Earlier this month, individuals and families had just five days to apply for a housing rental assistance program funded by the federal government that serves Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties. Eligibility is based on income limits and other requirements, with vouchers awarded through a lottery system to only about one out of every four applicants. Demand for the vouchers grew by more than a third since 2023, but obstacles still remain for those lucky enough to obtain one.
Reporter David Dudley wrote about the Housing Choice Voucher program after moving to Bend eight weeks ago to work on “Homelessness: Real Stories, Real Solutions.” The series was launched last month by nonprofit media organization FORJournalism. Dudley joins us to talk about his recent reporting and work on the series, which aims to dispel misconceptions about homelessness in Central Oregon.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Earlier this month, individuals and families had just five days to apply for a housing rental assistance program funded by the federal government that serves Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties. Thousands of people applied, less than a quarter of them actually got vouchers.
Reporter David Dudley wrote about the Housing Choice Voucher program after moving to Bend just eight weeks ago to work on “Homelessness: Real Stories, Real Solutions.” That’s a series that was launched last month by the nonprofit media organization FORJournalism. David Dudley, welcome to Think Out Loud.
David Dudley: Thank you, Dave. Happy to be here.
Miller: Can you tell us first about a family that you profiled, the Charltons?
Dudley: So I met the Charltons at the Housing Works office. Most of the families who apply for that voucher do so online, as required by the process. But sometimes families will go in and ask folks for help. The day that I went there, the Charltons showed up. First it was Mike, and he had a baby with him. And then he was joined by his wife Marina. Totally by chance, they were the only family that I crossed paths with. I asked them if I might be able to include them in the story and they agreed. Very grateful for that.
Miller: How do they fit into the current homelessness picture in Central Oregon?
Dudley: Yeah, that’s a great question. What I understand from Mike Charlton is that he was an independent contractor. And when the baby that they had brought to the office was born, he wanted to take off a few months to be present, to be there for the early days of the baby coming home. He applied for some funds to take that time off, but did not get approved for it. And during that time, the bills continue to pile up, back rent accrues. And as he tells it, they were evicted shortly thereafter.
Miller: Can you explain how the voucher process application works?
Dudley: So my understanding of the process is there’s a one-week window in January, and if I understand correctly, it’s the second week of January each year. You go online, you apply. This year there were close to 3,400 applications. Applications are selected randomly. Then the Housing Works office will reach out to folks to get them to confirm and verify their income. They also do background checks. There are two circumstances that will result in a hard “no.” That includes a lifetime sex offender registry, and folks who have been convicted of cooking and or distributing methamphetamine on public housing property.
If you get past that step, then you’re connected with someone who manages your case, you get the voucher. Then you’ve got 120 days to find a rental that’s affordable. You have to be able to afford the rental you’re applying for. My understanding is that it’s illegal to turn down an applicant because they’ve got voucher income, but it’s still hard for these folks to find a place because there’s a dearth of housing in the area.
Miller: You had some striking numbers. We know that something like under 25% of people who applied for vouchers this year got them. But in 2023, which is when we have more robust data, 572 people were offered these vouchers, but only 183 of them were able to find rentals that would accept those vouchers within the allotted four months. So what does that mean, the voucher just disappears for those people?
Dudley: For those people, it does. But then another applicant will get the resources. And to be sure, let’s say I’ve got that voucher, I go looking for an apartment, I’ve got that four months. If I can’t find an affordable apartment in that time … [and] what I’m being told is, whenever folks can’t find an apartment it’s generally because there’s a shortage of affordable units in the area. In Bend alone, we need to build around 30,000 new units over the next 20 years to meet the demand. Then I essentially surrender those resources and they get passed on to the next applicant. They’re not waiting, they haven’t been told “you’re waiting,” but my understanding is the resources get passed on to another applicant who then gets a crack at finding a place.
Miller: You mentioned the affordable housing shortage. How are the city or the county doing right now with respect to affordable housing construction goals?
