Greenville Together: Tackling Homelessness with a Bold Community Plan

Learn how Greenville is tackling homelessness head-on through a comprehensive community response.

Today we speak with key leaders behind Greenville Together, the community's new collective impact initiative focused on functionally ending homelessness. Hear directly from Cody Carver (Director, Greenville Together), Jennifer Fouse Sheorn (Triune Mercy Center, Housing Surge Provider), Lizzie Bebber (United Ministries, Host of the Lived Experience Council), and Candace Timmerman (United Housing Connections, Upstate CoC Lead & Data Backbone) about their bold plan.

Discover the initiative's goal to rehouse 80 unsheltered households by the end of the year through an urgent citywide housing surge. Understand the strategic action areas driving this work, including educating the community, reshaping the narrative around homelessness, ensuring transparency, and making data-driven decisions.

A crucial and unique element of Greenville Together is the integral involvement of the Lived Experience Council, composed of individuals who are currently or have recently experienced homelessness. Learn why centering the voices and expertise of those closest to the issue is vital for shaping effective solutions, and how council members are compensated for their valuable contribution. United Ministries proudly hosts this council.

Hear why this initiative is essential in addressing a growing community issue where current approaches are insufficient. Explore the implementation of a housing first model and the critical role of funding to provide immediate housing and remove barriers, ensuring sustainability and preventing re-traumatization. The conversation also touches upon the fiscal sense of investing in housing solutions.

United Housing Connections details its vital role as the data backbone, leveraging the Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) and the Upstate Continuum of Care (CoC) to collect, analyze, and report data that grounds all decisions and strategies. Understand the importance of using data to inform plans, bust myths, and secure necessary funding.

Gain insight into the key data points that inform the strategy: the majority of individuals experiencing homelessness in Greenville are unsheltered, and there is a significant shortage of permanent supportive housing (PSH) options compared to temporary ones. Learn what PSH is and why building more of it is critical for long-term solutions and providing wrap-around services for chronically homeless individuals.

Finally, hear about the hope that fuels this ambitious work – the power of community collaboration across diverse sectors, united by the aspiration to make Greenville a leading city in ending homelessness.

Transcript

Katy Smith: [0:00] I'm so delighted today to be joined by some of our community's finest in caring for our neighbors and people who I just respect tremendously, and I'm really excited for you to get to hear from today. So let's first hear from Cody Carver. Cody, I'd love to hear from you a high-level overview of what Greenville Together is.

Cody Carver: [0:20] Absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you, Katy, so much for having all of us on the podcast and getting to share the great work of Greenville Together with our community members. So Greenville Together is our community's new collective impact initiative focusing on functionally ending homelessness in our community. Our vision is to do this through a comprehensive community response to ensure that homelessness is prevented wherever possible. And if it can't be prevented, it's rare, brief, and non-recurring.

We aim to really accomplish that mission through two key deliverables. The first one is a one-year action plan focused on unsheltered homelessness, which we're currently launching right now, with a goal to rehouse 80 households by the end of this year. The second deliverable is a three-year comprehensive plan that is focused more broadly on all types of homelessness that we'll be implementing later this fall.

That action plan really focuses on looking at the broader system of responding to homelessness in our community and making sure that we have response systems for everyone that could experience homelessness. Focusing on some prevention efforts, some immediate crisis response efforts, as well as rehousing and stabilization for all the various subpopulations that experience homelessness in our community.

Katy Smith: [1:28] That's an ambitious number. So tell me more about how you all will make that happen.

Cody Carver: [1:32] Absolutely, Katy. There are six strategic action areas in our one-year action plan. Our primary strategy focuses on a citywide housing surge. This is an urgent Greenville citywide effort to rehouse as many households as possible, as quickly as possible, targeting our community's most vulnerable and medically fragile unsheltered households and placing them into immediate, safe, stable, affordable housing and wrapping them in intensive case management and wraparound support services to provide them with the holistic support services they need to be self-sufficient.

The other strategies in our one-year action plan really focus on engaging our community in a much more broader way than we have in the past. This includes educating our community on the myths and the stereotypes that exist with homelessness and starting to rewrite and reshape the narrative around who is homeless, what is homelessness in our community, and what are the root causes of homelessness.

We also have a really large focus on transparency. Greenville Together will be releasing quarterly public progress reports to really bring the community along on the progress that's being made and the work that is ahead of us. We also have a strong focus on data. We know that we have to ground our decisions and root everything we do in data.

Katy Smith: [2:41] Okay, that's already a really ambitious list, but I know there's two other things about this that make it really unique, one of which is lived experience. Tell us a little bit about that before we dive in further.

