August 8, 2025 • 23 mins
Open Door Mission CEO Candace Gregory and Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson discuss how homeless has gotten worse in Omaha, but there's optimism related to a recent executive order by President Trump.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Vordiez.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
There's a wonderful organization here in town. You hear about
them a lot throughout the year, whether it's kids to
camp or the recent Hydrate for Hope, or the prior
to Thanksgiving, the Hope for the Hungry radiothon here on
eleven ten kfa B. This is a partnership we have
with the Open Door Mission. Their CEO, Candice Gregory, responded
(00:23):
yesterday in a passioned a passionate email to the President's
recent executive order which is called ending Crime and Disorder
on America's Streets, and she said, look, I've been working
in this world for a long time, and it looks
like the President agrees with some of the homeless advocates
(00:44):
out here that what has been happening isn't working. It's
something that Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hansen sees on a
regular basis. He's in the studio with me as we
welcome on here the CEO of the Open Door Mission,
Candace Gregory, back here to eleven ten kfa B. Candace,
good morning.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Good morning, Scott, Good morning, Sheriff Hanson.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So great to have you here. Sheriff Hansen is waving
at the microphone radio professional you can talk to her.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Make sure good morning, Candas.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's good to have you both on here. Candace, I said,
some homeless advocates are looking at the President's executive order
and seeing what you do, which is hope, but not everyone.
Can you explain some of the pushback you're getting, you.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Know, Scott, in thirty years, I really wait over saying
anything because I try to be so fassionate about what
I believe in, and yet just toe that line of
being neutral. But enough is enough for thirty years, I
(01:52):
continued to hear the same mantras of end homeless in
ten years, no child left behind, rapid rehousing, housing first owned,
and just following the status quo is insanity because we
are doing the same things decade over decade and expecting
different results, and it's not happening.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
And it's worse here in Omaha. We've seen it get worse.
And if you go especially like north of Cumming Street
as you get into downtown Omaha, it's even worse than
you see just driving around some of the more main
thoroughfares around town. What has made it worse here in Omaha?
Do you think.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I really believe. I know as people have moved west
and have moved farther away from the downtown and the
poverty zip codes that we have blinders on and we
don't see it. And the diversity is huge, and homelesses
and poverty is not discriminate. I just want to state
that it's across the board sky. And yes, everybody wants
(02:55):
to talk about mental health and addiction, but there are
some other contributing factors that are huge. Lack of education,
lack of life skills, domestic violence, lack of housing, and
aging and foster care are huge contributors to the population
experiencing homelessness and poverty.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, you see things get bigger and bigger either because
they're pacified, allowed, or encouraged. And when you see some
of these advocacy groups, including some directive from the city,
that are allowing people to live in public and private
rights of way, allowing people to ask for money at intersections,
(03:38):
and allowing them to live on the streets, it's allowed,
it's pacified. What do you see here in the president's
recent executive order that might change some of this?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
You are right, Scott. Billions have been spent countless initiatives
launched and conditions have worsened. People are now dying on
our street, and there is hope in I know that
this is not a perfect bill. I'm not disputing that
the public focus has been on the tax cuts, the medicaid,
the medicare, the border crossing, but there are some notable
(04:14):
provisions in it for mental health, for housing, for supportive services,
for addiction treatment, and those speak volumes to me, our
team and to the friends that we serve. Mental health
and addiction treatment provisions have been blocked for decades, and
(04:34):
now we're seeing that there's going to be funding for
local and prior and actually prioritizing rural and underserved communities
that are poverty z that codes. There's going to be
mental health block grants, there's going to be opiate and
sent in all crisis response. And finally someone is saying,
it's not just housing first, it's housing next. We need
(04:57):
supportive services for vulnerable popu relations or else we're going
to just keep seeing the same results and spend billions
on housing destroying property.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
You've been seeing this as has we're talking here with
Candace Gregory, CEO of the Open Door Mission here in Omaha.
You've been seeing this as well as Douglas Kunny, Sheriff
Aaron Hanson, formerly of the Omaha Police Department, who's also
here with us. Sheriff.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, I agree, Candace is nailing it, and I think that,
you know, if you listen to everything she just said,
I really I think we got to step back and
we have to stop calling this blanketly homelessness because you
have different subcategories of people that are struggling with living
without a home. And let's take, for example, the mother
(05:41):
with three kids who is out of her home because
she's in a domestic violence situation. Okay, it's not fair
to her to deal with her type of homelessness. She
may be a housing first candidate. That's where housing first
may work, right, because she needs a safe place for
her kids. But to categorize her in the same group
(06:02):
as the homeless guy, the mentally ill addicted homeless guy
that I talked to this morning who was literally sleeping
in a dumpster, is a disservice to both of those individuals.
