9/12 podcast

Hi, listeners. I'm Irene Barton, Executive Director of the Cobb Collaborative, and I welcome you to Mind Your Mind Speaks. Our podcast series brings together subject matter experts, community leaders, and local stakeholders to raise awareness, share resources, and inspire action through recorded conversations about the Cobb Collaborative's focus areas. Today, we are delighted to welcome one of our very own, Tyler Bowser, to our program. Tyler is our Veteran Connection Manager under our Connecting Cobb Veterans Program. So, Tyler, welcome to the show, and let's introduce you to our listeners. Please share some information about yourself. Well, Irene, thank you for having me on. It's a great, great honor to be here, and I'm Tyler Bowser. I'm the Veteran Connection Manager here at Connecting Cobb Veterans. I am a recovered homeless Veteran myself. I have a great passion for Veterans, and so I've been in this ecosystem for the past eight years. I'm lucky enough that my life fully recovered, and I'm currently married. I've got two great stepkids. You know, I've obtained the American dream, at least my American dream. That is so wonderful, and I feel so fortunate that you knew our Connecting Cobb Veterans Program Director, Dan Ballantyne, in a previous life, and the stars aligned just a little over a year ago, and you were able to join our team. We'll talk more about that work in just a moment, but Tyler, once again, so glad you're on the collaborative team, and particularly the CCV team, which we describe as a signature program of the Cobb Collaborative, and of course, one last welcome to our program. So, Tyler, when we officially launched Connecting Cobb Veterans, CCV as we typically refer to it, when we did that work officially about 18 months ago, we started out by being really focused on convening the Veteran serving ecosystem so that we could, like, do stuff that really the collaborative had a track record in, right, fostering collaborations, identifying service delivery gaps and inefficiencies, and really help to create that sense of community, this time in the Veteran serving space. And we'll come back to that in just a little bit, but let's start with the work of CCV. You know, while we didn't start out with a model to provide emergency housing to Veterans, 18 months later, here we are now, and really in a big way. So, can you share with us how that ended up? Well, we were lucky enough to receive a grant of $5,000 from a local philanthropist, the Brain Trust, that is connected to ARC. Is that right, Irene? The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta. That's right. So, that's how we started this program. We knew that there was a gap in services to help homeless Veterans get into transitional housing or even emergency beds. So, we'll talk a little bit about there are no emergency beds currently in the Atlanta area. But we saw this need to be able to bridge a gap, and giving somebody just a night or two in a hotel, that doesn't cut it. To lift that cognitive burden off of that person and allow them to make phone calls to get additional resources, because that's what we do. We just flood them with a call here. I'm going to text it to you. You're going to have this number. These are the people, and you need to make these appointments. So, we help to guide them in that process so that they can get into the VA programs for long-term housing. And, Tyler, you've kind of talked to a couple of points, but I just want to make sure that I myself understand and that our listeners understand, really when a Veteran presents him or herself to, say, the VA or another housing program, and they're experiencing homelessness, it's not like that day they get into the program. There is this gap, right, most of the time? All right. That is correct. And at the bare minimum, it could be 48 hours, because many of the programs require a TB test to be read, and that takes 48 hours to present. So, a Veteran that may be experiencing substance abuse, and they are at their lowest low, and they want to go out and reach and get help, and they're directed over to the VA CRRC. And then they're told, well, you've got to go over to the clinic and get a TB test and then come back to us in two days. But if they show up on a Thursday, they have to wait Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then Monday they can go. Now, then at that point, the VA says that the same-day placement at that point, not the same-day placement, can last up to 72 hours. So, it could be an additional three days until that Veteran gets into emergency shelter or into transitional housing. And that shouldn't be the case, because we can lose those Veterans back to chronic homelessness and to their substance abuse disorder. In that window, absolutely. Because the scenario you laid out, and I'm sure you're not just making this up, but you have witnessed it and perhaps even experienced it, is now it's nearly a week later. And there's no point in pointing fingers, and we're not trying to do that. That's just the way the process works. Right. That's correct. Yeah. And we can try to change the process, and I think some of your work is starting to get into that. But that is the way the system is designed at this point in time. So, Tyler, talk to us, share with us where we are in terms of numbers, since we did start our emergency shelter program right at a year ago, right? I believe it was the number of 2023. So, let's talk about the number of Veterans housed, if you have it, like total number of hotel nights and explain maybe a little bit how that happens, how that works. Sure. So, these numbers are insane. We're just a small, little, tiny nonprofit. Truly two people working