August 4, 2021 • 33 mins
Today we have Deb Moses, the Former Executive Director of House of Charity/St. Stephens joining us.
The merger of St. Stephen’s Human Services and House of Charity represents an opportunity to integrate services more fully in support of people experiencing homelessness, hunger, mental health issues, and substance use disorders. The merger aligns with the core missions of both organizations and will create a comprehensive continuum of care for those we serve, as well as a stronger voice as we advocate for equity and social justice issues at the local, state, and national level.
The merger of St. Stephen’s Human Services and House of Charity represents an opportunity to integrate services more fully in support of people experiencing homelessness, hunger, mental health issues, and substance use disorders. The merger aligns with the core missions of both organizations and will create a comprehensive continuum of care for those we serve, as well as a stronger voice as we advocate for equity and social justice issues at the local, state, and national level.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hello, friends, Welcome to reada Finding Volunteerism, a podcast by hands
on Twin Cities. I'm Tracy Nielsen, the executive director of hands On Twin
Cities, and I'm your host.Homelessness is a complex issue and every story
(00:37):
is different. Minnesotan's experiencing homelessness arepeople you would recognize as appearing homeless,
but they are also kids in yourchild's class, and people working full time
to help us learn more about thiscomplex issue. We're going to be talking
with the CEO and executive director ofthe newly merged House of Charity in Saint
Stephen's Human Services, Deb Moses.For nearly thirty years, deb has worked
(01:00):
within communities experiencing poverty and a vastarray of disparities. She has held key
leadership positions at nonprofits as well aswithin the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
With everything Dev has going on,she somehow manages to bring joy, warmth,
and a sort of calmness to theworld around her. Join me for
(01:21):
this conversation with deb Hi Devera,thanks so much for being with us today
to share more information with us.Can we just kick things off by you
telling us of a little bit aboutwho you are and your organizations that you
work with. Great sure. I'mDeb Moses. I am the executive director
(01:45):
of the newly merged Saint Stephen's HumanServices and the House of Charity. Our
program provides the continuum of care forour community who is experiencing problems with they're
housing, who are currently unhoused,unsheltered, as well as people who are
hungry throughout our community. Absolutely,I mean, two big organizations better coming
(02:10):
together and so so many services thatyou all provide. So I know that
you mentioned a few like a highlevel of what you do, but can
you talk to us a little bitabout you know, we're going to focus
it on homelessness for this purpose.Just how many people here in our community
are experiencing homelessness we have? Youknow, it's really hard to get an
(02:34):
accurate count right now this moment becausewe did not do our point in time
study due to COVID this year.Prior to that, we were looking at
anywhere from five to around five thousandin our community. We think that that
might be a maybe around accurate rightnow, but we're not real sure and
(02:57):
it could be substantially higher. Andthen we do bactum I mean, we're
very concerned about the future of homelessnessas the viction cliff um comes closer and
and we are glad that the laststimulus bill came through, but we are
still concerned about about people who havebeen on couches and other places that that
(03:17):
people have just allowed that to happenbut are waiting for things to lighten up
to tell people they need to leave. And that's a large concern as well
as people that just haven't been ableto pay their rent throughout the pandemic.
Absolutely, So you talked about likepeople staying on people's couches and things like
that. I guess just to levelsthat, like how do we define homelessness
(03:42):
so that so people who are livingon couches are considered homeless. I mean,
they don't have their name on aproperty, they're not on the least
they're not they don't have an officialplace to stay, and they can leave
at any momentum they asked to leave. So so it's it's a combination.
There's official um, there's official definitionsof homelessness. UM. You know,
(04:05):
people includes people coming out of prisonwith nowhere to go, UM, people
coming out of jail, people whohave been living unsheltered for for a substantial
period of time um. Um.To be official, people need to have
not had a permanent address for ayear. Um. So there's there's different
(04:26):
definitions and people at different levels andum and yeah, it's a it's a
full continuum. And we just knowthere's lots of people struggling with stability in
their housing situations. Uh. Andthen that has gotten only worse during COVID
as there's been less um informal typesof places for people to go, like
(04:48):
like the libraries um Uh, thetrains stopped running all night, things like
that that that we historically have seenour community use as places to stay.
Oh gosh, well you mentioned aboutfive thousand people just from that estimation.
So when you're thinking about the servicesof House of Charity and Saint Stephen's,
(05:11):
can you tell us a little bitabout what you provide for people. So
we do provide the full range,full continual services. That's why this merger
made a lot of sense. Wehad complementary services to make sure that happens.
So we can start at we're onthe street. We do outreach services.
We find people where they are andsupport them and do what we can
(05:33):
to get them into housing at thelevel that they're ready to go into different
situations. We continue to have thecity and state with the worst housing disparities
in the country, and in theyare substantially farther apart than the next closest
(05:54):
city and state that are experiencing housingdisparities. And what that means is that
are BIPOC community has a lot higherrate of being unhoused and struggling to find
housing. And that's kind of asnowball effect from all of the disparities that
we see in our BIPOC community.So we meet people where they are,
(06:15):
if they're encampments, if they're onthe street, if they're we try to
find them wherever they are and providethem with services, which include We really
have really shifted to see ourselves aspublic health workers, not just for COVID,
but you know, ongoing we seeoutbreaks within our unsheltered communities, such
(06:39):
as hepatitis. We currently are experiencingan HIV outbreak among our homeless community.