You cannot just dump a one size fits all approach
to this. I think we've got to probably expand what
our definition of homelessness is and specifically when we talk
(06:22):
to people about people living on the streets intents, in
my experience, the vast majority of them are struggling with
mental illness and addiction. I would rather we stop calling
them classic homeless and start focusing in on them specifically
with their addiction and their mental health, because a housing first,
a house first for them is only going to mean
(06:44):
they're going to get evicted in a few months and
destroy that place because they have to deal with the
underlying challenges of mental health and addiction first.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
But as you both know, you'll get some people to say, well,
you can't just make home listeness illegal and just start
pulling people off the streets against their will. Candice, if
you had a perfect world here where you could have
some meaningful outreach to the individuals that you both are
talking about, what would you like to see law enforcement
do here?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Well, we have a I want to first of all say,
for the first time in a long time, we have
a great relationship with law enforcement. And I have seen
law enforcement from local not only our OWNAHA Police department
and in the Sheriff's team that now we have trauma
informed care trained officers, you see a lot more compassion
(07:40):
that I've seen it personally. I've seen officers go out
of their way to actually win someone over with trust
and friendship and bring them to the open door mission
for care. It's I realized that my opinions different Scott,
and it's not often welcome, and I acknowledge that and
(08:00):
respect that. But we have to say that when you're saying,
when Sheriff Hansen's saying, it's not just housing first, it's right,
we have to have housing ready, we have to have
housing next. And we have to look at the evidence
because it's disconnected from reality in the front lines. When
we have less mental health services today than we did
(08:22):
when I started in nineteen ninety four in our city,
there's something wrong.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Well, there's something else that's different here with this particular
executive order from the White House, and that is the
occupant who serves as commander in chief. If something like
this had come from President Obama, President Biden, I don't
know that you'd get the same pushback as you are here.
So much relates to people's either celebration or disdain or
(08:47):
outright hatred for President Trump. You made it clear in
your email that you don't carry water for any party
or politician. You're literally carrying water, including that which was
collected here as part of our hydrate for Hope Radiothon
last month. You're literally carrying water. You're not political in nature.
But when the order comes from President Trump and you
(09:10):
don't immediately demonize it, You're going to have some people
who think, oh, you're part of the problem. You're just
a political hack and maga Trump supporter and all the
rest of this stuff. Are you afraid that you're going
to lose volunteer and donations because you at no point
in this email did you say, Hey, I want to
thank President Trump for do You didn't even mention him.
(09:33):
But there are some people who I'm sure are not
real pleased that you didn't demonize him. Do you think
that's going to be a concern for the Open Door Mission.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I underestimated the negative response that I receive from the
community with my correspondence. I'm overwhelmingly shocked at the number
of supporters that have made the decision not to continue
to support the Open Door Mission in the last twenty
(10:04):
four hours because of my response. And yet I felt
that the response was genuine and sincere. I did not
use any party or political side. I was just pointing
out that there possibly could be room for change and
(10:25):
hope at this time, and that that could mean a
change for the people that we serve and care about.
I did not believe. I did not I underestimated those
number of people that would discontinue supporting the Open Door Mission.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
If people are moved to support you during this and
any time, how do they go about doing so, Candace, Well.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
They can visit our website and at opendoormission dot org.
I encourage you to check out about us and educate
yourself on what the Open Door Mission provides, which is
forty programs for free that ninety cents as every donation
goes directly to guest services. And we actually are transparent
in our financials. We post our ninety ninety and our
(11:13):
audited financials on our website. We are a solid investment
and I wish that nonprofits were able to have the
funds that our government has to run programs. Our community
would totally different.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Scott. As you note here in this email, what we've
been doing isn't working, and you've got some hope here
and potentially a different way of dealing with this problem
that you and We've all seen unless you've got your
head buried in the sand, we've all seen this problem
get worse. Candice, I know you have to deal with
(11:48):
these symptoms all the time rather than trying to drill
down to the root cause that's going to come from
different sources. But you're there dealing on the streets with
these issues every single day. Hey, God, bless you and
thank you so much for what you're doing. And I
appreciate you joining us here this morning.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Again.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
The website is opendoor Mission dot org.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Right, thank you, Scotch, thank you Sheriff Hanson.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Thank you for all your hard work to help protect
vulnerable people in our community.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Open Door Mission CEO Candice Gregory here on news radio
eleven ten KFAB. That's Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson want
to talk to you here in just a couple of minutes,
not just about this issue, but a couple of other
things going on in our community, including the entertaining arrest
of a speed racer by a member of your department
(12:37):
this week, which was thankfully caught on video that was
posted on social media. So we'll get to all of
this with Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson in two minutes
Scott do ez well you NewsRadio eleven ten KFAB. Adam
emails in the wake of that conversation with Candas Gregory
via the Zonker's custom What's Inbox Scott atkfab dot com,
(12:59):
and he says, as far as Candace saying that she's
received a lot of negativity for not coming out and
demonizing President Trump, she points out here his executive order
ending crime and Disorder on America's streets marks a shift
and a problem that's gotten worse, homelessness and untreated mental
and drug addiction and all the rest of it here
(13:21):
in our communities. And she's getting a lot of people
saying I'll never donate to the Open Door Mission ever again.
