Homelessness in Alaska, the problem is everywhere and real take a listen

We bring to you a podcast episode from 2021, please enjoy and learn that this issue is not going away and is everywhere. This episode is 5 years old, consider our current situations.Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Forum PodcastsI hope you'll join us next week when our Forum will observe Memorial Day. Will I have a program honoring those who have lost their lives? What's the result of military? Go to our country, featuring United States Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Shea winterberger, who many of you- I've previous lives at uu and and growing up in Anchorage- Dennis, Sarah Shero, Tim troll, Helen Peterson, and you still have room for a couple more. If anybody I would like to share, play some, some thoughts or Recollections or memories of someone who, in their family or classmate or friend- whatever your connection might be- who's dying- connect with military service to our country. Please get in touch with me on the next few days, talk about how to incorporate that in the program and also, I encourage any of you will have a chance to talk and reflect about that next week. So if you think about it between now and then you might choose to share some of your Reflections. As part of that is known to many of you in in Alaska, he's he's just completed. He told me last week when I talked to him and he retired and I was confused. Cuz, I thought he had done that a number of times before he is known to many of you. Most recently, is just completed a 2 and a half year stint on the Anchorage homeless Leadership Council, which has been- he'll tell us more about it- has been exploring causes and solutions relating to homelessness in are you perform this public service is an executive on loan from the Rasmussen Foundation, where he's joined the served as its first senior fellow after joining their 19 in 2018. Texas, the son of a missionary and physician, spent much of his youth in West Africa and was inspired to pediatrician, is retired rear Admiral in the United States Public Health Service. 1985, he came to Alaska to leave the Anchorage Alaska native Medical Center and within months of the the job had grown to include the building of an entirely new hospital. 1987, the closing of. Among his other roles, he served as director of the state division of public, the head of the Children's Hospital of and for 9 years is Providence Alaskan Medical Center's chief are office. Out of the office he likes to read bike and cross-country ski, and we're really pleased that he's chosen to spend first opportunity to be retired, not have to do anything by Sunday morning with us. Thank you, dick floor. Thank you so much, John. Welcome to everybody. I hope you can hear me. I'm going to spend a few minutes I'm talking, I got a few slides and then I hope we can have a conversation and you can ask questions. We can ask questions of each other. Medical school: I started as a pediatrician, so it's been a long and Winding Road. As in my last five to six years when I was at Providence Medical Center, I got more and more interested in subjects of social determinants of, and it became really more and more clear to me that having a home is one of the key issues in the human beings and the families of Journey to wholeness and sufficient self-sufficiency. In an- and I was really inspired by a story out of Spokane, Washington, probably now 89 years ago- and a partnership between Sacred Heart Medical Center and Catholic Charities in Spokane created a medical program, a place that could be a temporary home for folks who were experiencing homelessness. And we're in the hospital. And the Dougie you all know from your community and I and Lisa Keno from Catholic Social Services and others led the development Anchorage and out of that experience, more and more Partnerships, and we'll talk some about this- the intersection of healthcare and homelessness as we go through this morning. One other thing is introduction, many, many churches in the world today, as it's Pentecost, are using ask book of Acts in Chapter 2, and I just want to use one verse as a jumping off fisherman workers and their, and the question is: how is it that we hear each of us in our pertinent to the subject we're talking about this morning? Why do we people who are experiencing or do we go on? I suspect most of us on this call today are people, are privileged, most of us are. The question that I keep asking myself is: do I people who are experiencing homelessness? That disproportionately affects people of color in our city and throughout the United States? So let's talk a little bit about who experiences homelessness through this morning, I hope consistently. But people who experience homelessness- not the homeless and I feel pretty passionately about. Did we not label people as their whole identity, being on confined to experiencing, just like we exper medical illnesses, mental illnesses, substance abuse, we aren't. Who experiences homelessness are any giv. There's probably about 1100 people who are experiencing homelessness, mostly their invisible to us because they're doubling during the year of covid. Now we've gotten a lot better view of the people who experience homeless, because the shelter capacity incorporates most of those at 1100 people plus or minus On Any Given night in any, given how about 3500 people interact with a homelessness response system in some way, and in the last year over 8,000, pushing 8500 