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- A major new effort to help
the homeless in Memphis,

tonight on Behind
the Headlines.

[intense orchestral music]

I'm Eric Barnes with
The Daily Memphian.

Thanks for joining us.

I am joined tonight
by Kelcey Johnson

Executive Director of
the Hospitality Hub.

Thanks for being here.

- Good to see you.

- Ellen Roberds is a
Principal at Dragonfly.

Thank you for being here.

- Thanks for having us.

- Along with Bill Dries reporter
with The Daily Memphian.

Let's talk, I guess
maybe we start with

some sense of the
scope and scale

of the homelessness problem
and the homelessness challenge.

So I'll go to you on
that Kelcey, in terms of,

and I don't know
how you quantify it,

but the number of people
and the ages of people,

how do you quantify the
challenge and the problem?

- Well, we have a diverse
homeless population

here in Memphis.

The bigger part, of
course, African-American

but you see some of everybody

'cause anybody can
experience homelessness.

We're on track to
count, by way of intake,

twenty-seven hundred
homeless people here in 2021,

there was 2,500 or so last year.

And when I say by way of intake,

that means if I bring you in

and sit down with you
for the first time,

I never count you again.

- Okay, and that's
through the hub

or through any of
the various myriad-

- That's just through the hub.

- So the total
number of homeless

could be twice that maybe.

- I don't think it
would be twice that,

but it'll probably push
close to 3500, 4000.

- Go ahead.

- The thing that's unique
about the Hospitality Hub

is everyone sends you to us.

Be it shelter program,
be it the police,

be it people who you
run into on the street.

If you're somebody who's
experiencing homelessness,

people are gonna send you to us.

People who exit jail
and prison come to us.

The VA, since veterans
who are getting out

are homeless or housing
insecure, they send them to us.

And so we get a large number

of those people
who are homeless.

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

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

Churches, clergy,
government agencies,

other nonprofits,
other missions,

all kinds of places
that you all work with.

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

You're you are
located now downtown.

You have multiple
locations or do you-

- We have the
Hospitality Hub proper

is at our plaza at
590 Washington Avenue

and our larger building
is under construction,

right behind that building.

We have another property
called the Hub Hotel,

which is located in
midtown, 28 North Claybrook.

And then we have another
property called Hub House

and that's in south Memphis.

But our main building is
at 590 Washington Avenue.

- Okay.

I might bring Ellen in and
there is a massive project,

I mean, the hub has been
around for quite some time,

but the new thing is
this massive project.

And I think at some point
we'll have some renderings

of what's going in
down it's what Poplar,

and Danny Thomas and Washington,

do I have the basically
bordered by those?

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

So right now we're working
out of what we call the plaza,

which was originally set
up as a satellite site,

as we built the building
for our location,

which was at 82 North 2nd.

With the pandemic, our lives
changed pretty dramatically,

Kelcey and his
staff in particular.

And so the Hub Hotel
became a pandemic response,

The Hub House became
a pandemic response

for non-congregate
shelter options for folks.

In the meanwhile,

we shifted from
82 North 2nd to the plaza

because it's safer.

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

It's actually outside
where they're working

and able to do intensive
case management with folks.

So adjacent to the plaza
is where we're building

the building and an extended
part of that plaza public park.

- Public park, and
this is the property,

the other people
may be familiar.

This was the inspection station,

the downtown inspection station

when we still did that in
Memphis and it was a massive

and sometimes these massive
10 rows of lines of people

coming in and out.

Your role with Dragonfly
in this project is what?

- So Dragonfly is a
social impact firm,

and we have a number
of projects that we do,

but the hub is sort of near
and dear to the hearts.

I worked downtown 14 years
ago when downtown churches

created the hub.

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

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

And so now Dragonfly provides
support doing fundraising,

capacity building,
HR, financials,

compliance with the concept
that Kelcey and his staff

do what they're excellent at.

And that's being
with homeless people,

people experiencing
homelessness,

people who need pathways out
to their next step in life.

