WEBVTT 00:00:00.386 --> 00:00:13.025 - Good afternoon. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service. I'm Steve Wicks, 00:00:13.025 --> 00:00:25.062 - and I'm honored to serve as your president this year. Is that better, Jim? Oh, OK, we only have one 00:00:25.062 --> 00:00:27.710 - speaker today, right? 00:00:30.658 --> 00:00:42.631 - It looks like. All right. Jim Cryway has not lost his sense of humor. Please silence your electronic 00:00:42.631 --> 00:00:54.604 - devices. On this day in history, October 28th, 1914, American physician and medical researcher Jonas 00:00:54.604 --> 00:00:58.398 - Salk was born in New York City. 00:00:58.850 --> 00:01:12.466 - developed the first polio vaccine which was declared safe and licensed in the U.S. in 1955. Funded in 00:01:12.466 --> 00:01:26.750 - part by the March of Dimes, widespread immunizations quickly followed from a peak of 58,000 cases annually 00:01:27.266 --> 00:01:36.533 - polio was essentially eliminated in the U.S. by 1979. Michael Shermuss will share his reflection today. 00:01:36.533 --> 00:01:45.621 - Recently, my brother died of a stroke, and someone asked me if I was taking time to grieve. It got me 00:01:45.621 --> 00:01:55.422 - thinking about what I'm taking time to do, and I thought I'd share that reflection with you today. Take time. 00:01:55.618 --> 00:02:02.286 - I'm going to recite a mashup of a couple of poems. Many of you have probably heard them, but it might 00:02:02.286 --> 00:02:09.215 - bear re-hearing and re-thinking how they are relevant to your life. Take time to read. It is the fountain 00:02:09.215 --> 00:02:16.275 - of wisdom. Take time for music and art. It will feed your soul and bring you joy. Take time to be friendly. 00:02:16.275 --> 00:02:21.374 - It is the road to happiness. Take time to laugh. It is the music of the soul. 00:02:21.826 --> 00:02:28.888 - Take time to work, but don't let work take all of your time. Take time to play, it is the secret of 00:02:28.888 --> 00:02:36.162 - perpetual youth. Take time to exercise, you have one body and should look after it well. Take time for 00:02:36.162 --> 00:02:43.223 - now, this is the only moment you are sure of. Take time to dream, it is what the future is made of. 00:02:43.223 --> 00:02:47.390 - Take time to think and reflect, it is the source of power. 00:02:47.938 --> 00:02:54.445 - And to quote Cat Stevens, we're only dancing on this earth a short time. So what are you doing with 00:02:54.445 --> 00:03:01.147 - your time? As for me, I'm trying to take time to develop an impact community in the most effective and 00:03:01.147 --> 00:03:07.654 - efficient ways I know how. Take time to solve puzzles, be they a jigsaw or the conundrums of living 00:03:07.654 --> 00:03:14.942 - in an age where we have become so negatively partisan. Take time to nurture relationships with people I admire. 00:03:15.362 --> 00:03:22.471 - care for, and with whom I can support their leadership and service. Take time to make the world more 00:03:22.471 --> 00:03:29.510 - accessible and safer for all. Take time to promote joy and gratitude and appreciation. Take time to 00:03:29.510 --> 00:03:35.422 - fight discrimination and injustice and be a resource for those that are struggling. 00:03:35.842 --> 00:03:42.752 - Take time to educate myself about strengthening people and the causes that they care about, about how 00:03:42.752 --> 00:03:49.526 - to better care for the physical world, and about strategic innovations, and then pass those lessons 00:03:49.526 --> 00:03:56.503 - along when people are willing to listen. Take time to share wisdom and stories and insights and wonder 00:03:56.503 --> 00:04:02.939 - for all the amazing and beautiful things I've seen and people I've met and places I've visited 00:04:02.939 --> 00:04:05.310 - and experiences I've been part of. 00:04:05.858 --> 00:04:12.583 - The old cliché does apply for me. There is never enough time in the day, week, month, year to do all 00:04:12.583 --> 00:04:19.375 - that I'd like to do in my efforts. But I'll keep trying to squeeze in as much as I can. And thank you, 00:04:19.375 --> 00:04:26.232 - my Rotarian friends, for sharing your time and my journey with me. I have much gratitude to be involved 00:04:26.232 --> 00:04:28.606 - with a club of people like you all. 00:04:37.314 --> 00:04:44.738 - Michael, we're certainly sorry for your loss, and we thank you for all the time that you dedicate to 00:04:44.738 --> 00:04:52.236 - this Rotary Club. Very much appreciated. We have no birthdays to celebrate today, but we do have some 00:04:52.236 --> 00:04:59.146 - member anniversaries. Today, Peter Kroner, 21 years with the club. On the 30th, club director 00:04:59.146 --> 00:05:05.982 - Lynn Schwartzberg, 18 years. On the first, Erica Kovacs and Sarah Cochran, both three years. 00:05:06.658 --> 00:05:14.705 - Also on the first, Dick McCaig, 40 years. And finally, also on the first, past president Ron Barnes, 00:05:14.705 --> 00:05:22.832 - 31 years with our club, 53 years total as a Rotarian. Number of announcements. Don't forget the NAACP 00:05:22.832 --> 00:05:31.039 - Annual Freedom Fund Banquet, which is at Ivy Tech on November 1st. Club member Jim Sims is here today. 00:05:31.039 --> 00:05:35.262 - I'm sure he can answer any questions you might have. 00:05:36.162 --> 00:05:43.551 - save the date for the annual club holiday party scheduled for December 11th at the Bloomington Country 00:05:43.551 --> 00:05:50.725 - Club. The Bloomington Rotary Club Foundation is inviting nonprofit organizations in Bloomington and 00:05:50.725 --> 00:05:58.113 - Monroe County to apply for grant funding totaling $10,000 to support projects that will have a lasting 00:05:58.113 --> 00:06:03.422 - impact on the local community. The deadline for proposals is November 5th 00:06:04.162 --> 00:06:11.428 - Please share this with interested community members. The grant details will be online in the roundabout. 00:06:11.428 --> 00:06:18.417 - Also, club member Dave Meyer, who's here today, could answer questions. Local Boys and Girls Club is 00:06:18.417 --> 00:06:25.475 - expanding its tutoring program for children in kindergarten to 12th grade. They're looking for tutors 00:06:25.475 --> 00:06:32.533 - to join a structured and fun weekly program intended to build both confidence and joy in learning for 00:06:32.533 --> 00:06:33.502 - kids to read. 00:06:34.178 --> 00:06:41.760 - focuses on math and language arts. If you'd like to help or learn more, contact Kristen Bateman at the 00:06:41.760 --> 00:06:49.343 - Boys and Girls Club and the information will be in the roundabout. Also, Boys and Girls Club Auxiliary 00:06:49.343 --> 00:06:56.925 - is hosting a one-mile or 5K Monster Dash Saturday at 11 a.m. at Grandview Elementary School. If you've 00:06:56.925 --> 00:07:02.078 - ever wanted to run in your pumpkin costume, this is your opportunity. 00:07:02.562 --> 00:07:10.344 - You can do it in a socially acceptable manner for only $10. The lengthy event will be on the roundabout. 00:07:10.344 --> 00:07:18.275 - Today is our last day until 4.30 today to sign up for Futurecast, which is the annual joint effort between 00:07:18.275 --> 00:07:25.909 - our Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce. The Futurecast itself will be next Tuesday, November 4th, 00:07:25.909 --> 00:07:29.022 - 1115 to 1 p.m. at Ivy Tech's Shreve Hall. 00:07:29.794 --> 00:07:38.353 - The link to sign up is on the club Facebook page last week's roundabout also in a pmail But if you have 00:07:38.353 --> 00:07:46.748 - questions, please see me The cost for club members is $25 So with the event at Ivy Tech next Tuesday, 00:07:46.748 --> 00:07:55.060 - we will not have a club meeting here next week Raila is this weekend? I think they're in pretty good 00:07:55.060 --> 00:07:57.694 - shape but you can be expressing 00:07:58.018 --> 00:08:05.670 - good thoughts to the teenagers and our club member volunteers who will be at RYLA. Finally, we have 00:08:05.670 --> 00:08:13.934 - posted the job opening for the club assistant. I'll see if I can get it included in this week's roundabout, 00:08:13.934 --> 00:08:21.739 - or I can set out a separate female. So this is a position formally held by Natalie. And now it's time 00:08:21.739 --> 00:08:26.942 - for the mystery rotarian. Oh, gosh, we didn't do guests. I'm sorry. 