Announcer: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessaril reflect the views or opinions of WGTE Public Media.

Doni According to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.

Every year, at least 700 people in the United States die from hypothermia due to a lack of suitable housing or shelter.

Imagine living in doorways, sleeping on benches and struggling to find protection not only from the weather, bu also from a myriad of challenges and dangers that confront those who are unhoused.

Toledo is fortunat to have organizations dedicated to addressing these issues.

They focu not only on providing shelter, but also o offering the necessary support to help individuals determine the direction of their lives.

These agencies approach their work with compassion, intent, and a deep understanding of th inherent value of every person.

I am pleased to discuss how we can all contribute to this important effort with Rachel Gagnon, President of Cherry Street Mission Ministries.

I'm Doni Miller, and welcome... To the Point.

Doni: You can connect with us on our social media pages.

You know how to do that.

Just email me at doni_millwe_wgte.org.

And for this episode and any other extras that you'd like to see, go to wgte.org/to the point.

This is one of my favorit times of year, not just because we get to hang out with friends and family and share presents and all of that sort of thing, but we have an opportunity to highligh some of the agencies in our city that do amazing work for peopl who are not quite as fortunate as many of us are.

And it is my honor and pleasure to introduce yo to Rachel Gang in This Morning.

Rachel is the president of the Cherry Street Mission.

I kno you know about the Cherry Street Mission Ministries, but what you don't know is how much bigge and more complex they've become in helping to serve the folks in our community who are homeless.

Welcome.

Welcome.

Rachel: Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Doni: So good to have you here.

So why don't we start by introducing people to the bigger Cherry Street mission?

Rachel: Sure.

Yeah.

So Cherry Street, as you mentioned, we've been around since 1947, if you can imagine that.

And back then, it really was just, a cup of soup, a hot meal.

And that has over time, evolved into shelter to start both for men and women.

And really, in the last probably, two decades has just, expanded to become a true continuum of care of services for individuals here in our community who are experiencing homelessness, for sure, but also just folks who maybe, are living in poverty or, with some level of precarious housing.

So we really are, kind of trying to be a one stop continuum, service provider to provide a holistic, care suite to folks in that situation, because we've learned over the years that it's more than a cup of soup and it's more than a cot.

It really is the full spectrum of services that helps folks get back on their feet.

Doni: Yeah.

And what always surprises me is the is the stereotypes that people have about folks that are homeless.

Not true.

Rachel: Not true.

No, no, I mean, I always say, I've said this before and I'll say it again.

We are all so much closer to being in this particular situation of, precariously housed or, lacking stable housing tha we are to becoming a millionaire or a billionaire.

Right.

Right.

You know, there's, study after study that talks about how folk are living paycheck to paycheck.

That would imply that it's just one, one financial situation away from being in that situation.

So, Yeah.

So it's it's I think, over time, our, you know, culture has put this moral judgment on and individuals experiencing homelessness, but it's so much more complicated than that.

I think last year we served about 1900 individuals.

And I would argu that of those 1900 individuals, they had 1900 unique stories o how they got into the position that they were in.

Which then also lends itself to 1900 unique solutions that we need to work with them on to, again getting them back on their feet.

Doni I think to and and I know this, becaus of some of my other experiences, we tend to think of folks who are homeless as being, you know, 20 something or 30 something or, the, the 70 something who is struggling with alcoholism.

And I recently have had the opportunity to run into women more than one who are sleeping on porches, who are sleeping on benches, who are in their 60s and 70s.

Oh, yeah.

Pushing their belongings around in carts.

Yeah.

And who feel safer outside of the system with their issues?

How do you guys approach those, those people who just don't trust your mechanism that you have set up for them?

Rachel: Yeah, I think that's where we have really tapped into a unique approach which is very person centered.

And, and it start with creating a sense of safety for the individual.

So when you're living in crisis or you've experienced trauma, there really is no long term planning or long term discussions or goals at the beginning of a relationship.

Our priority in that situation would be to get to know you as Danny, the person.

Who are you?

What's your story?

What are your needs?

What have you gone through?

And then once we start to for that connection with you, meet those emergency needs housing and food and clothing, everybody can exhale a little bit.

And that's when we can do the true relationship building, the trust building, where over time we start to form a relationship where you start to know that we care about you as a person, and we see you as more than an individual that's experiencing homelessness.