Dudley: Well, they’re working towards those goals. A lot of that has to do with zoning, changing zoning laws, trying to make it more attractive for developers to build new and affordable units in the area. But that’s still a tall order at this point. They are working towards it.
Miller: Do you have a sense for how the new presidential administration is going to be approaching these vouchers in this whole system?
Dudley: Yeah, it’s going to be tricky. Scott Turner was confirmed to be the new housing secretary. The trick there, he’s going to be running HUD, but he’s got a record of voting against initiatives that would help low income people acquire and stay in housing. Then also, in 2015, he pushed a bill that would allow landlords to openly deny people who had those vouchers, which right now is discrimination. But he pushed forward a bill to do just that, to allow these landlords to decline applicants who have vouchers and voucher income.
Miller: This is Scott Turner you’re mentioning, former NFL player and former state lawmaker in Texas. But in the flurry of executive orders, I don’t remember if any have specifically already targeted aspects of federal housing policy?
Dudley: Yeah, I’m not aware of any that have done that. But one of the challenges is, if Elon Musk and DOGE are successful in really pulling back federal funding, they could potentially reduce resources available to HUD, which could impact that voucher program.
Miller: As I mentioned, you’ve only been in Bend for about two months. I’m curious what has struck you most about your new home, your new city, with respect to housing, something you’ve been following as a reporter in different cities for a while now?
Dudley: I got interested in homelessness, housing, when I first started reporting in Vermont. I worked for the Chronicle. And what we were seeing there during the winter especially was there were homeless folks that were not being counted because they might be staying with family members, they might be staying in a garage, a basement, in some cases a barn, because it’s too cold there. You’re dealing with weeks of -20°F, you cannot live on the streets in Vermont and survive.
Then I was living in St. George, [Utah,] beginning in 2020. I was there until late 2022. And I was doing stories on folks who were working full time and could not afford to live in St. George. One of those young men was an electrician’s apprentice and he was working up to 50, 60 hours a week. He was living in his truck, he had a camper. He would park his truck on public lands in between shifts and he would sleep in his truck. And that was when I became even more interested in it, because if you’ve got people who are working full time, but they can’t afford to live in the communities in which they work, I think that’s evidence that something has gone awry with the system, with the economy.
Miller: David Dudley, thanks very much.
Dudley: Thanks for having me, Dave.
Miller: David Dudley is a reporter on the “Homelessness: Real Stories, Real Solutions” series that is being put out by the FORJournalism nonprofit.
COMPLETE - checked for spelling and pronouns
Dave Miller [in studio]: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Every year or two, on one day at the end of January, outreach workers fan out in local communities all around the country to count the number of people who are homeless. It’s called the Point-in-Time count and it’s required by the federal government. Given just how central homelessness is to regional conversations about just about everything, we thought we should see what these surveys are actually like. So last Thursday, we tagged along with a group of workers from the Clark County-based Council for the Homeless. It was below freezing, about 28°F, and still dark when we started out at 6 a.m.
Our first stop was a parking lot near I-205. I asked Daniel Rivera, a member of the outreach team, where we were going.
Daniel Rivera: So this is one of the bigger encampments that kind of formed up, maybe like a few weeks ago. With a lot of encampment cleanups, everybody kind of migrates to an isolated area. So what you have is three different areas on the freeway that are kind of isolated away from the public view unless you’re driving. We’re gonna walk down there and there’s like a little cut underneath the trees. It’ll be the initial encampment where maybe you have one or two tents. And when we’re gonna break left, we’re gonna cross over the freeway side when it’s safe, and there should be an encampment of like seven or eight tents. In the middle, you probably have about like another six or seven. And beyond that, on the other side, there’s about six or eight tents on that side.
Miller: And these are places that you’ve gone to before to make some kind of outreach.
Rivera: Yeah, we’ve attempted to make engagement. We’ve met like a couple of random folks out there, just providing them services and asking them if they’ve ever been connected before through the system, and seeing if they’re interested in getting connected with us.
Miller: So why start here in the morning?
Rivera: It’s a good spot, catch people before they head out for the day. You have people that panhandle, you have people that get up and do whatever they have to do in regards to what they need out here.