people, interacted with a homelessness response system, the numbers have been fairly stable, at about 7,000 to 7500 a year. So let's, I'm going to share my screen, I hope, if I can do this correctly. And let's talk a little bit of this, because since I started out by talking about social determinants, this is a slide from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Many of these slides I'm using this morning to Nancy Burke over at United Way, can I use many of them and I've added a few of my? But if you think about the issues that pertain to a healthy, all of these categories are really really important. I think all of us in the Healthcare System have learned that these issues are more important than medicines or techn people being able to live a, whether it's economic stability- and clearly we've seen a lot of the problems that produces this last year- the neighborhood and physical environment, poor neighborhoods in our city and throughout the country that don't have adequate parks and people don't feel safe. Anchorage. About the food insecurity issues that have existed pre dress. One other thing I would say here in homelessness is we have disproportionality for people of color, like all communities. Where is homelessness? And there are so many causes of, and one of the things that makes me so sad, let me hear public is it many times gets portrayed as a sense that the people aren't responsible for them. The causes of homelessness are so many, as Jasmine boil over the Anchorage Coalition for homelessness says: homelessness, common endpoint of all our social trauma issues. So the adult trauma, physical injury, PTSD, Etc, child abuse, sexual Spades, this last low salaries, The Chronic issues here in our country about. Can you do you know we have minimum salary of around 10 bucks an hour and and but it costs a one-bedroom apartment on average cost almost $1,100 a month. If you do minimum salary, you need to. You need 80 hours of salary to be able to. And one of the things I've talked about a year and a half to folks over at Providence Family Medicine Residency and I asked all these young doctors: and do you know what the medical assistance earned in the? I thought it was really proud are minimum salary was, in quotes, a living wage. At that time it was like 1360 an hour. Medical assistance in The Residency, learning about 15 bucks, an education fail and then mental illness and sub. We're going to hear a lot about blaming problems of homelessness on mint, and it's really important and if you do experience home, chronic home, but it is just one. So if you think back and Anchorage 2015, 2016, there was a big increase in spice and bath salts. If you remember the news media about 3rd Avenue, about people collapsing on the street, a whole bunch of this street and family. 2017 Anchorage: there was a fire with are camps grew in our public spaces. More of them are more visible. One of the things I think I would say here when I started with Rasmussen foundation in 2018, folks, Professionals in various nonprofit agencies around anchored, I said: are there more people camp? Are there more people on sheltered or are they just more visible? And at that time most of the professionals have been around for a decade undeveloped land and anchors and were fewer places to hide and more the cancer visible and the public. I do think after 2018 that there was an increase in 2018, the big increase in drugs and cancel, many more calls to police anchored home, which is. Anchorage's plan for dealing with homelessness was developed in 2018 as the first really broads effort to coordinate and collaborate with the city, with nonprofit agencies, with people who experience homelessness, who have lived experience, is what would make a difference. And this summer now you're going to start to see news reports about the second version. That was about as a three-year plan and at the time now, when I left this world during the month of May, the drafting of the next of version is just about ready for public comment and discussion, and that will be happening 2019. If you remember that summer, there was a lot of fires. There was a campfire over dear Martin Luther King dry season in the summertime. That was also first year. Proposed major budget reductions and, if you think back to that, propose reductions with a devastated the state for many, many services for Citi open near Emergency Operations Center and of course, then last year, in 2020, disrupted by homelessness, resp system and the shelter system. And one of the things I'm going to say is that covid has been a disaster and a public health emergency and we have learned things that we would never have: 24-hour Services instead of kicking people out in the streets every morning, which had been our traditional shelter system like made a, and we can talk about that in questions and so on about the good intercourse last summer, we huge controversy after the city proposed, using some of its Federal cares Act, purchase some buildings and trying to distribute shelters to more parts of town. Chris constant was on this line. He would probably interject at this. Say something about this. Are cities planned for dealing homelessness and other social problems? Has been divorced and developed services in Fairview in Mountain View in that part of cancel the rest of us who live in other parts of town and not dealt with these facilities and programs close to our? We need to more H&R solutions to be social problems and not force them into one part