00:08:27.266 --> 00:08:36.018 - Thank you. Tracy has our guest today. You know, it's one of those days. Dad forgot to pick me up. You 00:08:36.018 --> 00:08:44.598 - forgot me on the guests. I don't know. I'm feeling a little left out. Anyway, I want to welcome all 00:08:44.598 --> 00:08:53.950 - the guests that we have. Melissa Van Buskirk, if you could please stand. I have a guest of Ellen Stroman and 00:08:54.498 --> 00:09:03.100 - Michael, I want to compliment you on going after the Jim Bride Award. I think you have five guests here 00:09:03.100 --> 00:09:11.618 - today. If you would please stand and we can recognize you. Shailen Lazar and Alex Krauss from the city 00:09:11.618 --> 00:09:20.220 - of Bloomington. We also have a visiting Rotarian from Maine, James Muroc. And then back to Mr. Shermus, 00:09:20.220 --> 00:09:24.190 - additional guests. And by the way, these guests 00:09:24.354 --> 00:09:31.651 - We're part of the Education Matters program that the Rotary Club, our Rotary Club, helped sponsor in 00:09:31.651 --> 00:09:39.021 - the Democratic Republic of Congo. So please welcome Anne-Marie Thompson and Dr. Jerry Kandaba. And in 00:09:39.021 --> 00:09:46.752 - the spirit of education, even though Jim is not here, we have a guest from Jim who's one of our applicants 00:09:46.752 --> 00:09:53.182 - for our Rotarian Scholarship, Global Scholarship, Jess Smith, if you would please stand. 00:09:55.554 --> 00:10:09.390 - Thank you. Thanks, Tracy, for keeping me on the right track. Now it's time for the mystery rotarian. 00:10:09.390 --> 00:10:23.774 - Ah. Has a rotary president ever been fired during a meeting? Leslie, do we have any online guests today? 00:10:25.346 --> 00:10:33.686 - had Jim Bright's guest. And otherwise, I don't think we have any other guests, all Rotarians. 00:10:33.686 --> 00:10:42.648 - Thank you. Now it's time for the mystery Rotarian. OK, remember the rules. I'm going to give a clue. 00:10:42.648 --> 00:10:52.142 - If you know the answer, put up your hand. Don't shout it out. Those of you online, if you know the answer, 00:10:52.142 --> 00:10:55.070 - put up your hand electronically. 00:10:59.330 --> 00:11:08.121 - here is the first clue. A fifth generation native of Brown County, this Rotarian originally aspired 00:11:08.121 --> 00:11:17.089 - to be an interior designer, but ultimately studied and worked at two universities featuring the color 00:11:17.089 --> 00:11:26.584 - crimson, IU for undergrad and graduate degrees, followed by employment and an elite East Coast institution. 00:11:26.584 --> 00:11:28.254 - OK, I see two. OK. 00:11:29.858 --> 00:11:38.642 - Second clue. This rotarian has been very active at Teacher's Warehouse, serving on their board for a 00:11:38.642 --> 00:11:47.252 - number of years. Do we have any besides our original two? Well, here we have a third and a fourth. 00:11:47.252 --> 00:11:56.211 - Last clue. A club member for over 10 years, this rotarian is a Paul Harris plus one fellow, has served 00:11:56.211 --> 00:11:57.950 - as a club director, 00:11:58.370 --> 00:12:07.155 - and currently edits the roundabout newsletter while chairing the roundabout committee. Put up your hands 00:12:07.155 --> 00:12:11.422 - if you know. Okay, and our answer is Marilyn Wood. 00:12:20.418 --> 00:12:26.917 - Marilyn worked at Harvard, where she supervised collection management, preservation, facilities, IT, 00:12:26.917 --> 00:12:33.415 - and access services over a 17-year career. And Marilyn shared that she has vivid memories of Harvard 00:12:33.415 --> 00:12:40.171 - faculty meetings in which they painstakingly followed Robert's rule of order. And I'm happy that Marilyn 00:12:40.171 --> 00:12:43.774 - was able to get out of the meeting to be with us today. 00:12:47.458 --> 00:12:54.904 - Marilyn kept off her career as director of the Monroe County Library, where, among other things, she 00:12:54.904 --> 00:13:02.277 - led the planning for the new Southwest branch. This is Marilyn's first year editing the roundabout, 00:13:02.277 --> 00:13:09.944 - and she's maintained that publication's tradition of excellence. And I saw Judy and Sally. Did you have 00:13:09.944 --> 00:13:17.022 - it right on the first clue? OK, good job, Judy. And then Leslie, did anyone have it online? No. 00:13:17.410 --> 00:13:25.958 - We're just here for the fun of it. Well, congratulations, Maryland. Rotary International, seven areas 00:13:25.958 --> 00:13:34.505 - of focus. I've shown this slide a number of times. And then we're coming to the end of October, which 00:13:34.505 --> 00:13:42.718 - is Economic and Community Development Month. And finally, I threw in a picture of Dr. Jonas Salk. 00:13:47.042 --> 00:13:56.065 - And I think we have time for happy dollars. Good afternoon. Today, I'm also representing pals. You know, 00:13:56.065 --> 00:14:04.744 - they were devastated by the tornado in May. So there are calendars I'm selling on their behalf. 100% 00:14:04.744 --> 00:14:14.110 - goes towards the rebuilding, which they are going to rebuild. It's in process. So I've got $20 for our club. 00:14:18.498 --> 00:14:27.456 - Yeah. So we'll have to put 20 on my bill. I just wanted to thank everyone in this room for all the wonderful 00:14:27.456 --> 00:14:35.757 - cards that you all sent to Charlotte last week. You don't know how much that meant to her. She is in 00:14:35.757 --> 00:14:44.798 - hospice and doing as well as Charlotte can do. But the letters and love that you sent meant the world to her. 00:14:52.162 --> 00:15:01.211 - I think Charlotte would want me to share my love of baseball, and that is $20 in honor of Bloomington's 00:15:01.211 --> 00:15:10.260 - own Will Klein, who, graduate of Bloomington North High School, finished the final four innings of this 00:15:10.260 --> 00:15:19.135 - morning's Game 3 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium, getting the win. It was an incredible, gritty 00:15:19.135 --> 00:15:21.310 - performance. Will Klein. 00:15:21.762 --> 00:15:39.422 - Is there anybody online or? Ellen is here. Thank you. And that's me. And I want to contribute $20 00:15:39.522 --> 00:15:49.470 - for the honor of being a Rotarian here. I was very, very busy in Wisconsin and all many, many cities. 00:15:49.470 --> 00:15:53.566 - So I'm thankful to be here and celebrate. 