together, myself and Dan Valentine. This little nonprofit provided 490 hotel nights, servicing 52 families. And we have provided 296 intensive case management experiences for Veterans over the course of this year. So, that's pretty much if you determine or divide that across work weeks, that's an entire year where you're dealing with a new Veteran, at least a new Veteran every day, if not two new Veterans every day, and then helping them to get to the services that they need. Wow. I want to make clear to the audience that the floodgates are currently open. So, we ramped up. Initially, we were getting very few calls, two to four a week. And then it grew into the teens. Then we got into the 20s. And now the number of calls just from VA referrals alone yesterday was seven VA calls, and then a floodgate of other folks that find us through our outreach program. Wow. So, sort of the other side of the coin of being successful and running a good program is people end up knowing about it, including government agencies and how they are referring Veterans to you. I'm so proud of doing this work because we have to step up for our Veterans and to show the world that through a partnership with private and public dollars, we can solve these problems. And they're doing it in states like Minnesota. They're doing it in states like California. It's very intensive right now because they've got some unique abilities out there. There are other states that have solved the homelessness problem, but it's through state-run programs. And today was a Senate meeting talking about housing and how the state can support some way affordable housing for Veterans. Okay. Okay. So, in other jurisdictions, you've seen some political will coupled with private and public dollars to really move the needle on the issue. And it sounds like the same opportunity is here in Georgia and right here in Cobb County, and you are kind of leading the charge in that area. That's right, and it's just ignited the passion in my heart because I see that people want to support us. The Gary W. Rollins Foundation, they stepped up and they gave us a sizable donation of $50,000. And then the Bob Woodruff Foundation, they've supported us with two grants, significant grants. So, people are supporting us, and as awareness kind of builds about us, and as we're collecting this data that we can show that we are truly affecting change for Veterans that are here in Cobb County, approximately, this is off of the latest census, there are 39,000 Veterans that live in Cobb County. Wow, that's significant. And you said something, Tyler, that I think is really important, and we want to be sure. I mean, definitely it is important to house Veterans for a night or two to relieve that cognitive burden, but really you're all about transforming lives. I mean, you're developing a personalized plan with the Veteran to navigate a pathway into a more stable housing, employment, mental health space, right? That's right. That's right. So, I look at it as an internal algorithm that I have in my head, and after I triage an individual and ask them a very broad set of questions so that I really can have a good understanding of what's going on in their life, then I can help direct them to the appropriate place. So, if somebody has substance abuse disorder and they're actively in that disorder, I want to help them get into a long-term inpatient program paid for by the VA, and then they can come out on the other side and receive additional services like housing services that we can help direct them with. And everybody gets a tailored exit strategy. Now, we have some failures. We do. I think recently we had two out of the 52 families that we served just remain unhoused because of circumstances out of our control. But we have a great track record of bridging the gap and allowing folks to handle their business while they get to the next spot. That may be they're working and they can self-pay in the hotel. We've got a great corporate rate now at these hotels that they can take advantage of, or they are waiting for their first paycheck or second paycheck so that they can get into an apartment on their own, or they're already being processed through the rapid rehousing programs with the VA. Awesome. So, Tyler, I think a lot of people might, you know, hear the noun veteran and an image pops into their head, right? But is there any typical veteran profile that you serve, or is every story unique? Can you talk a little bit more about the veterans and the veteran family units that you have been able to serve? So, it's very interesting. We have to recognize that there is a very high rate of recidivism through the rapid rehousing program. That's what the VA calls SSVF and HUD-VASH, which we can talk about that deeper. Yes. We'll put that in the show notes. Exactly. So, guide me back to where we need to be there, Irene. Yes. Is there any such thing as a typical veteran profile, and can you talk a little bit more about the types of veterans and veteran family units that you've been able to serve? Sure. So, predominantly it's single males that we're working with. About 10% of the population that we work with is families with children or single females with children. And then encompassing about 20% of everyone that we serve, those are family units. It could be just a married couple, or it could be a married couple with children, or a single father with children. So, I'm sorry, I keep getting off track, Irene. Can you cut me out? No, that's okay. I think, you know, and that reflects what we see in the coordinated entry, which falls under the continuum of care in Marietta Cobb, and I was just in a recent board meeting for that. The largest population is single