Miller [in studio]: When we got to the first set of tents, Daniel and the rest of the team went to talk to people but asked us to hold back to give them some privacy. After a few minutes, Daniel came back. He told us two people responded in the first tent.
Rivera: … and the other one, I’m not really sure if they’re here or not. We’re obviously not going to go inside and invade their space. We’re actually conducting one of the surveys there. Nina’s making contact with a couple of folks. We’re going to get them some gloves and stuff like that. They were kind of iffy on more people around. But we’re getting a lot of the information and stuff, getting them connected to our Homeless Connect day too.
Miller [in studio]: I asked Daniel what they say when they get to a tent.
Rivera: Just saying “good morning,” asking if they were OK with us talking to them, kind of just feeling out the vibe, if they were OK with us having a presence here. This is their home, so we wanna be very respectful and mindful of that. And just asking them if they’re interested in talking to us. If they are, then we kind of gauge the conversation that way, continue to ask them how comfortable they feel with questions, if they’d like some resources like items and just figuring out a plan when we can connect the following time to better serve them with whatever they need.
Miller: Do people ever ask you why you’re doing this? Like what the point of this count is?
Rivera: Yeah, we get that a lot. I think that when you’re experiencing homelessness, especially in Vancouver of all places, it’s very cold. And not many people come out here. I think people feel intimidated. And they kind of want to make sure that who they’re talking to is somebody that they feel they can be trusting of, they can feel comfortable with somebody that actually cares enough to ask them what they’re going through. But we do get that question a lot out here, yeah.
Miller: At this point, are there people that you recognize and people who recognize you?
Rivera: Yeah, there’s a lot of familiar faces that come in between each of the encampments. This is like its own little community, so you’ll have a bunch of people that come in and out, and kind of do that word of mouth for you. They’ll be like “Danny, Jason, Nina.” They’ll come out here and get some stuff. So they’re very appreciative.
Miller: And they’ll kinda vouch for you a little bit.
Rivera: Yeah, it’s kind of like a street code kind of word of mouth thing. Everybody’s pretty cool for the most part, especially because we’re respectful of their space. We’re not coming in here to try to push any agenda. We’re just really here to come and better understand what their situation is, to see how we can get them connected.
Miller: How’d you get into this work?
Rivera: I’m actually an L.A. native. But the way I got into this work is I do care for people. I think growing up in a low income neighborhood when I was younger, I was definitely more interested in understanding ways that I can give back. Just kinda something I dove into working about seven years ago. So just fell in love with it and this is why I’m here today.
Miller: What did you fall in love with?
Rivera: I think meeting people, just exactly how they are, regardless of whatever they’re experiencing. Talking to them, giving them the space. Connecting is just what I love about this work. There’s a different story every day. And being there for one another in a community definitely helps get stronger. When people are people and they care for each other, this is just what we do. So it’s exactly how I fell in love with this.
Miller [in studio]: Charlene Welch, the chief advancement officer for Council for the Homeless, was with us. As I mentioned, it was really cold when we started, 28°F. That was a lot colder than the previous year. I asked Charlene how the weather can affect these surveys.
Charlene Welch: It could go either way. People might be more open to services because they’re struggling so much. But there also might be folks who are really deeply hiding because they’re trying to stay warm.
Miller: Are there emergency warming shelters that are open now because of the cold that otherwise wouldn’t be open?
Welch: So Council for the Homeless coordinates what we call a severe weather task force. And the task force helps us create a community-wide response. What that includes when we call severe weather at 36°F – the threshold – the year-round shelters activate to open more beds. It’s not as if they’re holding beds, it’s that they will say we’ll squeeze more people in for this emergency weather period. And then we have some faith communities who will open up. St. Paul Lutheran Church in downtown Vancouver is a very consistent daytime warming shelter. And then Living Hope Church on Andresen is one of our biggest partners in opening an overnight shelter for walk-ins.
Miller [in studio]: Charlene told us more about the back-end of the count.
