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- A major new effort to help the homeless in Memphis, tonight on Behind the Headlines.

[intense orchestral music] I'm Eric Barnes with The Daily Memphian.

Thanks for joining us.

I am joined tonight by Kelcey Johnson Executive Director of the Hospitality Hub.

Thanks for being here.

- Good to see you.

- Ellen Roberds is a Principal at Dragonfly.

Thank you for being here.

- Thanks for having us.

- Along with Bill Dries reporter with The Daily Memphian.

Let's talk, I guess maybe we start with some sense of the scope and scale of the homelessness problem and the homelessness challenge.

So I'll go to you on that Kelcey, in terms of, and I don't know how you quantify it, but the number of people and the ages of people, how do you quantify the challenge and the problem?

- Well, we have a diverse homeless population here in Memphis.

The bigger part, of course, African-American but you see some of everybody 'cause anybody can experience homelessness.

We're on track to count, by way of intake, twenty-seven hundred homeless people here in 2021, there was 2,500 or so last year.

And when I say by way of intake, that means if I bring you in and sit down with you for the first time, I never count you again.

- Okay, and that's through the hub or through any of the various myriad- - That's just through the hub.

- So the total number of homeless could be twice that maybe.

- I don't think it would be twice that, but it'll probably push close to 3500, 4000.

- Go ahead.

- The thing that's unique about the Hospitality Hub is everyone sends you to us.

Be it shelter program, be it the police, be it people who you run into on the street.

If you're somebody who's experiencing homelessness, people are gonna send you to us.

People who exit jail and prison come to us.

The VA, since veterans who are getting out are homeless or housing insecure, they send them to us.

And so we get a large number of those people who are homeless.

- Yeah, on your website, you list the partners.

And it's a list that I to try to get through.

Churches, clergy, government agencies, other nonprofits, other missions, all kinds of places that you all work with.

So you're located, before I get to Ellen here.

You're you are located now downtown.

You have multiple locations or do you- - We have the Hospitality Hub proper is at our plaza at 590 Washington Avenue and our larger building is under construction, right behind that building.

We have another property called the Hub Hotel, which is located in midtown, 28 North Claybrook.

And then we have another property called Hub House and that's in south Memphis.

But our main building is at 590 Washington Avenue.

- Okay.

I might bring Ellen in and there is a massive project, I mean, the hub has been around for quite some time, but the new thing is this massive project.

And I think at some point we'll have some renderings of what's going in down it's what Poplar, and Danny Thomas and Washington, do I have the basically bordered by those?

- Yes, actually at the same site on the, where...

So right now we're working out of what we call the plaza, which was originally set up as a satellite site, as we built the building for our location, which was at 82 North 2nd.

With the pandemic, our lives changed pretty dramatically, Kelcey and his staff in particular.

And so the Hub Hotel became a pandemic response, The Hub House became a pandemic response for non-congregate shelter options for folks.

In the meanwhile, we shifted from 82 North 2nd to the plaza because it's safer.

It's safer for the staff 'cause they have more space.

It's actually outside where they're working and able to do intensive case management with folks.

So adjacent to the plaza is where we're building the building and an extended part of that plaza public park.

- Public park, and this is the property, the other people may be familiar.

This was the inspection station, the downtown inspection station when we still did that in Memphis and it was a massive and sometimes these massive 10 rows of lines of people coming in and out.

Your role with Dragonfly in this project is what?

- So Dragonfly is a social impact firm, and we have a number of projects that we do, but the hub is sort of near and dear to the hearts.

I worked downtown 14 years ago when downtown churches created the hub.

And so I was part of the founding group for the hub.

And I've been involved in a number of ways since then.

And so now Dragonfly provides support doing fundraising, capacity building, HR, financials, compliance with the concept that Kelcey and his staff do what they're excellent at.

And that's being with homeless people, people experiencing homelessness, people who need pathways out to their next step in life.

- Kelcey, I know several people who work as part of the hub and the effort that's been going on in evolving over a number of years.

With the new location, you don't just wait for people who are experiencing homeless to come to you.

It's not that simple.

You have...

I mean, this is what I guess someone in economic development would call labor intensive, very labor intensive work.

You meet people where they are, literally.

- We do, and we have a street outreach team that goes out and seeks out people who are experiencing homelessness and sleeping in places that are not fit for human habitation: bridges and overpasses, abandoned buildings, encampments in the woods of Raleigh and Sycamore View area.

And in addition to that, we have a work local program which draws people in, it's a partnership with the City of Memphis and Downtown Memphis Commission and some other partners that we help to reduce blight in the city of Memphis.

So we were able to hire people who are experiencing homelessness to work for a day, and they get paid that same day as well as they get served lunch.

