July 5, 2023 • 46 mins
I was recently reminded of why I started trying to help individuals in re-entry with their housing challenges. Listen in for more to learn why it's such a big deal!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The thirteenth Amendment to the United StatesConstitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as
a punishment for a crime. Everwondered how we ended up with the largest
prison population of any country. Haveyou noticed that those whose jobs it is
to protect and serve seemed to bedemanding more and more blind obedient. You
didn't think it just happened by chance, did you. It's time to call
(00:23):
attention to the fact our government asthe most prolific slave owner on the planet.
This is surviving the system. Thankyou for joining me today on surviving
the system. This is Nance andDave and today. You know, I've
talked about housing and re entry andthe issue with that, but I've never
really gone into specifics about it.And I was reminded about that the other
(00:49):
day when I received an email talkingabout the success that a gentleman in re
entry had had in finding housing.But when you read it, it almost
doesn't come across as a success,and it should definitely stir frustration. I
mean it did with me. Itreminded me of why I even started working
(01:11):
on trying to help with re entryhousing in the first place. So I
really want to break that down alittle bit more. We'll talk about some
of the statistics, and I meanjust the reality of it, just the
reality of what we are asking menand women to do when they come back
into society, when they come backinto the community. Hopefully it will be
(01:34):
enlightening an eye opening for you.And again at the end, we'll try
we'll try to handle that as productivelyand constructively as we can and come up
with some ideas. I don't wantto leave you just hang in with a
piste off feeling about it, becausethat's very easy to do in a situation
like this. So but we'll tackleit. We'll tackle it. If you
(01:56):
are listening live on Fringe dot fm, thank you for tuning in. The
call line is open if you wouldlike to join the show. If you
have any comments or questions one eighthundred five eight eight zero three three five
eight hundred five eight eight zero threethree five, you can check me out
on the website Surviving the System dotorg. I keep an archive of all
(02:17):
the shows on there, as wellas a contact me part. I'm on
Facebook dot com slash Surviving the Systemand on Twitter at STS the podcast.
I keep both of those open primarilyjust to be able to hear from you,
folks. I thank you all forreaching out lately the stories that have
been coming in my way. Youknow, I don't want to necessarily say
(02:38):
that I love them, because they'revery frustrating and I feel your pain.
I empathize with you, but Iappreciate the fact that you're reaching out,
that you're engaging me and keeping meinvolved in the situation. To see if
there's anything that I can do,even if it's just to be here and
tell your story and give a platformto your situation. I'm happy to do
(03:04):
that. That's what I'm here for. And before we get started with today's
topic, as always, I wantto start with a quick moment of gratitude.
You know, gratitude is the mostempowering emotion there is, and so
starting your day with gratitude and completelyshift your mindset and it'll change your whole
(03:28):
day, It'll change your life.But when you apply that to other things
in your life, you begin tonotice a difference. If you begin your
job with gratitude, completely different paradigm. And so we begin this show with
gratitude to make sure that we keepthat vibration high, keep the frequency high,
(03:50):
and most importantly, we want tobe able to tackle these difficult and
frustrating topics and subjects productively and constructively. We want to come out on the
better on the other and better forhaving discussed these, not frustrated and ticked
off and mad and just angry likethose are very disempowering and that's not going
(04:10):
to do much good other than tojust get you worked up and send you
on your way. So with thatin mind, I do want to quickly
say that I am I am sograteful to be here with you, allowing
me to live out my purpose tohelp to remind you of who you really
are and what you're truly capable of. So I received an email the other
(04:32):
day from a local organization that Iwork with, and it was highlighting the
success of this gentleman who's in reentrycurrently. He works very closely with this
organization and obviously they've been helping him. And I read it and it just
(05:00):
I'm glad that it worked out forhim, But man, was it just
absolutely frustrating. I don't think thatindividuals outside of reentry, I mean,
unless you have a friend or afamily member, I don't think everybody understands
(05:23):
the housing crisis when it comes tore entry. So let's talk about this
a little bit first, since firstwe have a recidivism problem in this country.
We have a recidivism problem in Nebraska. And for those of you that
may not be familiar with this,recidivism basically means reoffending. So we have
(05:45):
an issue with people reoffending when theycome back into the community. Now,
if you pay attention to the mainstreammedia, if you pay attention to politicians
and the legal system and what theysay, well they say that it's just
because those individuals didn't have a goodupbringing. Maybe they just don't know another
(06:08):
way of life. Maybe they're justbad people, and that's why they need
to be locked up in the firstplace. See, obviously we were right
and locking them up. Look welet them back out and they just did
it again. See they deserve backinside. The reality of the situation is
much more complex, It's much deeperthan that. You can take someone who
(06:33):
didn't grow up around any type ofcrime. You can take someone who by
all accounts was very successful in life. Good job, a wife or a
husband, kids, maybe a family, friends, a home, a car,
(06:54):
you know, living the quote unquoteAmerican dream, take that individual,
put them inside of a prison shorttime, like let's just just say twelve
months, have them come out onthe other end, and try to do
all of that again. It isnot impossible, but it is difficult.
(07:17):
It's very difficult, and they donot prepare you for that while you were
inside. And when I say they, I'm talking about the people that run
that institution. I'm talking about yourcase manager. I'm talking about the therapists,
I'm talking about the warden, I'mtalking about anybody. They're just there
(07:38):
to house you, beat you downif you get out a line, write
you up, if your mouth offtoo much, and put you back in
your cell. They're not there toprepare you for when you get back out.
They're not there to say, Okay, look, life is different now.
It's gonna be an adjustment when youget back out into the community.
(08:01):
So here's what you're going to needto prepare for now. You may have
some people who do do that.I have had. If you go back
into the archives of the show,I interviewed a CEO that I was inside
with. He was one of theguards on my unit, and I had
(08:22):
him on the show because he's agood man. He genuinely wanted to try
to help. He did everything thathe could to try to help. I
worked in the library when I waswhen I was here in Omaha, occ
and the librarian, the librarian therewas just as good. She wanted people
(08:48):
to succeed. She wanted to beable to say, look, you're in
here, use your time wisely sothat when you get out you're ready.
You know. She made us focuson putting out self help books. And
no matter how many times we toldher, you know, they're just not
(09:09):
I don't think they're gonna read these. These are not what the people are
looking for when they come in here. They read a lot of westerns,
they read a lot of action novelslike James Patterson and Alex Cava. They
read the Fantasy series. I havenever seen so many, so many grown
adult men read the Twilight series inmy life, as I did when I
was in there. But I mean, you gotta keep yourself entertained. So
(09:33):
we're trying to explain that to herone day, and all she said to
us was, I don't care.I want them to use their time wisely.
I'm going to put these books outfor them. And we showcased them,
We put them out there, andyou know what, to her credit,
if she hadn't have done that,I wouldn't have read the book Harmonic
(09:54):
Wealth. That changed my life.So there's people out there that are willing
to take that extra step. Butwhen you transition back into the community,
for the most part, the majorityof people unprepared. Housing is the number
(10:18):
one barrier. Now you're going tohear it goes back and forth. You
may hear that jobs are the numberone. You may hear that housing is
the number one, and their statisticsfor both, you know it very well,
maybe a tie. So my personalopinion is that housing is number one.