Welch: We won’t be able to count everyone in Clark County who’s outside. As Danny said earlier, many people are hidden. So the other strategy for the count is we have the survey Danny was talking about being distributed at meal sites, food banks and other other social service agencies, like Clark County Veterans Assistance Center, things like that. And we also count people at Project Homeless Connect.
So then our staff, who manage the countywide database for homelessness services, will take all of those surveys that were collected on paper, all of the data that these folks are collecting on their special counting app, and then spend a couple of months de-duplicating it, so that everyone is only counted once.
Miller: Is it hard to de-duplicate if you don’t have people’s names? Do you have people’s names?
Welch: We have a confidential database called the Homeless Management Information System. And in that system are names. Then everyone has a confidential identification number. So they spend time doing all the cross referencing. It’s really important if somebody is not in the system that we follow up to make sure we do circle back.
Miller: So Danny just said that there were two tents there at that encampment. At one of them, there was no answer. And at the other, they were able to engage with, I think, two people who were in one of the tents. If you see a tent there, do you assume that someone is living in it unsheltered?
Welch: We only count the people that are interacted with. But now that tent that we’re assuming somebody might have been in is on their radar. They’re out every day, so they’ll follow up with that location to ensure that anybody who they didn’t get connected to, they’ll circle back.
Miller: So we’re talking just a couple days after the federal freeze for grants was announced … and then a day after that the freeze was frozen. How has all that affected you already?
Welch: When the federal freeze was announced, it caused great concern for Council for the Homeless, plus many other social service agencies in Clark County. We do receive federal funding for certain programs, including our database, the Homeless Management Information System, which guides all the decisions we make about homeless services in the community. It impacts some of the programs that help people who have been living outside restabilize into a home with all the services they need to to stay healthy and well. And the many other programs around the county.
So what it prompted our agency to do was that we had to immediately sit down and start looking at what would happen if we lose those dollars. It’s a very hard thing to consider. In the middle of that, the next day of course, the notice about the order being rescinded came through. For us, we thought, well, that’s good for now, but everything seems to be in such flux and chaos that we’re not feeling very secure that it’s going to remain that way. And we also know that the other intent is that the federal government is planning to go through every federal contract. I think the quote I saw in the newspaper was looking for “excessive, frivolous spending.” And for us, we know that we are really terrific stewards of the public dollar and the public trust. We take it very seriously that some of our programs have taxpayer funding. And we believe that it allows us to serve not only individuals, but to make the community a better place. That also took us away from our real work, as we spent hours trying to untangle how we were gonna handle the situation.
Miller [in studio]: When outreach workers do their interviews, they ask a lot of demographic questions as required by the federal government. One of them is a zip code of the last place you lived before you were homeless. Over the years, these counts have shown that the majority of homeless people in Vancouver last had a home in Vancouver. I asked Charlene if that’s a surprise to the general public.
Welch: Yeah, there’s a myth that because we have relatively great services, or at least a strong system to deliver services, that people will flock to Clark County. And the data does not bear that out. The people who come from Portland, it’s much less than one might assume. The reason is that people want to stay in the community that they know. They have jobs here, they have kids here, they are going to school here, this is where they grew up. And nobody wants to leave their community to go find help someplace else.
Miller: But if you ask the average person here about the homeless situation, a lot of them would say, “It’s Portland, people are coming from Portland”?
Welch: Thankfully, there’s a growing awareness in the general population of the impact of the economy, COVID and the cost of rent impacting more and more people. There’s a saying that people don’t become homeless when they run out of money, they become homeless when they run out of social support. So if you don’t have a family to lean on who is stable, or friends, then you are much more quickly going to go from housed, to couch surfing, to car, to tent. And that’s what we’re trying to interrupt is that cycle.
The degrees of separation are shrinking because I think most people can point to someone in their sphere of who I know that has been impacted by homelessness one way or another.
Miller [in studio]: Later in the morning, we followed the survey team to a cul-de-sac near a McDonald’s. Three cars and an RV were parked there. Brian Starbuck, a member of the outreach team, started talking to a woman named Hayley, who said she didn’t mind if we recorded their interaction.
