July 12, 2025 • 27 mins
Episode Summary: Paul Ward visits Mesa in Ojai, California—a 10-acre citrus farm that’s home to an innovative community tackling youth homelessness. Guest Dan Parziale, co-founder of Mesa, explains how this transitional housing project supports vulnerable 18–24 year olds with holistic services, beautiful tiny homes, and a deep sense of community. Discover how Mesa is changing lives by replacing shelters with opportunity, healing, and hope.
⏱️ Timestamps:00:00 – Introduction Paul introduces Dan Parziale and the mission behind Mesa Farm.
00:30 – What is Mesa? Dan explains how Mesa began and what the 10-acre farm provides for its young adult residents.
01:41 – Who Mesa Serves A look at Mesa’s participants—many experiencing or at risk of homelessness—and how they are referred.
02:44 – A Spirit of Connection Why collaboration, beauty, and community are essential parts of Mesa’s model.
03:39 – It Takes a Village Dan shares how community members—from realtors to volunteers—play an active role in residents’ success.
04:33 – What’s Required of Residents Minimal mandatory activities, but plenty of engaging opportunities including filmmaking and natural building.
05:26 – Film, Farming & Pizza Ovens Hands-on learning in the arts and agriculture, from shooting short films to selling tangerines.
06:28 – Rethinking Housing Environments Why Mesa is beautiful by design—and how that impacts healing and outcomes.
07:35 – Early Transitions & Support Mesa’s first residents have already started moving out, with rental assistance for the next stage of life.
08:34 – Why Mesa Was Created Dan and co-founder Kyle Thompson wanted to flip the script on how we support at-risk youth.
09:58 – Breaking the Poverty Trap How Mesa’s design philosophy focuses on dignity, restoration, and upward mobility.
11:00 – How Mesa is Funded Mesa began with a state grant and continues through a mix of government and private support.
11:29 – Replicating the Model Mesa’s approach can—and should—be expanded to other communities facing youth homelessness.
12:20 – Meaning Behind the Name “Mesa” A table to gather at. A plateau to launch from.
13:03 – Dan’s Background From Ojai to LA to Haiti—Dan’s unique journey to nonprofit leadership.
14:30 – Preventing Lifelong Homelessness Mesa works upstream to catch youth before long-term homelessness becomes a cycle.
15:51 – The Financial & Human Cost Investing early in young people saves resources—and lives—down the line.
16:50 – A Smarter Approach to Homelessness Prevention, beauty, and opportunity drive lasting impact.
18:35 – Volunteering at Mesa Gardening, cooking, teaching art—Mesa thrives on community support.
19:29 – The Joy of This Work Dan reflects on the honor and hope that comes from working with young adults at a turning point.
20:35 – Remembering Who You Are Helping youth reconnect with their identity and potential.
21:20 – Inside the Tiny Homes Tour the beautifully furnished 270 sq ft homes with mountain views, art, and personalized music.
23:16 – Why Design & Dignity Matter Personalized homes help participants feel welcome, safe, and valued.
24:48 – Why Private Space Matters Tiny homes provide dignity and safety that communal shelters can’t.
25:09 – How to Get Involved Mesa is building a volunteer portal and welcomes people to share their skills and passions.
26:29 – Website & Social Media
- 🌐 www.mesafarm.org
- 📷 Instagram: @mesafarm
- 👍 Facebook: Mesa Farm
27:08 – Final Thoughts Dan shares why Mesa’s model is exciting, replicable, and ready for a broader movement.
📢 Related Episodes: One Vet at a Time: Inside the Vince Street Veterans House with Angel Echeverria Unveiling Humanity through Compassion, Hope and a Costume
👉Contact Paul Ward: homeandranch.com p. 805-479-5004 e. paul@homeandranchteam.com
📢 Thank You to Our Sponsor: Opus Escrow — making this episode possible.
📌 Subscribe to On the Road with Paul Ward for more stories of innovation, impact, and inspiration.
#MesaFarm #YouthHomelessness #OjaiCA #TinyHomes #CommunitySolutions #OnTheRoadWithPaulWard #DanParziale #SocialImpact #HomelessnessPrevention #VenturaCounty #NonprofitInnovation
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Hi friends. It's Paul Ward, andwelcome to another on the Road. Well,
homelessness is a topic that's gettinga lot of attention lately. Now,
how to solve the problem,that's a big question.
Our next guest seems tohave some of the answers,
and we're so glad to have them today.Dan Parziale, welcome to On the Road.
Yeah, appreciate it.
And we are at a new location inOjai, California called Mesa.
(00:29):
Mesa that you helped formulate.
So Mesa was founded in 2020 end of 2020.
We received funding in 2022to
purchase a 10 acre farmon the east end of Ojai.
In 2024, we welcomed ourfirst participants to
a transitional housingcommunity that's serving
(00:53):
18 to 24 year olds previously experiencinghomelessness in Ventura County.
And you built, what, 10 plus tiny homesin the middle of a citrus orchard?
Yeah, so we added 10 tiny homes.There was an existing farmhouse.
So currently we have 12 units
providing services to 13young adults with onsite
(01:17):
case management, onsiteclinical psychologist; all
holistic approach. We're lookingat everything from, you know,
mental health and wellness, jobtraining, school community building.
Yeah. You name it.
So these 18 to 24 year olds,
were they homeless or were they kindof on their way to being homeless or a
(01:41):
combination?
Yeah, I
would say maybe half wereliterally homeless. Experiencing homelessness, either,
you know, living in tent,car, or emergency shelter.
The other half maybe were athigh risk, meaning, you know,
within the next 30 days they were gonnabe on the street because they were aging
(02:02):
out of foster care because they werebeing exited from a juvenile justice
system.
Because a program that theywere a part of was ending
and they didn't have a place to go.
Did they apply to be, to live here,
or did you kind of reach out todifferent organizations to find them?
How does that work?
All the referrals come from Ventura Countyagencies that are members of what is
(02:23):
called the continuum of care.
So every county in the country has acontinuum of care that oversees all
homeless operations.
All these referrals were made by membersof that organization within Ventura
County.
And I read that you have a spiritof connection and collaboration.
That's kind of interesting.
I never really thought aboutthat for kind of the homeless.