And here's why I give housing thevery edge over jobs because when you
(10:45):
go to fill out a job application, what's one of the first things that
you're going to have to do.You're gonna have to fill in your address.
And if you don't have an address, you can't fill out that application.
And if you can't fill out thatapplication, you ain't getting a job.
So it all starts with a home, a house, an apartment,
(11:11):
a town home, I don't care, whatever it is. You have some
kind of home. Now complicate thiswith the housing crisis in general in America
right now, with the fact thatprices have gone through the roof. A
(11:35):
few years ago, before COVID,you could find a one or two bedroom
apartment out here in Nebraska for probablyfive six hundred bucks. You know,
maybe not in the best part oftown, but relatively in an okay,
(11:56):
safe part of town. Now,man, if you're lucky, if you're
going to find something on average formaybe eight fifty nine hundred. Now,
if you've got someone who's been insidefor five years, even let's just go
(12:20):
five years when they would last inthe community, rent was affordable, a
mortgage was affordable. Five years later, fast forward, they come out and
it's eleven hundred dollars for rent.It's a thousand dollars for rent. And
(12:43):
I've talked all about this before.When you're inside, it's not like you're
working a job making minimum wage.You're working for quite literally slave wages,
because according to the Constitution, youare a slave. So you get a
buck or two a day, andyou're lucky to work five days a week.
(13:09):
If you work in the kitchens,you work grueling hours, I mean
grueling hours for two three bucks aday. I mean break that down into
hourly it's pennies. Pennies. Godforbid anybody get less than fifteen dollars an
(13:35):
hour out here now, because that'sinhumane. The cost of living is too
high. We need a livable wage. To take someone who's making pennies a
day for hour. They leave thatinstitution with one hundred dollars check here in
(14:01):
Nebraska at least, maybe different whereveryou are. One hundred dollar check,
a pat on the back. Ifyou don't have help, how are you
going to? Number one? Applyfor housing? Everything is online now.
(14:22):
Everything you want to rent an apartment, fill out the application online. You
want to look at doing a mortgage, fill out the application online. And
of course, as you're filling itout online, what are they gonna do.
They're going to run a credit check, and they're gonna run a background
(14:43):
check. And the common misconception outthere right now is, oh, he's
got a record, he's never gonnapay the bill. Pass on that dude.
However, have you have you evertalked to a landlord? It's to
me it's glaringly obvious. I meanso obvious when you talk to landlords and
(15:13):
go back and look at the tenantsthat gave them the most issue. Who
are the tenants that they had toevict, Who are the tenants that were
slow pay, Who are the tenantsthat when they moved out trashed the place.
They're all the people with clean records. But yet you still run a
(15:35):
background check and say, oh,that dude's got a record. No we
can't, he's not going to pay. Look at your past history. Look
look at all of the people thatyou have rented to. Look at all
of the people that have resided withinwhatever you have, a house, an
apartment building, a town home,I don't care, whatever it is.
(15:58):
The vast majority of the people thatdon't pay and cause issues are people with
clean records. So if you're ableto overcome these hurdles and have help a
lot of people do, then howare you going to afford this? So
(16:23):
you've got to have potentially first andlast month's rent plus utilities, plus all
the deposits for utilities. That's justto get in the door. I mean,
then what are you going to dofor furniture, What are you going
to do for food? And whatare you going to do for money?
(16:45):
For all of this, how areyou going to afford this? If you
go out most of the jobs onceyou do have a home. I mean
again, the minimum wage is beingpushed up, which is fantastic. However,
or if it wasn't happening at thesame time that inflation is at record
levels and everything is costing more andmore, why even bother raising the minimum
(17:11):
wage? Then, like a fifteendollars minimum wage with everything doubling in price,
it's pretty much the same thing asseven seventy five an hour. So
there's good paying jobs eighteen twenty bucksan hour. That's still not enough to
survive on, though, how areyou going to pay for housing? Now?
(17:47):
Not to mention, what about thepeople who come out and they are
in some type of assisted housing.When I say assisted housing, I'm talking
like a program house where it's specificallydesigned for people with addictions drug or alcohol
addiction typically, or maybe just ahalfway house. There have been multiple cases,
(18:19):
not just in Nebraska, but therehas been a recent one in Nebraska,
but I know they happen all overthe place. The people that own
the halfway house just start taking moneyfrom the residents because you know what they
can. Who's going to stop them. So when you're coming back into the
(18:40):
community, you still get some accessto some community benefits to help you get
you back on your feet, soyou get access to things like food snamps,
snap benefits. What do these halfwayhouses do? They take the EBT
cards, They take the snap benefitcards because they have to help. They
(19:00):
have to use that to pay forthe food to feed you. So they'll
just take care of it for you. Don't worry about it. You just
give it to them and they'll takecare of it. And then what happens,
like in the instance of the gentlemanwho I started this whole conversation about
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what happens if you are doing everythingyou are supposed to do. You have
been home for a year, justabout a year. You're working, you're
keeping your nose clean, you're reconnectingwith your friends and family. You've given
(19:47):
it everything you've got. You're doingeverything they told you to do. And
then the halfway house has to close. You're given thirty day notice. You
have thirty days to find someplace else. Let's go thirty days. Imagine if
(20:12):
that happened to you. Imagine ifyour home was gone and you add thirty
days to find someplace else to live. Now, let's add a little extra
difficulty onto that. You have thirtydays to find someplace else to live,
(20:36):
or you go back to prison,because then you'll be in violation of your
parole because you won't have a home. Now, explain to me where any
of this is the fault of theindividual in reentry. How can this individual
(21:00):
be held responsible for the fact thatthe halfway home that they were appointed to
is shutting down because I don't evenknow the reasons in this particular case,
but I can speculate fraud, theftcode violations. I mean, maybe it's
(21:22):
just an uninhabitable house down the list. And the sad thing is I wouldn't
be out of line with any ofthose guesses because that's why most halfway houses
get shut down. And there's justnot enough staff to go out there and
check all of them, because ifthere was, I would say the vast
(21:44):
majority of them would probably be shuttingdown two because they're all doing it.
The deck is just stacked against you. It might feel like it's not really,
but that's how it can feel.So when we come back, I
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want to talk a little bit aboutthe statistics. We'll talk about some of
the numbers because there's been studies doneon this as far as the impact on
housing and recidivism, on how nothaving a home to call your own increases
your odds of basically going back,and how to combat that. So stay
(22:34):
tuned. We'll take a short breakand we will be right back. The
call in line is open. Weare we're talking about housing specifically and re
entry. And the number is oneeight hundred and five eight eight zero three
three five eight hundred five eight eightzero three three five. And when we
(23:00):
last talked before the break, Iwas discussing a situation with a gentleman in
re entry here in Nebraska. Thisgentleman has been in re entry for about
a year. He's been doing everythingthat he was supposed to do. He's
got a job, he's working,he's following his re entry plan, keeping
(23:23):
his nose clean, everything he wastold to do. He's staying in a
halfway house because I mean, it'sdifficult to find housing. That's why we're
talking about this. However, thehalfway house that he's staying at, all
of a sudden was notified they're nolonger approved by the Department of Corrections.