So we really a big part ofour job is not just getting people to
housing, but getting them the healthcarethey need. Working on COVID vaccines right
now so that that's at the streetlevel or ground level. Then we do
(07:00):
provide shelter UM and shelter gets getsUM. People get to shelter through our
coordinated entry system and currently we havea one hundred and sixty beds a night
that we're managing and not a night. Prior to COVID, shelter took place
only at night, and now we'reproviding twenty four seven UM shelter in based
(07:25):
on the recommendations of the Center forDisease Control UM, so we we have
shifted to that with funding through theCARES Act, which is now the care
of Fund is the new the newallocation for for federal dollars. So we
have shifted to twenty four seven UMshelter which allows us to which is how
(07:47):
shelter really should be happened, becauseit allows us more time to work with
individuals to get them into the rightpermanent housing to meet their needs UM and
actually again can help them, helpus help them get to healthcare services and
other things that they need. Andwe see people coming in with extensive healthcare
(08:09):
needs. So then from shelter wehave a variety of other programming. We
have permanent supportive housing both in sitebased programs downtown at five ten South as
Street, as well as our newbuilding on seventh Park seven. Park seven
provides efficiency apartments to persons who havebeen chronically homeless and have a disability,
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and that works out well because it'sdirectly across the street from htmc our HANNEP
and Health and so the people weserve there can are really close to their
health, getting their healthcare met andgetting those needs taken care of, and
that program has been a great success. We also have a treatment program where
(08:54):
we provide treatment for substance use disorderand mental health issues, and we do
that at that program's design specifically tomeet the needs of our homeless community.
It is a harm reduction based modelUM, so that we meet people where
they are, we work with themas long as we need to to reduce
their their use and get them toa to a maintenance level where they're surviving,
(09:20):
in maintaining and hopefully moving on totheir next level of independence based on
on the treatment services they're receiving.And then we have UM we have a
rep paye program that's that's a reallylarge program we have where we take care
of the finances for persons that areunable to do that themselves. That's a
(09:43):
relationship with Social Security mostly. Andthen we have scattered site housing, which
we have about five hundred units ofscattered site housing throughout our community that we
also provide supportive housing services for Wow. Okay, so all over the place
and very complex, you know,I think that just as somebody who thinks
(10:05):
of like a homeless shelter, likeyou know, you're not really thinking about
all of the impacting factors of likewhat goes on in people's life to sort
of get them to that situation.Can you talk about sort of idea of
wrap around and what that looks likefor I mean, it sounds like you're
offering a variety of services, butalso who are some key partners and how
(10:26):
do you really sort of move peoplethrough this continuum. So the key partners,
I mean Hannepin County is a keypartner. They operate coordinated Entry and
that that's a single point of entryfor anyone coming into housing services, and
depending what's available, a person canget an individualized referral to the housing they
(10:50):
meet they need. Certainly, becauseof our location downtown, we work really
closely with people serving people, whichis a family shelter. We didn't provide
family UM shelter. We provide wedo have housing for families in our scattered
set housings, but our shelters aresingle adult UM as is our permanent housing.
(11:11):
Um SO. I mean there's youknow, there's a network of homeless
services and we all work closely together. We actually meet every week since COVID
um so we do things like likeshare share um mitigation plans, COVID mitigation
plans, infection control plans, talkabout security. You know, currently we're
(11:35):
having a lot of discussions about keepingthe people we serve safe during any um
thing that happens through the shov Andtrial. Um the Derek shov And murder
trial. Um so, we weall we're communicating all the time. The
key to providing these services is knowingyou can't do it alone and making sure
that you do communicate. I didforget one service that we have. Some
(12:00):
big part of what we do iswe also have a food center. Our
food center serves a meal three hundredand sixty five days a year. We
did not miss one meal during duringtwenty twenty. We were open every single
day. And then we also havea food shelf in that building. And
so the requirements for getting food everyday is just that you're hungry, and
(12:20):
so anyone that is hungry can comeeat, and then people can come get
get food shelves. And then youtalk about coordinating services. We worked with
hannep In Health through the pandemic.We delivered food shelf bags to people that
were newly diagnosed. And then we'realso coordinating with Elliott Park neighborhood for some
(12:41):
of our with our food shelf forsome of the high rises in our area
for our seniors and families and povertyto ensure that we can get food shelf
food to them. So we arewe just received a new grant for that
from the Campbells Foundation and we'll beWe had a shutdown for a little time
because of funding for that program,but we'll be starting up again, I
(13:03):
think next week to deliver food tothe high rises within Elliott Park for our
neighbors that that needs some extra foodand Anna it's hard for them to get
out and come to the food shelf. Oh my gosh, So you have
mentioned so many services. How manypeople are on your team at these organizations
making all of this happen. Sowe have about one hundred and fifty staff
(13:26):
throughout throughout all of the services UMand they work really hard. We have
amazing staff and again they've worked everyday through COVID UM. So so yeah,
we have we have a large team, a dedicated, committed team that
has so much passion for the workthat we do. It's it's unbelievable,
(13:48):
UM. But yeah, it takesa lot of people. And then prior
to COVID, we had a verystrong robust volunteer team and we've really seen
that back off. We were backto the collaborations. One thing that happened
right away is that hannep and Healthsent us some people because of how some
of their their UM I don't knowwhat you call it, they're not mandatory
(14:11):
services went way down, you know, and even people you know, stopped
coming to them for different things thatthey probably should have throughout COVID but didn't.
You know, we're more afraid ofCOVID. So Hannep and Health sent
us some staff to help volunteer UMthat they paid to come over and help
us. And then we were ableto get some some AmeriCorps members to help
(14:37):
win our food center things like that. But so that added to our team.
And then but our volunteering tourism,which really has been the backbone of
the work we do, really wentdown significantly. Well talking about that,
so, I mean, that's amazingthat you have all those staff people,
but obviously with all the services youmentioned, you know, when we think
about volunteerism, could you tell usa little bit about how volunteers helped a
(15:01):
little bit more before the pandemic andthen you know, now how things have
shifted or and then maybe how yousee volunteers being able to help going forward.
Yeah, so we we we alwayshad lots of volunteers come through our
food center for all the meals werotated them through. That was our biggest
(15:22):
volunteer effort, both at our foodcenter and then at the shelters serving food.