(02:44):
Yeah. So I think, you know,
really trying to rethink theway that we approach this issue
beginning to end, right?So starting with you know,
the population itself, right? Trying tomove upstream, work with folks who are,
who are most likely to spend theirlife on and off the street. Okay,
(03:05):
let's intervene at this criticaljuncture of life, right?
So that's one kind of differentiator.
Another would be the amount of timewe have, we have up to 24 months. So
you know,
young adults who move to Mesa have up to24 months or until their 25th birthday
before they move on.Obviously, we're trying to,
(03:26):
to move as quickly as wecan, as is reasonable,
but it gives us a lot of time mm-hmm. To, to build a foundation.
Right. and you know,
another aspect of this is that this isa really, it's a really beautiful place.
It's a beautiful spot, right?And it's an inviting place,
and it's a space where we're bringingin community members just today, right?
(03:46):
We have 40 Keller WilliamsRealtors out here working.
Two weeks ago, we had 40 or 50 communitymembers that were here. You know,
the idea is, hey, we,
we love to talk about how ittakes a village to raise a child.
Mm-Hmm. Right?These are the kids, right?
These are the young adults that need acommunity to, to help create opportunity.
(04:09):
You know, we're not doing our job. Ifwe try to keep everything in house,
we should be bringing inthe skills and enthusiasm,
energy of our community membersto help bring, bring opportunity.
And they each have their owntiny home, right? That's right.
And then I would imagine there's certainactivities that they are encouraged to
participate in or requiredto participate in.
(04:30):
How does that professionalsthat come in and work with them?
Yeah. So, so very littlethat's required. You know,
required is,
is you're meeting with your case manageronce a week to update on the goals that
you're setting for yourself, right?We're not setting your goals for you.
What do you want? Right? Your life.
And then one house meeting a weekwhere we come together and update on
(04:51):
opportunities, et cetera.But today we have, you know,
Karen Aya filmmaker,
who's teaching about theart of cinema helped you
know, screenwriting, you know,script writing, et cetera. They're,
they're getting togethertoday to start filming.
And so participants who are interestedwent through a six week course where
(05:13):
they're learning about camera work,and script writing and lighting,
and directing and acting. And,
and now one of our participantswrote a script about a part of
his life, and they're gonna act it outand film it, right? And this afternoon,
they're meeting with localnatural builder, Sage Stoneman. Mm-Hmm.
They're using materials from hereon the farm to build a pizza oven.
(05:38):
And they've been doing thatfor the last maybe month or so.
So opportunities to getengaged, right? We are,
we are creating a space that feelsmore like a live work space mm-hmm
. Than it doesa, a shelter. You know,
participants are out picking pixietangerines and selling them to farm cart
that gets local organicproduce into the schools,
(06:00):
and they're getting paid directly byfarm cart to do that work. So, you know,
these, these things are happeningall the time. Interesting.
Yeah. Now it's an interestingconcept because, you know,
you are in a beautiful location.
You're not in some kind of high risehomeless encampment where everybody's just
kind of Yeah. Shuffled inand forgotten. You're Yeah.
Rehabilitating these folks and,
(06:20):
and offering them opportunitiesthat they would otherwise not have.
Have you graduated your first,you know, class yet, so to speak?
Yeah. I think that for long enough, we,
we set up environments to servepeople who are low income, struggling,
homeless, et cetera. They're in theworst parts of town mm-hmm.
Right? With the freeway runningthrough their front yard.
(06:42):
No schools or rough schools,no supermarkets, you know,
the, the jail, the Right. Right.
And we expect people to do wellin that environment. That's nuts.
That, that, that doesn't make any, anysense a failure. Right? Yeah. You know,
my, my take on all this is right,
we should be building themost beautiful spaces we can.
(07:02):
We should be building environmentsthat anyone would want to live in where
everyone can get, come on site andgo, well, I could, I could live here.
I would wanna live here. It's beautiful.It's peaceful, it's rejuvenating.
Right? Right. I think we're,
we're most likely to see positiveresults if we're putting in the right
ingredients. And so I think we've gota lot to learn from that approach.
(07:24):
And I would argue for that,you know, across the board.
So if you had a, a graduating classyet, I mean, you've started in 2023,
have have folks moved off yet somekind of working in the real world.
You've had three folks move offfor various reasons. You know,
we're working with some young adultsthat have been in the system their whole
life. Mm. Right. Either thefoster system or, or whatever.
(07:48):
And so I think there are times when
they see an opportunity to goand move into their own place,
that they're gonna jump on it.
It's our job to try and help motivateto make that decision when the right
thing comes along. But, you know,
these are adults that are gonnamake their own choices too. Right.
(08:10):
we do provide rental assistanceto help with that transition and
can continue to assist for up to ayear after they've moved off. So we're,
you know, still working with those folks.
How did Mesa come to be?I mean, it's, it's such a,
I don't wanna say it's a unique concept,but then it kind of is Yeah, yeah.
A beautiful spot, you know, 10 tinyhomes in a citrus orchard and Yeah.
(08:33):
You know, lovely Ojai. Yeah.
Definitely. Elements of it that arepretty unique. Mm-Hmm.
I grew up here, grew up here inOjai lived in LA for 15 years or so.
Spent the last seven years workingwith LA Family Housing really large
homeless services, nonprofit inla. When I moved back to Ojai, you,
the motivation was to keeppeople from becoming homeless
(08:56):
to begin with mm-hmm. Right?
How do we move upstreamand intervene early
enough where we have a lot of optionsfor intervention mm-hmm.
Right. and so Kyle Thompson,co-founder of Mesa,
and I built out thisvision with an idea of kind
of
(09:18):
upsetting maybe the,
the current approach and reallytrying to invest in prevention mm-hmm
.
And to create a space that's unbelievablybeautiful mm-hmm. Right.
And inviting and inclusive, and has gotarms wide open. Mm-Hmm.
Right. I think that,
that for a long time we'vetaken the folks in our
(09:42):
communities that needthe most help, and they,
we build affordable housing, for example,
in in the roughest parts of ourcommunities, you know, near the freeway,
you know, without grocery stores or, youknow, near the prison or, or whatever.
Right.
And then we're confused as to why peoplehave a hard time pulling themselves
(10:03):
outta poverty. Mm-Hmm.You know, we see it in our hospitals.