of town and then get so. What's happened then? The Sullivan opened very quickly last spring is a major shelter and here is a monthly average monthly shelter census from early 2019 up through febuary, and I can update variability. You see, in 2019 was pretty and then, as 20/20 happened on the summer, dropped, didn't go down as far and we've had more and more people. Now remember, I said that the data we've had in the past is at about 11. I have experience shelter I can give. You can see. Now one of the things we should be proud of in Anchorage is virtually anybody who's experiencing homelessness who wants the safety of a shelter and not have to be outside if you were to go to La. That's not even close. They can't even meet capacity at the moment for people who are experiencing homelessness. The other thing is that more people have experienced homelessness this last year and we have reached out to them in a way that is more comprehensive than well. Let's talk just a little bit about context here in Anchorage to just for, if you think back to the municipal functions 2017 to 2019- Finance system implementation in the city- employees were broiled and added once poorly for a long earthquake- and the recovery response 2019. We already talked about budget challenges, and that's been going on for several years- of less and less State assistance, weather for capital projects or ongoing operations. Municipal Light and Power was sold, and one of the conditions of that, what was the result of a settlement of some of the large organizations that had protested that sale- was that sum of 15 million of the sale needed to be substance abuse treatment of capacity. Here in Anchorage, that's the money that's being for purchase of the Golden Lion initial funding for oper. Now last year, of course, the pandemic response started. The Sullivan Arena opened last fall. Mayor Berkowitz suddenly resigned to get a new and through that summer and fall. Cares act, money flow through media spelling and there was a lot more Federal money cancel. The city has slowly and steadily invested more. It's an hour and 202. We just finished the election. We're going to have a new mayor. Mayor Bronson will start on July 1, starting at the end of this Federal fiscal year, at the end of septembar. There are still some that'll be available next year, both at a city and a federal level. From if you think about the Sullivan Arena, you may have seen in the paper this week the city has been spending almost a million dollars a operating the Sullivan are, and that's all been funded with Federal. How's the nonprofit sector Sur this last? The mini agencies have had to learn how to work with chur. My daughter, for example, works for AK, child and family Staffing challenges when somebody is not available for many of the agencies that had to focus on these issues of covid and how to respond, how to operate. What other issues have they, the state? The good news is there's a Medicaid 11:15 waiver that's being put into operation. This allows basically the state with Federal concurrence, to spend more for non-hospital services, with the idea that will be cost-effective. Behavioral Health documentation: there's a lot of new skills and Behavioral Health is switching from a grant based system to agencies that are provide Behavioral Health Services at- and here's what we talk. Most agencies- federal, state, Municipal private funding- don't want to pay for administration, and when I started in 2018 and we were talking about how are we going to know whether anything we do makes a, we had a really infant Coalition and homelessness at three employees other than the federal money for something called the homeless management and information system, the hmis system, which was really slow and difficult for agencies to. So one of the things that I'm proud of were the last 3 years is we've invested more money into the Coalition, into the structure and to Service Coordination Data Systems you make. You will hear soon from the Anchorage coalition apartment. Anchorage has been partnering Community Solutions, a national nonprofit, remind me- in something called build for 75 cities across America to learn from each other, to have a really quality data system, to really know and any given day, in any given month, who's experiencing homeless. Go get a referred Services more quickly. Anchorage is payments for folks paying for rent or religious, both with the cares act from last, from from the spring 2021 and then from what are from Spring of 2020 and then appropriation of Last Christmas. Can we continue to do this for people that fall into immediate crisis and prevent people from the trauma of exper? And then, if you do experience homeless, what are the? Unfortunately, for most government agents, government shelter is viewed as the governmental, but we need to help people move back to Perman. Many people that have short-term needs- something called rapid rehousing, short-term assistance, play some back, get jobs and then Supportive Housing and partnership with agency support, mental health workers, social addition to rent support. Last Summer, the Coalition really looked what's the. Here's a look at the best estimate we have of what's the need here in Anchorage, for you can see that the biggest need is for Covenant House really is leading the work with youth and transitional ages. As with Anchorage and Covenant House, some other agencies are doing really a pretty good job of really reaching you lgbtq veterans. This, to me, is the