But the thing that happens is when they come in for that process, they're able to get COVID tested, they're able to get vaccinated.

We're able to get them their state IDs, birth certificates, food stamps, help them apply for disability.

All of these things are happening.

The work that's being done is beautiful and everybody needs a little bit of money.

But the thing that they get is this intensive case management that goes along with them being able to come and go to work with us.

And we have employers who seek us out and ask, "Do you have somebody who can do this particular job or that particular job?"

And so a lot of people who come to make that 50 bucks that day end up getting a full-time job or end up getting their benefits start at one benefit or another, and they ultimately get housed through those programs.

- So, someone who comes in thinking, "Okay, I need some cash, I'm out on the streets or I'm going from one couch to another."

They come in and they're actually on the road to this concept that I think is called rapid rehousing.

- Exactly, and that's one of the avenues we use for rapid rehousing and really, I can't help you to exit homelessness if I don't know what caused your homelessness and what's keeping you homeless?

Those are the two questions that we wanna get answered.

And then we wanna wrap you up in supports by using our partners and our caseworkers to help you, if you're ready to go ahead and start on the road to getting out of homelessness, hopefully permanently.

- The site of the inspection station, I think the original plan was to adapt that, and then things changed and there was more support for just building new, correct?

- Yeah, and I'll back up a little bit.

So, Kelcey and I've been in this business for a while in various forms, and we've known that the need for the shelter for women has been anecdotally and in front of our faces for a long, long time.

But what we did several years back was really hone our data system and internal data system for the hub initially, and learned that 37% of our newly homeless individuals each year are women and only 6% of the emergency beds were available for women.

So we took that data point.

The thing that we knew, we now have the data to back it up.

And we were able to build a strong coalition with the city, and with the county, and with philanthropy, and individuals, and Downtown Memphis Commission, and Memphis Medical District Collaborative to build this coalition to secure a site, which became the vehicle inspection station   and to raise the funds   both for the capital   and for operations, once we   open to build the building.

And so the building will host   an expanded hub   operations center,   sort of the day service that   Kelcey has been describing,   including like   a work local room   to help shore up   that program.

And then the women's side,   which will be a   shelter for women,   which includes a   private courtyard.

We've been working with   the national foundation   on the green spaces   called Nature Sacred.

So we're in the process of...   We've raised all the   dollars for the building,   now we're raising dollars   for these green spaces,   which include this   private courtyard   which is a really significant   part of the program.

We're really interested in   women in everyone that we find   to have places to heal.

And we know green spaces   can help with that.

- This is the sort of...   And even what's built   now that I drive past almost every day is the antithesis of a institution.

It is very, very different than anything I've seen in Memphis in the sense of this plaza, these public spaces, the whole sense of it is much more welcoming, I guess, and also much more expensive because of that.

I mean, not to make it about dollars and cents, but that's a big part of this, right?

I mean, this is not a revenue producing effort.

So, the thinking behind that, were there other models around the country that you all looked at that said, "No, we don't want just to house people "in cinder block dormitories.

"We've got to have a kind of welcoming just the aesthetic of it."

- Well-, you mind?

- No, please.

- So, I think the culture of the hub is that.

And then really I would give credit to the city of Memphis and the mayor's office.

They really wanted a place.

So the plaza in the expanded plans, as they get built out over the next nine months includes additional park space.

So right now the plaza, it's very beautiful, it's very useful, it functions anthropologically for someone who needs support, but it will have, in addition to that, trees, hammocks, more sitting places, more shade, more opportunities for rest, as folks need to throughout the day.

And the City really wants that.

Like, we want a place that feels welcoming, that is barrier-free, and gives people an opportunity to feel safe and are comfortable where they are.

In the hub, everyone's an autonomous adult.

Our goal is to provide opportunities, but we're never gonna force someone.

One, it doesn't work, two, they have a right to make a choice.

And so the space and the culture of the hub, I think really are gonna come together very nicely.

- I mean this seriously, but I know it's kind of an almost silly question, but is the mission of the hub to end homelessness in Memphis?

And is that even possible?

- Our mission is to end homelessness for you, for each individual that we can end homelessness for, we wanna end homelessness for that person.

And we strive to do that and we've been very successful at ending homelessness for individuals.

And we've ended homelessness for a lot of individuals, but homelessness is something that's constantly being generated, especially because of the fact that people are constantly aging out of foster care and people are getting out of prison.

That's one of the bigger groups is people who are aging out of foster care- - Which is 18-- - 18 years old.

And sometimes they stumble around 'til they're 20 and find themselves homeless.

They can couch surf for a couple of years and then next thing you know, they're homeless, they're arrested.