Cody Carver: [2:52] Yeah, we were so fortunate to be able to form the first lived experience council in our community that is made up of eight to ten individuals that are either currently experiencing homelessness or have in the past couple of years. It was really important to us and our consulting team that we worked with for this project that every decision that was made, every meeting that was had, every committee that was formed has representation of those with lived experience in our community.

We firmly believe that those closest to the issue, those closest to the problem that we are trying to solve must be at the table helping shape and guide our responses to homelessness. If we think of the business sector, Burger King, have it your way. We as nonprofits have to do just that and tailor our approaches, tailor our solutions to homelessness to meet those that are closest to the issue.

Katy Smith: [3:38] Thank you. So now before we move in to get deep with our partners around how all of this works, from your perspective, why is Greenville Together important?

Cody Carver: [3:48] There's a couple things that come to mind for why this initiative is so important. The first one is that, unfortunately, homelessness is a growing issue in our community. Each and every day, our neighbors, to the left and to the right of us, are suffering with no place to call home each and every night. They are dying on our streets, and our current responses and our current approach to homelessness isn't meeting the needs of our community.

So we recognized at the very beginning our community came together, all sectors represented by a cross-sector community task force. Our business, faith, local government, nonprofit organizations, our philanthropic sector, and those with lived experience of homelessness all recognized that we needed to innovate. We needed to be bold in our responses and our solutions to homelessness to truly meet the growing needs of our community. So we must do better for those on our streets that do not have a safe place to call home tonight and may or may not make it through the night and wake up to be able to greet their friends in the morning.

Katy Smith: [4:44] Well, let's get into more of the details then. So, Pastor Jennifer, Triune Mercy Center has a decades-long history of working with exactly the folks that Cody described, people in poverty and experiencing homelessness. I'd love to hear from you what makes Greenville Together and your role as the housing surge provider different from what we've done in Greenville before.

Jennifer Fouse Sheorn: [5:05] Katy, I would say the differences are the first one is this is a housing first model. And what that means is that no matter what other issues a person is facing.

Jennifer Fouse Sheorn: [5:16] They need to be housed first. So the idea is they are stable, and then maybe they'll work or want to work on their addiction or their mental illness or their health, their physical health. So the idea is they get housed first. And so we love that. But while we're getting them housed, some of them might not have income. And so we have to see if they qualify for disability or any other benefits. And that takes time to receive those benefits.

So what's different is this time we will have money to pay for their rent while they're building an income. The whole purpose is to have sustainability and to get people not only housed, but to keep them housed. And so that's different for us is that we have never had the extra funds to pay the first month in the last month's rent or to pay a barrier like a plane ticket to go and live with your aunt in Iowa.

And so this is very exciting for us because we've been dreaming of doing something like this, but never had the funds because we do well to pay for our staff and everything that we have going on. So this is a wonderful, I've been calling it a once in a lifetime opportunity. The third thing I would say is, you know, along with my role as I preach and on Easter Sunday, I was reminded that we have to do things scared.

Jennifer Fouse Sheorn: [6:40] And, you know, a lot of times there are big risks involved, a lot of us, because we're talking a lot of money, but we're most importantly talking about 80 individuals whose lives can be transformed. And we don't want to re-traumatize those individuals who've already been traumatized. And that's what gives me joy, is that we have the potential to house 80 individuals by the end of this year.

Katy Smith: [7:05] What I love about your comments is they make so much sense on two fronts. One is that this is obviously the compassionate thing to do for our fellow humans, for our fellow neighbors who might be moms with kids in cars. They might be people living under a bridge experiencing deep challenges. But even if one doesn't care from compassion, it makes fiscal sense. I mean, this might be money spent this year that will help keep people out of emergency rooms. And, you know, the kind of fiscal challenges that a community has, this helps address. That's not my motivation, but it is one that it will pay dividends in the long term on both the human front and the economic front.

So as we think about our neighbors, Lizzie, United Ministries has a 55-year history with deep relationships with the people that you have served over all of those years and right now. And you're hosting the Lived Experience Council, as Cody mentioned, as part of Greenville Together. So this term might not be familiar with listeners. Tell us what that council is and why it's so important.

Lizzie Bebber: [8:03] Sure. Well, United Ministries is really thrilled to be able to host this. And in many ways, it aligns with our own mission and evolution as an organization, knowing in our heads and in our hearts that the voices of the people that we serve are important, but then really taking action to ensure that those individuals have the microphone, have the opportunity to make an input and make decisions and really be in the center of the work.

And so the Lived Experience Council is, as Cody said, a makeup of individuals from various life experiences. But what they all have in common is that they have at some point in their lives either experienced homelessness and for some are actually still experiencing homelessness, who we are hoping to be able to house even through this effort. They are given opportunity to see documents, make decisions.