best example of what's happened. If there is sustained federal policy since about 2009- 2010, Congress and the administration every year have put more money into housing vouchers, which means that somebody won't spend more than 30% of whatever income they have for did. The federal government pays the rest? And then Job Program, Social Services systems, substance abuse treatment. You can see this is the number of veterans experiencing homelessness On Any Given pretty homelessness. The anchor school district is involved, lots of agencies fundraising for family support is is. The Beatles Foundation is investing a million dollars a year now for 5 years with Catholic Social Services. Single adults is the big problem, and this is the part that is politically hard to argue. There isn't a lot of community support for supporting single adults. We hear all this stuff about personal responsibility. People need to get their life together and generating social will for the support for single is a our social system across the United States. Status quo- to me I'm covid- has been a huge challenge or huge crisis and an opportunity to say: can we do something different? For example? I'll Focus just for a. It's not a lot in the big scheme of the whole pie chart. It's a lot of money being invested to help people pay for up to 12 months and there's 5 billion dollars worth of new housing vouchers. We haven't really had much for new housing almost 20 years. It's estimated that the United States has enough housing vouchers to meet about one out of four people's needs that qualify, that have an average median income of less than 30% of the United. So all of these Investments, child tax credits is obviously going to be important. Of the unemployment insurance now we just heard our governor say we're going to end the extra unemployment insurance. That's the issue, but we'll see I could. Eviction for tax prevention has been really important. Pause to South Carolina and Virginia and New York. What are eviction prevention? Obviously that is is still in place, is really useful. There's more money going to Legal Aid to support people. Literature about evictions. Again, people of color just suffer evictions. So much more just makes it so much. I hope that we continue as a community to be willing to invest into prevention and diversion because it's and then I hope we will start investing into rehousing for making short grants to people I'm going to help stabilize. A lot put the needs are for people who are experiencing homelessness. This is from our coordinated entry system here and needs lots of and 25 to 30,000 units dollars per year. Another thousand dollars for medical and social rapid rehousing. There hasn't been my support for this in the past. There is this year with Federal money, what the assembly just approved last week, and there's some more money for that this year. And then there's some being invested more so, as we think about post Sullivan, what's going to happen? Right now, as we speak, there's about 400 people staying at the Sullivan. I need to get a night and there's about $290 people being paid for in it's. Another part of the really good experiments this year is to say we don't have to take care of people just in Kongregate. Many people can be supported in hotels. It's really worked really well. I hope that as we go forward for the shelter part of our system, that we can continue to think about using these Solutions. Not just this was the pre. How much capacity exist compared to how many people are in shelters? Here's my estimate about what the capacity is going to be by next fall. On post covid Brother Francis shelter will never go back to 240. I think that they will stay at a maximum of 125. Anchorage gospel rescue mission was at 1003 Corvette. I doubt they'll have to go back there anytime soon. Hope Center probably will max out at 60. Covenant House will continue at 60 awake and 5. Are we going to use or are we going to have some other successor? So what are the issues and opportunities ahead of us? There are five. As I said, there are funds available to help with rapid rehousing this year, maybe next year. That's going to help us learn what, how much it cost per person. And can we be effective? Can we have nonprofit agencies that with skills we have enough landlord Partners? Can we mitigate risk for landlords to take on people that they might view as more risky? A lot of pilot program started right now as we speak. What's going to be the assembly in the mayor's plan? Shelter or smaller, distributed shelters? My strong biases is that distributed shelters would be better than one large. I know that the folks there are people who argue with that but say that it's more cost-effective to do a large shelter, like the turn discussion about using a big chunk of the Northway Mall that is mostly vacant or maybe a big box store. Some cities are doing so. You could do a big, large centralized shelter. Maybe will we decide to continue using Hotel. What happens as the tourist industry comes by, comes back? Those hotel rooms might not be available. Lots of controversy, too much money play been back in discussion and you saw in the paper. Now a new potential purchase has been negotiated. The owners are willing to do a lot of the renovations, and at the lower. I personally think that this would be a good facility for a emergency shelter, probably in the range of 125 to 150, and an engagement. So the current status of that discussion is that acquisition of the Widener Apartment