(23:45):
So that means he now has thirtydays to find a new place to live.
Because the Department of corrections says,well, you can't live there anymore.
Oh and by the way, becausehe's on parole, if you don't
have a place within the next thirtydays, you're in violation of your parole,
which means you're going back to prisonfor violating your parol. So when
(24:07):
I when I say things on thisshow, like the system is set up
for people to fail. It's arevolving door. They want you to come
back because they make more money onyou when you're inside. These are the
examples that I'm talking about. Therewas a study that was done years ago
(24:27):
on ouch hopping. Essentially, youknow a lot of people when they get
out, they don't have anywhere togo, so they'll crash on somebody's couch,
you know, they'll crash on afriend's couch, or girlfriend's couch,
or neighbor, family member, whateverit is, they'll just crash. Did
(24:52):
you know that, according to thisstudy, every time that an ENDIVI visual
moves from one couch to another,the odds of them reoffending increase by seventy
five every single time. Not Imean, I don't know about you,
(25:21):
but I have I have known somany people who have come out with no
place to go other than maybe acousin's couch or girlfriend's couch or something.
It's an awkward situation because you feellike an outsider because it's it's not your
(25:42):
home. You feel like an outsider, and so you feel the need to
move on, and so you goto the next place. But you can't
find decent work. You can't afforda place. Not to mention, you
(26:07):
have a record now, and everyplace you go wants to run a background
check. And every time that backgroundcheck comes back with a felony on the
record, you're dead in the water. So you go to another couch.
(26:30):
You maybe you're at your cousin's place. You need to go. Man,
I'm sorry, I'm just gonna go. I'll be here for a few weeks
and then I'll just go. I'llfigure it out. And that few weeks
comes up and you're calling a friendsaying, dude, I need someplace to
crash. Man, I gotta getout of here. Can I come stay
at your place for a while.And there you go, and every time
you do that, seventy five seventyfive percent increase in the odds of you
(26:56):
going back inside. Now, let'seven let's even take the statistics out of
it. Let's take all of theobstacles out of it for just a second
and just look at this. Justlook at this as a human being issue.
(27:18):
Just look at this as it asan individual person issue. When you
don't have a home, you don'tfeel safe and secure, because why would
you, like, there's no placefor you to call your own, there's
no place for you to plant roots, there's no place that you can call
(27:40):
like your home base of operations,that you can get your stuff in order.
And let's go all the way backinto some psychology one on one,
Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If youdon't remember this, we'll just do a
quick overview if this is your firsttime ever looking into this. Basically,
(28:02):
this is the five levels of needsof human beings to be able to function.
And at the very base level,you've got your physiological needs, like
we need air, we need food, we need water, we need to
(28:25):
sleep periodically so that we can rechargeand refresh and rebuild. Right above those
very basic needs, safety and security, security of your body, employment,
so you have financial, security,resources, a family property. So when
(28:52):
we are setting all of this up, despite the fact we know this like
Maslow, this hierarchy of needs iscommonly taught, like this is taught in
institutions around the world as a basicunderstanding of human psychology and how people as
at a personal level operate. Andthe funny thing is this is built like
(29:18):
a pyramid, So if you don'thave one of these needs met, you
aren't able to go to the nextlevels. And I mean a lot of
it is very common sense, likeif you don't have food and water,
you're probably gonna die. So yeah, of course you're not going to have
(29:40):
security. But right above that safetyand security is love and belonging, friendship,
family, intimacy with other people.And then right above that is esteem,
your self esteem, your confidence,the respect of there's the respect of
(30:00):
yourself, and at the very verytop is self actualization. Morality, creativity,
problem solving, lack of prejudice.So let's let's just stop here real
quick. First thing I said theremorality. So if we are taking an
individual who messed up for one reasonor another, today's topic is not going
(30:26):
back and analyzing what dat or didnot happen and how the justice system is
all et up. We're going toassume we're going to assume, for the
sake of this argument, that itwas justified for that individual to be inside
and to serve their time and nowcoming back out into the community not having
(30:48):
any level of safety and security becausethey're struggling to find property, they're struggling
to find employment, they're struggling forresources because they have this felony background.
Now, if we are asking thatperson essentially, hey, you need to
be a moral, upright standing citizen. How can you expect someone to have
(31:11):
at that self actualization level, thatmorality? How can you expect them to
have that morality if they don't havethe safety and security. Because remember this
works like a pyramid, it's afoundation. You can't skip over. You
can't just be like, oh,I'm breathing and I have food and water.
I'm met me. My physiological needsare met. That's great. That
(31:33):
means I now have self esteem andconfidence and I respect myself. It doesn't
work that way. These build oneach other and they build together. So
if you're missing one piece, you'remissing all of it. So we are
taking these individuals again. We knowthese things. These are taught in colleges
(31:56):
and high schools. It's commonly understoodabout people. These needs have to be
met in order to progress up thisladder, up this pyramid. Can you
see the hypocrisy here? We areasking these people to be a moral,
(32:17):
upright standing citizen, but we're notgiving them the safety and security, which
means they're not going to have thatmorality. They're not going to be able
to get to that level because theirneeds are not being met. The statistics
just back up what we already know. We have statistics to basically say,
(32:39):
hey, yeah, you know whenthose needs aren't met, did you know
that people will reoffend more and windup back inside a prison because you know
why, because their needs were metthere. Huh? Funny that? And
you wonder why I call it arevolving door. You wonder why I say
(33:00):
it's set up for people to goback in there. When you come back
out into the community, all ofa sudden, your needs aren't met.
And believe me, if you've beenthrough it, you know exactly what I'm
talking about, because I still thinkabout it from time to time. There
are days when things are rough andI go, oh my god, it
was so much easier inside. Ididn't have to worry about all this crap.
(33:22):
I didn't have bills to pay,I didn't have people hounding me,
I didn't have a job breathing downmy neck. Oh my god, it
would just be so much easier togo back inside. I guarantee you these
people that are reoffending, that's what'sgoing on in their head at some level
or another. Not to mention,I'm not even bringing into anything with the
(33:43):
unconscious. I'm not bringing anything spiritualinto this. This is just basic psychology,
level one on one. Their needsare not being met, They're gonna
go find it. And where's theeasiest place for them to find safety and
security that need being met? Rightback inside? So, hey, why
(34:12):
do we have a reciptivism problem inAmerica? Oh gee, I don't know.
Maybe it's because we've set it upspecifically that way. Now the story
has a happy ending. You know, this gentleman in reentry halfway house is
(34:34):
closing down. He has thirty daysto find a place. He has a
record, he's getting shot down leftand right. Well, he had help,
he had an organization that had hisback, and they it took it
to the wire, but he founda home. Not only did he find
a home, he found someplace withinhis budget, they met the landlord,
(34:59):
they looked at the apartment, theyexplained to the landlord what was going on.