- Kelcey, I know several people
who work as part of the hub

and the effort that's
been going on in evolving

over a number of years.

With the new location,

you don't just wait for people
who are experiencing homeless

to come to you.

It's not that simple.

You have...

I mean, this is what I guess
someone in economic development

would call labor intensive,
very labor intensive work.

You meet people where
they are, literally.

- We do, and we have
a street outreach team

that goes out and
seeks out people

who are experiencing
homelessness

and sleeping in places

that are not fit for
human habitation:

bridges and overpasses,
abandoned buildings,

encampments in the woods of
Raleigh and Sycamore View area.

And in addition to that,

we have a work local program
which draws people in,

it's a partnership with
the City of Memphis

and Downtown Memphis Commission
and some other partners

that we help to reduce blight
in the city of Memphis.

So we were able to hire people

who are experiencing
homelessness to work for a day,

and they get paid that same day

as well as they
get served lunch.

But the thing that happens
is when they come in

for that process, they're
able to get COVID tested,

they're able to get vaccinated.

We're able to get them their
state IDs, birth certificates,

food stamps, help them
apply for disability.

All of these things
are happening.

The work that's being
done is beautiful

and everybody needs a
little bit of money.

But the thing that they get

is this intensive case
management that goes along

with them being able to
come and go to work with us.

And we have employers
who seek us out and ask,

"Do you have somebody who
can do this particular job

or that particular job?"

And so a lot of people who come

to make that 50 bucks that day

end up getting a
full-time job or end up

getting their benefits start
at one benefit or another,

and they ultimately get
housed through those programs.

- So, someone who
comes in thinking,

"Okay, I need some cash,
I'm out on the streets

or I'm going from
one couch to another."

They come in
and they're actually

on the road to this concept

that I think is called
rapid rehousing.

- Exactly, and that's
one of the avenues we use

for rapid rehousing and really,

I can't help you to exit
homelessness if I don't know

what caused your homelessness

and what's keeping you homeless?

Those are the two questions
that we wanna get answered.

And then we wanna wrap
you up in supports

by using our partners and
our caseworkers to help you,

if you're ready to go
ahead and start on the road

to getting out of homelessness,
hopefully permanently.

- The site of the
inspection station,

I think the original
plan was to adapt that,

and then things changed

and there was more support for
just building new, correct?

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

So, Kelcey and I've been in
this business for a while

in various forms,

and we've known that the need
for the shelter for women

has been anecdotally
and in front of our faces

for a long, long time.

But what we did
several years back

was really hone our data system

and internal data system
for the hub initially,

and learned that 37% of our
newly homeless individuals

each year are women and only
6% of the emergency beds

were available for women.

So we took that data point.

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

And we were able to build a
strong coalition with the city,

and with the county,
and with philanthropy,

and individuals, and
Downtown Memphis Commission,

and Memphis Medical
District Collaborative

to build this coalition
to secure a site,

which became the vehicle
inspection station

and to raise the funds
  both for the capital

and for operations, once we
  open to build the building.

And so the building will host

an expanded hub
  operations center,

sort of the day service that
  Kelcey has been describing,

including like
  a work local room

to help shore up
  that program.

And then the women's side,

which will be a
  shelter for women,

which includes a
  private courtyard.

We've been working with
  the national foundation

on the green spaces
  called Nature Sacred.

So we're in the process of...

We've raised all the
  dollars for the building,

now we're raising dollars
  for these green spaces,

which include this
  private courtyard

which is a really significant
  part of the program.

We're really interested in
  women in everyone that we find

to have places to heal.

And we know green spaces
  can help with that.

- This is the sort of...

And even what's built
  now that I drive past

almost every day is the
antithesis of a institution.

It is very, very
different than anything

I've seen in Memphis in the

sense of this plaza,
these public spaces,

the whole sense of it is
much more welcoming, I guess,

and also much more
expensive because of that.

I mean, not to make it
about dollars and cents,

but that's a big
part of this, right?