Homes has purchased, is purchasing the beans and the plan is to convert that to an engagement Center or a resources. Agencies are permanently present there on the camp pedestrian access along 3rd Avenue. I hope that happens. I think it'll be a really good experiment. It'll be good for people and it'll be better for the neighborhood to not. The one of the things I've heard, or the mayor of new mayor has been quoted as saying, is: let's use the old AMC Property there on 3rd Avenue. I participated with the neighborhood and the city and long-term planning two years ago, or there's a few. Planning and Zoning has adopted a new plan for that property. It doesn't involve making it into a big shelter in envisions at the southwest corner of that property and then small businesses shelter tents or something if that were to happen in Fairview is going to continue. What are the things I think all of us on this call should really advocate for in every way we can to politicians and leaders is that shelter should be a short-term experience. It should not be the end of the story. It shouldn't be. It should be viewed as a success and we have people safe, but it should not be the end. We need to help people move on with their life. And then the Big Challenge ahead of us is: we have not figured out how to find a permanent Supportive Housing. Here's my advocacy that all of us need to speak. In December, Anchorage homelessness Leadership Council sponsored a poll. 70% of Anchorage residence know somebody who has experience. This is a common experience. Play circle of Rel. It is not people who just not paying attention, not caring for themselves. It happens. People need to be challenged to move. That criminalizing people, criminalizing Behavior, just adds to more trouble when we live here in Anchorage, in the west of the 9th circuit on, federal appeals court about 3 years ago decided a Boise case. If you were on the on the streets, the city could just eliminate your camp. And and so this gets back to the shelter question. I: will there be enough shelter capacity? I think that there was going to be a lot of emphasis in this new Administration on saying to people: you can't be here, otherwise we're going to. Well, the city can arrest. The city is not going to be allowed to do that. That's my prediction. And then to all of us on this call: get to know people who experience homelessness. If you, these are our neighbors. As I started with adverse, let's hear each other and let's have a relationship with that. I'm going to stop and open for conversation and questions, and I will. I'm going to jump in here. I have gone to my phone and if I fall off, first of all, can you hear me? If I fall off this, I'd like you just continue the conversation. My internet has been dropping off about every 60 seconds or so. So this is a wonderful presentation, dick, and I and I know we all appreciate it, and so please jump in. Don't be shy, unmute yourself. We'll do the best we can to recognize people as as you raise your hands or otherwise jump in. But if I'm not there, please keep the conversation going. Heather, thank you, doctor. Would you speak in debt? How about the homeless, mentally ill? And I'll be very specific. I've been recently dealing with a family that has a 45-year-old bip on medic most, but then gets mixed with alcohol and street drug, does things sometimes, get him off and get him picked up by the, dumped into Providence to the psych ward for 3 days and then push back out on the and he has had in the best places to live. His behavior is such that often his living situation disappears for good reason. What about extreme cases of mental illness? Now that's a sad story, but it is all too frequent. Probably, of folks who experienced chronic homelessness, 60 to 70 % have chronic mental illness of some sort or another for exactly the reasons that that we need a lot more. One of will Thrive better in a in a place that is focused as a single facility. So I'll use Juno as an example. Forget-me-not. Permanent Supportive Housing complex in Juneau. The first 32 units opened in 2018, ish, and the next 32 units open this. Last. Communities across the country that the people that moved in were the priority population, where people with chronic mental chronic substance and the number of police calls dropped by 70%. The number of er visits has dropped by 70 to 80%. What's the number of hospitalizations? But this only works if you've got capacity and have social service agencies and mental health part. I can walk with a. So here in Anchorage I'm really we desperately. Several hundred units and some people can thrive Hartman unit scattered across town with agency support and there are right now mostly people with Behavioral Health needs are about 5 that are in support of housing. Some capacity or Providence and cooking with housing are on a journey right now to develop single permissive Board of housing project. What's 50 will know by the end of the year funding and support cam and it'll be developed if it is on the site where the old Providence Extended Care, nearest Saint Elias Hospital, and it'll have capacity to develop a second phase down. But for the kind of people person that you're talking about, I would argue that those people can be supported only if you really surround them with love and with professional support. And because they're going to have breakdowns they're going to go off. Is it going to have ER? You can support a lot of people that that if you surround them an over months