So there was no surprises, nothingwas hidden, All cards were on
the table, and the landlord said, sure, I'll give you a place
to live. So, yes,the story does have a happy ending.
(35:23):
As frustrating as it might be toget to that happy ending, it's there.
And I think stories like this aremore common than we know. I
(35:45):
personally have helped a few people finda place, and it's just as simple
as calling and talking to the landlord. I remember explaining this discussion to a
friend of mine who was looking fora place, and she's saying, I
don't know how I'm going to finda place. You know, everybody wants
(36:07):
a background check, everybody wants this, And it just said, look,
just the easiest thing to do.Let's just pull up a couple of websites
and just make some calls. Let'sjust pull up Craigslist, look under the
for rent, and let's start makingcalls. Here's how we're going to do
it. And I just threw togethera script real fast, and it went
a little something like this. Youcall up and you speak to the landlord,
(36:30):
and you just say hi. Myname's Dave. I'm calling on behalf
of an individual and trying to helpthem find some housing. They do have
a record, however, they havestable employment, they have a strong support
system, evidenced by me being hereto try to help them, and I
(36:51):
just want to know if you wouldbe open to meeting with this individual and
considering allowing them to rent the propertythat you have opened something along that lines.
And you know what, second callworked. Call number two didn't even
(37:12):
take me ten minutes and I foundhim a blaze. So now as we
transition into struggling this productively and constructively. Number one, if it is a
website only, don't go through thewebsite, don't go through the website.
(37:39):
Find a phone number, find anaddress, go there in person, find
an email address, find some wayto communicate with a human being behind that
website and get them to listen.Number two, get some help to back
(38:00):
you up. I talk about thisall the time. I talked about it
last week, I've talked about itprobably the week before and countless weeks before
that. You have to have acommunity of people surrounding you and pushing you.
(38:21):
And I don't mean pushing you asin like violently, like shoving you
forward. I mean people like pushingyou to grow, pushing you out of
your comfort zone, pushing you inthe direction that you need to go to
grow into the person that you wantto be. If you don't have those
(38:42):
people around you, it's going tobe difficult, man, It's going to
be difficult. I have a networkof people that I reach out to for
just about anything, and it's Icould probably do all of this stuff myself.
(39:05):
You know what. I grew upmowing my own grass. You know
what I do now, I paya dude to do it. You know
why, two reasons. One,it gives me more time with my family
and to do things that I needto do. And two, I'm supporting
somebody else's business. You know what. Maybe that dude is in reentry and
(39:29):
he's out mowing lawns trying to starthis own business because he can't find another
job. So you're damn right,I'm going to support somebody like that.
Hell yeah, I'm going to supportsomebody like that. I have. I've
been fortunate enough that when my fatherpassed away, he left me his house.
(39:50):
I use it as a rental property. And I have a friend of
mine who's out there. He's ahandyman. He's just looking for extra work.
Hey, here's what I want.Go to town. I'll pay you
to do this. Sure. CouldI go out there and do it myself?
Yeah, I could go out thereand I could pull the weeds.
(40:12):
I could go out there and Icould spread the seeds for the grass.
I could go out there and Icould do some landscaping. Yeah, I
absolutely could do it, but thattakes time away from the stuff that I'm
supposed to be doing to begin with. He wants to do it, and
he needs the money because he's inre entry. He's trying to save up
(40:34):
to get a place, he's tryingto save up to get a better car.
He's trying to save up to justdo some things that he wants to
do with his life's you're damn right, damn right, I'm gonna let you
do it. I'll stay home andI'll practice doing my show. I'll stay
home and i'll do some more work. I'll stay home and I'll spend some
time with my kids, and I'llpay you the money to go do this
for me. That you can thenturn around and take that money and spend
(40:57):
it on your family, or spendit on your friends, surround yourself with
the community of people number three andnumber three you just never give up.
(41:20):
It's it's so simple and yet sodifficult. Because that example that I just
talked about, where I picked upthe phone and on the second call we
got somebody that doesn't happen all thetime, you know, somehow or another,
my name ended up on documentation forpeople that are re entering here in
(41:42):
the Department of Corrections from Nebraska.It's over at Community correct Community Corrections,
Omaha. It's periodically I will getsomebody send me a message through Facebook,
say hey, I got your numberoff this off the sheet here. I'm
in CCCO. Can you help mewith housing? You know what I can?
(42:04):
Yeah, let's talk. What areyou looking at? What are you
guy going on? And I tellthem let me know how it goes.
If this step one doesn't work,we'll move to step two. If step
two doesn't work, we'll move tostep three. I have a plan in
place, and if you're willing togo out there and give it a shot,
(42:30):
I will bend over backwards and Iwill help you find a place.
I've done it before, and I'lldo it again. But it's just so
sad. It's so sad to thinkthat we have a story like this where
(42:52):
an individual who is in re entry, who's doing everything that we as a
society have asked him to do.Because, let's be realistic. The laws
that are in place, you andI are responsible for them. You know
why, because we let them happen. Because we elected people in our state
(43:13):
and at the federal level who passedthese laws, and we didn't challenge them.
Therefore, we accepted them acceptance bysilence. We didn't say no.
So everything that is going on forindividuals like this, it's your responsibility and
(43:34):
my responsibility, and the responsibility ofeverybody out there, everybody in this community.
We look at a story like thisand we celebrate the success. I
look at a story like this andI say, we should not be making
people jump through this many hoops tomeet basic needs like safety and security.
(43:55):
How can we ever expect society torest when we can't even take the people
that are struggling the most, Whenwe can't take these people meet their basic
needs and show them how to reachthe top of that period, that pyramid
(44:20):
of self actualization, how to getto that point of morality and acceptance and
forgiveness self forgiveness. There are plentyof organizations out there willing to help with
housing. You've just got to You'vejust got to start asking for help.
(44:45):
You've just got to reach out,grab that community around you, start asking
the questions. Pick up the phone, call somebody and ask them for help.
You know what, even if youpick up the call and you ask
somebody who's rent a property and theysay no, ask them if they know
somebody that does. Like, justkeep going, don't give up. I
(45:10):
want to thank you for tuning intonight. I appreciate your time. I
hope you have found value in today'sshow. Don't forget to check out the
website Surviving the System dot org,Facebook dot com, slash Surviving the System,
and on Twitter at sts to podcast. If you or someone you know
(45:36):
is going through something like this,reach out. Let me know if you
have a story that needs to betold. That's why I'm here. The
more we talk about these stories,the more we can draw attention to it.