Adam says, zero percent is how much less money the
Open Door Mission will get because of Candace's comments. Very
few of these individuals, I'll change a word there, donated
a dime anyway. They're just complaining and threatening not to
(13:44):
give anymore. They never gave in the first place. That's
the assessment from Adam. I suspect with most of them.
He's right. I know Candas probably has spoken and recognizes
some of the individuals who are true believers in the cause.
And when when President Trump does something and you don't
(14:05):
immediately come out and say this is the worst thing.
It's even worse than yesterday when she posted a response
to it and said, when I saw this executive order,
I felt a spark of something I hadn't seen in
a long time around public policy. Hope, not because I
believe any single policy will be perfect, but because someone
somewhere in the leadership finally seems willing to admit that
(14:28):
what we've been doing isn't working. That's from CEO Candas
Gregory of the Open Door Mission, Douglas Kunty Sheriff Aaron
Hanson here with us as well on eleven ten kfab
and I know that you agree with me and Candace.
What we've been doing isn't working. The problems getting worse.
What can law enforcement do about it? I got people
emailing me saying, what about this guy at one hundred
(14:51):
and this street and that street? What about this guy
out on West Maple living with his bike out there
all day and the people panhandling and just setting up
ten on the streets. What can law enforcement do?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Well, you know we've got some of the tools to
address it. But we need we need a lot more tools,
both statutorily and in terms of, you know, federal support.
So I got to tell you, regardless, take Trump out
of the equation. Okay, I know he's a hot topic.
Hard to do, but try to separate yourself from the
fact that this executive order came from President Trump. Let's
(15:24):
say you can't stand anything about Trump or what he
stands for, what he says. Look, a broken clock is
right twice a day, Okay, So think about what the
actual subject that he's talking about. So in this case,
I'm glad that the federal government, at least parts of it,
(15:45):
are focused on this issue here locally, because it's going
to require the focus of federal government, state government, nonprofits,
hospital groups, and local government county and city. County and
city government alone cannot solve this on its own. The
problem is too big, the problem is too complex. State
can't solve it on its own. It's going to require
(16:06):
everybody being a part of it. So what can we do. Well,
I got a call yesterday about someone a large homeless
encampment on county property. My CAT team deputies are going
down to day to deal with it. It's going to
be pretty easy. Why because state law specifically prohibits campments
on state, county and NRD property, It does not talk
(16:27):
about city property. So I do think we need a
clear public policy, either from local governments or state government
to say that to add city properties onto that list.
And the funny thing is when people say, well, you're
criminalizing homelessness. This is not even an offense that someone
can be booked for. There's zero bond, so at worst
(16:47):
it's a ticket. But what it would create is that
public policy that says this is not allowed, and why
should it not be allowed. Well, I've talked to more
business owners. I've spoken with more business owners here recently
that invested millions in housing housing developments here in Douglas County.
Their employees are scared because they are surrounded by homeless encampments,
(17:11):
some of which are inhabited by sex offenders. That's proven,
we've dealt with that. But then also the people that
come to buy to rent their apartments are turning away
and are specifically saying it's because of the homeless encampments.
Those some of those same business owners. I just found
out this morning that the homeless tent encampment dwellers are
(17:32):
actually removing man hole covers in order to use the
bathroom in manhole covers. Well, I guess that's better than
on the side of their business. But they're not replacing
the manhole covers. And so what's going to happen when
some kids walking home from school and falls into the manhole,
or someone's walking their dog, or a police officers is
in a footchase at two o'clock in the morning and
falls in. We have to have smaller public policy. These
(17:57):
tent encampments on public property should not be allowed in
my opinion, under any circumstance.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Well, I've talked about how if someone's out there on
the street with a gun to their head, and you know,
for theirs and everyone else's public safety, you've got to
deal with that. If someone's out on a day where
it's dangerously hot or dangerously cold, or you got cars
speeding by, and you know how bad the speeding cars are,
we'll get to that in a moment. Then that's someone
where whether it's it's those issues or the unchecked mental
(18:27):
health which leads to potential suicide, leads to addiction, leads
to the abuse, the trafficking and all the things that
you can be a victim of when you're out there
living on the streets. It's dangerous for that person not
to mention that. It's more than just that what you
see under a bridge or panhandling, or outside of the
sier of Francis House or whatever. It's also anytime you
(18:48):
go into the trees and the wooded areas around here,
you know, the places where we used to play when
we were kids, setting up for its, riding bikes, hanging
out in there. There are people living in there, and
so parents are like, I don't want my kids out
there plane. I mean, even if they go down to
the end of the street here and take a rite,
there's a guy living down there. He's got a bike
in a shopping cart and a sign and needs to
(19:08):
hang it out there. And I don't feel it's safe
in my community. We can't have people feel like that.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Well. And also it's the fire risk. I mean, we
see stories all the time these camps catching on fire.