I mean, this is not a
revenue producing effort.

So, the thinking behind
that, were there other models

around the country that you
all looked at that said,

"No, we don't want
just to house people

"in cinder block dormitories.

"We've got to have
a kind of welcoming

just the aesthetic of it."

- Well-, you mind?
- No, please.

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

And then really I would give
credit to the city of Memphis

and the mayor's office.

They really wanted a place.

So the plaza in
the expanded plans,

as they get built out
over the next nine months

includes additional park space.

So right now the plaza,
it's very beautiful,

it's very useful, it
functions anthropologically

for someone who needs
support, but it will have,

in addition to that,

trees, hammocks, more
sitting places, more shade,

more opportunities for rest,

as folks need to
throughout the day.

And the City really wants that.

Like, we want a place
that feels welcoming,

that is barrier-free, and
gives people an opportunity

to feel safe and are
comfortable where they are.

In the hub, everyone's
an autonomous adult.

Our goal is to
provide opportunities,

but we're never
gonna force someone.

One, it doesn't work, two,

they have a right
to make a choice.

And so the space and
the culture of the hub,

I think really are gonna
come together very nicely.

- I mean this seriously,

but I know it's kind of
an almost silly question,

but is the mission of the hub

to end homelessness in Memphis?

And is that even possible?

- Our mission is to end
homelessness for you,

for each individual that we
can end homelessness for,

we wanna end homelessness
for that person.

And we strive to do that

and we've been very successful

at ending homelessness
for individuals.

And we've ended homelessness
for a lot of individuals,

but homelessness is something

that's constantly
being generated,

especially because of
the fact that people

are constantly aging
out of foster care

and people are
getting out of prison.

That's one of the
bigger groups is people

who are aging out
of foster care-

- Which is 18--
- 18 years old.

And sometimes they stumble
around 'til they're 20

and find themselves homeless.

They can couch surf
for a couple of years

and then next thing you
know, they're homeless,

they're arrested.

They may do 11 months, 29 days

at 201 Poplar and somebody
directs them to us

and we're able to help them.

Then there's also people who
are lots and lots of people

leaving the military
every month.

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

And some people
come home with PTSD

and traumatic brain injuries
and things like that

and they need us to jump
in and kind of help them.

And we work with our
partners at the VA

and Catholic charities to
get those people housed,

get them back going,
get them a job,

help them with the VA
disability, that kind of thing.

There's always someone who's
gonna abuse a woman tonight

and she's gonna flee her home.

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

Somebody is gonna
send her there.

And so homelessness is
always being generated.

And so can we end it?

I mean, I don't
see it ever ending

because it never
stops being generated.

- Yeah, Bill.

- Just around the corner
as if what's happening

at the hub isn't enough,

the Union Mission has
its expansion going.

How does that...

Is there a coordination
between your agency and them,

or how does that work?

- Union Mission is a very
close partner of ours.

We have clients there every day,

people who come to
us and go to work,

or people who come to us and
who are getting state IDs,

they may call us and say,

"This person needs this
thing or that thing

and we're able to
do it for them."

They shelter more men than
anybody in the region.

And so they are an agency
that's very, very important

to the city and the city
would be in big trouble

without the Union Mission.

We had a person to test
positive for COVID last week

and we knew that this
person was staying here

at the Union Mission.

So I was able to call one of
the pastors at Union Mission

to say, "Hey, we're
looking for this guy.

"We can get him quarantined
at a different hotel

"for the next 10 days
while we wait for him

"to get through the virus

will work its way
out of his system."

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

- I would imagine that
you run across people

who are homeless,
but who may argue

that they're not because
yeah, "I'm not on the streets,

I'm sleeping in my
car for a week or two,

"but I'll find
a couch somewhere.

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

- That happens with some
people, and it doesn't matter

what label a person puts on it.

If they need my assistance
and they come to our door,

we're gonna assist them.

One of the things that we
also do is men who work

with Shelby County
Office of Re-entry

and the men who are
getting out of prison.

