Funding Crisis for Friends in Crisis

The Friends in Crisis homeless shelter is receiving no funds from the city of Killeen in the upcoming fiscal year. Families in Crisis directors Suzanne Armour and William Hall come on the podcast to discuss some of the implications.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This episode is sponsored by Big Sox Tire Shock. New and quality used tires. Two locations in Clean and one in Temple. Nearly 30 years in business. Got a flat? They'll get you back rolling.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Welcome to the Inside Clean podcast brought to you by KDH News. My name is Kevin Limite. I'm the city government reporter for KDH News, joined by Dan Lenny, who is my co-host. And uh he's he writes a lot of business stories, and he's also written a lot about the Friends in Crisis homeless shelter. And today I'm joined with two members of Families in Crisis, who that's like the umbrella organization that of which uh Friends in Crisis is under. Uh their homeless shelter located in downtown Green Suzanne Armour and William Paul. How are you guys doing? Doing well.

SPEAKER_05 1:01

Doing well.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

All right. So I mean, obviously there's a lot going on, like in terms of like the budget and like how much uh money is like being doled out to like uh community partners. And um unfortunately, Friends in Crisis did not get any any city funds. And just to be clear, Friends in Crisis and Family City Crisis, they're not city organizations, they are just what are considered to be community partners, which is like groups of organizations that partner a lot with the city, and homelessness being such an important issue, like I believe the city feels like or has felt in the past that it needed to fund like places like family families in crisis and friends of crisis. So I was wondering if you could just like tell me kind of what the situation is right now, being that like we're in this kind of situation in terms of the budget.

SPEAKER_05 2:00

Well, as you know, Tuesday night. They voted to not fund the community partner families in crisis. We were already on the schedule for not being funded, but we were being considered still. And they also tried not to fund some of the other community partners. We did not expect it. So it's put a a damper on our financial forecast. So right now we're reshuffling numbers and trying to figure out what our best next steps are.

SPEAKER_04 2:37

Uh to piggybag off of Kevin, y'all are 501c3, correct?

SPEAKER_05 2:42

Correct, we are.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

And this y'all weren't asking just for money of the city, but also fairly as well, correct? Federal grants as well.

SPEAKER_05 2:52

Federal, state, and local government.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

Yes, sir. How much money have y'all received so far?

SPEAKER_05 3:00

From grants from the federal state and local. For families in crisis or just the homeless shelter? For both. For both. There's a big difference.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Yes, sir. So for families in crisis, what have y'all received?

SPEAKER_05 3:14

Our budget's about 6.2 million currently. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

And then what about the homeless shelter?

SPEAKER_05 3:22

It only received roughly $300,000 last this cycle we're in now. Yes, sir. And it's not looking good at how much we're gonna get for the next cycle.

SPEAKER_04 3:35

So my next question would be is what's gonna happen with the next cycle if there's not enough money to keep the home and shelter operating as planned?

SPEAKER_05 3:46

Well, the plan, if it isn't able to operate the way it currently is, we will start to repurpose the building and run it as a housing organization for families in crisis.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

We already have multiple housing programs and we would house those programs there in that facility.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Absolutely. And what would that mean for the residents who are staying at the homeless shelter? For the residents that are currently there?

SPEAKER_05 4:25

Yes, sir. We will make sure that we house them if they want to be housed before that transaction is finished. We just will not serve any more clients in the shelter.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

And what are the consequences of not being able to serve as many people in the shelter? What are you gonna see on the streets of the city?

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Well, for one thing, they'll they'll it'll be one less conduit for them to get into a housing program because a lot of times now their end their experience begins at the homeless shelter and then they'll transition into another program. So that link will be lost right there. And of course, because there's no other facilities like ours in Killeen, they'll have nowhere else to go.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

So that means more people on the streets.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

There will be more people on the streets.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Aaron Ross Powell Do you think that it's it's something that people are gonna notice?

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Yes. I I think the optics of that will speak for themselves.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

Yeah, and you mentioned before that you weren't expecting there to be any funding this year. And I and I understand my understanding is that generally speaking, like funding for homeless shelters and like any kind of like transitional housing or assistance is is kind of on the downward swing. And I think a lot of that has to do with the current uh presidential administration. Do you guys are you guys finding that to be the case?