males, and when we think about military service, that also makes sense, right? That there are families who are struggling with homelessness, and there are single parents who are struggling with homelessness. So, I think you bring up a really important point, Tyler, is that the veteran community, it's not like those people. The veteran community is very reflective of our overall population here in Cobb County and in the surrounding area. It's a mixture of people from all backgrounds, from all different experiences. Is that a fair way to describe it? That is. I've even had folks from Brooklyn that heard about the kindness that goes on here in Cobb County. I've experienced, everyone is so unique, and it really does take an extremely tailored set of instructions to help these veterans get back to self-sufficiency. And then we have to recognize that there is a portion that they will never be able, there is something that either they don't have the mental capacity or they have just abused their body with so many substances that they can't change. We have to recognize there are some that we can't absolutely help. They're going to continue into chronic homelessness. I just was working with a naval flight officer who used to sell million-dollar homes, and he's homeless. He's climbing his way back. I've seen the highest of men fall. And then I've seen just the chronically homeless and the generationally poor are typically the individuals that I'm working with. Okay, okay. So, Tyler, there's a saying in the nonprofit space, the health and human service space, that behind every statistic is a person. Can you share with our listeners maybe about just one of these veterans? I know you mentioned a couple of examples just in your last comment, but maybe another veteran whose story really resonated with you and has stuck with you? Sure, and I'm just going to be raw and real. This is an incredible story. Okay. A gentleman, I'll just call him Manny, he came to us last year, and he was trying to get into school. He was very depressed. He was in the Navy prior, and he had been and served in Afghanistan in the Navy, had some medical issues, had VA disability, but was living with his parents, had lost his job, couldn't get back into society, and just couldn't. And so right as we started our new emergency lodging program, he was like maybe the second or third person that we put into a hotel. And I told him, you only have two weeks to figure this all out, and you can do it. He had income, but he also had a large amount of debt that he had to pay on every single month. So after the second week, he left and went to go be with his dad out in St. Louis. So I called him and talked to him. Well, I just spoke with him a month ago. And Manny is now a bailiff, sheriff, yeah, for the court in St. Louis for the county that he's in. And he had, as soon as he got there, he got an amazing job working for the folks that transferred money around. I can't remember if it's a Wells Fargo, you know. So just an amazing story. A guy that was super depressed. He was also abusing himself with substances. And his parents just wouldn't take it anymore. So they tough loved him. And he saw that he was going to be the guy on the side of the road with the cardboard sign. And he chose to do the right thing and, you know, go be with his dad and change the direction of his life. And we gave him that opportunity. Opportunity, yeah. Wow. That's a good day's work, isn't it? Yeah, it feels good, yeah. Well, maybe less on the people-serving side of the house, Tyler, more on the organizational standpoint. Let's talk a little bit about the other aspects of our Connecting Cobb Veteran Program, the collective gathering part. We convene quarterly, but you're always kind of working the phones and working the system. Can you talk a little bit more about that part, Tyler? That's right. Everybody in this ecosystem at this point, our quarterly meetings are so amazing because Kim Schofie from the United Military Cares, I believe in Q2 of last year, she just said, listen, we're going to collaborate right now. Let's go. And it has ignited a fire of the key players to collaborate, and we're going to be doing that on a pretty grand scale at our Q3 meeting, which is going to be held in Smyrna at post 160 right there in Smyrna. You can't miss it. On September the 12th from 9 to 11, we're going to have approximately 12 individuals representing different veteran service organizations and the VA CRRC, which is the gateway for homeless veterans to be housed. So the whole spectrum is going to be participating, and we're going to figure out what are these inefficiencies that are kind of going on that are not allowing veterans to be rapidly rehoused. And one last point I'd like to make about rapid rehousing, there is no definition given by the VA. It's just a name. Okay. Okay. Yeah. A lot of opportunity there, I think, for people like you who are on the boots on the ground to help policymakers understand the issue and provide recommendations. And we'll drop in our show notes. We'll have one more quarterly convening after the third quarter meeting. That will be in November to avoid the holiday crush season. But we'll drop that in there so folks can connect with us. We'll also drop our social media handles in there so people can follow us that way and get involved. So speaking of getting involved, Tyler, how can people get involved with us? You've got some great volunteer opportunities, and then there's – well, there are some that are probably stand-alone, if you will, maybe one-off, and then there are some that are a commitment. Right. So there are multiple opportunities to serve down here, and it depends on really what your