And so the shelters have switched forright now to having catered food and
most of the food that gets thatgets prepared at we had to change how
we do food service at our foodat our food center, so our daily
meal is boxed up um. Originallywhen we first started, because because we
(15:46):
were trying to keep all of usthey figure it all out, those boxed
meals were mostly cold meals. Wehave been able to shift to hot meals
and we have slowly been getting somevolunteers back into our food center. You
know, we had some areas likethe School of Public Health, we got
volunteers from because they did know howto mitigate and understood the spread of the
(16:08):
disease and we're open to coming inand volunteering. So we had little pockets
of past volunteers that felt they weresafe to come in, and we really
did put lots of mitigation factors intoplace, so when people do come in
their space, they get a station, they get their work given to them.
So we do have a small amounta handful of volunteers starting to trickle
(16:32):
back, but that the shelter mealsand our meals were the biggest volunteer effort.
We always take professional volunteers that offerdifferent types of help that support the
work we're already doing. We certainlywe have our Board of Directors, which
is a volunteer board, so wecontinue to have to have different volunteer activities
(16:55):
going on. Moving forward. Wehave a lot of concerns for us.
The majority of our volunteers came fromthe downtown offices, downtown businesses and we
have no idea how they're going tocome back and how many people are going
to come back downtown, so wecontinued it even as we open up volunteer
activities, we wonder how much ofour communities coming back to do that.
(17:19):
We certainly work with our downtown condostoo and have really good support from our
downtown neighbors and are excited about that, and we don't believe they'll be going
anywhere, so they've That's another thingthey did. In the middle of COVID,
one of the downtown condos came andmoved in all of our furniture into
(17:40):
our new building for us, andthey actually they scheduled it, they made
sure everyone was distanced, they hadthey worked with us to come up with
a plan and they were amazing.So so just a few people actually did
what during normal times we would havehad many more people do and they worked
really hard, so we did haveThat was our biggest volunteer activity since COVID
(18:06):
started, and UM that was inAugust, so we were we were just
amazed at what they did and theycontinue to donate to us. They actually
also got UM hygiene supplies for everysingle new resident UM, so we do
we still see some amazing efforts andand so some of that comes out of
the ideas of people themselves who volunteer. We have continued to put volunteer activities
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that people can do at home onthe website and in our looking We believe
we'll have some more like kinds ofevent, types of volunteer efforts coming up
in the new near future that wewill continue to post on our Facebook page
and Twitter and so and again aswe see opening up, we're going to
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make decisions about you know, wherewe do will and won't recruit volunteers based
on safety because we will always beconsidering the safety of everyone. We consider
the safety of volunteers just like weconsider the safety of our staff and the
people we serve. So that's howwe'll be looking at it in the future.
And yeah, but we want peopleto come back. You know,
(19:19):
we miss our volunteers. I mean, they're just end up being the heart
of everything we do. Oh Ilove that, And I love the story
that even just like with a fewernumber of people, they came through and
really made an impact. And thoseare the things that like sort of get
us through these stories of the pandemic. And also show people, you know,
something, just the small things,moving furniture, that kind of thing
(19:42):
can make a big impact for organization. So I love that. And are
there other ways that people can supportyou? I mean, you know,
I'm sure that there's a way tomake a donation or you mentioned some in
kind needs as well. Yeah,So on our websites, we still are
our two separate websites. We arein the process of renaming and rebranding,
(20:04):
so we didn't want to change websitesuntil we got to that point. So
so Saint Stephen's UM, Saint Stephen'sMinneapolis UM dot org and House of Charity
dot org are still the best placesto to UM donate. So you can
donate online, UM, you cancontact us and give us your information and
(20:26):
we'll we'll get to you. We'llget you any information you need UM.
So so we continue, you know, for our you know, a lot
of times people want to donate foodto our food shelf and our food center.
The best way to donate continues tobe cash because we work with Second
Harvest and the Food Group and webuy food at a greatly reduced rate,
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so we get a lot more foodfor for the dollar than any than the
general community does. So we encouragepeople to give cash donations for food,
but we always are to making donationsof hygiene materials. Not that we need
shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, we need we need towels. We
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do have a public shower that peoplecome to, so we're always needing towels,
wash cloths, anything for hygiene,both for those people that are living
with us as well as our unshelteredcommunity, and any specific needs that we
have that we identify, we willhave either on our website or again if
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you follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We're constantly making announcements of immediate needs
that we might have throughout the year. Absolutely, and I see that they've
been posted on hands on Twin Citiesour website as well, so feel free
to check them out there, thanksto your volunteer coordinators who post those needs
with us too. So I thinkthat sometimes it's difficult for those of us
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who have not experienced homelessness in ourlife to imagine what it's like. And
when we think about people coming into do service of food or things.
What do you think it's important forall of us to know about the individuals
who USURP through House of Charity andSaint Stephen's Well. I think one thing
that's important to know to start withwho's homeless is that any one of us
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can become homeless. So for themajority of the people we serve, they're
just it's just us. It's justus that went through a significantly bad time
without without having the support necessary toland on our feet, and so so
we as a community help people landon the feet. So that's the majority
(22:41):
of our homeless community. Having saidthat, there is a high amount of
mental illness, but I will saythe number one reason people become homeless in
our community as chronic health needs.So there is a misnomer that it's all
about drugs and mental illness. Thereis a significant proportion compared to well,
(23:04):
I don't I mean, I thinkright now in the pandemic. I mean,
there's a huge pandemic of mental illnessright now. So I don't know
how we compared to the general populationat this point, but we do have
a lot of people with mental healthneeds and they tend to stand out.
And so if someone who is Imean, I think part of the way
to think about it is think abouttimes where your mental health felt unstable,
(23:27):
which we've all definitely experienced in thelast year, and what that would have
been like if you didn't have abed to sleep in, you didn't have
food in your refrigerator, and youknew that whatever food you got was going
to be whatever he was given toyou. It wasn't going to be a
choice that you know, just allof those overwhelming feelings without the basic supports
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there to know where you were goingto brush your teeth in the morning,
to where you were going to layyour head at night, and how you
would react to that situation. Andthen you pre existing mental illness and mental
health diagnosis, sees and substance usedisorder, and we will we do see
some explosive behavior. We are definitelyseeing a lot more anger in our community,
(24:14):
just in general, but particularly amongour unhoused community, just because the
stressors are so high. People havewatched each other get sick, family members
die, all of those things ontop of everything else that comes with having
an unstable current living situation. Soso I think the best way for anyone
(24:37):
to think about it is how wouldyou react to that in that situation?