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Well, what what that's resulted in is there's been some executive orders that have changed the way HUD would like for folks to operate housing programs. And what they would like to see is a shift from housing first and low barrier services to a more tiered approach, which is where you might have to go to rehab first or you might have to pass certain standards in order to move forward in that system. That's something that they would like to gear things towards. But at this point, our programs will still operate at their current the way we've always operated them, which would be the housing per first principle. You would you say that's fair to assume at this point?

SPEAKER_05 6:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:00

Because our programs are are geared towards domestic violence for the HUD funding and veterans, and both of those still have a housing first component. Yeah. And they're still and TDHCA. I mean uh THN, which is our Texas Homeless Network, they still tell us what kind of policies to run on those programs. Now that can change. We are in cycles for the funding cycle of twenty-seven now. And we just got funded for twenty-six. And we're currently using twenty-three or twenty-four five money. So that's how far back it goes and goes forward. So these effects are gonna come across a long generation of time.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

And you brought up an important point that there just isn't a lot of federal funding out there for homeless programs. What is out there is more specialized and um geared towards special populations, such as domestic violence, such as youth aging uh youth aging out of foster care. Those types of intersections that might make someone a little more difficult to house, those are the types of services they want to see. They also want to see more supportive services and less housing assistance.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

Yeah. At the most recent council meeting, there actually was a group, I believe it was CentexArc, that came up and had like and talked to some of the council members, and they were gonna be working on some sort of project where people could be kind of, I guess it would be called supportive housing. Is that the right way you would say it?

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Transitional, or what would you what would you say, supportive or transitional?

SPEAKER_03 8:59

Transitional.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Yeah, and but you know, the point was made that it only would serve I guess twelve people at a time. So it kind of made me wonder like whether that is like a uh is a the most effective way to to deal with like uh like the issue of homelessness in this city in particular, because there are so many, and because you know, if the only like homeless shelter which is present in crisis can't afford to take on any more clientele, then you know like we were discussing, it's gonna have an immediate and detrimental effect on on the cities. But I don't know if like the city council is completely like aware of that, or maybe like, or maybe they are aware of it, but they're not like necessarily thinking that something like say the 2019 10 city that popped up back then would happen again. And I just was wondering if because I wasn't in the city at that time, but you guys were. Could you just describe what that was like when that happened?

SPEAKER_05 10:17

Well, we had individuals put up tents and camp out on our front lawn, and we allowed it to go on for quite some time by not doing anything. But it got out of hand. So we s we made efforts to stop that, and we had to put a fence up around it, and we had to go in and clean the place up really bad, really quite a bit quite a bit. It it was a real mess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

What was that precipitated by?

SPEAKER_05 11:06

The shutting of the homeless shelter.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

It was a funding shortfall.

SPEAKER_05 11:11

Same funding shortfall. $300,000. That shortfall, we've had that shortfall since we opened. We when we opened, we were under the impression that the city had an ongoing commitment to help fund us to keep that shelter running, and that we would always have at least a $300,000 shortfall.

SPEAKER_04 11:40

One of the things I noticed in the committee, I believe it was Councilwoman Nash King. She was saying that there was an agreement that they had gave y'all the money to avoid certain situations. Do you remind me of what the situations were that she was talking about? Or Kevin, if you remember.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

You mean the 20 the what happened with this homeless shelter closing?

SPEAKER_04 12:04

Not the homeless shelter closing at the council meeting. I'm not recalling. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Yeah, I'm not either.

SPEAKER_04 12:14

Alrighty. Well, to that my next question for that would be is, and Suzanne, this would be towards you because you always talk that we've always talked numbers, especially in the golden days. But if there's an increase in unhoused residents and if Friends in Crisis isn't able to take a lot of people, what's that going to look like for downtown? Just on a statistical level, how many people will be homeless due to domestic reasons, how many veterans will be homeless, and how many families will be on the streets?

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Well, if if you look at our typical census, when the shelter is at capacity, that could be anywhere from 80 to 100 additional people on the street.

SPEAKER_04 12:59

Yes. And with them not having no place to go, what could that look like in the long term?