We don't feed people inour hospitals good food.
And then we wonder why peopledon't recover as quickly as they might otherwise.
So, you know, we're flippingthat on its head. Right.
How do we create spaces that areincredibly inviting restorative,
peaceful these tiny homes are,
are gorgeous nice furniture,you know, beautiful spaces.
(10:28):
We're on a, an incredible farm on theeast end of Ojai with a, you know,
180 degree view of the mountains.
It's an incredible place to be,
and I think that it gives ourparticipants the best opportunity to
heal mm-hmm. And launch forthe rest of their lives. Right.
(10:49):
When you created the visionwith your, with your partner,
what was kinda the next step? Didyou, how did you get the funding?
Is it government funding? Isit, is it grants? Where did the,
where did the funds come from?
Yeah, so we were founded in 2020.
We started working on a statewidegrant called Home Key in
2021 in collaboration with VenturaCounty. Mm-Hmm.
(11:12):
That was roughly $6.5 millionfrom the state and county.
And that allowed us topurchase the property.
Currently our budget is split,
kind of competitive governmentgrants and private philanthropy.
And I imagine that this modelcould be replicated in other.
Places. Absolutely. Yeah.
We're looking at propertiesright now around Ventura County.
(11:33):
Mm-Hmm. You know,
our goal is to end youth homelessnessmm-hmm. Right?
So we're not gonna do that with12 units. We've got, you know,
somewhere in the three to 400 young adultswho are experiencing homelessness in
Ventura County rightnow. We need more units.
So that's our goal. And we areabsolutely looking to expand.
We don't need a 10 acre farm todo this work. I think, you know,
(11:57):
Mesa is more of an, an approachthan it is a specific place.
And so we can replicate this anywhere,and we can partner mm-hmm.
Right.
We can work with other nonprofits thathave a similar vision or mission and,
and partner with themto make it happen too.
How did you think of the nameMesa? Is it kind of up on a,
(12:18):
up on a plateau looking outta the view?
Yeah. Yeah. What, what, what wasthat? So there are kind of two,
two visions, right? So one isMesa table in Spanish, right?
So creating a space whereeveryone has a seat,
where you can come to getnourishment and build community
where you can bring stuff to share,whether that's food, drink, or just,
(12:43):
you know, your yourself. And thenthe other idea is right, this mesa,
this plateau, this safe,
stable place to look out atyour future and plan for,
for where you're headed.
And Dan, what's your, what's yourbackground? You said you grew up in Ohio,
and then you went to, wentto the belly of the beast.
You went to LA for a while anddecided to come back home. Yeah.
(13:03):
So went to Notre Damefor my undergrad and then
came back to LA and did a varietyof things. So I was, I taught,
I was a teacher, a high school teacher.
I did organizing work withthe United Farm Workers.
I, I started law school,
then didn't finish law schooldid some immigration work,
(13:24):
and then worked for asmall nonprofit called Aid,
still required doing internationalredevelopment work, mostly in Haiti.
At that time,
I went back to Notre Dame and got mymaster's in nonprofit administration.
And that's when I transitionedinto homeless services.
How do you prevent peoplefrom becoming homeless?
(13:45):
So, good question. And I thinkthere's a little bit of maybe
there could be some confusion becausea lot of the participants that we're
working with we're experiencinghomelessness, right?
So when we're talking aboutpreventing homelessness,
we're talking about preventingchronic long-term homelessness mm-hmm
.
So we're identifying youngfolks who are at high
(14:07):
risk because they're comingout of a system where we,
the data would showthat there's high risk.
So kids coming out of the foster system,coming out of the justice system,
for example,
number one predictor of homelessnessis housing insecurity as a child.
Interesting. So we canlook at young adults who,
whose families experiencedhomelessness or housing instability,
(14:28):
moved around a ton as a kid.
Living in the car, then maybe havean apartment for a little while.
Yep. Doubling up withother families. You know,
maybe they were in a homeless shelterfor a little while mm-hmm.
So, so that's, that'sreally where our target is.
And you know, like I said,
Mesa is mostly serving kids who wereliterally homeless prior to moving into
(14:51):
Mesa. So, give a quick example. Wehave a young man who's, you know,
living at Mesa right now.
He was homeless on the street for twoand a half years prior to moving here,
living in a tent.
So here's a young man who was very likelyto spend the rest of his life on the
street in some capacity without a majorintervention. Mm-Hmm.
(15:13):
You know, within just a handful of months,
he was seeing a therapist forthe first time in his life,
had received a mental health diagnosisand was receiving medication for that.
He had gotten a job, he was lookingat enrolling in school. Right.
So, relatively quickly,
seeing massive changes in this guy's life.
(15:35):
I, I,
I would go almost as far as to say thatif we had waited five years or 10 years,
right? Where he was so sick, right.
That he was being prioritizedfor something like permanent supportive housing,
it would've been over, right?
And no chance of rehabilitation.
It would've been very difficult.
It would've taken a long timeand taken a ton of resources.
(15:57):
Right now we're spending, let's say,
50 to $70,000 per year perperson on the street. Okay?
That's emergency food,medicine, police, sanitation,
et cetera. Right? We're spendingabout that amount of money here,
providing them with this, right?
So we're gonna spend themoney one way or the other.
(16:18):
Are we gonna put the work in to preventlong-term homelessness and provide an
opportunity for a kid to dream aboutwhat kind of life they wanna live?
Or are we gonna keep someone alive onthe street and then ultimately intervene
with an incredibly expensive
housing option and and lose theopportunity to live the life that
(16:38):
they may have otherwiseimagined for themselves? The.
Ho homeless problem in general is justkind of massive, isn't it? I mean,
you're, you're kind of, if you get'em young Yeah, right. You can.
Look, I mean, we've, we know that earlyintervention and prevention works.
We know that in education, weknow that in healthcare,.
(16:59):
So why wouldn't thatwork in social services?
Why wouldn't that work inhomelessness? You know,
I think that there's a politicalreason for it. It's challenging, right?
When we see people on the street,that's where we wanna put our energy.
What we've seen is that if wedon't slow down the inflow,
we cannot house people fast enough.And it's incredibly expensive.
(17:19):
And so we've gotta be doing both.
We must be investing more ofour total pot in prevention.
Makes perfect sense.