And none of us actually know rightright, absolutely well, I also love
that the Saint Stephen's website has asection that's devoted to understanding homelessness. Can
you like tell other people about wherethey can go to learn about your programs
(24:57):
and how they can continue to getinvolved. Yeah, you know, the
best way is both of our websitesand UM and that you know that we
do constantly post updates. We haveUM. We have myth MythBusters where where
we talk about what what people thinkabout homelessness and what the reality is UM.
(25:22):
You know, just certain things likelike that, UM, you know,
twenty five percent of our homeless communityUM has issues with substance use disorder.
People often think it's it's a lothigher UM, and that's high.
That's you know, you know,the general population is about ten percent UM,
which we believe is higher right nowduring COVID as well. UM.
(25:45):
But so so they're just just understandingthat understanding UM, you know, trying
to get rid of the stigma ofof what it means to not have a
house currently and not have a sheltercurrently. All of that's posted on both
of our website sites, and wedo and we post, We are constantly
posting on Facebook on we we justrecently did a post on encampments and our
(26:08):
philosophy about encampments and the work wedo to support encampments UM. And you
know, one of our one ofour big concerns right now in the community
is is the community really working?You know, and we know that people
care and care about the issues ofour neighbors, but we really often feel
(26:30):
that the effort is much more tonot see homelessness than to actually end homelessness.
UM So we have a current postingabout that. UM It's on all
of our social media LinkedIn UM,Facebook, Twitter, um so. So
we just want to continue to havethe conversation. And we know that sometimes
from our perspective, people might notagree with with how we see it UM
(26:52):
and we understand the impacts people haveUM through some of the other things that
happen within our community, and ourcommunity is under a lot of stress right
now, and but we want butwe want to at least if even if
people don't agree, we want tohave the conversation with you. We want
you to ask the questions. Wewant you to try to see it from
(27:15):
a different point of view. Andbecause we're on the ground, because we
believe we have a moral obligation aswitnesses to what actually happens within our un
housed community, that we need toeducate and provide that be one of the
many providers that really tells people,helps people understand, helps people have a
(27:37):
better sense of empathy for what manyin our community are going through. So
so we will continue to do that. And again, please don't please think
of it not as I disagree andin a judgmental way, but rather a
way to open the conversation, becausebecause we want all of us to be
having that conversation. Absolutely, Ican attest. I receive your newsletters and
(28:02):
I find them super helpful, andI just appreciate the dialogue. And you
know, all of these things arechanging so quickly, and how you and
your team have really been flowed tomeet the transitional needs of people during the
pandemic. I think to not missa meal for the entire duration of this
is incredible. SOB, just beforewe go, is there anything else that
(28:23):
you feel that we haven't touched onthat our listeners should hear before we wrap
up our interview today. I think, well, one thing that when you
said about the success of not missinga meal, I think all of us
are looking at at celebrating the successeswe did have. Otherwise we're going to
look back at this year and justfeel it was a total disaster and it
(28:47):
has been a really hard year,and we believe it's gonna continue to be
hard moving forward. So we allso we want everyone to celebrate with us
the successes we had and getting through, but we also want to want to
put forward the understanding that while infectionspread might be going down, which is
not right now, but eventually we'llbe going down UM and while we all
(29:11):
become vaccinated and safer, we stillbelieve that that this is going to be
a really bad year going forward forour communities that are that are really UM
on the edge of if they're notalready unhoused, the people that are close
to becoming unhoused. UM. Webelieve it's going to continue to be a
really hard year in the community forour bipop community. UM that that we
(29:36):
still haven't done enough to address ourdisparities, to address our UM A lot
of the a lot of the issuesthat go on in community, a lot
of the racism, hate and angerUM that continues to fester or you know,
even boil over strongly in our inour community, and that makes everything
(29:57):
that the people we serve experience evenharder. So I know that sounds kind
of pollyanish, but I hope wecan move forward with a lot of love,
a lot of care for each other, and a lot of kindness,
and that everyone remembers to be kindmoving forward, because because it's been hard
for all of us, but wehave to always remember there was someone that
(30:19):
had it even harder. If foranyone that that experienced all this pain with
a lot of supports in place,that we had other people experiencing even more
pain without those supports there. Sowe're not seeing pie in the sky clear
light in the future. We're seeingbut we believe it can be there if
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we all come together, if wework together, if we care about each
other, and um, you know, I think it's the first time,
even you know, I have adoctor in public administration, I teach management.
I think it's the first time wewere like constantly talking about love as
a management strategy and love as aleadership strategy, and we really need that,
(31:03):
we need to come out of ourhearts and care for each other.
Oh, I love that so much, And yes, it's I think it's
a perfect message to end on thatwe're not done. The work isn't done.
We need people to continue to takeaction, and you know, love
is sort of the foundation of that. So thank you Deb so much for
sharing with us information about your programshow we can continue to take action.
(31:27):
And we're so grateful for your partnershipand your leadership in the community. And
just can't thank you enough for allthat you do well. And you know
we're grateful for you and the workyou do and how you connect with all
of us, So I return thatappreciation. Thanks Deb. We thank Deb
(31:52):
so much for joining us for thisconversation. I hope you all learned as
much as I did. I encourageyou to visit both the House of Charity
and Say Steven's website to sign upfor their newsletters. So many great updates
and ways to get involved. Houseof Charity and Saint Stephen's are examples of
our many partners who provide support tothose experiencing homelessness. As always, you
(32:14):
can head over to hands on twinCities dot org to find many ways to
volunteer to provide basic needs to peoplein our community. Every one of us
experiences challenges in our lives, butby being part of a community that doesn't
give up on anybody, we willbuild a brighter future for us all.