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Well, of course, when that happens, you have safety concerns, public health concerns. That's just for the community. For them, it, you know, there's all kinds of far-reaching consequences, you know, from being out in the elements, the impact on their health, um, just the lack of access to resources will make that difficult for them to try to work on some sort of stability plan because they won't have a base to put themselves. So I think you'll see people trapped in homelessness a little bit longer or in housing crisis a little bit longer, and that which will of course result in in longer stays on the street.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

One of the things I've noticed in the past is that the community engagement unit with uh KPD has been uh very like supportive of the Friends in Crisis, homeless shelter, and some of the stuff that you guys do. And I'm just wondering, like, because I remember like there was a conversation a year ago around the same topic, I believe, and and one of the things that I believe Sergeant Moore was saying was that it could increase like crime to have the homeless shelter shuttered or for or have to reduce its clientele. And I was just wondering, does when have you had any conversations at all with with anybody from KBD, whether it be Sergeant Moore or anybody else, where they've kind of like had some sort of expectation about like what the what would happen if like the if the worst case scenario seems to have happen, which is very possible that it shuts down or like there is some kind of like lapse in funding and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

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SPEAKER_05 16:11

Well, we have a good relationship with the outreach hot the hot HOT and Kyle Moore. We do a lot of things together, support-wise. They support us, we support them. What you're talking about is back back then he was saying that the crime rate would go up. Uh he still predicts, most likely, and you'll have to ask him, that the crime rate would go up. There's a difference though from last time to this time. Last time the police didn't have as many tools to do something about it than they do this time. And that was because of a governor had said you couldn't put people in jail for being homeless. You can't put people in jail if they sleep on the street. That has changed in Texas. Now you cannot sleep in public areas, and you cannot sleep in front of someone's business if they don't want you there. So that changes that dynamic for them.

unknown 17:28

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 17:29

And if I do recall that. And for everybody else. There was a high amount of costs or trespassing when it came out of home. Unhoused residents sleeping on private property and business, especially on the upper part of downtown Kleene.

SPEAKER_05 17:42

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

Yeah, I believe Yeah, you mentioned that there was a law that passed. Was it like a law against like camping? That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Which becomes problematic if you don't have any shelter beds in your community because then essentially the only bed you're offering someone is in a jail cell.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

Yeah. I mean, is it like a actually like a net positive to be able to just arrest homeless people and put them in jail for like for just sleeping on like a bench or something?

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Yeah. It's it's it's disturbing and it only adds to the barriers they already face. Because if someone is dealing with all these circumstances and they're on the street, and then they'll have a charge against them. So then that's working against them.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

Yeah, it doesn't sound great. It sounds like the type of thing that like you might see back in like the 1930s or something like that, during the Great Depression.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

Well, with that going keeping on the subject, with them not being a lot of resources as there is, and then families in crisis and friends in crisis, if y'all get strained, what could be next? Where could they go within a five-mile radius to still continue getting help? Because I can already see a strain being put on the homeless outreach team because they can only take so many at a time and give them send them to certain places. Has there been any conversations with the homeless coalition team on trying to bring more resources out here, or is everything still up in the air?

SPEAKER_02 19:25

I don't want to answer that, William.

SPEAKER_05 19:30

I don't know how to answer that. The homeless coalition, the local one. Yes, sir. Okay. They said they'll come help figure this out. It's chaired by two different individuals. And I don't know where what they're gonna do, but they didn't say. Because we got a homeless shelter and temple. We also not us. There's a homeless shelter and temple, we got the Salvation Army, then we got our shelters here, and domestic violence shelters, and they are hub for all of that with the local coalition against homelessness.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

It's part of coordinated entry.

SPEAKER_04 20:31

So I guess from what I've seen in other states, one being Austin, they've just moved them out to different areas. How would if Colleen decide to say, okay, let's just move them to a different area, would that benefit or just be another negative?

SPEAKER_02 20:50

It depends where they move them, because if you take people away from the services they need to utilize, a lot of people don't have cars, they don't have money for the bus, they'll be missing out on appointments and necessary services. If if we say, okay, let's get them out of town and put them where it's kind of more isolated and it's not impacting commerce as much. But it's not really effective when you're talking about what people need to do to get through the day.