Yeah. And I think, you know, ultimatelytoo, you know, if I, if I asked you to,
you know, give me five words to describehomelessness, right? It's scary,
it's divisive, it's expensiveit's confusing, right?
(17:40):
It divides communities intothose that are, you know,
maybe a nimby versus saying like,no, like, we've gotta support our,
our neighbors, right? Our approachis the opposite of that, right?
It's exciting, it's new, it'sbeautiful, it's engaging,
it's community building. We,
we had basically nopushback on this project,
(18:04):
right? We worked really hard toget out there and meet with folks.
And I think now the job is thatwe have to fulfill on that promise
and do good work, obviously, you know,
I think that this is the kind of workthat a lot of people can get behind mm-hmm
.
And you've got different organizationscoming to volunteer today.
You had 40 realtors,gardening, and, you know,
(18:26):
weeding and mulching and otherorganizations come periodically.
And, and there's ways others cansupport too, right? Absolutely.
Ways folks can support mea.
Yeah. We've gotten folks that areplugging in all over the place.
They're gardening, they'recooking, they're doing art classes.
You know, this is, this is notsomething that we can do alone,
(18:48):
nor should we mm-hmm.It takes a community. And
and so, you know, and I thinkthat one of the things that I've,
I've talked about too is that I,
I guarantee that if youcome to Mesa and volunteer,
you're gonna improve the livesof the people who live here.
And your life is gonna get better too.Like, this is good for everybody. Right.
(19:11):
so, you know, I think we're ontosomething. Mm-Hmm.
I'm really excited about it. I,
I I feel honored to tell you the truth,
that we have an opportunityto do this. You know,
one of the things we talk about withour team all the time is that, you know,
if we do a good job, then we get thechance to do this again. Right? Right.
And what a beautiful thing. AndI think that this kind of work is
(19:37):
it's not for the faint of heart,but it's also fun. And I think,
you know, if you're not enjoying it,then go do something else. Right?
We get one shot at this life,so make the most of it. And,
and I think that by doing this work too,
we remind each other ofwhat is so good in our,
in our communities. Mm-Hmm. Right? I mean, I,
(20:00):
you work with the youngadults who live here,
and you're reminded about the hope ofbeing young and having your whole world in
front of you. Right.
And I think that that's sucha joy to sit with some of our
participants and, and say, honestly,what do you want? Mm-Hmm.
What do you want with your life?
And how can we help to support you ingiving you opportunity to explore that?
(20:23):
Well, and you're almost creating hopewhere maybe hope was almost lost.
Uhhuh., right?Because somebody was homeless,
or they're on the verge of beinghomeless, and now you're, you know,
making a pizza of it. Yeah. With.
Yeah. These young people.
One of our so our house manager who liveson site Sheila Pala is a mental health
specialist mental health professional.
(20:44):
She had a necklace on the other day,and it said, become who you are.
Right? So there's a,
there's a little bit of just rememberingmm-hmm. You know,
who we all were as kids, and,you know, our core you know,
personality desires, you know,the things that excite us,
the things that we wanna spendour time doing. I think, you know,
(21:08):
that's our job.
Our job here is to help theseyoung folks remember who they are
and then put the opportunitiesin front of them that allow,
allow them to explore that. So.
Tell us about the, the tinyhomes. They're, they're beautiful.
And you said the furniture is.
Nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.No, they're incredible spaces.
(21:28):
They're small. Mm-Hmm.270 square feet with a living room,
kitchen, bathroom,lofted, bedroom you know,
really thoughtfully designed.So they're in kind of a big arc,
the courtyard in between. And the waythat the arc is structured, you know,
you have a view of the mountains fromevery bedroom. Mm-Hmm.
(21:49):
When you move into the home, you know,
desk and couch and fridge andfully furnished, you know,
bedroom and stocked kitchen,
everything that's movable within theunit Right. Is yours to keep. Right.
So you can use that to furnish yourfirst apartment. Oh, interesting.
Which I think, you know, builds a senseof ownership and pride and, and I,
(22:10):
I think is really important.But it goes beyond that, right?
We have art from local artists that,
that we set up in kind of a mock artgallery that you can walk through and
select art for your home. We havehandmade pottery that's on the shelves.
We have, you know, there's Bluetoothspeakers and our case manager
(22:32):
Maritza say hi, puts out, ask them abunch of questions before they move in.
One of them is, you know, whatkind music are you listening to?
Build a Spotify playlist and have Wow.
Have their music playing when they'removing into their home. You know,
there's a welcome basket put together bylocal community members with, you know,
gift cards to local restaurantsand shops and stuff,
just to help 'em get out and explorethe community with a handwritten letter
(22:55):
that says, you know, not justlike, welcome to your new home,
but we're excited to have you here.That's awesome. You know, and like,
I really appreciate that. What adifference that makes. That's huge.
When you've been moving around yourwhole life and you've never really had a
home and you've ne and you've beenmaybe seen as a problem or, or whatever,
to come into a space where people arereally excited to have you. Like what,
(23:17):
what a difference thatmakes. So, you know, the,
the tiny homes themselves are prettyincredible. I mean, they were affordable.
They were built offsite 10homes built in about six weeks.
And so, you know, a lot of advantagesto, to doing it that way. You know,
there are challenges as well, but I thinkoverall we feel really good about it,
(23:40):
especially for this population to notbe in a congregate living setting.
So congregate living, imagining bunkbed, bunch of bunk beds in a single room,
or Right. You know, let's say eight bunkbeds in a four bedroom house. Right.
Or a big, you know, is a much differentenvironment and one that's safe. Right?
We're looking at, you know, 20%, 10, 15,
(24:02):
20% of our young adultsidentify LGBTQ plus, right.
Who are experiencing homelessness. Sofor that kid, for that young person,
young adult, it's not safenecessarily mm-hmm.
To be in a congregateliving setting. Right.
So to have a home where you can walkin and close the door and have your own
(24:23):
space is the difference between a youngperson taking advantage of a resource
that's being offered and choosingnot to mm-hmm.
And sleeping in their car andgetting worse. Interesting. Right.
So what we know for a fact is thatyoung adults don't always take advantage
of the resources that are being offeredbecause they're not built for them.
(24:43):
Interesting.
we really tried to take that intoaccount when we designed this space.