Brian Starbuck: Have you already been interviewed today for Point-in-Time count?
Hayley: No.
Starbuck: OK. Most nights you’re sleeping in your vehicle, is that correct?
Hayley: Yeah.
Starbuck: And what’s your nationality?
Hayley: I’m white.
Starbuck: OK. And is this your first time being homeless?
Hayley: Uh, no. I’ve been fighting it ever since my mom passed away when I was 16. I started at 17. But it’s gotten to the point where [it] seems like I can’t move anywhere because of my domestic violence that I’m in. So I don’t know how to get out.
Starbuck: So you’re currently fleeing domestic violence?
Hayley: Yes, currently he is actively in jail.
Starbuck: So how long have you been in your car without a place to live?
Hayley. I’ve been in … this is his car … for four years.
Starbuck: And have you stayed in shelter at all in the last three years?
Hayley: Nope.
Starbuck: And how long have you lived in Clark County?
Hayley: Going on six years.
Starbuck: And the zip code for your last permanent address?
Hayley: It was literally right down the road, so I think it’s 98682. It’s literally right where … you know where State Patrol is? Right over there on 48th Circle.
Starbuck: Some of these questions are a little touchy. Are you actively in addiction or anything like that?
Hayley: No.
Starbuck: Do you have any health conditions, chronic health conditions or anything like that?
Hayley: I mean yeah, so so. I have a weak immune disorder, so if somebody’s sick and comes around me, I’m screwed.
Starbuck: So autoimmune?
Hayley: Yeah, I have a really bad immune system.
Starbuck: Do you have any mental health disorder?
Hayley: Yes.
Starbuck: How about physical disabilities, like bad knees, legs?
Hayley: I have a bad back, but other than that, no, not really.
Starbuck: Are you receiving any disability benefits, something like that?
Hayley: No, not currently. But I do go to my court date for that next month.
Starbuck: And you said the reason you’re homeless right now is because of domestic violence, correct?
Hayley: Yeah.
Starbuck: If you had to pick two things that would be your biggest barrier to housing, what would those two things be?
Hayley: I honestly can’t answer that.
Starbuck: Maybe lack of affordable housing, something like that? I’ll list some stuff off and just tell me if any of those match this.
Hayley: OK.
Starbuck: Criminal history, eviction record or money owed to a landlord?
Hayley: No.
Starbuck: Finding a place that will also accept pets.
Hayley: Yes.
Starbuck: Lack of income?
Hayley: Yes.
Starbuck: No affordable housing?
Hayley: Yeah.
Starbuck: Medical problems?
Hayley: Yeah.
Starbuck: OK. And you said no substance use. So no income right now at all?
Hayley: No, not right now.
Starbuck: Are you getting food stamps?
Hayley: Yeah.
Starbuck: You have a kitty, got one cat.
Hayley: My ex-partner, the one that’s in jail, he found him behind Once Upon a Child back there, just laying in the middle of the parking lot at three days old.
Starbuck: So you need cat food?
Hayley: I need cat litter and cat food.
Starbuck: Are you gonna be here?
Hayley: Yes.
Starbuck: So I can either bring you some later this afternoon, it’d be way later. Or you can go to the ReTails on Fourth Plain. I don’t know how your car’s running.
Hayley: Like [beep].
Starbuck: OK, so then I can bring you some. They also give away free cat food and dog food. So I’ll bring you some later this afternoon. Send me a text with your name and everything. It’ll go to this phone, say “hey, cat food for me later,” and that way I remember.
Hayley: OK, thank you.
Starbuck: Yeah, no problem.
Miller [in studio]: After that survey, Brian told me that Hayley was new to him.
Starbuck: Yeah, I’ve never met with her before. I came by yesterday and there was literally just one tent here. So all these vehicles are new as of last night.
Miller: And they might not be here tomorrow?
Starbuck: Yeah, yeah. You got to chase people down, you got to kind of drive around town to find them sometimes.