SPEAKER_05 21:20

Unless you can do wraparound everything services. And basically that's what Arbor of Hope was Arbor of Hope. Was supposed to have been.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

Yeah. That seems like it's and that has stopped.

SPEAKER_05 21:34

And it was out of town. Or out of the area. Not necessarily out of town, but out of the area.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

Yeah, I don't think there's even any plans to do anything like that in the future now.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

There's not.

SPEAKER_03 21:47

I don't think there's any. Yeah. They they just seem to have like I mean, I remember the last budget cycle, they said that they needed to kind of delay it or and not fund it for the time being. But now, like, they Hardly ever mention it at all. I mean, I mean, the Sentex Arcting that popped up at the last council meeting was the only like mention I've heard of any s any kind of program like that in like ages, like a really long time, I think. And you know, and I think that a lot of this like really is just, you know, and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is just a we're just in a situation where there's like not that many resources for anybody. And unfortunately, like the as is always the case, the people who are the have the least get the least, I guess you could say. And you know, and I think that's just the times that we live in right now. I think ever I I think everybody can sort of feel it in some way. And I I imagine like as is unfortunate that that it's like that these types of services are gonna be sort of like cast aside, so to speak.

SPEAKER_04 22:59

Well, Kevin, I can tell you this. I've been over to Syntex Arc and I know they're trying to add more beds, but the thing is, Suzanne, correct me if I'm wrong, but Friends in Crisis holds 75 people.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

78.

SPEAKER_04 23:15

78, thank you. Holds 78, and sometimes just to help people out, they've gone over to close to 100. If they have to shut that operation down, syntax won't be able to hold over 100 people.

SPEAKER_06 23:29

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 23:30

Now there's the question of okay, who's gonna get them there? There's not many bus routes where they can just go in, go over its homeless outreach team that's taking them over to Syntex because it's all the way in Temple.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

So And when you think about that, uh last year we served 968 people. And that that was our busiest year, but other years it usually runs are between high 700s and 900. So yeah, that that will make a small dent. I mean, it's a start, but it's not nearly enough units, of course, to address the need.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Yeah, I wasn't saying that like Centex Arc is like a bad organization or not doing enough. I'm just saying that like like considering the scale of the problem, like it's just and and considering what the council is considering, I just don't think it's enough.

SPEAKER_04 24:25

I definitely agree. That's um I'm agreeing with what you're saying. I feel if families and friends in crisis, if things don't get together, it's gonna be another strain for another great resource on the community. Because there's so many things to think about and so many questions that's gonna ask on how can we solve this, especially and not to make it too touchy, but we have to think about the youth who are homeless and they still have to go to school out here. Is it good if we move them away from their home just so they could have a house?

SPEAKER_03 24:55

Yeah. Have housing. Yeah, which reminds me of when I did go to the shelter and talk to talk to a young kid who said that he wanted to be an archaeologist. I mean, you know, it and one of the things that they were saying to me was that there weren't enough resources in the area for when they had to leave the shelter, like for example, you know, go somewhere where they could like possibly maybe get some job training or get get this or that. I mean, you know, stuff like that would be really like beneficial, you know.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Yeah, and we're constantly looking for sources for that that we can refer our clients to, but unfortunately, a lot of times training does cost money.

SPEAKER_03 25:42

No, it does. I mean, and I you know, uh the city manager uh Ken Kagel made this point during the meeting on Tuesday where he was saying how historically Kleene has been a uh poor city, I guess, so to speak. And you know, you know, I'm not really 100% sure like what the origin of that is. Obviously, the military base makes like people more who who live here more transient than nor than they normally would be elsewhere. But, you know, I think that that was that's an important point to consider because it seems like when COVID happened, there was actually like some, I mean, I don't want to say the benefits to COVID, but there were some like positive things that happened. For instance, like like he mentioned, the sales tax went up. And also they got a bunch of money from the federal government to do a bunch of different things that they normally would not be able to do. And, you know, now of course that money's gone. And now the economy appears to be going on the downturn as well. So, you know, we're just kind of left to deal with what we have, I suppose. You know.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