00:16:11.906 --> 00:16:19.007 - Happy dollars again for Charlotte at the event talking about the proposed Monroe County jail hadn't 00:16:19.007 --> 00:16:26.462 - been over more than 20 minutes when she was on the phone asking me how it went and what press were there 00:16:26.462 --> 00:16:33.705 - and how the other panelists had done and just what a remarkable gift and she said my mind is a little 00:16:33.705 --> 00:16:38.462 - hazy but these are my questions and there were about 10 of them so 00:16:41.986 --> 00:16:49.112 - Hello, I'm sorry, I'm driving. I'm on the Carbon Canyon in California. Happy dollars for Charlotte, 00:16:49.112 --> 00:16:56.381 - $20 from Gerona, and for a good, I'm having a good time in California. I'll be back to Bloomington in 00:16:56.381 --> 00:17:03.578 - November. Sorry again, I'm on the highway, but I had to say this. Thank you. I guess it's okay for a 00:17:03.578 --> 00:17:05.502 - visiting Rotarian to just, 00:17:05.794 --> 00:17:12.398 - I haven't been to order meeting here since the 1970s when I helped found the Bloomington North Rotary 00:17:12.398 --> 00:17:18.937 - Club and then left Bloomington and. I have a son who went to school here so I got back here some now 00:17:18.937 --> 00:17:25.670 - and then, but I'm just glad to be here and see that Rotary is doing so well here. The Bloomington North 00:17:25.670 --> 00:17:32.404 - and I understand meets elsewhere now, but I remember those days when we were struggling to get started, 00:17:32.404 --> 00:17:33.310 - so it's good. 00:17:37.122 --> 00:17:46.333 - So I'm just visiting too, but some of you know me. So I'm giving $20 in memory of Elsa Marston, who 00:17:46.333 --> 00:17:56.190 - many of you know and loved. We all loved her so much. And for her wonderful book, which is being scheduled 00:17:56.190 --> 00:18:06.046 - and sent out to the Congo. Thanks to you all for your support. Dr. Jerry Kindombay speak for him also that 00:18:06.146 --> 00:18:16.309 - He gives great things for all the Rotary Club did for the Congolese Children at the school where he 00:18:16.309 --> 00:18:26.574 - works. Thank you. Thank you. I'm surprised nobody has already brought it up, but I want to cheer for 00:18:26.574 --> 00:18:33.790 - the Mendoza brothers and the IU football team. And I learned that they 00:18:34.210 --> 00:18:43.369 - our third generation Cubans. So let's remember our immigrants and refugees at this time. Thank you. 00:18:43.369 --> 00:18:52.986 - Thank you all members and guests alike for your generosity. The Bloomington North Rotary Club, if you're 00:18:52.986 --> 00:19:02.878 - still in town, meets Thursday noonish at the Crazy Horse. So I'm sure they'd love to see you there as well. 00:19:03.810 --> 00:19:12.059 - Um, Megan Nice will introduce our speaker today. Hello everyone. I am pleased to be able to introduce 00:19:12.059 --> 00:19:20.308 - our speaker today, which is Mary Morgan and Mary Morgan is the executive director for heading home of 00:19:20.308 --> 00:19:28.881 - south central Indiana, which is a relatively new Bloomington based nonprofit that's working to strengthen 00:19:28.881 --> 00:19:31.550 - housing security in this region. 00:19:32.226 --> 00:19:38.008 - She currently serves on the boards of the South Central housing network bloomington housing authority 00:19:38.008 --> 00:19:43.676 - and it's summit hill Community Development Corporation the bloomington urban enterprise association 00:19:43.676 --> 00:19:47.134 - and downtown bloomington ink so she's got lots of free time. 00:19:47.746 --> 00:19:54.493 - And she's also a member of the Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition Steering Committee, which is a statewide 00:19:54.493 --> 00:20:01.175 - advocacy group and she's also served on the Landlord Engagement Task Force for the Indiana Housing and 00:20:01.175 --> 00:20:04.094 - Community Development Association Authority. 00:20:05.154 --> 00:20:12.046 - She's a former journalist and she is a graduate of Indiana University and she lives in downtown Bloomington 00:20:12.046 --> 00:20:18.555 - with her husband who some of you might also know journalist Dave Askins of the B Square Bulletin. And 00:20:18.555 --> 00:20:25.064 - just you know getting if you've known Mary or if you've collaborated with her on anything I think you 00:20:25.064 --> 00:20:28.574 - probably know Mary has just this lovely demeanor and a 00:20:28.834 --> 00:20:35.330 - It's a demeanor that lends itself really well to bringing diverse groups of people together to collaborate 00:20:35.330 --> 00:20:41.645 - around a common good. And that's exactly what we need when it comes to housing and security. So I think 00:20:41.645 --> 00:20:47.777 - she's the perfect person for the job. And she also brings, I think just in addition to her kindness, 00:20:47.777 --> 00:20:54.334 - empathy and pragmatism. So I think you're all going to really enjoy hearing from her today. So Mary Morgan. 00:20:58.498 --> 00:21:05.363 - Thank you. I feel like I need to lower expectations now after that. So it's great to be here. Thank 00:21:05.363 --> 00:21:12.364 - you for having me. It's great to see some familiar faces and then some people that I haven't met yet. 00:21:12.364 --> 00:21:19.572 - So I hope that we can connect in the future. I'm going to be talking about a really challenging subject, 00:21:19.572 --> 00:21:24.446 - as you all know. But I hope that the title of my presentation reflects 00:21:24.546 --> 00:21:30.980 - What I want you to take out of here, which is radical optimism and the belief that though things are 00:21:30.980 --> 00:21:37.414 - very challenging, we can make a difference and we can improve the lives of many of our neighbors who 00:21:37.414 --> 00:21:43.784 - are in difficult situation now. Doing all right on the audio? OK, great. So I'm going to talk about 00:21:43.784 --> 00:21:50.218 - today's goal. I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the common misperceptions that folks have 00:21:50.218 --> 00:21:52.766 - about people experiencing homelessness. 00:21:53.570 --> 00:21:59.951 - Looking at some of the facts on the ground, we try to be a very data-driven organization, although data 00:21:59.951 --> 00:22:06.210 - is challenging in this sector. Give you some reason for hope, I hope. And then talk more a little bit 00:22:06.210 --> 00:22:12.346 - about what Heading Home does specifically, which I also think is hopeful. And then we'll have a Q&A 00:22:12.346 --> 00:22:18.666 - at the end. I'm told that you run a very tight ship, and that I'll get the hook if I go past a certain 00:22:18.666 --> 00:22:21.182 - time. So we're going to go through this. 00:22:23.394 --> 00:22:30.791 - This is what I want to have happen today. I want you to leave this presentation feeling not only informed, 00:22:30.791 --> 00:22:37.773 - but really feeling energized, optimistic, and hopeful. I think so often we have negative perceptions 00:22:37.773 --> 00:22:44.686 - and rhetoric around homelessness. And I think we need to shift that narrative and frame it in a way 00:22:44.686 --> 00:22:50.078 - that is hopeful. And that is going to help us a long way to get to our goals. 00:22:51.810 --> 00:22:59.068 - I want you to just take a moment, don't have to shout it out, but think about what comes to mind when 00:22:59.068 --> 00:23:06.254 - you reflect on the topic of homelessness. And then specifically, imagine somebody who you believe is 00:23:06.254 --> 00:23:13.511 - unhoused and what image do you see? So a lot of this is going towards what we think about and what we 00:23:13.511 --> 00:23:15.646 - know, and so I'd like to just 00:23:16.002 --> 00:23:23.096 - Keep that in your mind as we go through some of the common misperceptions that people have related to 00:23:23.096 --> 00:23:30.191 - this issue. Most people who are unhoused want to live outside. And I will tell you, all of the things 00:23:30.191 --> 00:23:37.215 - I'm going to say here are things that I have heard. People say to me, and there is always a grain of 00:23:37.215 --> 00:23:44.240 - truth in misperceptions and stigma, but it's just a grain, right? So people who are unhoused want to 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:45.214 - live outside. 00:23:45.442 --> 00:23:52.588 - Homeless people are lazy, they should just get jobs. People come to Bloomington from all over the country 00:23:52.588 --> 00:23:59.734 - because they get services here. If our community didn't offer services, there would be no homeless people 00:23:59.734 --> 00:24:06.746 - here. There are thousands of homeless people in Bloomington, Monroe County. I just heard this recently, 00:24:06.746 --> 00:24:13.555 - thousands of people. They're dropped off here by the busload. Everyone who is homeless uses drugs or 00:24:13.555 --> 00:24:15.038 - has a mental illness. 