I just saw one this morning, a brand new tent
encampment up under a bridge that's scorched with fire damage.
And I sent you a story yesterday in California. This
is really happening. Companies business their business insurance is being
canceled or their rates or skyrocketing if they're approximate to
(19:37):
homeless encampments because of the fire risk that's happening in
Douglas County right now. I was contacted by a business
owner who he's nervous he's going to get dropped by
his insurance company because they're asking him do you have
homeless encampments proximate to your business? And in fact he
does because he works near Saddle Creek and coming and
so he's like, what a my rate's gonna skyrocket or
(19:58):
are they gonna drop me completely? This is where we
need a smarter public policy safety net. We can do both.
We can protect those innocent people in businesses and have
a compassionate approach to helping these vulnerable people living in
these ten camments.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
That's Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson. We had on KFAB
News earlier this week one of your deputies, I believe
it was, was out driving unmarked just a personal vehicle
and observed aggressive speed street racing here in Omaha, which
is easy to find if you go out driving around
but he did something a little different that I couldn't do,
(20:33):
but he could do. Tell me about what happened there.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, yeah, obviously, people know when you leave your house
in Douglas County have a higher chance of losing your
life to a reckless negligent driver than you do to
a criminal. That's just a fact, and so Douglas County
Sheriff's Office has been very laser focused on trying to
reduce that reckless negligent driving behavior. We've heard anecdotally from
people across the community that they're hearing less of it
(20:58):
in these high speed areas, and that's good. But when
our deputies stumble across someone who is driving in a
reckless manner that's putting the life of the innocent motoring
public at risk, they're not only going to take action,
but they are going to arrest those individuals if it's
a crime, as opposed to it just a speeding citation,
but if they commit a driving crime, they're going to
(21:20):
be arrested, They're going to be booked into jail, their
vehicle is going to be impounded, not as a punitive measure,
but in order to stop that deadly behavior. We've actually
seen individuals that we've arrested for these driving crimes commit
these crimes over and over, and we're going to continue
to enforce these laws until those reckless, deadly drivers get
the message and change their behavior.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
He recorded arresting the guy showing up there, saying hey,
what were you doing out there? And the guy's like
nothing smart, Yeah right, Well, it's better when they just realize, like,
all right, I've been got.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And in that case, this driver in this Audi, the
deputy driving an unmarked car at one hundred and sixty
eighth in Maple and he saw behind him this AUDI
driving swerving in and out of lane's no turn signals,
high rate of speed, cut off the deputy at the intersection.
The deputy knew apparently he was going to stop this car.
(22:16):
He knew something else was going to happen, even got
on the radio advice dispatch, I'm going to be doing
a traffic stop at one hundred and sixty eighth in Maple.
No sooner did that light turn green. That Audi was
a speck. It was a red speck off in the distance,
and the deputy was already going forty nine miles an
hour to try to get through the intersection to try
to stop him. So, I don't know what's wrong with
(22:37):
some people today. I think they're losing their minds. They
think they're in a real life game of grand theft
auto on our public roadways, and it's unacceptable. We're not
going to let it happen.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Well, they'll keep doing it as long as they think
that no one's going to stop them. You've made it
your mission to stop impound cars when necessary. As Douglas
County Sheriff Aaron Hanson, it's the same thing related to homelessness.