(32:35):
Thank you so much for listening.For more information about Hands on Twin Cities
and to follow us on social media, heads to our website. Redefining Volunteerism
is the production of Matriarch Digital Mediaexecutive producer Twila Day and producer and editor
Beth Gids and special thanks to SarahEdwards, Grace McAvoy and Ella Cochrane.
(32:57):
From some great people, let's outthere and see the change. Together we
can build a more equitable and thrivingcommunity.
Hello, friends, Welcome to reada Finding Volunteerism, a podcast by hands
on Twin Cities. I'm Tracy Nielsen, the executive director of hands On Twin
Cities, and I'm your host.Homelessness is a complex issue and every story
(00:37):
is different. Minnesotan's experiencing homelessness arepeople you would recognize as appearing homeless,
but they are also kids in yourchild's class, and people working full time
to help us learn more about thiscomplex issue. We're going to be talking
with the CEO and executive director ofthe newly merged House of Charity in Saint
Stephen's Human Services, Deb Moses.For nearly thirty years, deb has worked
(01:00):
within communities experiencing poverty and a vastarray of disparities. She has held key
leadership positions at nonprofits as well aswithin the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
With everything Dev has going on,she somehow manages to bring joy, warmth,
and a sort of calmness to theworld around her. Join me for
(01:21):
this conversation with deb Hi Devera,thanks so much for being with us today
to share more information with us.Can we just kick things off by you
telling us of a little bit aboutwho you are and your organizations that you
work with. Great sure. I'mDeb Moses. I am the executive director
(01:45):
of the newly merged Saint Stephen's HumanServices and the House of Charity. Our
program provides the continuum of care forour community who is experiencing problems with they're
housing, who are currently unhoused,unsheltered, as well as people who are
hungry throughout our community. Absolutely,I mean, two big organizations better coming
(02:10):
together and so so many services thatyou all provide. So I know that
you mentioned a few like a highlevel of what you do, but can
you talk to us a little bitabout you know, we're going to focus
it on homelessness for this purpose.Just how many people here in our community
are experiencing homelessness we have? Youknow, it's really hard to get an
(02:34):
accurate count right now this moment becausewe did not do our point in time
study due to COVID this year.Prior to that, we were looking at
anywhere from five to around five thousandin our community. We think that that
might be a maybe around accurate rightnow, but we're not real sure and
(02:57):
it could be substantially higher. Andthen we do bactum I mean, we're
very concerned about the future of homelessnessas the viction cliff um comes closer and
and we are glad that the laststimulus bill came through, but we are
still concerned about about people who havebeen on couches and other places that that
(03:17):
people have just allowed that to happenbut are waiting for things to lighten up
to tell people they need to leave. And that's a large concern as well
as people that just haven't been ableto pay their rent throughout the pandemic.
Absolutely, So you talked about likepeople staying on people's couches and things like
that. I guess just to levelsthat, like how do we define homelessness
(03:42):
so that so people who are livingon couches are considered homeless. I mean,
they don't have their name on aproperty, they're not on the least
they're not they don't have an officialplace to stay, and they can leave
at any momentum they asked to leave. So so it's it's a combination.
There's official um, there's official definitionsof homelessness. UM. You know,
(04:05):
people includes people coming out of prisonwith nowhere to go, UM, people
coming out of jail, people whohave been living unsheltered for for a substantial
period of time um. Um.To be official, people need to have
not had a permanent address for ayear. Um. So there's there's different
(04:26):
definitions and people at different levels andum and yeah, it's a it's a
full continuum. And we just knowthere's lots of people struggling with stability in
their housing situations. Uh. Andthen that has gotten only worse during COVID
as there's been less um informal typesof places for people to go, like
(04:48):
like the libraries um Uh, thetrains stopped running all night, things like
that that that we historically have seenour community use as places to stay.
Oh gosh, well you mentioned aboutfive thousand people just from that estimation.
So when you're thinking about the servicesof House of Charity and Saint Stephen's,
(05:11):
can you tell us a little bitabout what you provide for people. So
we do provide the full range,full continual services. That's why this merger
made a lot of sense. Wehad complementary services to make sure that happens.
So we can start at we're onthe street. We do outreach services.
We find people where they are andsupport them and do what we can
(05:33):
to get them into housing at thelevel that they're ready to go into different
situations. We continue to have thecity and state with the worst housing disparities
in the country, and in theyare substantially farther apart than the next closest
(05:54):
city and state that are experiencing housingdisparities. And what that means is that
are BIPOC community has a lot higherrate of being unhoused and struggling to find
housing. And that's kind of asnowball effect from all of the disparities that
we see in our BIPOC community.So we meet people where they are,
(06:15):
if they're encampments, if they're onthe street, if they're we try to
find them wherever they are and providethem with services, which include We really
have really shifted to see ourselves aspublic health workers, not just for COVID,
but you know, ongoing we seeoutbreaks within our unsheltered communities, such
(06:39):
as hepatitis. We currently are experiencingan HIV outbreak among our homeless community.
So we really a big part ofour job is not just getting people to
housing, but getting them the healthcarethey need. Working on COVID vaccines right
now so that that's at the streetlevel or ground level. Then we do
(07:00):
provide shelter UM and shelter gets getsUM. People get to shelter through our
coordinated entry system and currently we havea one hundred and sixty beds a night
that we're managing and not a night. Prior to COVID, shelter took place
only at night, and now we'reproviding twenty four seven UM shelter in based
(07:25):
on the recommendations of the Center forDisease Control UM, so we we have
shifted to that with funding through theCARES Act, which is now the care
of Fund is the new the newallocation for for federal dollars. So we
have shifted to twenty four seven UMshelter which allows us to which is how
(07:47):
shelter really should be happened, becauseit allows us more time to work with
individuals to get them into the rightpermanent housing to meet their needs UM and
actually again can help them, helpus help them get to healthcare services and
other things that they need. Andwe see people coming in with extensive healthcare
(08:09):
needs. So then from shelter wehave a variety of other programming. We
have permanent supportive housing both in sitebased programs downtown at five ten South as
Street, as well as our newbuilding on seventh Park seven. Park seven
provides efficiency apartments to persons who havebeen chronically homeless and have a disability,
(08:33):
and that works out well because it'sdirectly across the street from htmc our HANNEP
and Health and so the people weserve there can are really close to their
health, getting their healthcare met andgetting those needs taken care of, and
that program has been a great success. We also have a treatment program where
(08:54):
we provide treatment for substance use disorderand mental health issues, and we do
that at that program's design specifically tomeet the needs of our homeless community.