And I think that is compounded when you mentioned the military making the community transient. And I'm not necessarily sure this is related to it being a low-income community, but when you look at homelessness, a lot of times what you're gonna find at the root of that is a broken family. And by broken families, I don't mean divorce. It could be divorce, but someone may have died, someone may have a substance abuse issue, someone may have been abandoned. There's just any if what happens, you don't have resources of your own in the community. Like if your parents aren't here, your siblings aren't here, if you don't have a good circle around you, where are you gonna go to get assistance? Who's gonna lift you up? And that that was actually the reason we named the shelter Friends in Crisis, because we were there to be a friend from for anyone who possibly didn't have one and needed assistance.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

Aaron Powell You've even spoken to me as well about families just being in that situation and they're just one paycheck away from being on the streets. Correct. Most of us are.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

A lot of us are Yeah, and there's another thing that I wanted to bring up to you guys as well. So recently, last week, I believe, unless I'm quite mistaken, because it seems like the days are starting to blur. But like there was like a meeting, a special meeting of the Clean City Council, in which they had to decide whether to legally challenge the Board of Adjustment, which themselves had overturned the decision by a building official to revoke the certificate of occupancy for an extended stay hotel in downtown Killeen. And now when that happened, I mean, I was at the meeting and there were a ton of people there who were residents of that hotel who were, you know, it really like almost broke my heart because they were they were just like talking about how they were family, how they like they they really seemed to like rely on each other and have some sort of a community. And you know, you know, it kind of really like was like, you know, hard to put into words how like beautiful and sad it was at the same time. But you know, but you guys were there and you guys like saw the same thing I did. And and just to be clear, this is the the council's decision is not gonna be like an immediate thing. It's gonna take a while. But like what what did you make of like like maybe not even if you if not their decision, just what like the impact of having a place like that closed down? Because you know, the council made the point like that there are safety issues and stuff. I mean, I actually haven't been able to necessarily find any like outstanding code violations, or at least the city is not willing to tell me. But uh just was wondering if I could get you guys thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Well, as you know, rents have skyrocketed over the past couple years. And we as an organization pay about $2.9 million a year on rent in this community. And we've seen that fair market rate go up and up and up. And uh for whatever those apartments rent, for someone who might be on Social Security or maybe even something less, it's probably the only place they're going to be able to afford. There's very few places as affordable as that. And you can correct me if I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_05 30:42

That's correct.

SPEAKER_03 30:44

And you know, they also were saying I think uh one of the council members might have said something like that like property managers would be like willing to like kind of cancel like some kind of fees or something. Do you think like that would make any like discernible difference in their ability to find an apartment at that rate?

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Well, it is the startup cost to get into a place is pretty substantial because a lot of times you'll need like two months' rent to get in. You have to make, you know, a certain port, you have to meet the income requirement, a certain portion of your rent. You know, you can't be over you can't be paying overpaying for your rent.

SPEAKER_06 31:22

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

But I I think people will be very hard-pressed to find something affordable if they're put out. Deposits would help. But I don't see that happening.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

I mean, I can't imagine like if you don't have like a computer or something, like I mean, like, how do you go even go about finding those places? I mean, I I suppose maybe you could go to the library and like do some research there. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

To me, it just seems like a little bit like there's a lot of word of mouth too, but yeah, it it if they if they are forced to move that they will have a difficult time finding something compar in a comparable price range.

SPEAKER_03 32:10

Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean I don't think it's it's easy, but you know, like I said, these are the times we live in.

SPEAKER_04 32:21

So what's what's the plan right now? I mean, it's gonna I want to make sure I'm framing this right, but we keep touching on it, but with resources looking like it's gonna be very limited, and you haven't we haven't even had the hardest month of the year, have we? We haven't had it yet. Nope. Because we're right now in the summer, I'm not trying to make sure I recall all this correctly, because then one thing you've done, you're giving me great information. One of the biggest worries is health.

unknown 32:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 32:56

Because being in the heat so long, you face stroke, you face skin grafts, and so many other things. But correct me if I'm wrong, it's February. That's one of the busiest time frames.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Would you say that way from January or February?

