F came into my office. It was 30 something degrees outside and he just had incontinence on himself. He said, I'm done. That's it. I'm going to get clean. I don't care where you put me at temporarily, but wherever you put me at, make sure they have a program. I did both. Connected him to a safe haven in Baltimore who was also connected to an addiction agency and they transported him to and from his treatment, and he also worked on home with employment.

(38:43):

I transitioned out of the job from the mayor's office and I started working at an addiction agency on opposite side of town. So I lost contact with Mr. F and I also started working in the foster care agency that I left years ago as well. And then one day while working at the foster care agency, I was driving up this young lady to a doctor's appointment and I heard Nate Fields, I know you hear me, vice president Nate Fields

(39:14):

I turned

(39:15):

around and I was like, voice sounds very familiar. The Greg that I used to know was about that big because of,

Hannah (39:24):

Yeah,

Nate (39:24):

And I see this very well groomed plumper, African-American male standing in front of me and it looks like him, but I'm not certain. So I take my mask off because we just came out of Covid and I said, excuse me, sir, how can I assist you? He's like, you don't even recognize me. I said, well, you got your face covered up. Took his mask off. He looked at me, he said, man, I've been praying for you since the day I got myself together. I said, well, I appreciate you. I was like, who are you? He said, it's Greg, man. He said, I miss you, man. I love you. I said, man, I miss you too. I can't believe this is you. I had the youth that was with me take a picture of both of us, and then I took care back, took a picture of him just by himself because not only was he clean and gained all his weight and was doing well from himself, he was also a contract driver with Uber and Lyft.

Hannah (40:22):

Wow. And

Nate (40:23):

He was blasting gospel music while we were standing there talking. He's like, I thank God for you because you were the only person who was consistent and patient with me. Even when it smelled like pee, even when I was high from heroin,

Hannah (40:42):

hmmm

Nate (40:42):

Kept coming back and you never forced me to do anything, and that's the reason why I'm successful today. So that's beautiful. Every month he reaches out with a text message reminder, thank you for allowing me to live.

Hannah (40:56):

That's good. Wow. That's beautiful. Nate, we have been so just honored honestly, that you took the time and said yes to us. We just really appreciate you because we feel like one thing that we can do is just raise awareness now. There's so many things that you've said today that just really break down these preconceived notions that some people may have about people who are unsheltered and experiencing homelessness and what we can do to serve them. So we just sincerely appreciate your time.

Nate (41:34):

You are welcome. I always tell people I started off at a soup kitchen, Bea Gaddy's in downtown Baltimore. You go to Baltimore and say, Hey, where can I serve at it would be Bea Gaddy's? They'll point you. That's usually on Thanksgiving, but I started off serving food at a soup kitchen and that became a part of my life mission is to help those persons who can't help themselves, so everybody can do their carry their own weight. It's just what are you willing to get uncomfortable with to get there?

Nayeli (42:05):

Yes, we appreciate the work you do, the time you gave us, and hopefully our audience connect with this and they can reflect with their family. That's what we are looking for, that everybody reflect a little bit and see everybody can do something about this.

Hannah (42:23):

Thank you again, Nate, for joining us. We really appreciate it.

Nayeli (42:27):

Okay. Remember, we are solution focused, so it's time for our five things you can do to help with homeless in your area. Number one, educate yourself on the local necessities. There are significant difference between countries, states, counties, and cities. Number two,

Hannah (42:47):

Find your local COC or Office of Homeless Services and sign up to volunteer. We'll put a link to the list of COCs in the show notes. Like Nate said, we also need to support the social services needed to come after housing to prevent relapse, like mental health addiction, domestic violence, job placement services, and so on.

Nayeli (43:10):

Number three, show kindness. When interacting with the homeless community, a simple conversation can bring you to your new career. If you have the call, there are career choices you can make that can mark a difference on the homeless community. We need more social workers, doctors and nurses opening free clinics, lawyers and legislators, journalists fighting for human rights in our communities. Number four,

Hannah (43:39):

Hold your elected officials and corporations who do business in your town accountable to policies that promote affordable housing solutions.

Nayeli (43:49):

And number five, if you can donate to accredited nonprofit that is out there helping the homeless communities on the daily basis, they are doing an amazing job, but they need resources to continue their effort. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcasting app so you are notified when new episodes drop.

Hannah (44:12):

You can support our podcast by subscribing on Patreon at patreon.com/ordinarypeoplewithHannahandNayeli. You can also find us on Instagram at Be the Change Hub and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn. All the links to our socials will be the show notes.

Nayeli (44:32):

Thank you for listening today and being part of this community of change makers.