Thank you again for your time,and as always, remember keep your
head up, don't let them getyou. It may be easy to can
(46:00):
all the corruption and manipulation in thesystem and feel hopeless here at surviving a
system. We hold to the beliefthat greatness is born in the midst of
extraordinary struggles. You were created witha purpose, with infinite potential, and
many have lost sight of that backWe're here to remind you of who you
are. The best revenge the success
The thirteenth Amendment to the United StatesConstitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as
a punishment for a crime. Everwondered how we ended up with the largest
prison population of any country. Haveyou noticed that those whose jobs it is
to protect and serve seemed to bedemanding more and more blind obedient. You
didn't think it just happened by chance, did you. It's time to call
(00:23):
attention to the fact our government asthe most prolific slave owner on the planet.
This is surviving the system. Thankyou for joining me today on surviving
the system. This is Nance andDave and today. You know, I've
talked about housing and re entry andthe issue with that, but I've never
really gone into specifics about it.And I was reminded about that the other
(00:49):
day when I received an email talkingabout the success that a gentleman in re
entry had had in finding housing.But when you read it, it almost
doesn't come across as a success,and it should definitely stir frustration. I
mean it did with me. Itreminded me of why I even started working
(01:11):
on trying to help with re entryhousing in the first place. So I
really want to break that down alittle bit more. We'll talk about some
of the statistics, and I meanjust the reality of it, just the
reality of what we are asking menand women to do when they come back
into society, when they come backinto the community. Hopefully it will be
(01:34):
enlightening an eye opening for you.And again at the end, we'll try
we'll try to handle that as productivelyand constructively as we can and come up
with some ideas. I don't wantto leave you just hang in with a
piste off feeling about it, becausethat's very easy to do in a situation
like this. So but we'll tackleit. We'll tackle it. If you
(01:56):
are listening live on Fringe dot fm, thank you for tuning in. The
call line is open if you wouldlike to join the show. If you
have any comments or questions one eighthundred five eight eight zero three three five
eight hundred five eight eight zero threethree five, you can check me out
on the website Surviving the System dotorg. I keep an archive of all
(02:17):
the shows on there, as wellas a contact me part. I'm on
Facebook dot com slash Surviving the Systemand on Twitter at STS the podcast.
I keep both of those open primarilyjust to be able to hear from you,
folks. I thank you all forreaching out lately the stories that have
been coming in my way. Youknow, I don't want to necessarily say
(02:38):
that I love them, because they'revery frustrating and I feel your pain.
I empathize with you, but Iappreciate the fact that you're reaching out,
that you're engaging me and keeping meinvolved in the situation. To see if
there's anything that I can do,even if it's just to be here and
tell your story and give a platformto your situation. I'm happy to do
(03:04):
that. That's what I'm here for. And before we get started with today's
topic, as always, I wantto start with a quick moment of gratitude.
You know, gratitude is the mostempowering emotion there is, and so
starting your day with gratitude and completelyshift your mindset and it'll change your whole
(03:28):
day, It'll change your life.But when you apply that to other things
in your life, you begin tonotice a difference. If you begin your
job with gratitude, completely different paradigm. And so we begin this show with
gratitude to make sure that we keepthat vibration high, keep the frequency high,
(03:50):
and most importantly, we want tobe able to tackle these difficult and
frustrating topics and subjects productively and constructively. We want to come out on the
better on the other and better forhaving discussed these, not frustrated and ticked
off and mad and just angry likethose are very disempowering and that's not going
(04:10):
to do much good other than tojust get you worked up and send you
on your way. So with thatin mind, I do want to quickly
say that I am I am sograteful to be here with you, allowing
me to live out my purpose tohelp to remind you of who you really
are and what you're truly capable of. So I received an email the other
(04:32):
day from a local organization that Iwork with, and it was highlighting the
success of this gentleman who's in reentrycurrently. He works very closely with this
organization and obviously they've been helping him. And I read it and it just
(05:00):
I'm glad that it worked out forhim, But man, was it just
absolutely frustrating. I don't think thatindividuals outside of reentry, I mean,
unless you have a friend or afamily member, I don't think everybody understands
(05:23):
the housing crisis when it comes tore entry. So let's talk about this
a little bit first, since firstwe have a recidivism problem in this country.
We have a recidivism problem in Nebraska. And for those of you that
may not be familiar with this,recidivism basically means reoffending. So we have
(05:45):
an issue with people reoffending when theycome back into the community. Now,
if you pay attention to the mainstreammedia, if you pay attention to politicians
and the legal system and what theysay, well they say that it's just
because those individuals didn't have a goodupbringing. Maybe they just don't know another
(06:08):
way of life. Maybe they're justbad people, and that's why they need
to be locked up in the firstplace. See, obviously we were right
and locking them up. Look welet them back out and they just did
it again. See they deserve backinside. The reality of the situation is
much more complex, It's much deeperthan that. You can take someone who
(06:33):
didn't grow up around any type ofcrime. You can take someone who by
all accounts was very successful in life. Good job, a wife or a
husband, kids, maybe a family, friends, a home, a car,
(06:54):
you know, living the quote unquoteAmerican dream, take that individual,
put them inside of a prison shorttime, like let's just just say twelve
months, have them come out onthe other end, and try to do
all of that again. It isnot impossible, but it is difficult.
(07:17):
It's very difficult, and they donot prepare you for that while you were
inside. And when I say they, I'm talking about the people that run
that institution. I'm talking about yourcase manager. I'm talking about the therapists,
I'm talking about the warden, I'mtalking about anybody. They're just there
(07:38):
to house you, beat you downif you get out a line, write
you up, if your mouth offtoo much, and put you back in
your cell. They're not there toprepare you for when you get back out.
They're not there to say, Okay, look, life is different now.
It's gonna be an adjustment when youget back out into the community.
(08:01):
So here's what you're going to needto prepare for now. You may have
some people who do do that.I have had. If you go back
into the archives of the show,I interviewed a CEO that I was inside
with. He was one of theguards on my unit, and I had
(08:22):
him on the show because he's agood man. He genuinely wanted to try
to help. He did everything thathe could to try to help. I
worked in the library when I waswhen I was here in Omaha, occ
and the librarian, the librarian therewas just as good. She wanted people
(08:48):
to succeed. She wanted to beable to say, look, you're in
here, use your time wisely sothat when you get out you're ready.
You know. She made us focuson putting out self help books. And
no matter how many times we toldher, you know, they're just not
(09:09):
I don't think they're gonna read these. These are not what the people are
looking for when they come in here. They read a lot of westerns,
they read a lot of action novelslike James Patterson and Alex Cava. They
read the Fantasy series. I havenever seen so many, so many grown
adult men read the Twilight series inmy life, as I did when I
was in there. But I mean, you gotta keep yourself entertained. So
(09:33):
we're trying to explain that to herone day, and all she said to
us was, I don't care.I want them to use their time wisely.
I'm going to put these books outfor them. And we showcased them,
We put them out there, andyou know what, to her credit,
if she hadn't have done that,I wouldn't have read the book Harmonic
(09:54):
Wealth. That changed my life.So there's people out there that are willing
to take that extra step. Butwhen you transition back into the community,
for the most part, the majorityof people unprepared. Housing is the number
(10:18):
one barrier. Now you're going tohear it goes back and forth. You
may hear that jobs are the numberone. You may hear that housing is
the number one, and their statisticsfor both, you know it very well,
maybe a tie. So my personalopinion is that housing is number one.