SPEAKER_05 33:13

Somewhere, somewhere in there. It just depends on the weather. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:19

I'm trying to remember it. Because that was when it's the coldest time of the season. Correct. And y'all need that funding for those moments. Because that's when everyone needs to be inside.

unknown 33:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 33:34

But if y'all funding gets limited and now people are faced to say, okay, what are we gonna do? Because our main resource is now gone. What is y'all's conversation right now when it comes to how are we gonna make sure our residents don't have to worry about that what if process if y'all can't help that?

SPEAKER_05 33:58

They would probably have to call 211 and then they would connect them to emergency management. Emergency management is the one that makes the decision or makes the recommendation for a cooling station or a warming station and where it would be at.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

Also, ironically, like the same day they had that council meeting about the uh the Gray Street, it was like extremely hot that day, and there was no warming center open. I mean, sorry, cooling center open. And I was just you know, it was it's kind of hard to believe. Like I I the the the guidelines to to open up a cooling center, like is like I believe it was like you had it had to be like 110, like the field temperature or something like that. I mean that I mean to me that's kind of nuts.

SPEAKER_04 34:56

That's correct. Sir, so what's the latest that y'all been that y'all have been hearing since well as of today? What's the latest that y'all heard on what where fund can go? Have y'all not heard anything yet?

SPEAKER_05 35:13

No, we have not.

SPEAKER_03 35:18

Yeah, I mean do you think that it's gonna get any better like like in the future? Like, are you gonna be able to do you think you're gonna be able to secure more funding as time goes on? You think like maybe there's anything worth being optimistic about in terms of that?

SPEAKER_05 35:38

For the homeless shelter program, no. No. At this part with the economy, with current administration, and all the things that we see in the horizon, I do not see that happening.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Well, yeah, that's tough. But it's I'm glad that you guys are here to like tell us about anyway, because I think people should know like that that these things are happening and be at least be aware of it.

SPEAKER_04 36:12

So I've been building I've been building on this question for some time. I think I finally found out how I'm gonna really ask it. So, Kevin, feel free to chime in on this as well. We all know how businesses in downtown feel about the homeless community as it is. And right now in my head, I'm seeing the worst case scenario is we're gonna have an influx of unhoused residents, which will not just impact the amount of customers that the potential and current customers come into downtown, it's gonna mess with the incentives. I know that's happened with some businesses that come in, they say, okay, if we come to downtown, this can't be in place. And there's been council meetings about that. If the worst was to arise and now we have a high influx, and now there's no businesses coming in, there's no customers coming in, and all in all, downtown Kleina's losing money, do y'all think that that'll be enough for the city that's that would grant y'all the fund, or will it take more than that?

SPEAKER_05 37:21

I wouldn't I wouldn't have a clue at this point.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

I think there's a lot of misconceptions about how much it costs to do this work. And I think that puts a lot of people off. They think it's too expensive. But what you have to understand is that it's very different working with this population in that environment. There's a tremendous amount of responsibility on staff as far as safety and the care of the residents. So, you know, we do have numerous employees that we're paying. And a lot of people think you can do all this with volunteers. Well, volunteers are awesome, and they really can further your mission and get so much done. At the same time, it's very difficult to rely on volunteers all the time. And I I just think there's a real lack of awareness about how much it costs to do this very complicated work.

SPEAKER_04 38:23

Absolutely. That's the only one that has that question because what y'all do is very important, especially for what the city asks, what business asks, and y'all complete it every time, but it's not cheap doing it either.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

It's not cheap and we can only impact outcomes so much. We can provide all the services possible to get someone stable and independent. But if the opportunities aren't in the community, if the jobs don't pay enough, if the apartments aren't affordable, these are all beyond our control. These are the community's issues, they're society's issue if everything costs too much money. We can't impact that. So a lot of times when people say, well, these outcomes aren't what we'd hoped, is there there's a lot of other factors beyond our control. And of course, there's humans involved. And you know, people are only going to do it, a lot of times only gonna do what they're ready for. Some people aren't ready for housed, some to be housed, some people, it's gonna be really difficult for them to get those documents together to be housed and just to maintain. So those are all factors beyond our control.