is their sense of security outbreaks. But what I just said is not a fast solution. We need more investment into Behavioral Health agencies to support and walk with gentlemen like that. Criminalizing mental illness. You know that you've the biggest sour he is. The mental health trust is really pioneering program. You'll see more and more called crisis now Anchorage, Matsu and Fairbanks, or piloting this with a mental health trust and the idea is to have mental health workers be the First Responders to Mental Health crisis, not police but backed up by police if it gets violent or anybody's a risk to themselves. Thanks, Melanie. And then I've got a couple questions in the chat that hi, this is Melanie I. I missed the very beginning, so you may have already brought this up. I'm sorry if you did so. I live near Valley of the Moon Park, so I kind of pick up some of the camps and everything. But my question is how to respond to people. Cuz I hear this a lot and I think it's because the people that we see on the street are Alaska Natives and and I hear people say things like: well, the natives need to take care of their own or the corporation should like. It's just a native problem and they're not doing anything. But I know that corporations are doing things, but I don't exactly know what they are. I know you know a little bit about cooking with world. Can you address that? And maybe even what statistics show as to what percent is native population? I'm assuming mostly chronically homeless is probably a big population. What percentage? Thank you, yes, so just kind of round numbers to start and run a little more. If you go to the Sullivan, I need to give a knight. Of those 400 people, some chronic, experiencing Chronicles in the summer acute home, about 50%. There's a huge disproportionality. If you go to Atlanta you're going to have very similar numbers, but with African parts of our what are experiencing sing, I get very sad and then I get angry at these comments. The Alaska native corporations need to take care. If I think about it, if I just make a few comments, for example, on the non-profit side, South Central Foundation is obviously the healthcare provider for Alaska natives here and they have upwards of 40 million dollars worth of program scattered around the. They have behavioral health program clinics Services, their provider of the clinic services at kovan at the Sullivan Providence, assistance from the neighborhood health social service and job training. On the for-profit corporations, direct financial support is being partnered between funding from every single. What are the things that I think I'm going to argue is a background for us white folks to say. That's is that we as whites have contributed greatly to the trauma experienced by- and it's all of our problem- financially participate more. The idea is to get more investment and partnership with from businesses, from philanthropy, but at scale we need. Thank you. There's a question in the chat from Ray. The summary assumes that the new mayor will cooperate with the assembly and figure a path forward. However, in Cumming, mayor Bronson said in public that homelessness is a criminal activity in. Those experiencing homelessness should be jailed as vagrants. Is there any hope for educating him? I fear the police will Rebel it be being a taxi service each day for shutting, shuttling to jail, and citizens will continue to be further discussed at those on the corners holding cardboard. Well, my personal concern has been exactly cautiously. Hope that Mr Bronson is starting to listen now is the reality of the job is taking on is becoming more. Tell you a funny story, and I need to talk to you. And the good news is he's been reaching out for the last week to talk to Folks at the coalition. To Michelle Brown took my, and it gives me some hope that Mr Bronson and his advisors really fearful that quote you just is going to be. We're going to lose the. I'm trying to be optimistic and hope that they're going to learn, but I think it's going to. I hope so too, or at least I hope you help them. They can take advantage of what you and the others have been doing to find a path forward- here's a question from Dennis and then we'll go to Alex- what facilities and services should be located in the areas of the city not often associated with homeless homelessness, like Eagle River, South Anchorage West? So there's a proposal coming to the assembly later this month or in June that has worked its way through planning and zoning and this would allow Emergency Shelters in B3 zoned areas. If this passes- and I'll admit they're all owned up to the fact I've been a big proponent for this- this will allow the development of shelter services in parts of the city that other than the president's properties in order to change the public discourse. We all need to own parts of that. We are part of the problem and part of the. I don't think I'm speaking out of school to say that when I talked with John wetton from South Anchorage, she has said to me: facility on the Diamond Center property or some other business in South Anchorage, if that's a useful. Midtown has been talked about the most and that's why the Alaskan Club is back in discussion again as a place where we really need shelter. The city has been looking as potentially either transitional housing or transitional housing do you? Some of them are potential, so I'm hopeful that we will Intown, maybe South Anchorage for Supportive Housing. All of us can volunteer more