Lizzie Bebber: [9:02] Give their input about every aspect of the process of Greenville Together. From the beginning of it, many of them served on the task force, but also continue to meet and review as decisions are made. Another aspect that I think is really important and something that I know at United Ministries that we have really learned more about in our own evolution is we're, as a part of our budgeting process, actually paying these individuals for their time. I think a lot of times we look at folks that are receiving services online. In a way that says, well, they maybe should be grateful.

Lizzie Bebber: [9:44] But in actuality, their expertise is in itself such a valuable contribution, and we want to honor that. And so this is really a national best practice that we have been able to bring to Greenville. And I always love to say that Greenville loves to celebrate a best practice. And so why not do that in this sector? But these individuals who I can't call by name, but, you know, I think of they're representing, you know, families, individuals, couples, folks who have been in military service. So really a host of experiences. But really, I think of them as having the heart of the work that keeps us grounded.

Katy Smith: [10:32] That's wonderful. And I know that their input has been meaningful just from having chatted with each of you that have been a part of this long process. It's been so meaningful in guiding where the initiative is today. Using data to help make decisions is really important. And Candice, you lead United Housing Connections, which has a very important and specific behind the scenes role in Greenville Together. So can you first tell folks briefly about the continuum of care that you all lead and your role in Greenville Together as the data backbone?

Candace Timmerman: [11:03] Yes, thank you, Katy. United Housing Connections is the lead agency of the Upstate Continuum of Care, which is made up of 13 counties in the Upstate.

Candace Timmerman: [11:14] Years ago in 2012, Housing Urban Development established Continuums of Care to build communities around homelessness and have them to coordinate agencies, to provide strategic planning, to streamline services and fill gaps, and then also to manage and distribute federal funds for housing and supportive services. United Housing Connections also serves as the HMIS data lead or Homeless Management Information Systems data lead for the upstate. And so that positions us really well to be the data backbone lead for Greenville together.

So what we'll do there is we will house the data evaluation and impact manager. And our role is really supporting all of the data planning and activities for Greenville Together. So we will oversee the monthly street count, including data collection, data quality, analysis, and reporting. And we will provide the data needs for the steering committee, the lived experience council, the funders collaborative, in all six working groups of Greenville Together, which are the Housing Surge, the Public Education and Engagement, Accountability, Sustainability, Technical Assistance and Training.

Candace Timmerman: [12:43] Permanent Supportive Housing Pipeline, and also the Comprehensive Day Services and Housing Needs Assessment.

Katy Smith: [12:50] It sounds like to me that really using smart, current data that all of you are looking at together is another core part of this work. I would love to hear you talk a little bit about how you see some of this data being used when you all are getting together as the initiative unfolds.

Candace Timmerman: [13:09] We all have stories or ideas about what we think is happening in the homeless arena. And like Cody said, I mean, we're trying to inform people and educate people about homelessness and we will eventually bust any myths, anything like that. And this is concrete data about what is actually happening. I mean, even in the continuum, we conduct our homeless point in time count. We are going to Housing Urban Development so that they can go to Congress and say, this is actual data about people who are actually living with this with in these situations. So it is really, it is concrete evidence that will be used to inform decisions.

Jennifer Fouse Sheorn: [13:58] It's also imperative for funding. That's what a lot of us don't have if we're not federally funded. The COC is federally funded. And so we need that as we work together to fill in the gaps for those areas that we can't pay for. The subsidies that are needed and vouchers with the Greenville Housing Authority. We can't do this work by ourselves. That's another point to remember.

Cody Carver: [14:25] And I'll even chime in there. I think we spent a really long part of the process at the very beginning of Greenville Together before we even started thinking about the strategies that would be in the action plans on just collecting data and getting a good landscape analysis of what the actual problem is, what is the current issue that our community is facing, because what we didn't want to do is act on speculation and create strategies that our community didn't need. We needed to create responses and strategies in our plans that actually meet the need of our community. And data does a really great job of telling that story of what is actually occurring in the moment in our community and how can our strategies address that need.

Katy Smith: [15:01] The other thing that strikes me about data is I have worked in this nonprofit sector my whole career, and I've always heard people say nonprofits or the government should run like business. And I don't always agree that that is an analogous experience, but I will say what business does really well is uses good, real data to plan and to make decisions about what to do and what not to do. And I can't think of a more important issue for us to wrestle with than homelessness. And to be able to approach it with really smart data, that is a game changer. And that's really exciting to me. I mean, any of us who live in Greenville have seen an increase in homelessness just on the streets. And there's a lot of homelessness that we don't see that's not on the streets, but it's under bridges, it's in vehicles, it's in behind buildings. You all had data to help substantiate it as you got started on this initiative. Can you share some of that?