And so once that trust starts to form and starts to build, then we can get to some o the more meatier discussions of where do you want to be going in a year and five years?

What are your hopes and dreams?

How can we help you get there?

And that really is where the suite of services that we have to offer alongside our partners comes into play.

Because again, for each person, it looks different.

Doni: That's, that's exactly right.

One of the things that I lov about the work that you all do is that, first of all, you call your program participants.

Guess, which I love.

And every single service that you provide is, in fact as you've said, person centered.

And it treats folks who are struggling in ways that they probably neve anticipated that they would be as real, valuable, really valuable human being.

Rachel: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Doni: Yeah.

They're not finding that support in much of their lives.

Rachel: No, no, I think, you know, it's unfortunate, but there's, there's, you know, been a history of, of this in this work, looking at it as a client relationship.

Right.

And, and the way that we view it is, they are our guests both because we want to offer them radical hospitality from the second they walk through the door to the second that they graduate.

Whatever program that they pursued.

But also we want to make sure that we're viewing this as, as a temporary situation.

We certainly don't want folks to be moving into our shelter for an extended or permanent, period of time.

That's not the intent.

The intent is that we give you, a hand up to be working and empowering you toward your goals.

And then we wish you well, and we support you for your next journey.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Doni And what would you say to those folks who say, look, I worked hard?

I did it right.

I made all the right decisions.

That's not my problem.

Rachel: Well, would say a few things I think.

We, I think we all could if we're reflecting on our own lives, share that we've, you know, made differen decisions and we maybe have been the beneficiary of privilege or luck or, or resources, and that these types of situations could realistically happen to any one of us.

I would offer tha you know, at the end of the day, the person who may be sleeping on the streets or in a shelter is somebody's daughter.

Yeah.

Or their sister or their brother.

And they are they're people.

They're people to.

And we deserve they deserve to be viewe that way and treated that way.

From a much more, pragmatic point of view, I would argue and have argued that, as a community, it's frankly smarter as a community, resource wise, to support individuals in these situations.

It is more cost effective for our community to provide stable housing to individuals in crisis than it is for them to linger in an emergency shelter situation.

So my heart tells me to to advocate for the person behind this story.

My brain tells me that if there's no other argument to be made it is significantly more smart as a community to get our resources and our and our ducks in a row behind this effort.

Doni: In addition, I think there needs to be a real recognition that, all of those things that we hear so much about, like rising inflation, like inflation, and rising costs in grocery stores and, unaffordable housing and housing is the mantra of the fact that housing is not affordabl is the mantra of so many needs.

Yeah, those things all impact everybody' ability to make this life work.

Yeah.

And for some who are living on the edge, you just have very few.

Rachel: There's a real economic formula to it.

And Toledo is unfortunately no exceptio to what's happening nationwide.

We see that.

I think Toledo actually i is, is unique in the sense that, our rents are increasing at a rate that far outpaces our wage growth.

I was just recently on a call.

We were talking statewide, some trends and patterns.

And Toledo has the highest rate of extremely rent burdened renters, meaning that in the entire state of Ohio, Toledo, ins who are renting have the highes percentage that are paying 50% or more of their monthly income on housing.

That leaves almost nothing left for everything else.

Doni: Nothing left.

Yeah.

We're going to go away for a minute, but we're going to be right back.

Just stay with.

Rachel: Me.

Absolutely.

Doni: We'll be back in just a moment.

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Doni: Again.

You can connect with us on our social media pages.

You can email me at donny_miller@gt.org.

And for this episode an additional extras, go to tv.org.

To the poin if you missed the first segment, then you misse an amazing amount of information about the Cherry Street Mission Ministrie with our guest, Rachel Gagnon.

Rachel is the president of that organization.

And their goa and their mission is to provide folk who are unhoused with a pathway toward the direction they wish their lives to go.

And I always think that that phraseology is important because we're not you're not, trying to force any particular paradigm on anyone, you know, but rather give them the opportunity to level the playing field a little bit.

Rachel: Yeah.

Yeah.

That starts with a, a real genuine conversation about hopes and dreams.

Right.

And it's as simple as that.

And then.

And then we get to work.

And so one, one area, I think that, folks probably don't kno that Cherry Street has really, taken leaps and bounds and, and progressed in in recent years is our workforce development space.