00:24:15.586 --> 00:24:22.893 - Putting people in jail is the best way to get them off the streets. And not much is being done to address 00:24:22.893 --> 00:24:29.855 - homelessness in Bloomington. So these are misconceptions that I'm sure you hear. Maybe you hold. And 00:24:29.855 --> 00:24:37.162 - what I'd like to do is just talk a little bit about what we know related to some of these misconceptions. 00:24:37.162 --> 00:24:43.710 - Here are some facts on the ground. At its very basic level, homelessness is a housing problem. 00:24:43.938 --> 00:24:51.737 - I do this at every presentation I make. I want you to think of people you know. How many of you know 00:24:51.737 --> 00:24:59.458 - someone who has a substance use problem? Alcoholism, drugs of some sort. Okay. How many of you know 00:24:59.458 --> 00:25:07.179 - somebody who has a mental illness of some sort? Okay. Of all those people, how many of those people 00:25:07.179 --> 00:25:10.654 - are also homeless? Okay. So a couple of you. 00:25:10.946 --> 00:25:18.054 - There's an overlap. But the majority of you who know people who have some kind of substance use disorder 00:25:18.054 --> 00:25:24.958 - or mental illness, they are housed. There are many, many people in our community that don't have that 00:25:24.958 --> 00:25:31.795 - option. Housing at its basic level, homelessness at its basic level is a housing problem. There is a 00:25:31.795 --> 00:25:38.632 - lack of affordable housing for low-income families and extremely low-income families. We'll get into 00:25:38.632 --> 00:25:40.798 - a little bit more detail later. 00:25:41.922 --> 00:25:49.173 - There are subsidies available, but not enough. So we don't have enough landlords who will accept vouchers 00:25:49.173 --> 00:25:56.083 - that are available. I had a board meeting this morning for the Housing Authority. The current number 00:25:56.083 --> 00:26:03.197 - is of the people who have housing vouchers, 36% of them cannot use them because they can't find a place 00:26:03.197 --> 00:26:08.670 - that will accept those vouchers. We need more landlords to be partners with us. 00:26:10.178 --> 00:26:17.844 - There is stigma towards those that are impoverished and those who are homeless. I think that that is 00:26:17.844 --> 00:26:25.585 - one of the challenges that we face when we're trying to build more partnerships with landlords. There 00:26:25.585 --> 00:26:33.402 - is a misconception that every tenant is going to be a challenge and maybe damage the apartment. That's 00:26:33.402 --> 00:26:39.550 - just not true. There is truth in it, a kernel of truth, right, as I said before. 00:26:40.002 --> 00:26:46.386 - But by and large, people who are using these vouchers are just families like ours who need a place to 00:26:46.386 --> 00:26:52.708 - stay. And then for those who do need support services, there are insufficient resources for them. So 00:26:52.708 --> 00:26:59.029 - there are insufficient places for treatment for substance use and mental illness. And that is one of 00:26:59.029 --> 00:27:05.726 - the factors that causes people sometimes, even when they're housed, to become unstably housed or unhoused. 00:27:06.178 --> 00:27:14.445 - So housing is so crucial. Everyone here knows about the affordability issue that affects all of us, 00:27:14.445 --> 00:27:22.877 - but it particularly affects people at the lower income range. In 2024, 60% of residents of renters in 00:27:22.877 --> 00:27:31.310 - Monroe County were considered cost burden. 60%. In Monroe County, and you probably already know this, 00:27:31.310 --> 00:27:34.782 - average rent for a two-bedroom is between 00:27:35.170 --> 00:27:42.465 - $1,300 and $1,500. It's a two-income family making $40K per year, right? And this is many of the people, 00:27:42.465 --> 00:27:49.483 - many of the people in the service sector, many of the people who work in homeless services make less 00:27:49.483 --> 00:27:50.942 - than $40,000 a year. 00:27:51.682 --> 00:27:58.601 - And renting a two-bedroom apartment at $1,400 a month, that means they would be spending 42% of their 00:27:58.601 --> 00:28:05.724 - income on housing alone. That leaves less for all the other things that are also costly, transportation, 00:28:05.724 --> 00:28:13.186 - child care, health care, et cetera. So housing fundamentally is this problem. Regional Opportunity Initiative 00:28:13.186 --> 00:28:19.902 - study. This was done a few years ago and confirmed that there is a severe shortage of units needed 00:28:20.130 --> 00:28:27.647 - at this very low income level, people who can afford to pay $500 per month for housing or less, there 00:28:27.647 --> 00:28:35.311 - just aren't units available. I'm going to talk a little bit now about some data that we have. And this, 00:28:35.311 --> 00:28:42.238 - again, we're speaking to the challenges, but I'm going to get to the hope part soon. In June, 00:28:42.754 --> 00:28:50.491 - There was a group of service providers and heading home that did a survey of folks in our community 00:28:50.491 --> 00:28:58.459 - focused on Bloomington. 248 households were identified as experiencing homelessness. Of those, you can 00:28:58.459 --> 00:29:06.737 - see that we split that into sheltered and unsheltered. So 53% roughly are people who are going to shelters 00:29:06.737 --> 00:29:11.998 - like Wheeler Mission or Friends Pit Place or New Hope for Families. 00:29:12.962 --> 00:29:21.978 - 46% are people that you might see out on the streets and encampments around town. So this is another 00:29:21.978 --> 00:29:31.262 - challenge that we have. We need people to go to shelter to connect to services. But right now, we don't 00:29:31.262 --> 00:29:40.367 - have that in this community. We had done a similar study in 2024. There is an increase in the overall 00:29:40.367 --> 00:29:41.438 - population. 00:29:41.602 --> 00:29:50.745 - We see an increase of roughly 40. Again, not thousands. I had somebody just recently report they believe 00:29:50.745 --> 00:29:59.540 - thousands of people were experiencing homelessness in Bloomington. Just not the case. These are some 00:29:59.540 --> 00:30:05.374 - of the primary reasons that folks cited as why they were unhoused. 00:30:05.474 --> 00:30:12.360 - Interestingly, the highest percentage of reasons listed here was a breakdown in your family relationship 00:30:12.360 --> 00:30:18.984 - or a relationship. So if somebody is living with a partner and that relationship goes south and that 00:30:18.984 --> 00:30:25.804 - partner is paying for the apartment, then that relationship may end up causing you to be homeless. Loss 00:30:25.804 --> 00:30:31.838 - of income also going back to the cost of housing. If you lose your job for whatever reason, 00:30:32.802 --> 00:30:39.532 - it can have trickle-down effects that are really dramatic. And then some of the other things that you 00:30:39.532 --> 00:30:46.129 - would expect to see, incarceration, medical conditions, substance use, mental health, and eviction. 00:30:46.129 --> 00:30:52.925 - But family relationship breakdown and loss of income, two of the biggest factors. And then this I like 00:30:52.925 --> 00:30:59.655 - to show people because there's a stigma that people just want to live outside. And you'll see here of 00:30:59.655 --> 00:31:01.502 - the total that we surveyed, 00:31:02.114 --> 00:31:09.740 - Only four said they were not interested in having housing and the vast majority wanted an apartment. 00:31:09.740 --> 00:31:17.291 - So we know that people want to be housed. Everything else is easier to address all the other issues 00:31:17.291 --> 00:31:25.596 - that people might have if they are stably housed. So all of these things, all of these complex, multi-layered 00:31:25.596 --> 00:31:31.486 - challenges that we face as a community, but also as a nation, why be hopeful? 