And then when you've personalized itwith the music and the pottery and
the pictures on the wall,they just feel so welcome.
Yeah. And it's their home. So,you know, put, put art out, right?
Put That's all right. Put holes in thewall. We'll fix it when you move out.
(25:03):
We want you to feel athome. And so, you know,
a lot of effort putinto making that happen.
How can folks get more involved?
Yeah. So in addition to jumpingon our website and, you know,
plugging in your email and, and all that
we're building out a volunteer portalon our website where you can go on,
(25:23):
select all the different kinds of thingsyou're interested in and then we'll
reach out to you when those kinds ofvolunteer opportunities arise. You know?
So I think one of ourjobs is to help someone
find something that lightsthem up, right? So, you know,
we've got a bunch of young folks here.Some of them have incredible passions,
(25:43):
and others are trying tofigure that out, right? So,
so one of the things that I talk a lotabout with folks who say, like, you know,
I wanna get involved. What can I do?Well, what, what are you passionate about?
You know, what are you excitedabout? Come share that, you know,
whether that's fishing or hiking or bikingor art or gardening or playing music
or whatever mm-hmm. You know, those,
(26:04):
those kinds of humanconnections make a massive
difference. And I,
I really believe that ifthe participants at Mesa
discover something that lights them up,
it's gonna give them a whole lotmore you know, to pursue. Sure.
And that portal folkscould find on the Mesa.
(26:25):
Website. That's right.
What is the website and theother ways that folks can find.
Yeah, so website is www.mesafarm.org.
Instagram is at Mesa Farm Facebook Mesa
Farm. You know, would, would love for,
for anyone and everyone tofollow us reach out to us.
(26:49):
You know, if you're interestedin supporting, we, we have a,
a community of supportersaround the country, right?
This is not limited to Ventura County.
We are trying to have an influence onthe way that this is work is being done
everywhere. And so weneed your help. And we,
we welcome you and hopeyou join the family. Well.
Dan Ziel, thank you so muchfor being our guest on.
(27:10):
The road. Yeah, absolutely. You reallyMesa Farm. Yeah. Thanks so much.
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.Thanks. Thanks. And we wanna.
Thank you for tuning in to this onthe road. We wanna thank our sponsor,
Opus Escrow, and be sure to tunein next time for On the Road.
Hi friends. It's Paul Ward, andwelcome to another on the Road. Well,
homelessness is a topic that's gettinga lot of attention lately. Now,
how to solve the problem,that's a big question.
Our next guest seems tohave some of the answers,
and we're so glad to have them today.Dan Parziale, welcome to On the Road.
Yeah, appreciate it.
And we are at a new location inOjai, California called Mesa.
(00:29):
Mesa that you helped formulate.
So Mesa was founded in 2020 end of 2020.
We received funding in 2022to
purchase a 10 acre farmon the east end of Ojai.
In 2024, we welcomed ourfirst participants to
a transitional housingcommunity that's serving
(00:53):
18 to 24 year olds previously experiencinghomelessness in Ventura County.
And you built, what, 10 plus tiny homesin the middle of a citrus orchard?
Yeah, so we added 10 tiny homes.There was an existing farmhouse.
So currently we have 12 units
providing services to 13young adults with onsite
(01:17):
case management, onsiteclinical psychologist; all
holistic approach. We're lookingat everything from, you know,
mental health and wellness, jobtraining, school community building.
Yeah. You name it.
So these 18 to 24 year olds,
were they homeless or were they kindof on their way to being homeless or a
(01:41):
combination?
Yeah, I
would say maybe half wereliterally homeless. Experiencing homelessness, either,
you know, living in tent,car, or emergency shelter.
The other half maybe were athigh risk, meaning, you know,
within the next 30 days they were gonnabe on the street because they were aging
(02:02):
out of foster care because they werebeing exited from a juvenile justice
system.
Because a program that theywere a part of was ending
and they didn't have a place to go.
Did they apply to be, to live here,
or did you kind of reach out todifferent organizations to find them?
How does that work?
All the referrals come from Ventura Countyagencies that are members of what is
(02:23):
called the continuum of care.
So every county in the country has acontinuum of care that oversees all
homeless operations.
All these referrals were made by membersof that organization within Ventura
County.
And I read that you have a spiritof connection and collaboration.
That's kind of interesting.
I never really thought aboutthat for kind of the homeless.
(02:44):
Yeah. So I think, you know,
really trying to rethink theway that we approach this issue
beginning to end, right?So starting with you know,
the population itself, right? Trying tomove upstream, work with folks who are,
who are most likely to spend theirlife on and off the street. Okay,
(03:05):
let's intervene at this criticaljuncture of life, right?
So that's one kind of differentiator.
Another would be the amount of timewe have, we have up to 24 months. So
you know,
young adults who move to Mesa have up to24 months or until their 25th birthday
before they move on.Obviously, we're trying to,
(03:26):
to move as quickly as wecan, as is reasonable,
but it gives us a lot of time mm-hmm
Right. and you know,
another aspect of this is that this isa really, it's a really beautiful place.
It's a beautiful spot, right?And it's an inviting place,
and it's a space where we're bringingin community members just today, right?
(03:46):
We have 40 Keller WilliamsRealtors out here working.
Two weeks ago, we had 40 or 50 communitymembers that were here. You know,
the idea is, hey, we,
we love to talk about how ittakes a village to raise a child.
Mm-Hmm
These are the young adults that need acommunity to, to help create opportunity.
(04:09):
You know, we're not doing our job. Ifwe try to keep everything in house,
we should be bringing inthe skills and enthusiasm,
energy of our community membersto help bring, bring opportunity.
And they each have their owntiny home, right? That's right.
And then I would imagine there's certainactivities that they are encouraged to
participate in or requiredto participate in.
(04:30):
How does that professionalsthat come in and work with them?
Yeah. So, so very littlethat's required. You know,
required is,
is you're meeting with your case manageronce a week to update on the goals that
you're setting for yourself, right?We're not setting your goals for you.
What do you want? Right? Your life.
And then one house meeting a weekwhere we come together and update on
(04:51):
opportunities, et cetera.But today we have, you know,
Karen Aya filmmaker,
who's teaching about theart of cinema helped you
know, screenwriting, you know,script writing, et cetera. They're,
they're getting togethertoday to start filming.