Even if they do go and
stay with a relative,

with mom, or
girlfriend, ex-whatever,

we still give them
the same services

as a person who is
sleeping outside.

Because what we found
is sometimes people

get out of prison and
they have a place to land

and that place doesn't work out.

So we start working on
getting them their IDs

and birth certificates and
all the things they need

to get work, get them
apply for food stamps

while they have somewhere
to sleep and they stay,

they come to us needing shelter.

And so we start the ball rolling

the day they come
to us out of jail.

- And in terms of fundraising,

where do you think
community awareness is?

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

Who are donating
money to this effort?

- Well, I mean, I think,

just like in every
segment of society,

the opinions vary and
it's always our job

to get the message out
and to educate folks

about what we're able to do

and what we're not able to do.

And a lot of that education
really sometimes comes around

like people view,
perhaps homeless camps,

perhaps differently than the
way the organization views it.

And the way we engage homeless
camps, as Kelcey said,

we don't believe they're
fit for human habitation.

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

That's not their first choice,

but there are
barriers along the way

to move people
from those spaces.

And sometimes the barriers
can come from the community

supporting folks with
food and so forth.

And so we don't...

Where we have some, I think
always have an education goal.

And we're always learning too,

like the pandemic,
we've learned so much

and in terms of like
ending homelessness.

When we get the building and
we have this emergency shelter

for women and has been
such a need for so long,

for me, that really helps
me clarify the next steps.

So Bill, you are out
there, you saw the studios,

we've built through some
Tennessee CARES funds.

We were able to
build five shelters,

non-congregate shelters,

they're just studios,
they're lovely bedrooms

adjacent to our bathrooms.

So they don't have
plumbing within them,

but they're a test
case to figure out,

'cause there's so many
ways that someone moves out

of homelessness 'cause
there's so many ways

why someone's in homelessness.

So, folks might not be able
to handle a group setting

either because of COVID,

or because of their
mental health issues.

And so this allows
us to house them

while working
intensively with them.

And so we're looking
at additional funds

and seeing how this program,
this pilot program works

because we're really sharpening
the solutions and we do,

and it is always generated.

Homelessness is poverty.

It's like a very
visible form of poverty.

And we have a very high
impoverished population here,

and we have more folks
who are coming in.

And so it is always generated.

And yet, we think that
we are really nailing in,

on some solutions and
have places to expand

and can build up
the next five years

of the work of the hub for that.

- I've been in since I got
vaccinated in early March,

whenever it was, my family's
mostly on the west coast.

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

in Seattle, Tacoma.

My son lives in Oakland now
and lived in LA before that,

so I've traveled an odd amount.

The level of
visible homelessness

in Portland and Seattle,

Oakland, and in LA, we have
huge poverty issues here,

but it reminds you that the
country has huge poverty issues

and in Portland, in Seattle,
especially, just in Portland,

I think people
can't quite imagine

the way their rules are set up.

And I don't even know
if I'm criticizing this,

I just know it's
unbelievably sad to see is

there are people in tents,

sometimes three to a block
in downtown Portland,

and they have a
right to stay there

for certain amount
of time based on that

the City Council kind of law.

And I was walking by, and I
mean this not in a cruel way,

I thought to myself first and
foremost, it's incredibly sad.

Secondly, no one
is served by this.

This person's living
on a sidewalk

across from a restaurant,
or a business, or apartments.

So the homeless person isn't
particularly well-served,

the homeowner, the
business, the residents,

and yet it is pervasive in
a way that is breathtaking.

I am trying to turn
this into a question.

Why is that happening there?

And why is that
not happening here?

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

What is going on that

you would think that if
that's happening there

in a much wealthier cities
like Portland, Seattle,

and so on that it would
also be happening here.

- The thing that I've done
audits in other cities,

in addition to working here,

and the thing that we as a city,

as a City Council and County
Commission, and mayors,

and service providers,

we've decided that tent
cities are inhumane

and we don't want them here.