So in the discussion of, of having what are your hopes and where do you want to go?

We can start to learn, maybe what types of work folks are interested in.

And we have a really robust, offering of workforce training now, these days that I think most folks don't know.

It's our best kept secret.

But it's it's, spans from the gamut of, office assistant training to welding and welding certificates to, building trades and auto mechanic training.

We recently just employed, or deployed a, AI and project management class.

For interested parties.

Yeah.

And had just an unbelievabl amount of interest in success.

And so I think last year we had over 100 graduates through our workforce development program.

We expect to far exceed that this year.

Because the interest is there and we have some really great partners, in the community, in the education field who are able to help us with the curriculum and training.

And then also, again, provide that certificate at the end that has real value in that nex step of achieving their goals.

Doni: I'm just going to ask for your partners.

Rachel: Are we partner with owns and, northwest, community College.

We really partner with everyon for so long in the short of it.

And so we, are very, very, just gratefu to have, I think, a last count, I want to say over 45 partners in the community to a whole range of services, many of whom are on site.

And again, that is that is intentional so that we can make sure that while we're forming those connections with our guests, we can say, oh, you need, mental health supports or you're craving, resume support.

How to write a resume.

If you go down our hallway on Friday afternoons, there's find a job Friday in our computer lab or, down the hall.

We partner with unison, and they have case managers on site who can help us.

Right.

And so it is just, again, bringing everybody together, creating a unique, game plan for each individual to suit their goals.

Doni: I didn't ask you this ahead of time.

So if you don't have an answer, it's really okay.

What succes stories sticks out in your head?

Rachel: I do have one.

Thankfully.

Doni: I think you put.

Rachel: Me on the spot here.

Yeah.

We have.

So another really, really cool new program that we have is our food truck, which is a social enterprise, initiative that we have.

It just launched this summer.

And so what we have is a cool training program for folks to become sort of safe certified, in the food industry.

And then once they receive that, certification, they can then, if they are interested, work on the food truck.

Now, the food truck itself has a couple of different benefits.

Obviously, it's an employment employment opportunity.

But in part, that food truck goes around to food deserts and serves food to individuals experiencing homelessness, poverty, insecurity, and gives back and feeds.

So this this is an initiative that really is just fueling so many cool outcomes for our guest and for the community at large.

Doni: So in in those food deserts, are people charged for the food in the future?

Rachel: Yeah.

No kidding.

Now, as recently as this fall, we had the truck at, what, the tent city event, which is a, an annual event here in Toledo.

And the pictures of folk lining up is both heartbreaking and refreshing to know tha we could provide that resource.

So the donations that go to the food truck, by way of other events, then got fueled the event to give back to the community.

Doni: Speaking of donations, how how are you funded?

These are some fairly massive undertakings.

And and, it can't be inexpensive to run a shelter.

Rachel: It is not.

And unfortunately, we have, is seeing the rise in costs just like every other, individual in business around town.

It is expensive, and we are the beneficiary of a really robust donor bas that helps with their donations.

That is, you know of course, monetary donations.

But also we had over 1200 volunteers last year in our operations.

So that can come that can look like I know it can look like volunteers coming to serve meals.

We serve three meals a day, 365 days a year.

It can look like staff or volunteers coming to, man the library, to help out with certain, projects throughout the buildings.

So the volunteer effort is is robust, and we are blessed that we have such a strong volunteer base.

Doni: Oh my gosh.

And am I correct in using the number of about 700 for your Thanksgiving dinner?

That's what you.

Rachel: Serve?

Yes.

And I do not committed to memory.

But there was there were stats about the number of pounds of pumpkin pie in Turkey that were serve that would give you heartburn.

But, that was a really, just a, a testament to our community, both from the donations that we received of turkeys and produce.

We had, I think over 100 volunte We had three full meals.

We had activities for th guests, if they were interested.

A movie, movie night afterwards.

So that was just the truest, visual and truest testament of what a community looks like and what a what a real community can feel like when they come together to serve the most vulnerable.

Doni: You.

You said earlier that there was a shelter for women and a shelter for men.

What kinds of issues are you seeing?

Most predominantly in the women's shelter.

Rachel: We see.

Well, again, it's unique to each individual and each guest.

I would say that there is an increase in trend here and, and nationwide of, individuals who identify as LGBTQ, who that image of itself has caused them some type of alienation or, or, disconnection from their support networks.