They may do 11 months, 29 days at 201 Poplar and somebody directs them to us and we're able to help them.

Then there's also people who are lots and lots of people leaving the military every month.

And some of those people come home and are able to make it.

And some people come home with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries and things like that and they need us to jump in and kind of help them.

And we work with our partners at the VA and Catholic charities to get those people housed, get them back going, get them a job, help them with the VA disability, that kind of thing.

There's always someone who's gonna abuse a woman tonight and she's gonna flee her home.

And the hub is a place that she's gonna come.

Somebody is gonna send her there.

And so homelessness is always being generated.

And so can we end it?

I mean, I don't see it ever ending because it never stops being generated.

- Yeah, Bill.

- Just around the corner as if what's happening at the hub isn't enough, the Union Mission has its expansion going.

How does that... Is there a coordination between your agency and them, or how does that work?

- Union Mission is a very close partner of ours.

We have clients there every day, people who come to us and go to work, or people who come to us and who are getting state IDs, they may call us and say, "This person needs this thing or that thing and we're able to do it for them."

They shelter more men than anybody in the region.

And so they are an agency that's very, very important to the city and the city would be in big trouble without the Union Mission.

We had a person to test positive for COVID last week and we knew that this person was staying here at the Union Mission.

So I was able to call one of the pastors at Union Mission to say, "Hey, we're looking for this guy.

"We can get him quarantined at a different hotel "for the next 10 days while we wait for him "to get through the virus will work its way out of his system."

And so we're very close partners in all of those ways.

- I would imagine that you run across people who are homeless, but who may argue that they're not because yeah, "I'm not on the streets, I'm sleeping in my car for a week or two, "but I'll find a couch somewhere.

I'll find a relative to go somewhere," is that the case?

- That happens with some people, and it doesn't matter what label a person puts on it.

If they need my assistance and they come to our door, we're gonna assist them.

One of the things that we also do is men who work with Shelby County Office of Re-entry and the men who are getting out of prison.

Even if they do go and stay with a relative, with mom, or girlfriend, ex-whatever, we still give them the same services as a person who is sleeping outside.

Because what we found is sometimes people get out of prison and they have a place to land and that place doesn't work out.

So we start working on getting them their IDs and birth certificates and all the things they need to get work, get them apply for food stamps while they have somewhere to sleep and they stay, they come to us needing shelter.

And so we start the ball rolling the day they come to us out of jail.

- And in terms of fundraising, where do you think community awareness is?

How do people view this problem and the solutions to it?

Who are donating money to this effort?

- Well, I mean, I think, just like in every segment of society, the opinions vary and it's always our job to get the message out and to educate folks about what we're able to do and what we're not able to do.

And a lot of that education really sometimes comes around like people view, perhaps homeless camps, perhaps differently than the way the organization views it.

And the way we engage homeless camps, as Kelcey said, we don't believe they're fit for human habitation.

And that most folks there don't wanna be there.

That's not their first choice, but there are barriers along the way to move people from those spaces.

And sometimes the barriers can come from the community supporting folks with food and so forth.

And so we don't... Where we have some, I think always have an education goal.

And we're always learning too, like the pandemic, we've learned so much and in terms of like ending homelessness.

When we get the building and we have this emergency shelter for women and has been such a need for so long, for me, that really helps me clarify the next steps.

So Bill, you are out there, you saw the studios, we've built through some Tennessee CARES funds.

We were able to build five shelters, non-congregate shelters, they're just studios, they're lovely bedrooms adjacent to our bathrooms.

So they don't have plumbing within them, but they're a test case to figure out, 'cause there's so many ways that someone moves out of homelessness 'cause there's so many ways why someone's in homelessness.

So, folks might not be able to handle a group setting either because of COVID, or because of their mental health issues.

And so this allows us to house them while working intensively with them.

And so we're looking at additional funds and seeing how this program, this pilot program works because we're really sharpening the solutions and we do, and it is always generated.

Homelessness is poverty.

It's like a very visible form of poverty.

And we have a very high impoverished population here, and we have more folks who are coming in.

And so it is always generated.

And yet, we think that we are really nailing in, on some solutions and have places to expand and can build up the next five years of the work of the hub for that.

- I've been in since I got vaccinated in early March, whenever it was, my family's mostly on the west coast.

So I've been, in that time, to see family in Portland, in Seattle, Tacoma.

My son lives in Oakland now and lived in LA before that, so I've traveled an odd amount.

The level of visible homelessness in Portland and Seattle, Oakland, and in LA, we have huge poverty issues here, but it reminds you that the country has huge poverty issues and in Portland, in Seattle, especially, just in Portland, I think people can't quite imagine the way their rules are set up.