00:31:31.906 --> 00:31:38.991 - I think there are a lot of reasons to be hopeful. I'm going back to the data again. And this is regional 00:31:38.991 --> 00:31:46.076 - data. So we are in a six-county region, as defined by the state. This is the annual point in time count, 00:31:46.076 --> 00:31:52.823 - which many of you, I'm sure, are familiar with. It happens every year in January. And it's a survey 00:31:52.823 --> 00:31:59.166 - of the number of people who are experiencing homelessness on this particular date in January. 00:31:59.362 --> 00:32:08.157 - been relatively flat, so we are not seeing surges in numbers in our region. In fact, compared to 2019, 00:32:08.157 --> 00:32:16.866 - it's a little bit lower. So I think that's a hopeful thing. We have this challenge, but we don't have 00:32:16.866 --> 00:32:26.173 - the growing numbers that sometimes I think public perception tells us. We have many agencies and individuals 00:32:26.173 --> 00:32:28.478 - who are already working to 00:32:28.610 --> 00:32:35.230 - Make people's lives better. I see Forest is here and other Beacon staff. They are one of the folks who 00:32:35.230 --> 00:32:41.721 - are partnering and have been doing this for a long time and are one of the fundamental assets to our 00:32:41.721 --> 00:32:48.212 - community. We have this housing network that meets regularly, has been coordinated, and I think does 00:32:48.212 --> 00:32:54.703 - a little bit better job now of being coordinated than maybe in the past. And I think that's a reason 00:32:54.703 --> 00:32:58.302 - for hope. We're not alone. These are some of the people 00:32:58.754 --> 00:33:06.773 - that you don't probably see they're working on the front lines in some way to help people become housed 00:33:06.773 --> 00:33:14.483 - and stay stably housed and improve their lives. At Heading Home, one of the things that we do is to 00:33:14.483 --> 00:33:22.811 - write feature articles about these folks. We are really excited to learn more about them because oftentimes 00:33:22.811 --> 00:33:25.278 - they suffer burnout and they're 00:33:25.666 --> 00:33:33.064 - challenge just to feel that joy and optimism that I talk about. They're super important and very much 00:33:33.064 --> 00:33:40.317 - a reason to be optimistic. And then, of course, because I'm with Heading Home, I have to talk about 00:33:40.317 --> 00:33:47.715 - why I'm optimistic about the work that we're doing and why I think that there are some transformative 00:33:47.715 --> 00:33:53.662 - things coming to this community. You might see some familiar faces in this photo. 00:33:53.890 --> 00:34:01.306 - This was our origin story. So in 2021, actually 2020, a group of community leaders came together to 00:34:01.306 --> 00:34:09.019 - address the most vulnerable folks in our community. We hear a lot about the city and county not getting 00:34:09.019 --> 00:34:16.584 - together and having some disagreements. Well, on this, they agreed. They agreed that there was a need 00:34:16.584 --> 00:34:22.814 - for an agency to really be the backbone of the efforts towards ending homelessness. 00:34:23.298 --> 00:34:30.317 - They believed that they could provide some funding for staff to support this work, and that's what they 00:34:30.317 --> 00:34:36.661 - did. I think this was great leadership by the community and included the City of Bloomington, 00:34:36.661 --> 00:34:43.679 - Monroe County, Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County, the United Way, and several other 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:48.606 - community groups. So this was amazing. This was a leadership initiative. 00:34:48.706 --> 00:34:55.444 - that created Heading Home. Again, as I said, we were originally conceived of as a backbone organization 00:34:55.444 --> 00:35:02.183 - to address system change in this region. So we were not originally a service provider, but we supported 00:35:02.183 --> 00:35:08.662 - service providers and looked at that system and how we could improve the system to move people more 00:35:08.662 --> 00:35:15.271 - quickly into housing. These are some examples of the work that we've done, and I'll talk a little bit 00:35:15.271 --> 00:35:17.150 - more about that in a minute. 00:35:18.210 --> 00:35:26.188 - But this was really an entity that didn't exist for our community prior to 2021. And in many communities, 00:35:26.188 --> 00:35:33.790 - they don't have this kind of backbone organization. So individual agencies are doing great work, but 00:35:33.790 --> 00:35:41.769 - there might not be as much coordination or capacity to look at system change. That's what we were charged 00:35:41.769 --> 00:35:45.758 - with doing. We were originally housed at United Way. 00:35:45.986 --> 00:35:52.704 - They were kind of our incubator organization. Two staff were hired. I was hired in late 21, and then 00:35:52.704 --> 00:35:59.687 - my associate director Tatiana Wheeler was hired in early 2022. We have been expanding programming, moved 00:35:59.687 --> 00:36:07.070 - to Dimension Mill, which is where we're located now. A great community resource, if you don't know about that. 00:36:07.522 --> 00:36:16.208 - And then a milestone this year, we received our 501c3 status, which was huge. We aligned and are supported 00:36:16.208 --> 00:36:24.488 - by the Community Foundation now, which is providing a lot of our back office support and just general 00:36:24.488 --> 00:36:32.687 - support. And we've been adding staff, thanks in large part to that Community Foundation partnership. 00:36:32.687 --> 00:36:35.934 - We moved from four board members to 12. 00:36:36.290 --> 00:36:43.944 - So that was a big change. There are a lot of community leaders that you'll see in this, including the 00:36:43.944 --> 00:36:51.672 - mayor, county council member, faith community represented, finance community representative, trustees, 00:36:51.672 --> 00:36:59.551 - community foundation. And this is just a great leadership group to guide our work and bring in different 00:36:59.551 --> 00:37:05.854 - perspectives as we expand our programming. This is us. Very small team, but mighty. 00:37:06.050 --> 00:37:14.772 - We are, Tatiana, who I mentioned before, has been an amazing person to work side by side. But as we 00:37:14.772 --> 00:37:23.669 - grow, we're adding on some equally fantastic staff and really excited to do more work in that regard. 00:37:23.669 --> 00:37:32.828 - We were originally founded to execute on the Heading Home Plan. If you hadn't seen it before, it's worth 00:37:32.828 --> 00:37:34.398 - taking a look at. 00:37:34.498 --> 00:37:41.524 - broad, comprehensive, designed to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-repeating. Our charge was to 00:37:41.524 --> 00:37:48.618 - find ways to implement this plan, which was developed by a large sector of the community. We are doing 00:37:48.618 --> 00:37:55.575 - our best to do that, but this is the classic, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. So we are going to 00:37:55.575 --> 00:38:02.531 - be working for some of the system change in quite a while. If you've ever tried to move the way that 00:38:02.531 --> 00:38:03.358 - a community 00:38:03.618 --> 00:38:11.187 - works as a system, you know that that is very challenging work. And then to do that, I'm just going 00:38:11.187 --> 00:38:18.755 - to describe some of our initiatives, keeping an eye on time. There's a national organization called 00:38:18.755 --> 00:38:19.966 - Built for Zero. 00:38:20.194 --> 00:38:27.140 - They support over 100 communities to address homelessness. And we are the only community in Indiana 00:38:27.140 --> 00:38:34.642 - that's part of this national network. They are amazing in the support that they provide, including coaching 00:38:34.642 --> 00:38:41.797 - and resources and financial resources. This is a picture of part of our team. Forrest is on that team, 00:38:41.797 --> 00:38:46.590 - as well as Emily Pike from New Hope for Families and Melissa Burgess 00:38:46.850 --> 00:38:54.795 - pictured here from Health Net's Homeless Initiative Response, Daniel Sorten, who leads our effort in 00:38:54.795 --> 00:39:03.211 - coordinated entry for this region and also works at Beacon. One of the things that I have lost my ability, 00:39:03.211 --> 00:39:11.234 - there we go. One of the things that Built for Zero advises us is to take a very data-driven approach. 