It'll keep happening long as it's allowed, as long as
it's pacified, encouraged. In some instances, when President Trump issued
an executive order calling ending crime and disorder on America's
(23:10):
streets to give communities the tools and the backing to
end all of this, CEO Candice Gregory at the Open
Door Mission said, this gives me hope because she didn't
demonize something President Trump did. She's got people on the
political left demonizing her for that. If you're so inclined
to learn more about the Open Door Mission and maybe
volunteer your time or your money to that cause. Its
(23:32):
open Door Mission dot org. Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson,
Thank you very much for the time today.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Scott Voices mornings nine to eleven, Our
Speaker 2 (23:42):
News Radio eleven ten KFAB
Scott Vordiez.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
There's a wonderful organization here in town. You hear about
them a lot throughout the year, whether it's kids to
camp or the recent Hydrate for Hope, or the prior
to Thanksgiving, the Hope for the Hungry radiothon here on
eleven ten kfa B. This is a partnership we have
with the Open Door Mission. Their CEO, Candice Gregory, responded
(00:23):
yesterday in a passioned a passionate email to the President's
recent executive order which is called ending Crime and Disorder
on America's Streets, and she said, look, I've been working
in this world for a long time, and it looks
like the President agrees with some of the homeless advocates
(00:44):
out here that what has been happening isn't working. It's
something that Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hansen sees on a
regular basis. He's in the studio with me as we
welcome on here the CEO of the Open Door Mission,
Candace Gregory, back here to eleven ten kfa B. Candace,
good morning.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Good morning, Scott, Good morning, Sheriff Hanson.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So great to have you here. Sheriff Hansen is waving
at the microphone radio professional you can talk to her.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Make sure good morning, Candas.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's good to have you both on here. Candace, I said,
some homeless advocates are looking at the President's executive order
and seeing what you do, which is hope, but not everyone.
Can you explain some of the pushback you're getting, you.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Know, Scott, in thirty years, I really wait over saying
anything because I try to be so fassionate about what
I believe in, and yet just toe that line of
being neutral. But enough is enough for thirty years, I
(01:52):
continued to hear the same mantras of end homeless in
ten years, no child left behind, rapid rehousing, housing first owned,
and just following the status quo is insanity because we
are doing the same things decade over decade and expecting
different results, and it's not happening.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
And it's worse here in Omaha. We've seen it get worse.
And if you go especially like north of Cumming Street
as you get into downtown Omaha, it's even worse than
you see just driving around some of the more main
thoroughfares around town. What has made it worse here in Omaha?
Do you think.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I really believe. I know as people have moved west
and have moved farther away from the downtown and the
poverty zip codes that we have blinders on and we
don't see it. And the diversity is huge, and homelesses
and poverty is not discriminate. I just want to state
that it's across the board sky. And yes, everybody wants
(02:55):
to talk about mental health and addiction, but there are
some other contributing factors that are huge. Lack of education,
lack of life skills, domestic violence, lack of housing, and
aging and foster care are huge contributors to the population
experiencing homelessness and poverty.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, you see things get bigger and bigger either because
they're pacified, allowed, or encouraged. And when you see some
of these advocacy groups, including some directive from the city,
that are allowing people to live in public and private
rights of way, allowing people to ask for money at intersections,
(03:38):
and allowing them to live on the streets, it's allowed,
it's pacified. What do you see here in the president's
recent executive order that might change some of this?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
You are right, Scott. Billions have been spent countless initiatives
launched and conditions have worsened. People are now dying on
our street, and there is hope in I know that
this is not a perfect bill. I'm not disputing that
the public focus has been on the tax cuts, the medicaid,
the medicare, the border crossing, but there are some notable
(04:14):
provisions in it for mental health, for housing, for supportive services,
for addiction treatment, and those speak volumes to me, our
team and to the friends that we serve. Mental health
and addiction treatment provisions have been blocked for decades, and
(04:34):
now we're seeing that there's going to be funding for
local and prior and actually prioritizing rural and underserved communities
that are poverty z that codes. There's going to be
mental health block grants, there's going to be opiate and
sent in all crisis response. And finally someone is saying,
it's not just housing first, it's housing next. We need
(04:57):
supportive services for vulnerable popu relations or else we're going
to just keep seeing the same results and spend billions
on housing destroying property.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
You've been seeing this as has we're talking here with
Candace Gregory, CEO of the Open Door Mission here in Omaha.
You've been seeing this as well as Douglas Kunny, Sheriff
Aaron Hanson, formerly of the Omaha Police Department, who's also
here with us. Sheriff.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, I agree, Candace is nailing it, and I think that,
you know, if you listen to everything she just said,
I really I think we got to step back and
we have to stop calling this blanketly homelessness because you
have different subcategories of people that are struggling with living
without a home. And let's take, for example, the mother
(05:41):
with three kids who is out of her home because
she's in a domestic violence situation. Okay, it's not fair
to her to deal with her type of homelessness. She
may be a housing first candidate. That's where housing first
may work, right, because she needs a safe place for
her kids. But to categorize her in the same group
(06:02):
as the homeless guy, the mentally ill addicted homeless guy
that I talked to this morning who was literally sleeping
in a dumpster, is a disservice to both of those individuals.