And here's why I give housing thevery edge over jobs because when you
(10:45):
go to fill out a job application, what's one of the first things that
you're going to have to do.You're gonna have to fill in your address.
And if you don't have an address, you can't fill out that application.
And if you can't fill out thatapplication, you ain't getting a job.
So it all starts with a home, a house, an apartment,
(11:11):
a town home, I don't care, whatever it is. You have some
kind of home. Now complicate thiswith the housing crisis in general in America
right now, with the fact thatprices have gone through the roof. A
(11:35):
few years ago, before COVID,you could find a one or two bedroom
apartment out here in Nebraska for probablyfive six hundred bucks. You know,
maybe not in the best part oftown, but relatively in an okay,
(11:56):
safe part of town. Now,man, if you're lucky, if you're
going to find something on average formaybe eight fifty nine hundred. Now,
if you've got someone who's been insidefor five years, even let's just go
(12:20):
five years when they would last inthe community, rent was affordable, a
mortgage was affordable. Five years later, fast forward, they come out and
it's eleven hundred dollars for rent.It's a thousand dollars for rent. And
(12:43):
I've talked all about this before.When you're inside, it's not like you're
working a job making minimum wage.You're working for quite literally slave wages,
because according to the Constitution, youare a slave. So you get a
buck or two a day, andyou're lucky to work five days a week.
(13:09):
If you work in the kitchens,you work grueling hours, I mean
grueling hours for two three bucks aday. I mean break that down into
hourly it's pennies. Pennies. Godforbid anybody get less than fifteen dollars an
(13:35):
hour out here now, because that'sinhumane. The cost of living is too
high. We need a livable wage. To take someone who's making pennies a
day for hour. They leave thatinstitution with one hundred dollars check here in
(14:01):
Nebraska at least, maybe different whereveryou are. One hundred dollar check,
a pat on the back. Ifyou don't have help, how are you
going to? Number one? Applyfor housing? Everything is online now.
(14:22):
Everything you want to rent an apartment, fill out the application online. You
want to look at doing a mortgage, fill out the application online. And
of course, as you're filling itout online, what are they gonna do.
They're going to run a credit check, and they're gonna run a background
(14:43):
check. And the common misconception outthere right now is, oh, he's
got a record, he's never gonnapay the bill. Pass on that dude.
However, have you have you evertalked to a landlord? It's to
me it's glaringly obvious. I meanso obvious when you talk to landlords and
(15:13):
go back and look at the tenantsthat gave them the most issue. Who
are the tenants that they had toevict, Who are the tenants that were
slow pay, Who are the tenantsthat when they moved out trashed the place.
They're all the people with clean records. But yet you still run a
(15:35):
background check and say, oh,that dude's got a record. No we
can't, he's not going to pay. Look at your past history. Look
look at all of the people thatyou have rented to. Look at all
of the people that have resided withinwhatever you have, a house, an
apartment building, a town home,I don't care, whatever it is.
(15:58):
The vast majority of the people thatdon't pay and cause issues are people with
clean records. So if you're ableto overcome these hurdles and have help a
lot of people do, then howare you going to afford this? So
(16:23):
you've got to have potentially first andlast month's rent plus utilities, plus all
the deposits for utilities. That's justto get in the door. I mean,
then what are you going to dofor furniture, What are you going
to do for food? And whatare you going to do for money?
(16:45):
For all of this, how areyou going to afford this? If you
go out most of the jobs onceyou do have a home. I mean
again, the minimum wage is beingpushed up, which is fantastic. However,
or if it wasn't happening at thesame time that inflation is at record
levels and everything is costing more andmore, why even bother raising the minimum
(17:11):
wage? Then, like a fifteendollars minimum wage with everything doubling in price,
it's pretty much the same thing asseven seventy five an hour. So
there's good paying jobs eighteen twenty bucksan hour. That's still not enough to
survive on, though, how areyou going to pay for housing? Now?
(17:47):
Not to mention, what about thepeople who come out and they are
in some type of assisted housing.When I say assisted housing, I'm talking
like a program house where it's specificallydesigned for people with addictions drug or alcohol
addiction typically, or maybe just ahalfway house. There have been multiple cases,
(18:19):
not just in Nebraska, but therehas been a recent one in Nebraska,
but I know they happen all overthe place. The people that own
the halfway house just start taking moneyfrom the residents because you know what they
can. Who's going to stop them. So when you're coming back into the
(18:40):
community, you still get some accessto some community benefits to help you get
you back on your feet, soyou get access to things like food snamps,
snap benefits. What do these halfwayhouses do? They take the EBT
cards, They take the snap benefitcards because they have to help. They
(19:00):
have to use that to pay forthe food to feed you. So they'll
just take care of it for you. Don't worry about it. You just
give it to them and they'll takecare of it. And then what happens,
like in the instance of the gentlemanwho I started this whole conversation about
(19:23):
what happens if you are doing everythingyou are supposed to do. You have
been home for a year, justabout a year. You're working, you're
keeping your nose clean, you're reconnectingwith your friends and family. You've given
(19:47):
it everything you've got. You're doingeverything they told you to do. And
then the halfway house has to close. You're given thirty day notice. You
have thirty days to find someplace else. Let's go thirty days. Imagine if
(20:12):
that happened to you. Imagine ifyour home was gone and you add thirty
days to find someplace else to live. Now, let's add a little extra
difficulty onto that. You have thirtydays to find someplace else to live,
(20:36):
or you go back to prison,because then you'll be in violation of your
parole because you won't have a home. Now, explain to me where any
of this is the fault of theindividual in reentry. How can this individual
(21:00):
be held responsible for the fact thatthe halfway home that they were appointed to
is shutting down because I don't evenknow the reasons in this particular case,
but I can speculate fraud, theftcode violations. I mean, maybe it's
(21:22):
just an uninhabitable house down the list. And the sad thing is I wouldn't
be out of line with any ofthose guesses because that's why most halfway houses
get shut down. And there's justnot enough staff to go out there and
check all of them, because ifthere was, I would say the vast
(21:44):
majority of them would probably be shuttingdown two because they're all doing it.
The deck is just stacked against you. It might feel like it's not really,
but that's how it can feel.So when we come back, I
(22:07):
want to talk a little bit aboutthe statistics. We'll talk about some of
the numbers because there's been studies doneon this as far as the impact on
housing and recidivism, on how nothaving a home to call your own increases
your odds of basically going back,and how to combat that. So stay
(22:34):
tuned. We'll take a short breakand we will be right back. The
call in line is open. Weare we're talking about housing specifically and re
entry. And the number is oneeight hundred and five eight eight zero three
three five eight hundred five eight eightzero three three five. And when we
(23:00):
last talked before the break, Iwas discussing a situation with a gentleman in
re entry here in Nebraska. Thisgentleman has been in re entry for about
a year. He's been doing everythingthat he was supposed to do. He's
got a job, he's working,he's following his re entry plan, keeping
(23:23):
his nose clean, everything he wastold to do. He's staying in a
halfway house because I mean, it'sdifficult to find housing. That's why we're
talking about this. However, thehalfway house that he's staying at, all
of a sudden was notified they're nolonger approved by the Department of Corrections.