And I don't even know if I'm criticizing this, I just know it's unbelievably sad to see is there are people in tents, sometimes three to a block in downtown Portland, and they have a right to stay there for certain amount of time based on that the City Council kind of law.

And I was walking by, and I mean this not in a cruel way, I thought to myself first and foremost, it's incredibly sad.

Secondly, no one is served by this.

This person's living on a sidewalk across from a restaurant, or a business, or apartments.

So the homeless person isn't particularly well-served, the homeowner, the business, the residents, and yet it is pervasive in a way that is breathtaking.

I am trying to turn this into a question.

Why is that happening there?

And why is that not happening here?

Are we just doing a much better job or are the rules different?

What is going on that you would think that if that's happening there in a much wealthier cities like Portland, Seattle, and so on that it would also be happening here.

- The thing that I've done audits in other cities, in addition to working here, and the thing that we as a city, as a City Council and County Commission, and mayors, and service providers, we've decided that tent cities are inhumane and we don't want them here.

And so we had, after this protest that happened downtown on Legislative Plaza, after all the protesters left, they left tents and all kinds of stuff for people to have an encampment there.

And it was ugly and it was bad.

And so we worked with the City to get rid of that encampment.

And the way we did it was through smart and excellent case management with us and our partners and some funding from the City to get those people moved from the tents, we went out to the tents with Chick-fil-A and coffee, and tent-by-tent and said, "Hey, would you rather be somewhere else?"

And 94-- - For weeks.

- It wasn't one day.

- An intensive amount of work.

- Yeah, it was a lot of work.

And would you rather be somewhere else?

And ultimately we got everybody to say, "Yeah, we wanna be somewhere."

But one by one, we moved those people from tents to hotels and got rid of all the blight that happened down there.

And from those hotels, some went to rooming houses, some went to public housing, some got housed other places.

We found that some people had income and just didn't know how to manage it.

So, you need to go to drug and alcohol treatment.

And so it could be easier to manage your money, if you can get out of... After you leave a treatment program and sober living.

And so it was like she said, it was weeks and weeks, but we completely erased that tent city from downtown.

- Again, I'm dwelling on this because I just don't think people, unless you've seen pictures of where you see it, Skid Row in LA, which I did not...

I think I thought it was maybe more of a notion than an actual place and accidentally drove through it.

It's what you picture when you see a... You think this happens in war-torn areas.

It is blocks, and blocks, and blocks, and hundreds of tents.

- Right.

- And hundreds of tents.

- Right.

- And a kind of squalor, that's just unbelievably sad for everyone-- - And I promise you, we would have the exact same thing in Memphis downtown, an underpass near St. Jude would have been a huge, huge encampment had we all not worked together not to have that, Legislative Plaza would have grown to 70, 80, 100 tents, but we, as a community, not just the hub have decided that we don't want people living outdoors and we're gonna work together as a community to make people not have to live outdoors.

'Cause when you sleep on a bench for a night is one thing, but to set up a tent with a coffee maker and a microwave in it, and you've given up on traditional forms of housing.

- Yeah, just a couple of minutes left to go back, Bill.

- I also wonder if some of that is a reaction to the rules that are in traditional shelters, is that also a part of it?

- For some people, different types of emotional injuries and PTSD, bipolar personality, psychosis types of things, make it impossible for some people to live in shelter.

And then you have some people who don't like the Christian things that go on in shelter.

So they refuse it because of that.

Sometimes they've gotten in fights or that kind of thing.

And so they can't go back to shelters because they've been so combative in shelter.

And so that does happen, but I don't think that's the main reason people are outdoors, there's other reasons, but that definitely is one of 'em.

- Yeah, this is a matter of someone trusting you to know that they're safe in many ways.

And some of that is rules but some of it is also programming.

Calvary Episcopal Church had a program many years ago now that was actually a writing program for people who were experiencing homelessness and the essays that were read aloud at the end of the program, were, I think, some of the best testimonies I've ever heard or experienced of what it means to experience homelessness, are there those kinds of efforts beyond getting someone into shelter?

- So I think when we have the new building, we'll have the capacity to do that.

We have closed down our volunteer programs since the pandemic, but we believe when we open the new building, and of course obviously where it's depending upon where the pandemic is in March of 2022, we really hope to bring folks back.

They were the backbone for years.

They were the hub, volunteers were the hub for many, many years, we were an all-volunteer organization.

And so that's really a very important part of our system and ideology and so we think we can bring folks back and with that, those kinds of innovative programs, we will have the space and we've never had that before.

And so that's really exciting.

- We can talk much more about this, I should say thank you both for what you do and thanks for being here.

I appreciate it.

Thank you Bill, and thank you for joining us.

Please do join us again next week.

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