00:39:11.234 --> 00:39:16.190 - So a couple of years ago, we launched a public data dashboard. 00:39:16.354 --> 00:39:24.424 - This is a place where you can go to get updated monthly information about different elements of measuring 00:39:24.424 --> 00:39:32.114 - our success in keeping people housed. The dashboard talks about how many people are newly identified 00:39:32.114 --> 00:39:39.727 - as homeless, how many people were housed and then have returned to homelessness after being housed. 00:39:39.727 --> 00:39:43.838 - Some of the other metrics include housing placements. 00:39:43.970 --> 00:39:51.373 - We feel like that's worth celebrating when somebody moves into housing. We need to understand that that 00:39:51.373 --> 00:39:58.705 - is a big deal and celebrate that. I don't think it's showing up there, but it's inflow and outflow got 00:39:58.705 --> 00:40:06.037 - to missing letters there. This is one of the things that the data had been out there, but that had not 00:40:06.037 --> 00:40:11.518 - ever been collected in this way so that the public could track our progress. 00:40:11.970 --> 00:40:19.336 - One of our other initiatives is work to end veteran homelessness. We are two years into it, almost, 00:40:19.336 --> 00:40:26.849 - and it has been a challenge because we first started out on the journey thinking there are only three 00:40:26.849 --> 00:40:34.362 - veterans. That's what our data was telling us, that there are only three veterans who are unhoused in 00:40:34.362 --> 00:40:39.518 - our region. And we thought, well, three, we can house three tomorrow. 00:40:40.258 --> 00:40:46.474 - Well, what was happening is that people were not identifying themselves as being veterans. So once we 00:40:46.474 --> 00:40:51.166 - started asking the question, are you a veteran? Have you served our country? 00:40:52.226 --> 00:40:58.081 - So many more people stepped forward and said, yes, I am a veteran. And that opens a world of resources 00:40:58.081 --> 00:41:03.879 - that hadn't been available before. So there is a lot of housing support for veterans, but you have to 00:41:03.879 --> 00:41:10.302 - know that they're a veteran first. So part of our work is just informing people that this is an option for them. 00:41:11.010 --> 00:41:18.614 - We've worked on system improvement related to veteran housing. We had a strategy session yesterday that 00:41:18.614 --> 00:41:26.218 - was attended by many partners, including folks from the VA. They're a very important partner. They told 00:41:26.218 --> 00:41:33.530 - us that there are no housing vouchers from the VA, at least until the end of this year and possibly 00:41:33.530 --> 00:41:34.334 - into 2026. 00:41:34.754 --> 00:41:41.210 - So again, we're always working with the system, right? And the system is HUD-VASH, the vouchers that 00:41:41.210 --> 00:41:48.049 - are provided by the VA. And if we don't have that support, that makes everything else a little bit harder. 00:41:48.049 --> 00:41:54.442 - So working through some of those things. We have a resource guide called the Heading Home Guide. So 00:41:54.442 --> 00:42:01.025 - if somebody from the public or someone from an agency can go to this website and get information about 00:42:01.025 --> 00:42:03.710 - low-income housing, food, transportation, 00:42:03.874 --> 00:42:11.369 - medical services and a host of other things. We also have a site on this website, a page specifically 00:42:11.369 --> 00:42:18.791 - for veterans. We do landlord engagement. This is something I'm excited about because we are going to 00:42:18.791 --> 00:42:26.140 - be hiring someone to focus full-time on that. So we've had some events, we've had some interactions 00:42:26.140 --> 00:42:30.622 - and work done in the sector, but we really are going to need 00:42:30.722 --> 00:42:38.899 - that full-time focus. And I think you're going to see some major changes. We are really happy to have 00:42:38.899 --> 00:42:47.397 - her name is Mary Hamrick coming on board next month. Another thing that we do, and this is again a system 00:42:47.397 --> 00:42:55.415 - piece of work, provide cross-agency training. So every agency that serves the unhoused has training 00:42:55.415 --> 00:42:58.942 - needs. Most of them are very similar needs. 00:42:59.106 --> 00:43:05.663 - So we periodically will have training opportunities. We just had one last week for it's called critical 00:43:05.663 --> 00:43:12.093 - time intervention training held in partnership with Centerstone. So this is not only a great training 00:43:12.093 --> 00:43:18.397 - opportunity, but it's a way to bring people together who are doing the same work and really support 00:43:18.397 --> 00:43:24.765 - each other. It's networking and it's very basic, but it's also just a way to connect and build those 00:43:24.765 --> 00:43:26.782 - partnerships and collaboration. 00:43:29.058 --> 00:43:35.599 - We have community convenings. We've had convenings for the business sector, faith communities. We've 00:43:35.599 --> 00:43:42.141 - had a candidate learning session, just getting out and trying to help people understand what's being 00:43:42.141 --> 00:43:48.617 - done in this community. Communications, I encourage you to sign up for our newsletters. We not only 00:43:48.617 --> 00:43:55.806 - highlight things that are being done by heading home, but things that are being done by other agency partners. 00:43:56.578 --> 00:44:03.674 - We have a social media presence and a new site that we post information about as well. And then I'm 00:44:03.674 --> 00:44:10.911 - going to talk very briefly about some county specific work. All the things I've talked about now have 00:44:10.911 --> 00:44:18.220 - been before have been regional, but we're doing a couple of things in Monroe County in particular that 00:44:18.220 --> 00:44:19.710 - are really exciting. 00:44:20.194 --> 00:44:27.723 - Last year we got together with several of our partner agencies and developed a housing action plan. 00:44:27.723 --> 00:44:35.328 - This was very specific to Monroe County in Bloomington with eight recommendations that will address, 00:44:35.328 --> 00:44:42.933 - we feel, if implemented, the housing needs of people that are currently unhoused. I won't go through 00:44:42.933 --> 00:44:49.182 - these recommendations in detail, but really they fall into a couple of categories. 00:44:49.314 --> 00:44:56.668 - We need more people to support this work. And then we need more housing. And we need some specific types 00:44:56.668 --> 00:45:03.672 - of shelter. So I think that this is a good way for us to be very strategic as we request additional 00:45:03.672 --> 00:45:10.816 - funding, identify needs. This is going to be a living document. We are not going to be having this as 00:45:10.816 --> 00:45:18.590 - a static element. So over the years, we'll see these recommendations change as the facts on the ground change. 00:45:19.778 --> 00:45:27.318 - And then the most exciting thing, the Community Foundation late last year received a Lilly Endowment 00:45:27.318 --> 00:45:34.784 - grant. And that grant is allowing us to really infuse this community with additional resources that 00:45:34.784 --> 00:45:42.250 - are going to be transformational, I believe. Heading Home is going to be leading the implementation 00:45:42.250 --> 00:45:48.222 - of a large part of this grant. We are hiring six street outreach case managers. 