And so we see that come into the shelters.

We also have seen, unfortunately, survivors of domestic violence who are fleeing, their perpetrator.

You know, when we talk abou the myths of, of, homelessness.

One of them is that individuals experiencing homelessness are, criminals, right?

And I would argue it's almost the opposite that often folks who are experiencing homelessness have a history of victimization, and are vulnerable to future victimization.

So, so really, we see the full gamut of experiences.

Each individual is unique, and that's why we have to support the and meet them where they're at.

Doni: Sure, absolutely.

Is it true that, I think I heard a number of, like, 80% of folks living on the streets are dealing with some sort of mental illness?

Are you finding that here.

Rachel: We see a high correlation or high percentage?

Yes.

That the number is a little bit, nebulous and that it requires somebody to self-report, and to have would you have do they have a diagnosis or are they assessing themselves?

I do think there's a high relationship there, and the experience of trauma can lend itself to future mental health challenges.

And so it makes sense that somebody's experiencing the type of trauma that might lead them to being unhoused, would also lead them to having some sort of consequences from it.

Doni One of your partners is unison and yeah, terrific organist.

Rachel: Absolutely Yeah.

Doni: Great organization.

Yeah.

They must be helpful.

Rachel: Absolutely.

Yeah.

We partner with unison, we partner with Harbor, we partner with staff.

We meet regularly with the mental health board.

We will partner with anyon that is the same best interest of our guests at heart, which, fortunately, we have many.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Doni: Is it difficult to get into the shelters, or is the.

Where is the women's shelter?

Rachel: The women's shelte is, over by on Delaware Avenue.

You can kind of by Rosary Cathedral.

And the men's shelter is over on 17th Street.

Doni: Yeah.

The women's shelter is called Sparrow's Nest.

For those who don't know.

Is it is it difficul to get into the women's shelter?

It's substantially smaller.

Rachel: It is smaller.

So, you know, if you're a first time guest, you can come whenever for your intake.

Really?

Yeah.

We really want to be have an open door policy for folks who are seeking shelter in an emergency situation.

Particularl recently with the cold weather, we implemented different, inclement weather policy that it makes our, our guidelines even more, open door.

We really want to make sure that we're not turning anyone away when it's freezing outside.

Absolutely.

That being said.

So the the men's shelter on a typical night has about 160 beds.

The women's shelter has about 75 beds.

We have seen for the first time in, I believe, a decade, max capacity, we are at our max capacity.

We're adding additional cots when the weather is bad.

So we're piecing it together.

But again, we don't want to be turning anyone away when it's cold out.

Doni: Absolutely.

Are there requirements for entry into the shelter?

Rachel: No.

We just need to come in and we'll get your information with you.

And we want you to spend th first couple of weeks exhaling.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And having your immediate needs met from there will be encouraging you to participate in some plannin and some programing.

Doni: Yeah.

And just and just knowing that there are people out there on your side that.

Rachel: Yes, you absolutely one.

Doni: Foot in front of the other.

Yeah.

So we have just a minute left.

What would you like to leave folks with?

Rachel: I would like folks to, in the course of their holiday celebrations.

We all are celebrating right now.

Yeah.

And and I don't know about you, but I'm fortunate to have a family, and I have a house.

And and food on our table.

I would like all of us to take a moment to be grateful for that.

And then ask ourselves, how can we give back?

Doni: Absolutely.

And there are dozen and dozens of ways to give back.

And they should just call.

Rachel: Absolutely.

You can call, you can stop b or you can hop on our website.

Doni: That's so good.

Rachel: Yeah.

Doni: That's so good.

It was so good to talk to you today.

And I hope that people, remember all of the opportunities they have to give back.

There are volunteer opportunities.

Cash is always good and cash.

Rachel: Is always good.

We will not turn that down right.

That keeps our lights on.

Doni: But a dozen, dozen ways to contribute.

Thank you.

Rachel: Food hygiene?

Yes.

Doni: Food hygiene.

Yeah.

Thank yo for reminding us to be grateful.

We forget that way too often.

And I want to talk to you agai soon.

Rachel: Thank you.

Danny.

Thank you so much.

Doni: Thank you for joining us.

And we will see you next time.

Steve, remember, be kind.

Not because you have to, but just because you can.

See you soon.

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