(23:45):
So that means he now has thirtydays to find a new place to live.
Because the Department of corrections says,well, you can't live there anymore.
Oh and by the way, becausehe's on parole, if you don't
have a place within the next thirtydays, you're in violation of your parole,
which means you're going back to prisonfor violating your parol. So when
(24:07):
I when I say things on thisshow, like the system is set up
for people to fail. It's arevolving door. They want you to come
back because they make more money onyou when you're inside. These are the
examples that I'm talking about. Therewas a study that was done years ago
(24:27):
on ouch hopping. Essentially, youknow a lot of people when they get
out, they don't have anywhere togo, so they'll crash on somebody's couch,
you know, they'll crash on afriend's couch, or girlfriend's couch,
or neighbor, family member, whateverit is, they'll just crash. Did
(24:52):
you know that, according to thisstudy, every time that an ENDIVI visual
moves from one couch to another,the odds of them reoffending increase by seventy
five every single time. Not Imean, I don't know about you,
(25:21):
but I have I have known somany people who have come out with no
place to go other than maybe acousin's couch or girlfriend's couch or something.
It's an awkward situation because you feellike an outsider because it's it's not your
(25:42):
home. You feel like an outsider, and so you feel the need to
move on, and so you goto the next place. But you can't
find decent work. You can't afforda place. Not to mention, you
(26:07):
have a record now, and everyplace you go wants to run a background
check. And every time that backgroundcheck comes back with a felony on the
record, you're dead in the water. So you go to another couch.
(26:30):
You maybe you're at your cousin's place. You need to go. Man,
I'm sorry, I'm just gonna go. I'll be here for a few weeks
and then I'll just go. I'llfigure it out. And that few weeks
comes up and you're calling a friendsaying, dude, I need someplace to
crash. Man, I gotta getout of here. Can I come stay
at your place for a while.And there you go, and every time
you do that, seventy five seventyfive percent increase in the odds of you
(26:56):
going back inside. Now, let'seven let's even take the statistics out of
it. Let's take all of theobstacles out of it for just a second
and just look at this. Justlook at this as a human being issue.
(27:18):
Just look at this as it asan individual person issue. When you
don't have a home, you don'tfeel safe and secure, because why would
you, like, there's no placefor you to call your own, there's
no place for you to plant roots, there's no place that you can call
(27:40):
like your home base of operations,that you can get your stuff in order.
And let's go all the way backinto some psychology one on one,
Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If youdon't remember this, we'll just do a
quick overview if this is your firsttime ever looking into this. Basically,
(28:02):
this is the five levels of needsof human beings to be able to function.
And at the very base level,you've got your physiological needs, like
we need air, we need food, we need water, we need to
(28:25):
sleep periodically so that we can rechargeand refresh and rebuild. Right above those
very basic needs, safety and security, security of your body, employment,
so you have financial, security,resources, a family property. So when
(28:52):
we are setting all of this up, despite the fact we know this like
Maslow, this hierarchy of needs iscommonly taught, like this is taught in
institutions around the world as a basicunderstanding of human psychology and how people as
at a personal level operate. Andthe funny thing is this is built like
(29:18):
a pyramid, So if you don'thave one of these needs met, you
aren't able to go to the nextlevels. And I mean a lot of
it is very common sense, likeif you don't have food and water,
you're probably gonna die. So yeah, of course you're not going to have
(29:40):
security. But right above that safetyand security is love and belonging, friendship,
family, intimacy with other people.And then right above that is esteem,
your self esteem, your confidence,the respect of there's the respect of
(30:00):
yourself, and at the very verytop is self actualization. Morality, creativity,
problem solving, lack of prejudice.So let's let's just stop here real
quick. First thing I said theremorality. So if we are taking an
individual who messed up for one reasonor another, today's topic is not going
(30:26):
back and analyzing what dat or didnot happen and how the justice system is
all et up. We're going toassume we're going to assume, for the
sake of this argument, that itwas justified for that individual to be inside
and to serve their time and nowcoming back out into the community not having
(30:48):
any level of safety and security becausethey're struggling to find property, they're struggling
to find employment, they're struggling forresources because they have this felony background.
Now, if we are asking thatperson essentially, hey, you need to
be a moral, upright standing citizen. How can you expect someone to have
(31:11):
at that self actualization level, thatmorality? How can you expect them to
have that morality if they don't havethe safety and security. Because remember this
works like a pyramid, it's afoundation. You can't skip over. You
can't just be like, oh,I'm breathing and I have food and water.
I'm met me. My physiological needsare met. That's great. That
(31:33):
means I now have self esteem andconfidence and I respect myself. It doesn't
work that way. These build oneach other and they build together. So
if you're missing one piece, you'remissing all of it. So we are
taking these individuals again. We knowthese things. These are taught in colleges
(31:56):
and high schools. It's commonly understoodabout people. These needs have to be
met in order to progress up thisladder, up this pyramid. Can you
see the hypocrisy here? We areasking these people to be a moral,
(32:17):
upright standing citizen, but we're notgiving them the safety and security, which
means they're not going to have thatmorality. They're not going to be able
to get to that level because theirneeds are not being met. The statistics
just back up what we already know. We have statistics to basically say,
(32:39):
hey, yeah, you know whenthose needs aren't met, did you know
that people will reoffend more and windup back inside a prison because you know
why, because their needs were metthere. Huh? Funny that? And
you wonder why I call it arevolving door. You wonder why I say
(33:00):
it's set up for people to goback in there. When you come back
out into the community, all ofa sudden, your needs aren't met.
And believe me, if you've beenthrough it, you know exactly what I'm
talking about, because I still thinkabout it from time to time. There
are days when things are rough andI go, oh my god, it
was so much easier inside. Ididn't have to worry about all this crap.
(33:22):
I didn't have bills to pay,I didn't have people hounding me,
I didn't have a job breathing downmy neck. Oh my god, it
would just be so much easier togo back inside. I guarantee you these
people that are reoffending, that's what'sgoing on in their head at some level
or another. Not to mention,I'm not even bringing into anything with the
(33:43):
unconscious. I'm not bringing anything spiritualinto this. This is just basic psychology,
level one on one. Their needsare not being met, They're gonna
go find it. And where's theeasiest place for them to find safety and
security that need being met? Rightback inside? So, hey, why
(34:12):
do we have a reciptivism problem inAmerica? Oh gee, I don't know.
Maybe it's because we've set it upspecifically that way. Now the story
has a happy ending. You know, this gentleman in reentry halfway house is
(34:34):
closing down. He has thirty daysto find a place. He has a
record, he's getting shot down leftand right. Well, he had help,
he had an organization that had hisback, and they it took it
to the wire, but he founda home. Not only did he find
a home, he found someplace withinhis budget, they met the landlord,
(34:59):
they looked at the apartment, theyexplained to the landlord what was going on.