You cannot just dump a one size fits all approach
to this. I think we've got to probably expand what
our definition of homelessness is and specifically when we talk
(06:22):
to people about people living on the streets intents, in
my experience, the vast majority of them are struggling with
mental illness and addiction. I would rather we stop calling
them classic homeless and start focusing in on them specifically
with their addiction and their mental health, because a housing first,
a house first for them is only going to mean
(06:44):
they're going to get evicted in a few months and
destroy that place because they have to deal with the
underlying challenges of mental health and addiction first.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
But as you both know, you'll get some people to say, well,
you can't just make home listeness illegal and just start
pulling people off the streets against their will. Candice, if
you had a perfect world here where you could have
some meaningful outreach to the individuals that you both are
talking about, what would you like to see law enforcement
do here?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Well, we have a I want to first of all say,
for the first time in a long time, we have
a great relationship with law enforcement. And I have seen
law enforcement from local not only our OWNAHA Police department
and in the Sheriff's team that now we have trauma
informed care trained officers, you see a lot more compassion
(07:40):
that I've seen it personally. I've seen officers go out
of their way to actually win someone over with trust
and friendship and bring them to the open door mission
for care. It's I realized that my opinions different Scott,
and it's not often welcome, and I acknowledge that and
(08:00):
respect that. But we have to say that when you're saying,
when Sheriff Hansen's saying, it's not just housing first, it's right,
we have to have housing ready, we have to have
housing next. And we have to look at the evidence
because it's disconnected from reality in the front lines. When
we have less mental health services today than we did
(08:22):
when I started in nineteen ninety four in our city,
there's something wrong.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Well, there's something else that's different here with this particular
executive order from the White House, and that is the
occupant who serves as commander in chief. If something like
this had come from President Obama, President Biden, I don't
know that you'd get the same pushback as you are here.
So much relates to people's either celebration or disdain or
(08:47):
outright hatred for President Trump. You made it clear in
your email that you don't carry water for any party
or politician. You're literally carrying water, including that which was
collected here as part of our hydrate for Hope Radiothon
last month. You're literally carrying water. You're not political in nature.
But when the order comes from President Trump and you
(09:10):
don't immediately demonize it, You're going to have some people
who think, oh, you're part of the problem. You're just
a political hack and maga Trump supporter and all the
rest of this stuff. Are you afraid that you're going
to lose volunteer and donations because you at no point
in this email did you say, Hey, I want to
thank President Trump for do You didn't even mention him.
(09:33):
But there are some people who I'm sure are not
real pleased that you didn't demonize him. Do you think
that's going to be a concern for the Open Door Mission.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I underestimated the negative response that I receive from the
community with my correspondence. I'm overwhelmingly shocked at the number
of supporters that have made the decision not to continue
to support the Open Door Mission in the last twenty
(10:04):
four hours because of my response. And yet I felt
that the response was genuine and sincere. I did not
use any party or political side. I was just pointing
out that there possibly could be room for change and
(10:25):
hope at this time, and that that could mean a
change for the people that we serve and care about.
I did not believe. I did not I underestimated those
number of people that would discontinue supporting the Open Door Mission.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
If people are moved to support you during this and
any time, how do they go about doing so, Candace, Well.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
They can visit our website and at opendoormission dot org.
I encourage you to check out about us and educate
yourself on what the Open Door Mission provides, which is
forty programs for free that ninety cents as every donation
goes directly to guest services. And we actually are transparent
in our financials. We post our ninety ninety and our
(11:13):
audited financials on our website. We are a solid investment
and I wish that nonprofits were able to have the
funds that our government has to run programs. Our community
would totally different.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Scott. As you note here in this email, what we've
been doing isn't working, and you've got some hope here
and potentially a different way of dealing with this problem
that you and We've all seen unless you've got your
head buried in the sand, we've all seen this problem
get worse. Candice, I know you have to deal with
(11:48):
these symptoms all the time rather than trying to drill
down to the root cause that's going to come from
different sources. But you're there dealing on the streets with
these issues every single day. Hey, God, bless you and
thank you so much for what you're doing. And I
appreciate you joining us here this morning.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Again.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
The website is opendoor Mission dot org.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Right, thank you, Scotch, thank you Sheriff Hanson.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Thank you for all your hard work to help protect
vulnerable people in our community.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Open Door Mission CEO Candice Gregory here on news radio
eleven ten KFAB. That's Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson want
to talk to you here in just a couple of minutes,
not just about this issue, but a couple of other
things going on in our community, including the entertaining arrest
of a speed racer by a member of your department
(12:37):
this week, which was thankfully caught on video that was
posted on social media. So we'll get to all of
this with Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson in two minutes
Scott do ez well you NewsRadio eleven ten KFAB. Adam
emails in the wake of that conversation with Candas Gregory
via the Zonker's custom What's Inbox Scott atkfab dot com,
(12:59):
and he says, as far as Candace saying that she's
received a lot of negativity for not coming out and
demonizing President Trump, she points out here his executive order
ending crime and Disorder on America's streets marks a shift
and a problem that's gotten worse, homelessness and untreated mental
and drug addiction and all the rest of it here
(13:21):
in our communities. And she's getting a lot of people
saying I'll never donate to the Open Door Mission ever again.