schedule looks like because we have guides that help us, and those are in four-hour blocks. So it allows me to kind of take care of some of the administrative tasks. They can go ahead and take incoming calls and triage the veterans, and then I can do the case management in the afternoon. So that's an opportunity, and we've got, I think, four or five out of ten slots filled or going to be filled here shortly. So there's some opportunity there. And then one of the greatest opportunities and biggest needs for us is to be a part of our team that is evangelizing out in the community and letting people know what we are doing and helping us to raise money. You know, nonprofits, we only run on one thing, and that is donations, grants, and foundation dollars. And so we have to constantly – everybody in this little small organization has to always be in that development mode, creating those relationships and asking for dollars to continue to operate. But we have to be able to show the data and show it in a way that is easily presented, is impactful. I wish we were on regular Zoom and everybody could see us. I would pull out this amazing panel, three-panel piece of media that I would like to produce for the data that we're going to be providing. Well, hopefully we'll have an in-person interview sometime either later this year or early 2025. So we'll hold that and look forward to seeing it then. So I do just want to repeat what you said, that there is an opportunity to support our emergency shelter program or emergency housing program. And, yes, you are relieving a veteran of that cognitive burden of homelessness, but more importantly, people who invest in that program are transforming lives. I mean, as you said, you know, it was over 50 families – over 50 veterans' lives have changed. They are on a different trajectory than they were when they first walked through the doors of Connecting COB Veterans because of you and your amazing team of guides. Right. So the total amount of affected people that were given the opportunity to bridge that gap, the total amount of actual people is more in the 80s and 90s. I've got to check on that. Oh, yeah, that's right. Children, we had an amazing success story of a single female that was paying her way out of a hotel but just ran out of money. She had six children. And she's a nurse practitioner. She had found a job. She just needed a car. We got her a car through Cherokee County Homeless Veteran Coalition, and Jim Lindemeyer gave her a big, giant Suburban. And her life is back to normal. She is living in her own house, single-family house, with all six of her children. They're enrolled in school, and life is just back to normal for her. Yeah, yeah, and for those children. Oh, amazing. I just got chills on that one. Right. And so we see or we hear so often that, you know, a lot of the people teetering on homelessness are the working poor. I mean, these are decent jobs, but, unfortunately, the cost of housing and other things are so high at the moment. And so not every – unfortunately, you know, sometimes that bridge is just needed. You know, you need to build a bridge over that river to get the family over there, whether it's a car, a working car, help with a security deposit or something like that. So, awesome. Well, Tyler, as our time together draws to a close, is there anything that we didn't talk about that you would like to share? Well, I've got two things. We would like to let everybody know that we are in a crisis right now for homelessness of veterans in the Atlanta metro area. There are currently no emergency beds. Veterans are being turned away at the CRRC because they cannot house them that day. And it's just not right what's going on. And we're going to find out what those inefficiencies are. And then we have developed a great relationship with Senator John Ossoff, who is leading the way in the state of Georgia. He is a senator that is bringing what Senator Byrd used to bring to West Virginia. He is bringing amazing resources. He's bringing dollars in here that are impactful, especially towards veterans. He wants to be a part of that change, be an agent for change for veterans. And he's proving it with his record. He's worked on many bipartisan bills. And I just look forward to working with him. He is smart. He is dedicated. And he's proving that. He is looking out for every single Georgian and what's best for our state. And I appreciate that about him. Yeah, wonderful. Was that the two things? Yes, the crisis and then the federal response in terms of Senator Ossoff. Well, wonderful. Well, Tyler, I can't thank you enough for taking time out of your busy day to join me on the show. Really thank you. And most importantly, I thank you for the work that you do each and every day for the veteran community. Well, thank you. I look forward to allowing Connecting Cobb Veterans to be the loudest voice in the state of Georgia for veterans. And I appreciate your enthusiasm in allowing me to do that. And like Congressman John Lewis said, let's get in good trouble. Let's raise our voice for good trouble. I love that. Thank you. Amen. Have a great afternoon, Irene. Thank you for the opportunity to be on here with you. Thank you. And listeners, thank you for tuning in today. And to be sure that you don't miss any future episodes, please subscribe to our Mind Your Mind podcast. Also, we ask that you leave us a review on Apple Podcasts so that others can find us. Plan to tune in next time as we continue to empower and engage our community through conversations about important and critical issues that our residents are dealing with. Until next time, please stay well, be kind, and remember there is no health without mental health.