00:45:49.026 --> 00:45:55.006 - They are going to be working with our partner agencies, Beacon, Centerstone, and Health Net. We have 00:45:55.006 --> 00:46:00.927 - three diversion and prevention case managers. These are folks who are going to work with people who 00:46:00.927 --> 00:46:06.907 - might be at risk of being unhoused. How can we keep people stably housed? Our partners there are the 00:46:06.907 --> 00:46:12.947 - library, which I think is fantastic. This is the first opportunity that we've had to partner with the 00:46:12.947 --> 00:46:14.782 - library, and they are amazing. 00:46:14.914 --> 00:46:21.165 - New Hope for Families will have a diversion and prevention case manager, and then we're going to have 00:46:21.165 --> 00:46:27.540 - someone placed at Bloomington and Perry Townships, the trustees' offices. So this is a new way of doing 00:46:27.540 --> 00:46:33.730 - things. We'll have some support for the case managers, some resources that they can deploy to really 00:46:33.730 --> 00:46:38.878 - address the problems that they encounter with the people that they're working with. 00:46:39.010 --> 00:46:46.735 - And our goal over the next five years is really to see a dramatic decrease in unsheltered homelessness. 00:46:46.735 --> 00:46:54.237 - And we can get there. And then there are also a couple other things that the grant is funding. There 00:46:54.237 --> 00:47:01.962 - is a very exciting program that the South Central Community Action Program is doing to have some income 00:47:01.962 --> 00:47:08.350 - stability and then some matching funds for an endowment. And this is the very complex 00:47:08.674 --> 00:47:17.259 - that shows all of the partnerships in this new grant. And I think that it's just a tremendous opportunity 00:47:17.259 --> 00:47:25.683 - that we're really excited to be a part of and grateful that this community is supporting the work. Also 00:47:25.683 --> 00:47:31.838 - doing work in Lawrence County, whoops. Well, that probably is right, right? 00:47:31.938 --> 00:47:38.042 - Let me go back. The Lawrence County work, we commissioned a study there. As you might imagine, in some 00:47:38.042 --> 00:47:44.145 - of the more rural communities and even here, some leaders are skeptical that homelessness is a problem 00:47:44.145 --> 00:47:50.130 - in their community. So we commissioned a study in Lawrence County. Guess what? There are people that 00:47:50.130 --> 00:47:56.115 - are experiencing homelessness in Lawrence County and so created a housing task force out of that and 00:47:56.115 --> 00:47:58.782 - are implementing some recommendations there. 00:47:58.882 --> 00:48:05.646 - We are currently leading an effort to revitalize a blighted neighborhood in the northeast side of the 00:48:05.646 --> 00:48:12.675 - county. And I think that there are some very powerful things that we can do in Lawrence County. In Morgan 00:48:12.675 --> 00:48:19.638 - County, Wellspring is the only shelter there serving families. Tatiana Wheeler, my colleague, is current 00:48:19.638 --> 00:48:26.336 - board chair there. We are going to commission a similar study there so we can do a better assessment 00:48:26.336 --> 00:48:28.126 - of the conditions and then 00:48:28.290 --> 00:48:34.756 - propose some strategic solutions. And then next year, we're going to have a housing summit 00:48:34.756 --> 00:48:41.932 - here in Bloomington. We're still in the planning stages, but we want to have a very solutions-driven 00:48:41.932 --> 00:48:49.108 - gathering where people can join together and really address some of these challenges that we have as 00:48:49.108 --> 00:48:56.497 - a collective in collaboration in support of some of the work that's already been done. So we're excited 00:48:56.497 --> 00:48:57.918 - about that as well. 00:49:00.002 --> 00:49:07.687 - I missed my time a little bit, but I do have some time for questions. Yeah. Hi, Mary. Thanks so much 00:49:07.687 --> 00:49:15.753 - for all the work that you are doing. The collaboration is critical across the agencies. One of the things 00:49:15.753 --> 00:49:23.742 - that I'm interested in is understanding, as I see you growing from two to six, I think it was, in staff, 00:49:24.066 --> 00:49:29.687 - How do you ensure that it's additive and not dilutive of all the other agencies that are out there? 00:49:29.687 --> 00:49:35.365 - Because it's a limited pool of funds that are out there to help everyone. And I think the last thing 00:49:35.365 --> 00:49:41.042 - that the community needs is just another layer. So how do you make sure and how do you keep yourself 00:49:41.042 --> 00:49:46.720 - accountable from that standpoint? Yeah, that's a great question. And I think our accountability lies 00:49:46.720 --> 00:49:52.510 - in the partnership relations that we have with the folks that are going to be working on this project. 00:49:52.610 --> 00:49:58.608 - I'm going to go back to the, oh well, it's off my screen. If you remember the graphic where we had logos 00:49:58.608 --> 00:50:04.435 - for the different organizations that we're working with, the employees that we're deploying are going 00:50:04.435 --> 00:50:10.318 - to be heading home employees, but they are going to be working in these different agencies. So they're 00:50:10.318 --> 00:50:16.373 - going to be in partnership and collaborating with Beacon, with Centerstone, with Health Net, the library, 00:50:16.373 --> 00:50:17.630 - et cetera, et cetera. 00:50:18.018 --> 00:50:25.513 - So we are basically adding to their staffs. It's probably, if you're familiar with the AmeriCorps model, 00:50:25.513 --> 00:50:32.722 - that might be a similar kind of model that we're using where we are not just adding staff in a silo, 00:50:32.722 --> 00:50:37.790 - but we are adding them with partners that are already doing this work. 00:50:38.850 --> 00:50:45.214 - Did that answer your question? To some extent, I guess you've got metrics that are saying, yes, it's 00:50:45.214 --> 00:50:51.705 - working or no, it's not. I mean, you've got to have data. Well, I will tell you that last week was the 00:50:51.705 --> 00:50:58.573 - first week that these folks started with us. So we don't have any metrics yet. We are going to be collecting 00:50:58.573 --> 00:51:05.379 - them. Yes. Yeah. This isn't about metrics. It's about something more ethereal. I had a wonderful experience 00:51:05.379 --> 00:51:07.710 - this morning. I walked to breakfast. 00:51:07.906 --> 00:51:14.234 - We live near one another, and on the way was a woman I have gotten to know over the last couple of weeks. 00:51:14.234 --> 00:51:20.264 - She's been on the street struggling with mental illness. Went to breakfast, coming back, and she was 00:51:20.264 --> 00:51:26.294 - curled up in a doorway as many people sleep downtown. And coming back, I saw her walking in circles, 00:51:26.294 --> 00:51:32.264 - and there was a gentleman there opening his business, and I'm worried that there's some difficulty. 00:51:32.264 --> 00:51:35.966 - And as he's going in the door, he looks back at her and says, 00:51:36.130 --> 00:51:44.132 - Would you like coffee or hot chocolate? And it reminded me that there's something deeper going on in 00:51:44.132 --> 00:51:51.896 - terms of attitudes around who people are that are on the street. The one thing I would like some, 00:51:51.896 --> 00:51:56.254 - you know, I have a lot of questions, but the one thing 00:51:56.386 --> 00:52:03.201 - I'm worried about the justice system and the role that having people incarcerated plays. So many of 00:52:03.201 --> 00:52:10.356 - the people have either been in jail or while they're in jail, they, you know, they pay for their housing 00:52:10.356 --> 00:52:17.239 - in jail. And so we really have a new debtors prison emerging in this nation. And what can be done to 00:52:17.239 --> 00:52:24.190 - assist us in terms of the folks that are incarcerated pretrial for four months, six months, whatever? 