Adam says, zero percent is how much less money the
Open Door Mission will get because of Candace's comments. Very
few of these individuals, I'll change a word there, donated
a dime anyway. They're just complaining and threatening not to
(13:44):
give anymore. They never gave in the first place. That's
the assessment from Adam. I suspect with most of them.
He's right. I know Candas probably has spoken and recognizes
some of the individuals who are true believers in the cause.
And when when President Trump does something and you don't
(14:05):
immediately come out and say this is the worst thing.
It's even worse than yesterday when she posted a response
to it and said, when I saw this executive order,
I felt a spark of something I hadn't seen in
a long time around public policy. Hope, not because I
believe any single policy will be perfect, but because someone
somewhere in the leadership finally seems willing to admit that
(14:28):
what we've been doing isn't working. That's from CEO Candas
Gregory of the Open Door Mission, Douglas Kunty Sheriff Aaron
Hanson here with us as well on eleven ten kfab
and I know that you agree with me and Candace.
What we've been doing isn't working. The problems getting worse.
What can law enforcement do about it? I got people
emailing me saying, what about this guy at one hundred
(14:51):
and this street and that street? What about this guy
out on West Maple living with his bike out there
all day and the people panhandling and just setting up
ten on the streets. What can law enforcement do?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Well, you know we've got some of the tools to
address it. But we need we need a lot more tools,
both statutorily and in terms of, you know, federal support.
So I got to tell you, regardless, take Trump out
of the equation. Okay, I know he's a hot topic.
Hard to do, but try to separate yourself from the
fact that this executive order came from President Trump. Let's
(15:24):
say you can't stand anything about Trump or what he
stands for, what he says. Look, a broken clock is
right twice a day, Okay, So think about what the
actual subject that he's talking about. So in this case,
I'm glad that the federal government, at least parts of it,
(15:45):
are focused on this issue here locally, because it's going
to require the focus of federal government, state government, nonprofits,
hospital groups, and local government county and city. County and
city government alone cannot solve this on its own. The
problem is too big, the problem is too complex. State
can't solve it on its own. It's going to require
(16:06):
everybody being a part of it. So what can we do. Well,
I got a call yesterday about someone a large homeless
encampment on county property. My CAT team deputies are going
down to day to deal with it. It's going to
be pretty easy. Why because state law specifically prohibits campments
on state, county and NRD property, It does not talk
(16:27):
about city property. So I do think we need a
clear public policy, either from local governments or state government
to say that to add city properties onto that list.
And the funny thing is when people say, well, you're
criminalizing homelessness. This is not even an offense that someone
can be booked for. There's zero bond, so at worst
(16:47):
it's a ticket. But what it would create is that
public policy that says this is not allowed, and why
should it not be allowed. Well, I've talked to more
business owners. I've spoken with more business owners here recently
that invested millions in housing housing developments here in Douglas County.
Their employees are scared because they are surrounded by homeless encampments,
(17:11):
some of which are inhabited by sex offenders. That's proven,
we've dealt with that. But then also the people that
come to buy to rent their apartments are turning away
and are specifically saying it's because of the homeless encampments.
Those some of those same business owners. I just found
out this morning that the homeless tent encampment dwellers are
(17:32):
actually removing man hole covers in order to use the
bathroom in manhole covers. Well, I guess that's better than
on the side of their business. But they're not replacing
the manhole covers. And so what's going to happen when
some kids walking home from school and falls into the manhole,
or someone's walking their dog, or a police officers is
in a footchase at two o'clock in the morning and
falls in. We have to have smaller public policy. These
(17:57):
tent encampments on public property should not be allowed in
my opinion, under any circumstance.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Well, I've talked about how if someone's out there on
the street with a gun to their head, and you know,
for theirs and everyone else's public safety, you've got to
deal with that. If someone's out on a day where
it's dangerously hot or dangerously cold, or you got cars
speeding by, and you know how bad the speeding cars are,
we'll get to that in a moment. Then that's someone
where whether it's it's those issues or the unchecked mental
(18:27):
health which leads to potential suicide, leads to addiction, leads
to the abuse, the trafficking and all the things that
you can be a victim of when you're out there
living on the streets. It's dangerous for that person not
to mention that. It's more than just that what you
see under a bridge or panhandling, or outside of the
sier of Francis House or whatever. It's also anytime you
(18:48):
go into the trees and the wooded areas around here,
you know, the places where we used to play when
we were kids, setting up for its, riding bikes, hanging
out in there. There are people living in there, and
so parents are like, I don't want my kids out
there plane. I mean, even if they go down to
the end of the street here and take a rite,
there's a guy living down there. He's got a bike
in a shopping cart and a sign and needs to
(19:08):
hang it out there. And I don't feel it's safe
in my community. We can't have people feel like that.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Well. And also it's the fire risk. I mean, we
see stories all the time these camps catching on fire.