closer to our. Yes, I am concerned with this new Administration, that there's going to be a big push to just keep Central Alex. And then Lynn and I would add that because of my technical problems and I've been bumped off, I believe that when I come back on I only see the exist from the time I come back on. So if somebody has a question they put in the chat, I would like to have asked. Please add it in again or raise. Thank you so much for the presentation. It was really interesting and in I was curious if you would elaborate a little more. You mentioned that there have been some really surprising learnings from having the massive shelter there at the Sullivan Arena and both for good and for bad. I was kind of hoping that we would talk more about what's been a positive things. We've learned that the shelters should provide services 24, that people should not be pushed out the door at 7:30 in the morning and be out I have to be. We've learned that giving people the security that they can have their stuff stored in it makes a huge difference. That's a big. We've learned that space is really important and we shouldn't have had to learn that. We all learn that in Psychology when we were in. Does human dignity did they make? I'm having agencies, have resources on site so that the Sullivan on Last Summer started with a tent now in the building, having Clinic services, having access to ID Services, the 3rd Avenue campus project we've been working on. People can get ID. Do you have access to an employment services, Computer Services, the simple things of charging your cell phone, since most folks that are on the streets- that's the way they communicate? All of those are positive. Assist people in emergency. With a few months they can have the Dignity of a relationship. I think all of those are positive and I will impact on the negative. Anytime you open a shelter of any sort in a new neighborhood, there's going to be a big neighborhood anxiety. You better pay attention to cleaning up trash. Do you think back to when mayor Meister was pride in our community is impact. So those are some of the lessons I think of. I'm wondering about some things that were in place before covid, and one of them was the church program with weekly overnight shelters. I found that a useful place to volunteer and learned a lot of interesting things about people who came to those shelters. So I'm wondering if that might still be in place, as well as the library and other listening posts, so that people have a chance. The need for the church is getting back involved is going to be. One of the things I think that it has been. A negative side of covid is eliminating the possibility of volunteering. So for you, for example, that the volunteering opportunities so as we get into post covid and all the different part abilities to volunteer and get to know people needs to come back, and that's that's a downside of hotels. That's really harder to volunteer in hotels and so on. So getting people off the streets and being able to listen and visit is important. The was probably the number one place in town that was a safe place to be and that went away during covid. That was part of the call Resource Centers, that we have more places where people can listen can be safe than just the library, because you had the library and you had the trans. One of the challenges post covid is going to be how many do we need and where the city will continue to invest in some social workers at the library for that. Hopefully we will have at least a couple engagement Center locations, 3rd Avenue and whatever happens. Post sull probably needs to be over on the west side of town, another place where people can be during the daytime to to listen and talk, decompress and be off. I'm not quite sure what the in the near term. What West? Thank you, thanks. If anybody wants to train has another question. We're getting close to the end of our usual time. I see Jane does. I was happy to hear that there's a person named John who wanted to talk to you to be a conduit to the new mayor and this, this program, this morning has been recorded, so perhaps you could give this program to John to share with whoever is interested in the new Administration to find out. Thanks, Jane. That's a great idea and I have to say that it's. It's encouraging to hear you talk about. The ongoing discussion is going to have to over the next few years. It has, frankly, for as long as any of us have been here, right, this is not a new problem, but the fact that you've seen sign some openness to continuing dial in some recognition of the actual problems that come with governance tempura, previous stands is a hopeful. So a watch for a last hand up or somebody put the video on Flagger attention. But I do want to thank you, Dr Monsieur, for no joining us this morning, but for all the work you've done, and I have to say that you know it's hard to imagine that this much time has gone by since you first started on this team, but I remember the excitement among people talk to back when you first started. The fact that you would agreed to be part of this, I think, are the presentation this morning helps us understand what the what that excitement was about, and we appreciate all that you brought to bear on this. I continued affects it that your participation will have as we go. I see Heather, can I get heather? The last word seems like one organization. I haven't heard you speak to other than ice or with some. How can we better utilize the university both as