So there was no surprises, nothingwas hidden, All cards were on
the table, and the landlord said, sure, I'll give you a place
to live. So, yes,the story does have a happy ending.
(35:23):
As frustrating as it might be toget to that happy ending, it's there.
And I think stories like this aremore common than we know. I
(35:45):
personally have helped a few people finda place, and it's just as simple
as calling and talking to the landlord. I remember explaining this discussion to a
friend of mine who was looking fora place, and she's saying, I
don't know how I'm going to finda place. You know, everybody wants
(36:07):
a background check, everybody wants this, And it just said, look,
just the easiest thing to do.Let's just pull up a couple of websites
and just make some calls. Let'sjust pull up Craigslist, look under the
for rent, and let's start makingcalls. Here's how we're going to do
it. And I just threw togethera script real fast, and it went
a little something like this. Youcall up and you speak to the landlord,
(36:30):
and you just say hi. Myname's Dave. I'm calling on behalf
of an individual and trying to helpthem find some housing. They do have
a record, however, they havestable employment, they have a strong support
system, evidenced by me being hereto try to help them, and I
(36:51):
just want to know if you wouldbe open to meeting with this individual and
considering allowing them to rent the propertythat you have opened something along that lines.
And you know what, second callworked. Call number two didn't even
(37:12):
take me ten minutes and I foundhim a blaze. So now as we
transition into struggling this productively and constructively. Number one, if it is a
website only, don't go through thewebsite, don't go through the website.
(37:39):
Find a phone number, find anaddress, go there in person, find
an email address, find some wayto communicate with a human being behind that
website and get them to listen.Number two, get some help to back
(38:00):
you up. I talk about thisall the time. I talked about it
last week, I've talked about itprobably the week before and countless weeks before
that. You have to have acommunity of people surrounding you and pushing you.
(38:21):
And I don't mean pushing you asin like violently, like shoving you
forward. I mean people like pushingyou to grow, pushing you out of
your comfort zone, pushing you inthe direction that you need to go to
grow into the person that you wantto be. If you don't have those
(38:42):
people around you, it's going tobe difficult, man, It's going to
be difficult. I have a networkof people that I reach out to for
just about anything, and it's Icould probably do all of this stuff myself.
(39:05):
You know what. I grew upmowing my own grass. You know
what I do now, I paya dude to do it. You know
why, two reasons. One,it gives me more time with my family
and to do things that I needto do. And two, I'm supporting
somebody else's business. You know what. Maybe that dude is in reentry and
(39:29):
he's out mowing lawns trying to starthis own business because he can't find another
job. So you're damn right,I'm going to support somebody like that.
Hell yeah, I'm going to supportsomebody like that. I have. I've
been fortunate enough that when my fatherpassed away, he left me his house.
(39:50):
I use it as a rental property. And I have a friend of
mine who's out there. He's ahandyman. He's just looking for extra work.
Hey, here's what I want.Go to town. I'll pay you
to do this. Sure. CouldI go out there and do it myself?
Yeah, I could go out thereand I could pull the weeds.
(40:12):
I could go out there and Icould spread the seeds for the grass.
I could go out there and Icould do some landscaping. Yeah, I
absolutely could do it, but thattakes time away from the stuff that I'm
supposed to be doing to begin with. He wants to do it, and
he needs the money because he's inre entry. He's trying to save up
(40:34):
to get a place, he's tryingto save up to get a better car.
He's trying to save up to justdo some things that he wants to
do with his life's you're damn right, damn right, I'm gonna let you
do it. I'll stay home andI'll practice doing my show. I'll stay
home and i'll do some more work. I'll stay home and I'll spend some
time with my kids, and I'llpay you the money to go do this
for me. That you can thenturn around and take that money and spend
(40:57):
it on your family, or spendit on your friends, surround yourself with
the community of people number three andnumber three you just never give up.
(41:20):
It's it's so simple and yet sodifficult. Because that example that I just
talked about, where I picked upthe phone and on the second call we
got somebody that doesn't happen all thetime, you know, somehow or another,
my name ended up on documentation forpeople that are re entering here in
(41:42):
the Department of Corrections from Nebraska.It's over at Community correct Community Corrections,
Omaha. It's periodically I will getsomebody send me a message through Facebook,
say hey, I got your numberoff this off the sheet here. I'm
in CCCO. Can you help mewith housing? You know what I can?
(42:04):
Yeah, let's talk. What areyou looking at? What are you
guy going on? And I tellthem let me know how it goes.
If this step one doesn't work,we'll move to step two. If step
two doesn't work, we'll move tostep three. I have a plan in
place, and if you're willing togo out there and give it a shot,
(42:30):
I will bend over backwards and Iwill help you find a place.
I've done it before, and I'lldo it again. But it's just so
sad. It's so sad to thinkthat we have a story like this where
(42:52):
an individual who is in re entry, who's doing everything that we as a
society have asked him to do.Because, let's be realistic. The laws
that are in place, you andI are responsible for them. You know
why, because we let them happen. Because we elected people in our state
(43:13):
and at the federal level who passedthese laws, and we didn't challenge them.
Therefore, we accepted them acceptance bysilence. We didn't say no.
So everything that is going on forindividuals like this, it's your responsibility and
(43:34):
my responsibility, and the responsibility ofeverybody out there, everybody in this community.
We look at a story like thisand we celebrate the success. I
look at a story like this andI say, we should not be making
people jump through this many hoops tomeet basic needs like safety and security.
(43:55):
How can we ever expect society torest when we can't even take the people
that are struggling the most, Whenwe can't take these people meet their basic
needs and show them how to reachthe top of that period, that pyramid
(44:20):
of self actualization, how to getto that point of morality and acceptance and
forgiveness self forgiveness. There are plentyof organizations out there willing to help with
housing. You've just got to You'vejust got to start asking for help.
(44:45):
You've just got to reach out,grab that community around you, start asking
the questions. Pick up the phone, call somebody and ask them for help.
You know what, even if youpick up the call and you ask
somebody who's rent a property and theysay no, ask them if they know
somebody that does. Like, justkeep going, don't give up. I
(45:10):
want to thank you for tuning intonight. I appreciate your time. I
hope you have found value in today'sshow. Don't forget to check out the
website Surviving the System dot org,Facebook dot com, slash Surviving the System,
and on Twitter at sts to podcast. If you or someone you know
(45:36):
is going through something like this,reach out. Let me know if you
have a story that needs to betold. That's why I'm here. The
more we talk about these stories,the more we can draw attention to it.
Thank you again for your time,and as always, remember keep your
head up, don't let them getyou. It may be easy to can
(46:00):
all the corruption and manipulation in thesystem and feel hopeless here at surviving a
system. We hold to the beliefthat greatness is born in the midst of
extraordinary struggles. You were created witha purpose, with infinite potential, and
many have lost sight of that backWe're here to remind you of who you
are. The best revenge the success
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