SPEAKER_04 39:32

Yes, I mean I'm glad that you touched on that. Just for one resident, how long does it take for them to be in stable housing?

SPEAKER_05 39:42

Each each person's got a different set of stuff they come with. Needs, different kinds of needs. So it's not everybody's getting housed in 30 days. Some people can get housed in less than two weeks, seven to ten days. Some people can it may take sixty or ninety days, especially if we're looking for something like a birth certificate out of state or or out of country or ID cards, driver's license, if they're out of s getting r getting new ones because they've lost them. Social security cards. Only way you can see social security without an appointment. And their appointments are like three, four months down the road, and they also require all them other documents to see social security. So it's a snowball effect if the things that could take them longer to be housed. And we have them, they're looking for a job if they don't have one, everything else. So there's a lot of factors. Average is about 28 or 29, 27 to 29 days, roughly.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

Yes, our SSBF pro program can do it a little faster, but a lot of times those bets are already already linked to systems, and so they'll have the next necessary paperwork. But again, every every person is different, and housing them is never a one-size-fits-all. Just like success looks different for everyone, too.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

Um and then the dull of resident in the year, let's say the resident happens to have mental illnesses and needs to have the proper medication. How long does it take for them to get the right medication and then go through the process of being housed on average?

SPEAKER_05 41:47

That depends. On okay, on that sounds out of our control again. They go to the emergency room. Either they get referred for mental health or they get told nothing's wrong, we didn't let them go back to the street. So I mean in a perfect world, they would report to a mental health facility directly or through the emergency room, and then they would get treatment immediately. And then it takes time for that those medications to kick in and start actually making an effect. And then they could start moving on.

SPEAKER_03 42:30

Yeah, mental health complicates everything. Big time.

SPEAKER_05 42:33

It does. Because it's you know a lot of times they don't even have a support system. If when they come to our place. Because there again, that's that it's something's happened broken families that has broke that family from wanting to help.

SPEAKER_03 42:52

And Dylan, you mentioned the downtown businesses. I I think it's like just like this whole thing is just very badly timed for them specific, also, because like if you know, I mean, they just were given like the Main Street designation, which is like a feather in their cap kind of thing, you know, like it's it's a designation given by the states, and it's it these open a lot of possibilities to grants and that sort of thing. And they they just got this, and now there's a there's problems with the with the budget, and the homeless shelter is not gonna be funded, and there's gonna be more, potentially more homeless people out on the streets in downtown Killeen. I mean, that cannot so you know, and the city of Kaleen has you know invested heavily into trying to revitalize downtown. Uh so I mean, so so just just like just meant you know, kind of picking and backing off what you were saying. I mean, it it doesn't seem like that this is ex this is where they want things to be going. And yet here we are. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 44:10

It's just gonna cost money at the end of the day. Yeah. It's gonna cost more money than it should.

SPEAKER_03 44:15

Yeah, money that's not there.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

And we understand the position they're in. You know, the the budget is tight, and they have a lot of challenges and they have a lot of things to consider. And I would I would I wouldn't want to be the one making that choice.

SPEAKER_03 44:32

Yeah, I could get that. But still, I mean uh like I think it's it should be like at least a priority to keep it at full capacity if possible. You know, I think that there's plenty of things in the budget that can be cut if necessary.

SPEAKER_04 44:52

Yeah, and I mean, I didn't I don't see what they see. I'm not looking at what they're looking at to make the decisions that they're making. But from my personal standpoint and just from what I've seen of what I've reported for a year now, I don't think cutting y'all was would be the wisest choice. Continue to go through with that motion, knowing what's good what can happen, what it can hinder, and what it would cost at the end of the day, especially in the long term. I I just don't see that it's a high risk decision that they're making.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

And I think once again that comes from lack of understanding of the dynamics of homelessness and what this looks like.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

Absolutely. Okay, well, I really appreciate you guys coming, William Hall and Suzanne Armor of Families in Crisis, the Umbrella Organization for Friends of Crisis. We really appreciate what you guys do. So, this podcast was produced by Amita Botchway. Uh, Dalen Chay was the co host. My name is Kevin Limity. Have a great day.