a solution and also as bridge to the Great? I think two or three things. One is: the university is the major trainer of social workers and so supporting the training programs both at Bachelor and Masters level and for Psychology programs for the Behavioral Health Community. There's huge Workforce issues I'm sad about. Is the hospitals coach the best of the Social Service Community because they pay their salaries. And so how do we support the non-profit social service agencies for worker stability? So that's part of the University. The other thing is there are folks in the school of health at the University that are involved Bose. With data and with training people play in Social determinants of health issues. So clearly the training mission of the universe is- but I think that we have not maximized- is drawing University faculty into ongoing learning in the city. Partly this is the way out of universities are set up to need research grants and so on. We need to invest more. I think that's kind of the background of your underused. I want to remind people that next week our program will be an observance of Memorial Day men and women who have given their lives and service to our country, and we'll have a great program. Shea winterberger, who many of you remember from her ears, growing up in Anchorage and being part of our fellowship, is now Lieutenant Commander in the coast. As a wonderful presentation that she's going to give, you should be joined by Tim troll Play, Helen Peterson, dinosaur Shiro, and I hope one or two of the rest of you who might have some thoughts on this would contact me in the next couple days and and we'd be happy to have you joined in the program. I will just, I guess, close by saying something just occurred to me, as we were: is we're wrapping up here, right I? My background is not in, but not through the sort of more direct kinds of things that you and the medical and Social Services fields and and all have done. But I reminded of a I used to have a little poster on my door, that by philosopher named Anatole. Maybe bill could give me a site for this, actually, but sorry, call the. The quote was: the law, and its Majestic equality forbids the rich and poor alike to sleep under the sleep under bridges and begging the. So I think what dick and the rest have been doing, getting past the law up at dealing with the real problems of people and understanding issues that come up as, as in all their complexity, appreciate that. I'll give it a minute or two. As we say: goodbye, people want to save the chat, or if you want to just unmute yourself and say: hello, we all. Thank you again, Dr Monica, joining us this morning. It's in for your thanks for the opportunity and best wishes to you all. Thank you all for the voice you raised in the community we need bye-bye. Thank you. Feel free to unmute yourself and jump in, if you like, for a minute or two and then we'll get off into this sunny. John, you look like you're in a different place. Is that why they trouble with the internet? No, I don't think that's the problem with the internet, but it is the problem is avoiding Zoom bombers. I have a 5 year old and a 9-year-old in the house who I'm escaping by coming to a different room in Mona. It's good to see you here this morning. I didn't want to interrupt the whole process, but while we've got a few more people on, I'd like to express that I think there's a need to get on radio with public service announcements that keep the people informed about what's going on with the homeless and what's needed with the homeless and such, because it's on those radio stations that Bronson's supporters are listening every day and we need to get to them and inform them so that we can get their vote when it's needed, because he's going to attack the assembly, in my opinion. So we need some public service announcements produced about this issue to get on to radio local is. I appreciate that and as I I think we I recognize just about everybody on this. It's left on the screen and I train Decades of experience recognizing that this is a decade's old problem and that is it going to be a continuing conversation. So it's interesting how much of this has been, maybe some sort of false sense of security, as covid money is kind of come into the City and people haven't been out and about as much. How much of this you know? What the Sullivan Arena and everything? How much of this? A false sense of security, that things have become better. John, have you ever seen those little pods that are offered? I think I saw it at a Japanese place and maybe somebody else noticed them too. But they're not anything you can really stand up in for a long time, but it's some place that you can sleep for the night and just as far as a shelter and a place that is, you know, temporary. I don't know what else to call them, except just a little sleeping pod, but I was impressed with that. For temporary, I'm not. I'm not familiar with good to see everyone have a good weekend and if you know of somebody, those of you are left on who I'm still looking for one or two people to round out our program for this next week, which I think will be good. But if you, if you have a family member, yourself or an old friend or a classmate or somebody that you remember who's lost their life and service the country Memorial Day, please think about maybe sharing a couple, sharing a reminiscence or some thoughts on that, give me a call or send me an email in the next couple days. All right, everyone, see you next.