Miller: How’d you get into this work?
Starbuck: Well, I grew up in this community. I’ve spent a number of years actually on the streets, these streets here as a youth myself. I eventually got into this work, starting working at a shelter. And I just progressed from working in a shelter to direct street engagement. I’ve been doing this for the last five years. So it was something that was pulling on my heart. I had the chance to give back to the same population that I once was a part of. I got in this work because this is where my heart is.
Miller: How much do you draw on your own experience when you’re talking to people?
Starbuck: All the time. I think it’s more valuable than most books, honestly. You can’t learn the stuff that you learned out here in a book. You can read about it, but you can’t learn it and actually go through the things that a lot of these people are experiencing, like living in a car or fleeing domestic violence, not having nowhere to hide from your abusers. Being out in the open, it’s hard.
Miller [in studio]: At one point, we drove to the edge of Pacific Community Park where we found a few cars, along with a big RV connected to a generator that was rumbling loudly. Danny, one of the outreach workers we heard from earlier, knocked on the door of the RV and was invited inside. After a few minutes, he came back to give us an update.
Rivera: Yeah, there’s about five people staying in there. I think they’re all helping each other out and staying in the vehicle where it’s warm. But yeah, we’re conducting about four or five surveys right now. It’s just a community.
Usually in this area, we have the cars that you see. And lately there’s been some movement where some of them don’t feel as comfortable staying out here, because usually you have the public kind of pointing it out. They kind of like trying to just keep to themselves. But the communities inside, they’re all helping each other out, staying warm. And they’re really interested. They never made contact before, so we’re going to connect with them, get their names and information, see what they’re in need of, and then go from there.
Miller [in studio]: While we were waiting for those surveys to be completed, a police officer named Jordan Rasmussen pulled up next to us and got out of his car.
Welch: We’re with Council for the Homeless.
Jordan Rasmussen: OK, so you guys are working on the situation.
Welch: Yeah, we are.
Miller [in studio]: Charlene explained that she and her team were there as part of the Point-in-Time count.
Rasmussen: You have any luck with contact here?
Welch: Danny has been in the RV.
Rivera: Hi, how you doing.
Rasmussen: Danny, I’m Jordan, nice to meet you.
Rivera: Nice to meet you.
Rasmussen: You have any luck with these folks?
Rivera: Yeah we’re talking to them inside and stuff. We’re gonna start working with them.
Rasmussen: Is that Derek?
Rivera: I can’t really like …
Rasmussen: He’s a Black male with dreadlocks.
Rivera: I mean, given like our HIPAA regulations we can’t really provide any of that information. But we are working with the folks in there.
Rasmussen: OK. Well, I’ll let you keep that information. Am I gonna interfere if I step in front of you or go around you?
Welch: We have a staff member in there right now talking to them, so it would be best if they weren’t interrupted.
Rasmussen: OK, yeah. Because I’ve talked with him a couple of times about camping out in the street. This is probably gonna be number four for him. So it would be best if he would take advantage of your services. Is that where his family’s leaning?
Rivera: Yeah, we’re making contact. And we’re gonna connect them to the resources that they’re in need of, and then we’ll continue working with them.
Rasmussen: OK. And then are these all your cars?
Welch: These three.
Rivera: And that’s my car right there.
Rasmussen: I’ll leave that one alone then. OK. You guys need anything from me?
Welch: Oh, no. But thank you. Appreciate you.
Rasmussen: Have a wonderful day.
Rivera: Yeah, thank you.
Miller [in studio]: Officer Rasmussen walked toward the RV, and I asked Charlene some questions.
Miller: So do I understand correctly that basically police are gonna do what the police are gonna do, but you don’t want your outreach folks to be associated with the police? You just got some trust. They went in there, they’re talking with him. And now police officer, if he goes in, all of a sudden you’re …
Welch: It will change the dynamic significantly.
Miller: And next time you come by to try to offer services, they’re going to be like, “wait, you’re just working with police.”
Welch: Yeah, they could be.