It is a harm reduction based modelUM, so that we meet people where
they are, we work with themas long as we need to to reduce
their their use and get them toa to a maintenance level where they're surviving,
(09:20):
in maintaining and hopefully moving on totheir next level of independence based on
on the treatment services they're receiving.And then we have UM we have a
rep paye program that's that's a reallylarge program we have where we take care
of the finances for persons that areunable to do that themselves. That's a
(09:43):
relationship with Social Security mostly. Andthen we have scattered site housing, which
we have about five hundred units ofscattered site housing throughout our community that we
also provide supportive housing services for Wow. Okay, so all over the place
and very complex, you know,I think that just as somebody who thinks
(10:05):
of like a homeless shelter, likeyou know, you're not really thinking about
all of the impacting factors of likewhat goes on in people's life to sort
of get them to that situation.Can you talk about sort of idea of
wrap around and what that looks likefor I mean, it sounds like you're
offering a variety of services, butalso who are some key partners and how
(10:26):
do you really sort of move peoplethrough this continuum. So the key partners,
I mean Hannepin County is a keypartner. They operate coordinated Entry and
that that's a single point of entryfor anyone coming into housing services, and
depending what's available, a person canget an individualized referral to the housing they
(10:50):
meet they need. Certainly, becauseof our location downtown, we work really
closely with people serving people, whichis a family shelter. We didn't provide
family UM shelter. We provide wedo have housing for families in our scattered
set housings, but our shelters aresingle adult UM as is our permanent housing.
(11:11):
Um SO. I mean there's youknow, there's a network of homeless
services and we all work closely together. We actually meet every week since COVID
um so we do things like likeshare share um mitigation plans, COVID mitigation
plans, infection control plans, talkabout security. You know, currently we're
(11:35):
having a lot of discussions about keepingthe people we serve safe during any um
thing that happens through the shov Andtrial. Um the Derek shov And murder
trial. Um so, we weall we're communicating all the time. The
key to providing these services is knowingyou can't do it alone and making sure
that you do communicate. I didforget one service that we have. Some
(12:00):
big part of what we do iswe also have a food center. Our
food center serves a meal three hundredand sixty five days a year. We
did not miss one meal during duringtwenty twenty. We were open every single
day. And then we also havea food shelf in that building. And
so the requirements for getting food everyday is just that you're hungry, and
(12:20):
so anyone that is hungry can comeeat, and then people can come get
get food shelves. And then youtalk about coordinating services. We worked with
hannep In Health through the pandemic.We delivered food shelf bags to people that
were newly diagnosed. And then we'realso coordinating with Elliott Park neighborhood for some
(12:41):
of our with our food shelf forsome of the high rises in our area
for our seniors and families and povertyto ensure that we can get food shelf
food to them. So we arewe just received a new grant for that
from the Campbells Foundation and we'll beWe had a shutdown for a little time
because of funding for that program,but we'll be starting up again, I
(13:03):
think next week to deliver food tothe high rises within Elliott Park for our
neighbors that that needs some extra foodand Anna it's hard for them to get
out and come to the food shelf. Oh my gosh, So you have
mentioned so many services. How manypeople are on your team at these organizations
making all of this happen. Sowe have about one hundred and fifty staff
(13:26):
throughout throughout all of the services UMand they work really hard. We have
amazing staff and again they've worked everyday through COVID UM. So so yeah,
we have we have a large team, a dedicated, committed team that
has so much passion for the workthat we do. It's it's unbelievable,
(13:48):
UM. But yeah, it takesa lot of people. And then prior
to COVID, we had a verystrong robust volunteer team and we've really seen
that back off. We were backto the collaborations. One thing that happened
right away is that hannep and Healthsent us some people because of how some
of their their UM I don't knowwhat you call it, they're not mandatory
(14:11):
services went way down, you know, and even people you know, stopped
coming to them for different things thatthey probably should have throughout COVID but didn't.
You know, we're more afraid ofCOVID. So Hannep and Health sent
us some staff to help volunteer UMthat they paid to come over and help
us. And then we were ableto get some some AmeriCorps members to help
(14:37):
win our food center things like that. But so that added to our team.
And then but our volunteering tourism,which really has been the backbone of
the work we do, really wentdown significantly. Well talking about that,
so, I mean, that's amazingthat you have all those staff people,
but obviously with all the services youmentioned, you know, when we think
about volunteerism, could you tell usa little bit about how volunteers helped a
(15:01):
little bit more before the pandemic andthen you know, now how things have
shifted or and then maybe how yousee volunteers being able to help going forward.
Yeah, so we we we alwayshad lots of volunteers come through our
food center for all the meals werotated them through. That was our biggest
(15:22):
volunteer effort, both at our foodcenter and then at the shelters serving food.
And so the shelters have switched forright now to having catered food and
most of the food that gets thatgets prepared at we had to change how
we do food service at our foodat our food center, so our daily
meal is boxed up um. Originallywhen we first started, because because we
(15:46):
were trying to keep all of usthey figure it all out, those boxed
meals were mostly cold meals. Wehave been able to shift to hot meals
and we have slowly been getting somevolunteers back into our food center. You
know, we had some areas likethe School of Public Health, we got
volunteers from because they did know howto mitigate and understood the spread of the
(16:08):
disease and we're open to coming inand volunteering. So we had little pockets
of past volunteers that felt they weresafe to come in, and we really
did put lots of mitigation factors intoplace, so when people do come in
their space, they get a station, they get their work given to them.