And so we had, after this
protest that happened downtown

on Legislative Plaza, after
all the protesters left,

they left tents and
all kinds of stuff

for people to have
an encampment there.

And it was ugly and it was bad.

And so we worked with the City

to get rid of that encampment.

And the way we did
it was through smart

and excellent case management
with us and our partners

and some funding from the
City to get those people

moved from the tents, we
went out to the tents

with Chick-fil-A and coffee,
and tent-by-tent and said,

"Hey, would you rather
be somewhere else?"

And 94--
- For weeks.

- It wasn't one day.
- An intensive amount of work.

- Yeah, it was a lot of work.

And would you rather
be somewhere else?

And ultimately we
got everybody to say,

"Yeah, we wanna be somewhere."

But one by one, we moved
those people from tents

to hotels and got
rid of all the blight

that happened down there.

And from those hotels, some
went to rooming houses,

some went to public housing,
some got housed other places.

We found that some
people had income

and just didn't know
how to manage it.

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

And so it could be easier
to manage your money,

if you can get out of...

After you leave a treatment
program and sober living.

And so it was like she said,
it was weeks and weeks,

but we completely erased
that tent city from downtown.

- Again, I'm dwelling on this

because I just
don't think people,

unless you've seen pictures
of where you see it,

Skid Row in LA,
which I did not...

I think I thought it was
maybe more of a notion

than an actual place and
accidentally drove through it.

It's what you picture
when you see a...

You think this happens
in war-torn areas.

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

- Right.
- And hundreds of tents.

- Right.
- And a kind of squalor,

that's just unbelievably
sad for everyone--

- And I promise you,

we would have the exact same
thing in Memphis downtown,

an underpass near St. Jude
would have been a huge,

huge encampment had we
all not worked together

not to have that, Legislative
Plaza would have grown

to 70, 80, 100 tents,
but we, as a community,

not just the hub have decided
that we don't want people

living outdoors and
we're gonna work together

as a community to make people
not have to live outdoors.

'Cause when you sleep on a bench

for a night is one thing,

but to set up a tent
with a coffee maker

and a microwave in it,

and you've given up on
traditional forms of housing.

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

- I also wonder if some
of that is a reaction

to the rules that are
in traditional shelters,

is that also a part of it?

- For some people,

different types of
emotional injuries and PTSD,

bipolar personality,
psychosis types of things,

make it impossible for some
people to live in shelter.

And then you have some
people who don't like

the Christian things
that go on in shelter.

So they refuse it
because of that.

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

And so they can't go back to
shelters because they've been

so combative in shelter.

And so that does happen,

but I don't think
that's the main reason

people are outdoors,
there's other reasons,

but that definitely
is one of 'em.

- Yeah, this is a matter
of someone trusting you

to know that they're
safe in many ways.

And some of that is rules

but some of it is
also programming.

Calvary Episcopal Church had
a program many years ago now

that was actually
a writing program

for people who were
experiencing homelessness

and the essays that
were read aloud

at the end of the program,

were, I think, some of
the best testimonies

I've ever heard or experienced

of what it means to
experience homelessness,

are there those kinds of efforts

beyond getting
someone into shelter?

- So I think when we
have the new building,

we'll have the
capacity to do that.

We have closed down
our volunteer programs

since the pandemic, but
we believe when we open

the new building, and
of course obviously

where it's depending upon
where the pandemic is

in March of 2022, we really
hope to bring folks back.

They were the
backbone for years.

They were the hub, volunteers
were the hub for many,

many years, we were an
all-volunteer organization.

And so that's really a very
important part of our system

and ideology and so we think
we can bring folks back

and with that, those kinds
of innovative programs,

we will have the space and
we've never had that before.

And so that's really exciting.

- We can talk much
more about this,

I should say thank you
both for what you do

and thanks for being here.

I appreciate it.

Thank you Bill, and
thank you for joining us.

Please do join us
again next week.

[intense orchestral music]

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