Cody Carver: [15:54] Yeah, I'll share two pieces of data that I think really informs our strategies moving forward. As I mentioned, our most urgent priority is focusing on unsheltered households in our community. The data showed us at the beginning of this process that the majority of folks experiencing homelessness in our community do so in an unsheltered environment, meaning they're sleeping on the street, sleeping on a bench, sleeping under a bridge, and do not have a safe and warm place to sleep every single night.

Whereas there is still a good majority of folks experiencing homelessness in one of our emergency shelters or maybe staying temporarily in a hotel, but we do know that our most urgent need is to focus on those experiencing unsheltered homelessness to provide them with the safety and security that they need. Our long-term strategy with Greenville Together really focuses on building a pipeline of more permanent supportive housing. The data that we found shows that 35% of all housing options in our community are permanent to where 65% of them are temporary. Therefore, our community has an extremely low stock of permanent housing options for those experiencing homelessness, meaning that those in the emergency shelters have no exit into permanent housing. That then creates a compounding effect to where our emergency shelters are reaching maximum capacity. Then the folks on the streets can't enter into an emergency shelter. So really, to solve homelessness in our community, we know we need to build more permanent supportive housing to safely house folks into.

Katy Smith: [17:15] So Cody talked about permanent supportive housing. Not everyone might understand what that is and how important it is and why the stat that you shared, Cody, is important. Jennifer, tell us a little bit more about permanent supportive housing, because that's what you're looking for all the time for so many Triune parishioners.

Jennifer Fouse Sheorn: [17:29] And I would just want to say a big shout out to United Housing Connections because they just opened Church Street Place at Inpo Mill. They're going to be housing 36 individuals. And I know that United Ministries just took over some individuals. And so did Triune and some other of our colleagues have taken folks. It's so exciting to see people get housing.

A lot of times we celebrate when people get housing, but then we forget that in order for them to keep that housing, they need support. What's permanent supportive housing is, is it keeps people housed and then you have case management. It's called wraparound services. And so that case manager, depending on each individual, how often they're in touch, but you might need to go to the grocery store or be taken to your doctor's appointments, or you might need help paying your rent, not to be given the money, but to set up a payee or other ways of getting your money so that you could pay your rent. And so it's a wonderful way to keep people who are chronically homeless, who have a disability, whether that's mental health or physical health or other disabilities, that they are able to stay housed.

Cody Carver: [18:39] Something that I'll add to that is I am new to the Greenville community. And one of the things that I have found here is our community is very competitive and we always like to be the best of the best. And so some of the data that we found at the very beginning of this process is Greenville often lags behind cities of comparable sizes to Greenville in permanent supportive housing.

So we know that in Greenville, there is less than half of a permanent housing bed for every homeless person. These communities that have reached this gold standard of what we call functional zero to where they have response systems in place to immediately support individuals that are falling into homelessness have over two beds for every homeless person in their community. What we're aspiring to get to is five permanent beds for every one temporary or interim bed.

Katy Smith: [19:26] Well, y'all, this is so impressive. And it also sounds like an extraordinary amount of work. And I appreciate the role that each of you is playing. And Cody, I know you serve as the director of Greenville Together and helping corral everybody and keep things moving forward. So just from your perspective, what gives you hope about this and what's most on your mind?

Cody Carver: [19:46] Yeah, that's a great question, Katy. I think what really gives me hope about Greenville Together is the fact that our community is willing to step up and do the hard thing and to tackle this challenge head on collaboratively. I think I had so many inspiring moments during the planning process when I was looking around the room and there was 41 of us in the room. And very rarely do you see these types of planning meetings where you have a business representative, a nonprofit executive director, a member from one of our foundations, and then also a member of the Lived Experience Council who is currently experiencing homelessness.

So it truly is an inspiring moment for our community where we have come together as a collective and a collaborative and are willing to tackle this challenge head on. You know, our community is beautiful and amazing in so many ways, and we make all kinds of great top 10 lists, top 10 best places in the South, best places to live if you're under the age of 30. But I have it in my personal mission and goal to make Greenville to make the list of top 10 places that ended homelessness in our nation. And so how powerful and amazing would that be if we continue to etch that into the legacy that is our community? So now is the time to tackle the challenge head on. Now is the time to come together, to lean in, to do the hard work, because hard work is good work. And I know for a fact that if any community can do it, that Greenville can.

Katy Smith: [21:00] Thank you for that great word to end on. I mean, truly, you four are some of the most caring people that I know at some innovative organizations doing really hard work. I'm really excited to see where this will take our community and help harness all of us to care for those of our neighbors who are not in a great place to get them better and help our community in the meantime. So thanks so much to each of you for joining me.

Catherine Puckett: Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville. Greater Good Greenville was catalyzed by the merger of the Nonprofit Alliance and the Greenville Partnership for Philanthropy. You can learn more on our website at greatergoodgreenville.org.