So we do have a small amounta handful of volunteers starting to trickle
(16:32):
back, but that the shelter mealsand our meals were the biggest volunteer effort.
We always take professional volunteers that offerdifferent types of help that support the
work we're already doing. We certainlywe have our Board of Directors, which
is a volunteer board, so wecontinue to have to have different volunteer activities
(16:55):
going on. Moving forward. Wehave a lot of concerns for us.
The majority of our volunteers came fromthe downtown offices, downtown businesses and we
have no idea how they're going tocome back and how many people are going
to come back downtown, so wecontinued it even as we open up volunteer
activities, we wonder how much ofour communities coming back to do that.
(17:19):
We certainly work with our downtown condostoo and have really good support from our
downtown neighbors and are excited about that, and we don't believe they'll be going
anywhere, so they've That's another thingthey did. In the middle of COVID,
one of the downtown condos came andmoved in all of our furniture into
(17:40):
our new building for us, andthey actually they scheduled it, they made
sure everyone was distanced, they hadthey worked with us to come up with
a plan and they were amazing.So so just a few people actually did
what during normal times we would havehad many more people do and they worked
really hard, so we did haveThat was our biggest volunteer activity since COVID
(18:06):
started, and UM that was inAugust, so we were we were just
amazed at what they did and theycontinue to donate to us. They actually
also got UM hygiene supplies for everysingle new resident UM, so we do
we still see some amazing efforts andand so some of that comes out of
the ideas of people themselves who volunteer. We have continued to put volunteer activities
(18:33):
that people can do at home onthe website and in our looking We believe
we'll have some more like kinds ofevent, types of volunteer efforts coming up
in the new near future that wewill continue to post on our Facebook page
and Twitter and so and again aswe see opening up, we're going to
(18:55):
make decisions about you know, wherewe do will and won't recruit volunteers based
on safety because we will always beconsidering the safety of everyone. We consider
the safety of volunteers just like weconsider the safety of our staff and the
people we serve. So that's howwe'll be looking at it in the future.
And yeah, but we want peopleto come back. You know,
(19:19):
we miss our volunteers. I mean, they're just end up being the heart
of everything we do. Oh Ilove that, And I love the story
that even just like with a fewernumber of people, they came through and
really made an impact. And thoseare the things that like sort of get
us through these stories of the pandemic. And also show people, you know,
something, just the small things,moving furniture, that kind of thing
(19:42):
can make a big impact for organization. So I love that. And are
there other ways that people can supportyou? I mean, you know,
I'm sure that there's a way tomake a donation or you mentioned some in
kind needs as well. Yeah,So on our websites, we still are
our two separate websites. We arein the process of renaming and rebranding,
(20:04):
so we didn't want to change websitesuntil we got to that point. So
so Saint Stephen's UM, Saint Stephen'sMinneapolis UM dot org and House of Charity
dot org are still the best placesto to UM donate. So you can
donate online, UM, you cancontact us and give us your information and
(20:26):
we'll we'll get to you. We'llget you any information you need UM.
So so we continue, you know, for our you know, a lot
of times people want to donate foodto our food shelf and our food center.
The best way to donate continues tobe cash because we work with Second
Harvest and the Food Group and webuy food at a greatly reduced rate,
(20:48):
so we get a lot more foodfor for the dollar than any than the
general community does. So we encouragepeople to give cash donations for food,
but we always are to making donationsof hygiene materials. Not that we need
shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, we need we need towels. We
(21:12):
do have a public shower that peoplecome to, so we're always needing towels,
wash cloths, anything for hygiene,both for those people that are living
with us as well as our unshelteredcommunity, and any specific needs that we
have that we identify, we willhave either on our website or again if
(21:33):
you follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We're constantly making announcements of immediate needs
that we might have throughout the year. Absolutely, and I see that they've
been posted on hands on Twin Citiesour website as well, so feel free
to check them out there, thanksto your volunteer coordinators who post those needs
with us too. So I thinkthat sometimes it's difficult for those of us
(21:56):
who have not experienced homelessness in ourlife to imagine what it's like. And
when we think about people coming into do service of food or things.
What do you think it's important forall of us to know about the individuals
who USURP through House of Charity andSaint Stephen's Well. I think one thing
that's important to know to start withwho's homeless is that any one of us
(22:19):
can become homeless. So for themajority of the people we serve, they're
just it's just us. It's justus that went through a significantly bad time
without without having the support necessary toland on our feet, and so so
we as a community help people landon the feet. So that's the majority
(22:41):
of our homeless community. Having saidthat, there is a high amount of
mental illness, but I will saythe number one reason people become homeless in
our community as chronic health needs.So there is a misnomer that it's all
about drugs and mental illness. Thereis a significant proportion compared to well,
(23:04):
I don't I mean, I thinkright now in the pandemic. I mean,
there's a huge pandemic of mental illnessright now. So I don't know
how we compared to the general populationat this point, but we do have
a lot of people with mental healthneeds and they tend to stand out.
And so if someone who is Imean, I think part of the way
to think about it is think abouttimes where your mental health felt unstable,
(23:27):
which we've all definitely experienced in thelast year, and what that would have
been like if you didn't have abed to sleep in, you didn't have
food in your refrigerator, and youknew that whatever food you got was going
to be whatever he was given toyou. It wasn't going to be a
choice that you know, just allof those overwhelming feelings without the basic supports
(23:49):
there to know where you were goingto brush your teeth in the morning,
to where you were going to layyour head at night, and how you
would react to that situation. Andthen you pre existing mental illness and mental
health diagnosis, sees and substance usedisorder, and we will we do see
some explosive behavior. We are definitelyseeing a lot more anger in our community,
(24:14):
just in general, but particularly amongour unhoused community, just because the
stressors are so high. People havewatched each other get sick, family members
die, all of those things ontop of everything else that comes with having
an unstable current living situation. Soso I think the best way for anyone
(24:37):
to think about it is how wouldyou react to that in that situation?