I just saw one this morning, a brand new tent
encampment up under a bridge that's scorched with fire damage.
And I sent you a story yesterday in California. This
is really happening. Companies business their business insurance is being
canceled or their rates or skyrocketing if they're approximate to
(19:37):
homeless encampments because of the fire risk that's happening in
Douglas County right now. I was contacted by a business
owner who he's nervous he's going to get dropped by
his insurance company because they're asking him do you have
homeless encampments proximate to your business? And in fact he
does because he works near Saddle Creek and coming and
so he's like, what a my rate's gonna skyrocket or
(19:58):
are they gonna drop me completely? This is where we
need a smarter public policy safety net. We can do both.
We can protect those innocent people in businesses and have
a compassionate approach to helping these vulnerable people living in
these ten camments.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
That's Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson. We had on KFAB
News earlier this week one of your deputies, I believe
it was, was out driving unmarked just a personal vehicle
and observed aggressive speed street racing here in Omaha, which
is easy to find if you go out driving around
but he did something a little different that I couldn't do,
(20:33):
but he could do. Tell me about what happened there.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, yeah, obviously, people know when you leave your house
in Douglas County have a higher chance of losing your
life to a reckless negligent driver than you do to
a criminal. That's just a fact, and so Douglas County
Sheriff's Office has been very laser focused on trying to
reduce that reckless negligent driving behavior. We've heard anecdotally from
people across the community that they're hearing less of it
(20:58):
in these high speed areas, and that's good. But when
our deputies stumble across someone who is driving in a
reckless manner that's putting the life of the innocent motoring
public at risk, they're not only going to take action,
but they are going to arrest those individuals if it's
a crime, as opposed to it just a speeding citation,
but if they commit a driving crime, they're going to
(21:20):
be arrested, They're going to be booked into jail, their
vehicle is going to be impounded, not as a punitive measure,
but in order to stop that deadly behavior. We've actually
seen individuals that we've arrested for these driving crimes commit
these crimes over and over, and we're going to continue
to enforce these laws until those reckless, deadly drivers get
the message and change their behavior.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
He recorded arresting the guy showing up there, saying hey,
what were you doing out there? And the guy's like
nothing smart, Yeah right, Well, it's better when they just realize, like,
all right, I've been got.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And in that case, this driver in this Audi, the
deputy driving an unmarked car at one hundred and sixty
eighth in Maple and he saw behind him this AUDI
driving swerving in and out of lane's no turn signals,
high rate of speed, cut off the deputy at the intersection.
The deputy knew apparently he was going to stop this car.
(22:16):
He knew something else was going to happen, even got
on the radio advice dispatch, I'm going to be doing
a traffic stop at one hundred and sixty eighth in Maple.
No sooner did that light turn green. That Audi was
a speck. It was a red speck off in the distance,
and the deputy was already going forty nine miles an
hour to try to get through the intersection to try
to stop him. So, I don't know what's wrong with
(22:37):
some people today. I think they're losing their minds. They
think they're in a real life game of grand theft
auto on our public roadways, and it's unacceptable. We're not
going to let it happen.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Well, they'll keep doing it as long as they think
that no one's going to stop them. You've made it
your mission to stop impound cars when necessary. As Douglas
County Sheriff Aaron Hanson, it's the same thing related to homelessness.
It'll keep happening long as it's allowed, as long as
it's pacified, encouraged. In some instances, when President Trump issued
an executive order calling ending crime and disorder on America's
(23:10):
streets to give communities the tools and the backing to
end all of this, CEO Candice Gregory at the Open
Door Mission said, this gives me hope because she didn't
demonize something President Trump did. She's got people on the
political left demonizing her for that. If you're so inclined
to learn more about the Open Door Mission and maybe
volunteer your time or your money to that cause. Its
(23:32):
open Door Mission dot org. Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson,
Thank you very much for the time today.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Scott Voices mornings nine to eleven, Our
Speaker 2 (23:42):
News Radio eleven ten KFAB
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