And so participants who are interestedwent through a six week course where
(05:13):
they're learning about camera work,and script writing and lighting,
and directing and acting. And,
and now one of our participantswrote a script about a part of
his life, and they're gonna act it outand film it, right? And this afternoon,
they're meeting with localnatural builder, Sage Stoneman. Mm-Hmm
They're using materials from hereon the farm to build a pizza oven.
(05:38):
And they've been doing thatfor the last maybe month or so.
So opportunities to getengaged, right? We are,
we are creating a space that feelsmore like a live work space mm-hmm
participants are out picking pixietangerines and selling them to farm cart
that gets local organicproduce into the schools,
(06:00):
and they're getting paid directly byfarm cart to do that work. So, you know,
these, these things are happeningall the time. Interesting.
Yeah. Now it's an interestingconcept because, you know,
you are in a beautiful location.
You're not in some kind of high risehomeless encampment where everybody's just
kind of Yeah. Shuffled inand forgotten. You're Yeah.
Rehabilitating these folks and,
(06:20):
and offering them opportunitiesthat they would otherwise not have.
Have you graduated your first,you know, class yet, so to speak?
Yeah. I think that for long enough, we,
we set up environments to servepeople who are low income, struggling,
homeless, et cetera. They're in theworst parts of town mm-hmm
Right? With the freeway runningthrough their front yard.
(06:42):
No schools or rough schools,no supermarkets, you know,
the, the jail, the Right. Right.
And we expect people to do wellin that environment. That's nuts.
That, that, that doesn't make any, anysense a failure. Right? Yeah. You know,
my, my take on all this is right,
we should be building themost beautiful spaces we can.
(07:02):
We should be building environmentsthat anyone would want to live in where
everyone can get, come on site andgo, well, I could, I could live here.
I would wanna live here. It's beautiful.It's peaceful, it's rejuvenating.
Right? Right. I think we're,
we're most likely to see positiveresults if we're putting in the right
ingredients. And so I think we've gota lot to learn from that approach.
(07:24):
And I would argue for that,you know, across the board.
So if you had a, a graduating classyet, I mean, you've started in 2023,
have have folks moved off yet somekind of working in the real world.
You've had three folks move offfor various reasons. You know,
we're working with some young adultsthat have been in the system their whole
life. Mm. Right. Either thefoster system or, or whatever.
(07:48):
And so I think there are times when
they see an opportunity to goand move into their own place,
that they're gonna jump on it.
It's our job to try and help motivateto make that decision when the right
thing comes along. But, you know,
these are adults that are gonnamake their own choices too. Right.
(08:10):
we do provide rental assistanceto help with that transition and
can continue to assist for up to ayear after they've moved off. So we're,
you know, still working with those folks.
How did Mesa come to be?I mean, it's, it's such a,
I don't wanna say it's a unique concept,but then it kind of is Yeah, yeah.
A beautiful spot, you know, 10 tinyhomes in a citrus orchard and Yeah.
(08:33):
You know, lovely Ojai. Yeah.
Definitely. Elements of it that arepretty unique. Mm-Hmm
I grew up here, grew up here inOjai lived in LA for 15 years or so.
Spent the last seven years workingwith LA Family Housing really large
homeless services, nonprofit inla. When I moved back to Ojai, you,
the motivation was to keeppeople from becoming homeless
(08:56):
to begin with mm-hmm
How do we move upstreamand intervene early
enough where we have a lot of optionsfor intervention mm-hmm
Right. and so Kyle Thompson,co-founder of Mesa,
and I built out thisvision with an idea of kind
of
(09:18):
upsetting maybe the,
the current approach and reallytrying to invest in prevention mm-hmm
And to create a space that's unbelievablybeautiful mm-hmm
And inviting and inclusive, and has gotarms wide open. Mm-Hmm
Right. I think that,
that for a long time we'vetaken the folks in our
(09:42):
communities that needthe most help, and they,
we build affordable housing, for example,
in in the roughest parts of ourcommunities, you know, near the freeway,
you know, without grocery stores or, youknow, near the prison or, or whatever.
Right.
And then we're confused as to why peoplehave a hard time pulling themselves
(10:03):
outta poverty. Mm-Hmm
We don't feed people inour hospitals good food.
And then we wonder why peopledon't recover as quickly as they might otherwise.
So, you know, we're flippingthat on its head. Right.
How do we create spaces that areincredibly inviting restorative,
peaceful these tiny homes are,
are gorgeous nice furniture,you know, beautiful spaces.
(10:28):
We're on a, an incredible farm on theeast end of Ojai with a, you know,
180 degree view of the mountains.
It's an incredible place to be,
and I think that it gives ourparticipants the best opportunity to
heal mm-hmm. And launch forthe rest of their lives. Right.
(10:49):
When you created the visionwith your, with your partner,
what was kinda the next step? Didyou, how did you get the funding?
Is it government funding? Isit, is it grants? Where did the,
where did the funds come from?
Yeah, so we were founded in 2020.
We started working on a statewidegrant called Home Key in
2021 in collaboration with VenturaCounty. Mm-Hmm
(11:12):
That was roughly $6.5 millionfrom the state and county.
And that allowed us topurchase the property.
Currently our budget is split,
kind of competitive governmentgrants and private philanthropy.
And I imagine that this modelcould be replicated in other.
Places. Absolutely. Yeah.
We're looking at propertiesright now around Ventura County.
(11:33):
Mm-Hmm
our goal is to end youth homelessnessmm-hmm
So we're not gonna do that with12 units. We've got, you know,
somewhere in the three to 400 young adultswho are experiencing homelessness in
Ventura County rightnow. We need more units.
So that's our goal. And we areabsolutely looking to expand.
We don't need a 10 acre farm todo this work. I think, you know,
(11:57):
Mesa is more of an, an approachthan it is a specific place.
And so we can replicate this anywhere,and we can partner mm-hmm
Right.
We can work with other nonprofits thathave a similar vision or mission and,
and partner with themto make it happen too.
How did you think of the nameMesa? Is it kind of up on a,
(12:18):
up on a plateau looking outta the view?
Yeah. Yeah. What, what, what wasthat? So there are kind of two,
two visions, right? So one isMesa table in Spanish, right?