00:52:26.402 --> 00:52:32.947 - That's something that comes up in conversation pretty regularly. And it is, I think, one of the things 00:52:32.947 --> 00:52:39.493 - that most people might be surprised about to learn is that it's much more expensive. If you're looking 00:52:39.493 --> 00:52:46.166 - at it purely from the economics, it's much more expensive to house people in jail, right? You're housing 00:52:46.166 --> 00:52:52.520 - them, but you're putting them in jail than it is to actually provide an apartment. Same is true for 00:52:52.520 --> 00:52:53.982 - the healthcare system. 00:52:54.114 --> 00:53:01.455 - It's much more expensive for people to go to the ER as their primary care physician than to support 00:53:01.455 --> 00:53:09.089 - health care in other ways. So that is one of the bigger system problems that we need to tackle, I would 00:53:09.089 --> 00:53:16.503 - agree with you. I think here we do have a willing county prosecutor. We just haven't made much, that 00:53:16.503 --> 00:53:21.054 - hasn't been to date something that we've worked on seriously. 00:53:21.186 --> 00:53:28.785 - But I think that that's something that we absolutely need to tackle because it is, you know, you see 00:53:28.785 --> 00:53:36.309 - the police reports, it can be revolving, Dory, we're not getting at the root causes. Why are people 00:53:36.309 --> 00:53:43.833 - going to jail in the first place? And then, you know, why can't we stop this cycle? Since this is a 00:53:43.833 --> 00:53:50.078 - housing issue, is there anything being done to encourage the building of new, say, 00:53:50.434 --> 00:53:58.707 - low-cost apartments or studio rooms. I saw that was one of the items on the list of just a room rental. 00:53:58.707 --> 00:54:06.662 - Anything being done to build? So some things are being done. So I think that is there any county or 00:54:06.662 --> 00:54:14.776 - city council representation here today? The city council and the planning department has been looking 00:54:14.776 --> 00:54:19.390 - at making it easier to build single room occupancy, SROs. 00:54:19.586 --> 00:54:26.536 - which are formerly known as boarding houses. If you've lived here long enough, you probably know that 00:54:26.536 --> 00:54:33.622 - there used to be a lot of boarding houses here in this community, and they've been torn down over time, 00:54:33.622 --> 00:54:40.981 - replaced by larger, more expensive apartments typically. These places weren't necessarily like the greatest 00:54:40.981 --> 00:54:45.342 - places, but if you only needed a room and a place to, you know, 00:54:45.474 --> 00:54:53.062 - You had shared kitchen, shared bathroom facilities that could work for you. So the council seems to 00:54:53.062 --> 00:55:00.801 - be aware that that is a need and trying to work on it from a zoning perspective. Again, system change 00:55:00.801 --> 00:55:08.389 - takes a long time. I don't see a lot of housing being addressed at that level otherwise. There is a 00:55:08.389 --> 00:55:12.638 - group called Bloomington Cooperative Living, which is a 00:55:12.738 --> 00:55:20.110 - cooperative housing organization. They've been increasing their properties, but again, based on the 00:55:20.110 --> 00:55:27.777 - need, if you remember that, the need that we talked about over a thousand units plus, we're not seeing, 00:55:27.777 --> 00:55:35.297 - we're not going to get there by having eight rooms added, 10 rooms, that kind of thing. So we do need 00:55:35.297 --> 00:55:37.214 - more effort in that area. 00:55:43.586 --> 00:55:50.167 - You mentioned the, um, the misconception that people come from all over the country to get services 00:55:50.167 --> 00:55:56.880 - here. Where does that misconception basically start? Um, it's an, it's an interesting one. And I will 00:55:56.880 --> 00:56:03.527 - tell you, so we're about to go to a built for zero conference and people from communities all across 00:56:03.527 --> 00:56:07.870 - the country, every community hears that no matter where they are. 00:56:08.418 --> 00:56:16.782 - The same stories, too. I've heard that there is a billboard in Florida telling people to come to Bloomington. 00:56:16.782 --> 00:56:24.461 - And seriously, but then other communities have that same experience. And so I don't know where these 00:56:24.461 --> 00:56:32.369 - apocryphal stories start, but I suspect that you're looking for reasons as a urban area. And we're kind 00:56:32.369 --> 00:56:34.270 - of urban light, I guess. 00:56:34.530 --> 00:56:42.249 - But there are more resources here. And if you are in need of resources, you will try to find resources 00:56:42.249 --> 00:56:49.969 - where they are, right? So one of our goals is to get, at least for our region, other community leaders 00:56:49.969 --> 00:56:57.613 - in Morgan County, Owen, Lawrence, Green, to understand that they need to address the needs for people 00:56:57.613 --> 00:56:59.262 - in their communities. 00:56:59.682 --> 00:57:07.115 - And I think that's really what it's going to take. But we have this kind of bifurcation of resources. 00:57:07.115 --> 00:57:14.402 - But yeah, I think it's people wanting to explain why they see a challenge and blame it on something 00:57:14.402 --> 00:57:21.907 - else rather than what's in their backyard. Leslie, you've got one online. I do. It's for me. Hi, Mary. 00:57:21.907 --> 00:57:27.518 - Thank you for the Bloomington Cooperative living shout out. As you know, I'm 00:57:27.714 --> 00:57:39.370 - familiar with them. We hear quite often that there are apartments being built, but there's a lot of 00:57:39.370 --> 00:57:51.260 - vacancies. And then I just would love to know more of if you had a dream solution for vacancies, what 00:57:51.260 --> 00:57:57.438 - would you do? What would I do? How would you? Today. 00:57:57.698 --> 00:58:06.417 - You know, I think, so yes, housing for sure. I think we also need to acknowledge relational poverty. 00:58:06.417 --> 00:58:15.482 - I read a book recently called When We Walk By, and it talks about the underlying just isolation of being 00:58:15.482 --> 00:58:22.302 - homeless. Because oftentimes you cut ties with your family because of shame or 00:58:22.466 --> 00:58:30.780 - just burnt bridges. And so you're living in isolation and you don't have the resources to build yourself 00:58:30.780 --> 00:58:38.856 - out of probably the lowest point of your life. We all rely on our networks, right? We all rely on the 00:58:38.856 --> 00:58:47.486 - people that we can call if you're in trouble and maybe for money, maybe just for support, emotional support. 00:58:47.682 --> 00:58:57.494 - A lot of folks don't have that. So we're trying to think of how we can also, in addition to housing, 00:58:57.494 --> 00:59:07.210 - build those healthier relationships and support networks. I think the faith community has a role to 00:59:07.210 --> 00:59:17.022 - play here. I think we can get to it. But again, it's system change. It's not an easy fix. Thank you. 00:59:17.218 --> 00:59:26.231 - Thank you. Mary, thank you. So glad that you and others work on this day after day. In honor of your 00:59:26.231 --> 00:59:35.422 - talk, donation will be made this quarter to the Lake Monroe Water Fund. I'd like to thank today's club 00:59:35.422 --> 00:59:44.703 - volunteers, Tracy Ivanovich, Megan Neese, Leslie Kutsenko, Michael Shermus, Judy Schroeder, Dave Meyer, 00:59:44.703 --> 00:59:46.398 - and Sally Gaskell. 00:59:47.170 --> 00:59:55.339 - Remember, we do not have a club meeting next week. In two weeks, we'll be meeting here in the Georgian 00:59:55.339 --> 01:00:03.588 - Room, November 11th. Steve Sanders will address the timely question, does anyone believe in free speech 01:00:03.588 --> 01:00:11.915 - anymore? Please join us. Tyler, if you'd share the graphic for the four-way test. Please stand if you're 01:00:11.915 --> 01:00:17.150 - able. Of the things we think, say, or do, first, is it the truth? 01:00:17.442 --> 01:00:24.881 - Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will 01:00:24.881 --> 01:00:28.958 - it be beneficial to all concerned? And fifth, is it fun?