Miller [in studio]: Eventually, a second police officer showed up, leading to a conversation between those officers, outreach workers, as well as the person from the RV that they seemed to be looking for. Later, Officer Rasmussen told me that he was not authorized to speak, so I asked Danny to sum up what happened.
Rivera: So I think you guys saw, we were engaging with some folks and trying to get their information for how we connect people. I think a police officer arrived on scene and began to ask certain questions. And when we engage with folks, we’re always covered by HIPAA, which is the Health Information Privacy Practice Act. So we can’t really share information of who we’re working with and what we’re doing, unless we have consent of the individual that we’re working with. A lot of people don’t know that. So you know when we come out here to outreach, whatever our affiliation is with the person that we’re working with, whatever privacy and stuff they have going on in their own lives, we are very respectful of that and making sure that their rights are protected while we’re serving them.
The police officer was trying to ask certain questions, [we] could not give it. We connected with him letting him know that we are the outreach workers that come out to this area. So if there’s anybody that you find that hasn’t been connected before, you can reach out to us so that we can make some engagement, see how we can get them connected, and get them the stuff that they need, as opposed to just kind of letting them drift off into stuff.
Miller: And then at a certain point, the officer went over there, and then one of the people inside the RV came out and they talked. And you were there. Can you tell me anything about that conversation?
Rivera: I’m not sure if he was comfortable with me talking about whatever that conversation was. But it was just more about their past conversations that he’s had with the police officer in the past. And then we just communicated to the officer that we would help advocate for their placement into the Road2Home shelter. We will continue to follow up like that.
Miller: Do you have a sense for how that whole thing would have gone down differently if you hadn’t been there?
Rivera: I have an idea, yeah. He said they might have probably been arrested, because this is not the first time that they’ve met. But I think that when we’re here, it’s important for our positions to be able to advocate that we are engaging, that they are willing, that they would like to receive services, because that does make the difference I think. There is some sort of public opinion that they might not want to. But sometimes that can be far from the truth.
Miller [in studio]: Gemma Somol was the other member of the team we followed over the course of the morning. She’s a case manager at Council for the Homeless and she was one of the people doing the surveys in the RV when the police showed up. I asked her what it takes to do her job.
Gemma Somol: The work that we do is just caring for people. When you get into this work, it really just requires you to have that compassion. And you can find this kind of work everywhere. As long as you have compassion, whether it’s just being outreach or working in the office doing other things. They can feel that, people who are struggling can feel if you have compassion or not, because they’re already used to being treated or being dehumanized. And I think that happens so often because we’re so comfortable just processing things too quickly and not being in the moment to understand who we’re talking to.
Even now, I’m just angry a little bit still about how our people get treated. And I say “our,” because everyone should feel like they’re your community. Getting into this work, it’s really because I care. But I keep getting surprised here and there about how people treat each other. I still get surprised. I get angry on the spot. In fact, my team was like trying to make me smile on my way here because I’m in every community. And we learn about how we treat each other based on our race, based on our background. And honestly, like all you really need is compassion to know you can love just anybody and care about them.
Miller [in studio]: Before we finished, I asked Charlene when the data they were collecting would be released publicly.
Welch: We typically release the Point-in-Time data and analysis in early March, after all of the background work is done to de-duplicate the data, and then spend some time as our team looking it over and putting together all of the report.
Miller: That’s not that long.
Welch: No, it’s not. It’s a priority, because it’s such an important piece of data. And then we’ll shift our attention immediately into our annual report of all of 2024 data.
Miller: Thanks very much.
Welch: Oh my gosh, thank you so much. It’s just an honor. It’s an honor to do this work. It’s an honor to know folks who are touching the lives of people in need every day. And even though my job is fundraising, education and planning, I’ve never wanted for anything in my life. And I’m keenly aware of that. To be part of a community that’s trying to lift others up is just a real privilege.
Miller [in studio]: Charlene Welch is the chief advancement officer for Council for the Homeless. We also heard from outreach workers, Daniel Rivera and Brian Starbuck; and caseworker, Gemma Somol.
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