So creating a space whereeveryone has a seat,
where you can come to getnourishment and build community
where you can bring stuff to share,whether that's food, drink, or just,
(12:43):
you know, your yourself. And thenthe other idea is right, this mesa,
this plateau, this safe,
stable place to look out atyour future and plan for,
for where you're headed.
And Dan, what's your, what's yourbackground? You said you grew up in Ohio,
and then you went to, wentto the belly of the beast.
You went to LA for a while anddecided to come back home. Yeah.
(13:03):
So went to Notre Damefor my undergrad and then
came back to LA and did a varietyof things. So I was, I taught,
I was a teacher, a high school teacher.
I did organizing work withthe United Farm Workers.
I, I started law school,
then didn't finish law schooldid some immigration work,
(13:24):
and then worked for asmall nonprofit called Aid,
still required doing internationalredevelopment work, mostly in Haiti.
At that time,
I went back to Notre Dame and got mymaster's in nonprofit administration.
And that's when I transitionedinto homeless services.
How do you prevent peoplefrom becoming homeless?
(13:45):
So, good question. And I thinkthere's a little bit of maybe
there could be some confusion becausea lot of the participants that we're
working with we're experiencinghomelessness, right?
So when we're talking aboutpreventing homelessness,
we're talking about preventingchronic long-term homelessness mm-hmm
So we're identifying youngfolks who are at high
(14:07):
risk because they're comingout of a system where we,
the data would showthat there's high risk.
So kids coming out of the foster system,coming out of the justice system,
for example,
number one predictor of homelessnessis housing insecurity as a child.
Interesting. So we canlook at young adults who,
whose families experiencedhomelessness or housing instability,
(14:28):
moved around a ton as a kid.
Living in the car, then maybe havean apartment for a little while.
Yep. Doubling up withother families. You know,
maybe they were in a homeless shelterfor a little while mm-hmm
So, so that's, that'sreally where our target is.
And you know, like I said,
Mesa is mostly serving kids who wereliterally homeless prior to moving into
(14:51):
Mesa. So, give a quick example. Wehave a young man who's, you know,
living at Mesa right now.
He was homeless on the street for twoand a half years prior to moving here,
living in a tent.
So here's a young man who was very likelyto spend the rest of his life on the
street in some capacity without a majorintervention. Mm-Hmm
(15:13):
You know, within just a handful of months,
he was seeing a therapist forthe first time in his life,
had received a mental health diagnosisand was receiving medication for that.
He had gotten a job, he was lookingat enrolling in school. Right.
So, relatively quickly,
seeing massive changes in this guy's life.
(15:35):
I, I,
I would go almost as far as to say thatif we had waited five years or 10 years,
right? Where he was so sick, right.
That he was being prioritizedfor something like permanent supportive housing,
it would've been over, right?
And no chance of rehabilitation.
It would've been very difficult.
It would've taken a long timeand taken a ton of resources.
(15:57):
Right now we're spending, let's say,
50 to $70,000 per year perperson on the street. Okay?
That's emergency food,medicine, police, sanitation,
et cetera. Right? We're spendingabout that amount of money here,
providing them with this, right?
So we're gonna spend themoney one way or the other.
(16:18):
Are we gonna put the work in to preventlong-term homelessness and provide an
opportunity for a kid to dream aboutwhat kind of life they wanna live?
Or are we gonna keep someone alive onthe street and then ultimately intervene
with an incredibly expensive
housing option and and lose theopportunity to live the life that
(16:38):
they may have otherwiseimagined for themselves? The.
Ho homeless problem in general is justkind of massive, isn't it? I mean,
you're, you're kind of, if you get'em young Yeah, right. You can.
Look, I mean, we've, we know that earlyintervention and prevention works.
We know that in education, weknow that in healthcare,
(16:59):
So why wouldn't thatwork in social services?
Why wouldn't that work inhomelessness? You know,
I think that there's a politicalreason for it. It's challenging, right?
When we see people on the street,that's where we wanna put our energy.
What we've seen is that if wedon't slow down the inflow,
we cannot house people fast enough.And it's incredibly expensive.
(17:19):
And so we've gotta be doing both.
We must be investing more ofour total pot in prevention.
Makes perfect sense.
Yeah. And I think, you know, ultimatelytoo, you know, if I, if I asked you to,
you know, give me five words to describehomelessness, right? It's scary,
it's divisive, it's expensiveit's confusing, right?
(17:40):
It divides communities intothose that are, you know,
maybe a nimby versus saying like,no, like, we've gotta support our,
our neighbors, right? Our approachis the opposite of that, right?
It's exciting, it's new, it'sbeautiful, it's engaging,
it's community building. We,
we had basically nopushback on this project,
(18:04):
right? We worked really hard toget out there and meet with folks.
And I think now the job is thatwe have to fulfill on that promise
and do good work, obviously, you know,
I think that this is the kind of workthat a lot of people can get behind mm-hmm
And you've got different organizationscoming to volunteer today.
You had 40 realtors,gardening, and, you know,
(18:26):
weeding and mulching and otherorganizations come periodically.
And, and there's ways others cansupport too, right? Absolutely.
Ways folks can support mea.
Yeah. We've gotten folks that areplugging in all over the place.
They're gardening, they'recooking, they're doing art classes.
You know, this is, this is notsomething that we can do alone,
(18:48):
nor should we mm-hmm
and so, you know, and I thinkthat one of the things that I've,
I've talked about too is that I,
I guarantee that if youcome to Mesa and volunteer,
you're gonna improve the livesof the people who live here.
And your life is gonna get better too.Like, this is good for everybody. Right.
(19:11):
so, you know, I think we're ontosomething. Mm-Hmm
I'm really excited about it. I,
I I feel honored to tell you the truth,
that we have an opportunityto do this. You know,
one of the things we talk about withour team all the time is that, you know,
if we do a good job, then we get thechance to do this again. Right? Right.
And what a beautiful thing. AndI think that this kind of work is
(19:37):
it's not for the faint of heart,but it's also fun. And I think,
you know, if you're not enjoying it,then go do something else. Right?
We get one shot at this life,so make the most of it. And,
and I think that by doing this work too,
we remind each other ofwhat is so good in our,
in our communities. Mm-Hmm
(20:00):
you work with the youngadults who live here,
and you're reminded about the hope ofbeing young and having your whole world in
front of you. Right.