And none of us actually know rightright, absolutely well, I also love
that the Saint Stephen's website has asection that's devoted to understanding homelessness. Can
you like tell other people about wherethey can go to learn about your programs
(24:57):
and how they can continue to getinvolved. Yeah, you know, the
best way is both of our websitesand UM and that you know that we
do constantly post updates. We haveUM. We have myth MythBusters where where
we talk about what what people thinkabout homelessness and what the reality is UM.
(25:22):
You know, just certain things likelike that, UM, you know,
twenty five percent of our homeless communityUM has issues with substance use disorder.
People often think it's it's a lothigher UM, and that's high.
That's you know, you know,the general population is about ten percent UM,
which we believe is higher right nowduring COVID as well. UM.
(25:45):
But so so they're just just understandingthat understanding UM, you know, trying
to get rid of the stigma ofof what it means to not have a
house currently and not have a sheltercurrently. All of that's posted on both
of our website sites, and wedo and we post, We are constantly
posting on Facebook on we we justrecently did a post on encampments and our
(26:08):
philosophy about encampments and the work wedo to support encampments UM. And you
know, one of our one ofour big concerns right now in the community
is is the community really working?You know, and we know that people
care and care about the issues ofour neighbors, but we really often feel
(26:30):
that the effort is much more tonot see homelessness than to actually end homelessness.
UM So we have a current postingabout that. UM It's on all
of our social media LinkedIn UM,Facebook, Twitter, um so. So
we just want to continue to havethe conversation. And we know that sometimes
from our perspective, people might notagree with with how we see it UM
(26:52):
and we understand the impacts people haveUM through some of the other things that
happen within our community, and ourcommunity is under a lot of stress right
now, and but we want butwe want to at least if even if
people don't agree, we want tohave the conversation with you. We want
you to ask the questions. Wewant you to try to see it from
(27:15):
a different point of view. Andbecause we're on the ground, because we
believe we have a moral obligation aswitnesses to what actually happens within our un
housed community, that we need toeducate and provide that be one of the
many providers that really tells people,helps people understand, helps people have a
(27:37):
better sense of empathy for what manyin our community are going through. So
so we will continue to do that. And again, please don't please think
of it not as I disagree andin a judgmental way, but rather a
way to open the conversation, becausebecause we want all of us to be
having that conversation. Absolutely, Ican attest. I receive your newsletters and
(28:02):
I find them super helpful, andI just appreciate the dialogue. And you
know, all of these things arechanging so quickly, and how you and
your team have really been flowed tomeet the transitional needs of people during the
pandemic. I think to not missa meal for the entire duration of this
is incredible. SOB, just beforewe go, is there anything else that
(28:23):
you feel that we haven't touched onthat our listeners should hear before we wrap
up our interview today. I think, well, one thing that when you
said about the success of not missinga meal, I think all of us
are looking at at celebrating the successeswe did have. Otherwise we're going to
look back at this year and justfeel it was a total disaster and it
(28:47):
has been a really hard year,and we believe it's gonna continue to be
hard moving forward. So we allso we want everyone to celebrate with us
the successes we had and getting through, but we also want to want to
put forward the understanding that while infectionspread might be going down, which is
not right now, but eventually we'llbe going down UM and while we all
(29:11):
become vaccinated and safer, we stillbelieve that that this is going to be
a really bad year going forward forour communities that are that are really UM
on the edge of if they're notalready unhoused, the people that are close
to becoming unhoused. UM. Webelieve it's going to continue to be a
really hard year in the community forour bipop community. UM that that we
(29:36):
still haven't done enough to address ourdisparities, to address our UM A lot
of the a lot of the issuesthat go on in community, a lot
of the racism, hate and angerUM that continues to fester or you know,
even boil over strongly in our inour community, and that makes everything
(29:57):
that the people we serve experience evenharder. So I know that sounds kind
of pollyanish, but I hope wecan move forward with a lot of love,
a lot of care for each other, and a lot of kindness,
and that everyone remembers to be kindmoving forward, because because it's been hard
for all of us, but wehave to always remember there was someone that
(30:19):
had it even harder. If foranyone that that experienced all this pain with
a lot of supports in place,that we had other people experiencing even more
pain without those supports there. Sowe're not seeing pie in the sky clear
light in the future. We're seeingbut we believe it can be there if
(30:42):
we all come together, if wework together, if we care about each
other, and um, you know, I think it's the first time,
even you know, I have adoctor in public administration, I teach management.
I think it's the first time wewere like constantly talking about love as
a management strategy and love as aleadership strategy, and we really need that,
(31:03):
we need to come out of ourhearts and care for each other.
Oh, I love that so much, And yes, it's I think it's
a perfect message to end on thatwe're not done. The work isn't done.
We need people to continue to takeaction, and you know, love
is sort of the foundation of that. So thank you Deb so much for
sharing with us information about your programshow we can continue to take action.
(31:27):
And we're so grateful for your partnershipand your leadership in the community. And
just can't thank you enough for allthat you do well. And you know
we're grateful for you and the workyou do and how you connect with all
of us, So I return thatappreciation. Thanks Deb. We thank Deb
(31:52):
so much for joining us for thisconversation. I hope you all learned as
much as I did. I encourageyou to visit both the House of Charity
and Say Steven's website to sign upfor their newsletters. So many great updates
and ways to get involved. Houseof Charity and Saint Stephen's are examples of
our many partners who provide support tothose experiencing homelessness. As always, you
(32:14):
can head over to hands on twinCities dot org to find many ways to
volunteer to provide basic needs to peoplein our community. Every one of us
experiences challenges in our lives, butby being part of a community that doesn't
give up on anybody, we willbuild a brighter future for us all.
(32:35):
Thank you so much for listening.For more information about Hands on Twin Cities
and to follow us on social media, heads to our website. Redefining Volunteerism
is the production of Matriarch Digital Mediaexecutive producer Twila Day and producer and editor
Beth Gids and special thanks to SarahEdwards, Grace McAvoy and Ella Cochrane.
(32:57):
From some great people, let's outthere and see the change. Together we
can build a more equitable and thrivingcommunity.
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