And I think that that's sucha joy to sit with some of our
participants and, and say, honestly,what do you want? Mm-Hmm
What do you want with your life?
And how can we help to support you ingiving you opportunity to explore that?
(20:23):
Well, and you're almost creating hopewhere maybe hope was almost lost.
Uhhuh.
or they're on the verge of beinghomeless, and now you're, you know,
making a pizza of it. Yeah. With.
Yeah. These young people.
One of our so our house manager who liveson site Sheila Pala is a mental health
specialist mental health professional.
(20:44):
She had a necklace on the other day,and it said, become who you are.
Right? So there's a,
there's a little bit of just rememberingmm-hmm
who we all were as kids, and,you know, our core you know,
personality desires, you know,the things that excite us,
the things that we wanna spendour time doing. I think, you know,
(21:08):
that's our job.
Our job here is to help theseyoung folks remember who they are
and then put the opportunitiesin front of them that allow,
allow them to explore that. So.
Tell us about the, the tinyhomes. They're, they're beautiful.
And you said the furniture is.
Nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.No, they're incredible spaces.
(21:28):
They're small. Mm-Hmm
kitchen, bathroom,lofted, bedroom you know,
really thoughtfully designed.So they're in kind of a big arc,
the courtyard in between. And the waythat the arc is structured, you know,
you have a view of the mountains fromevery bedroom. Mm-Hmm
(21:49):
When you move into the home, you know,
desk and couch and fridge andfully furnished, you know,
bedroom and stocked kitchen,
everything that's movable within theunit Right. Is yours to keep. Right.
So you can use that to furnish yourfirst apartment. Oh, interesting.
Which I think, you know, builds a senseof ownership and pride and, and I,
(22:10):
I think is really important.But it goes beyond that, right?
We have art from local artists that,
that we set up in kind of a mock artgallery that you can walk through and
select art for your home. We havehandmade pottery that's on the shelves.
We have, you know, there's Bluetoothspeakers and our case manager
(22:32):
Maritza say hi, puts out, ask them abunch of questions before they move in.
One of them is, you know, whatkind music are you listening to?
Build a Spotify playlist and have Wow.
Have their music playing when they'removing into their home. You know,
there's a welcome basket put together bylocal community members with, you know,
gift cards to local restaurantsand shops and stuff,
just to help 'em get out and explorethe community with a handwritten letter
(22:55):
that says, you know, not justlike, welcome to your new home,
but we're excited to have you here.That's awesome. You know, and like,
I really appreciate that. What adifference that makes. That's huge.
When you've been moving around yourwhole life and you've never really had a
home and you've ne and you've beenmaybe seen as a problem or, or whatever,
to come into a space where people arereally excited to have you. Like what,
(23:17):
what a difference thatmakes. So, you know, the,
the tiny homes themselves are prettyincredible. I mean, they were affordable.
They were built offsite 10homes built in about six weeks.
And so, you know, a lot of advantagesto, to doing it that way. You know,
there are challenges as well, but I thinkoverall we feel really good about it,
(23:40):
especially for this population to notbe in a congregate living setting.
So congregate living, imagining bunkbed, bunch of bunk beds in a single room,
or Right. You know, let's say eight bunkbeds in a four bedroom house. Right.
Or a big, you know, is a much differentenvironment and one that's safe. Right?
We're looking at, you know, 20%, 10, 15,
(24:02):
20% of our young adultsidentify LGBTQ plus, right.
Who are experiencing homelessness. Sofor that kid, for that young person,
young adult, it's not safenecessarily mm-hmm
To be in a congregateliving setting. Right.
So to have a home where you can walkin and close the door and have your own
(24:23):
space is the difference between a youngperson taking advantage of a resource
that's being offered and choosingnot to mm-hmm
And sleeping in their car andgetting worse. Interesting. Right.
So what we know for a fact is thatyoung adults don't always take advantage
of the resources that are being offeredbecause they're not built for them.
(24:43):
Interesting.
we really tried to take that intoaccount when we designed this space.
And then when you've personalized itwith the music and the pottery and
the pictures on the wall,they just feel so welcome.
Yeah. And it's their home. So,you know, put, put art out, right?
Put That's all right. Put holes in thewall. We'll fix it when you move out.
(25:03):
We want you to feel athome. And so, you know,
a lot of effort putinto making that happen.
How can folks get more involved?
Yeah. So in addition to jumpingon our website and, you know,
plugging in your email and, and all that
we're building out a volunteer portalon our website where you can go on,
(25:23):
select all the different kinds of thingsyou're interested in and then we'll
reach out to you when those kinds ofvolunteer opportunities arise. You know?
So I think one of ourjobs is to help someone
find something that lightsthem up, right? So, you know,
we've got a bunch of young folks here.Some of them have incredible passions,
(25:43):
and others are trying tofigure that out, right? So,
so one of the things that I talk a lotabout with folks who say, like, you know,
I wanna get involved. What can I do?Well, what, what are you passionate about?
You know, what are you excitedabout? Come share that, you know,
whether that's fishing or hiking or bikingor art or gardening or playing music
or whatever mm-hmm
(26:04):
those kinds of humanconnections make a massive
difference. And I,
I really believe that ifthe participants at Mesa
discover something that lights them up,
it's gonna give them a whole lotmore you know, to pursue. Sure.
And that portal folkscould find on the Mesa.
(26:25):
Website. That's right.
What is the website and theother ways that folks can find.
Yeah, so website is www.mesafarm.org.
Instagram is at Mesa Farm Facebook Mesa
Farm. You know, would, would love for,
for anyone and everyone tofollow us reach out to us.
(26:49):
You know, if you're interestedin supporting, we, we have a,
a community of supportersaround the country, right?
This is not limited to Ventura County.
We are trying to have an influence onthe way that this is work is being done
everywhere. And so weneed your help. And we,
we welcome you and hopeyou join the family. Well.
Dan Ziel, thank you so muchfor being our guest on.
(27:10):
The road. Yeah, absolutely. You reallyMesa Farm. Yeah. Thanks so much.
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.Thanks. Thanks. And we wanna.
Thank you for tuning in to this onthe road. We wanna thank our sponsor,
Opus Escrow, and be sure to tunein next time for On the Road.
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