In this episode, we chat with Kathy Loehr shedding light on the intricacies of serving the homeless community and providing valuable insights into their journey to stability.
Listen now to gain a better understanding of the issues, discover the incredible work being done, and learn how you can contribute to making a positive impact. Subscribe, share, and let's create a ripple of change together!
Support and stay connected to us. First, be sure to hit that subscribe button wherever you're listening to us. Subscribing ensures you never miss an episode, and it's absolutely free. It also helps us continue bringing you quality content.
Consider leaving us a review. Your reviews not only make our day, but they also help others discover the podcast and join our community.
Share this episode with your friends, family, and anyone who might find it interesting. Word of mouth is a powerful way to grow our podcast family, and we truly appreciate your support.
We're always eager to hear your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions for future episodes. Visit www.okstateofmind.com for all of our episodes. You can also email us at communications@fcsok.org with any episode ideas or questions. We'd love to connect with you.
Thank you once again for accompanying us on the journey. Until next time!
In this episode, we chat with Kathy Loehr shedding light on the intricacies of serving the homeless community and providing valuable insights into their journey to stability.
Listen now to gain a better understanding of the issues, discover the incredible work being done, and learn how you can contribute to making a positive impact. Subscribe, share, and let's create a ripple of change together!
Support and stay connected to us. First, be sure to hit that subscribe button wherever you're listening to us. Subscribing ensures you never miss an episode, and it's absolutely free. It also helps us continue bringing you quality content.
Consider leaving us a review. Your reviews not only make our day, but they also help others discover the podcast and join our community.
Share this episode with your friends, family, and anyone who might find it interesting. Word of mouth is a powerful way to grow our podcast family, and we truly appreciate your support.
We're always eager to hear your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions for future episodes. Visit www.okstateofmind.com for all of our episodes. You can also email us at communications@fcsok.org with any episode ideas or questions. We'd love to connect with you.
Thank you once again for accompanying us on the journey. Until next time!
Hello, and welcome to OK State of Mind, a podcast by Family Children's Services based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This podcast seeks to satisfy inquisitive minds, eager to delve into the realm of mental health and overall well being. Join us on a journey to gain insights into the intricacies of the human psyche, drawing inspiration from stories of resilience and hope. Moreover, we'll unravel the fascinating science, the invisibilia, that underpins our behaviors, shedding light on the whys behind our behavior and overall mental health. Our goal is to empower, educate, and inspire you with actionable insights that you can immediately use in pursuing your own mental well being. Last episode, we spoke with Dr. Jenny Stewart and Dr. Robin Aupperle from Tulsa's Laureate Institute of Brain Research. During that episode, Dr. Stewart and Dr. Aupperle shared their insights about the neural mechanisms that underlie addiction, mental health disorders, and related issues. They explained how those insights inform a better understanding of the brain's role in addiction and how their research is developing more effective treatments as a result. You can hear more about their research in Episode 4 of the OK State of Mind podcast. Today our focus is on the plight, specifically in the realm of mental health, of those who do not have the security of consistent housing. Joining us today is the Senior Program Director of Homeless and Diversion Programs at Family Children's Services, Kathy Loehr. Kathy is a licensed professional counselor and a licensed supervisor. She's also a licensed alcohol and drug counselor, and she has worked in homeless and diversion services at Family Children's Services for almost eight years. Kathy has a master's degree in counseling psychology, and she's an LPC. And in LADC. She is well versed in what has recently become a very ubiquitous and challenging issue facing so many cities in the U. S., and we're fortunate to have her with us today on the podcast. I'm Chris Posey and co hosting with me today is Rachel Roberts. Rachel:
Rachel:Welcome Kathy to the OK State of Mind podcast. Thanks for being here today.
Kathy:Thank you for having me.
Rachel:So homelessness is a very complex subject, and I think one of the complexities is how to properly reference it or how we phrase it so can you tell us what the proper way to reference this community is?
Kathy:For a long, long time. Individuals experiencing homelessness have always been referred to as the homeless population or that person is homeless over the last couple of years. Some of that language has started to change to refer to them as being unhoused or an unhoused individual. So it's Interchangeable, I would say as people learn to change that language and update it. There are some that think that homelessness and saying that, or saying that somebody, somebody's homeless creates a negative connotation. So they're moving away from homeless to unhoused. HUD still defines and has those definitions of homelessness in their programming, in the contracts and things that they have.
Chris:And I'm sure it's kind of a nuanced term too how is unhoused defined? How is homelessness defined?
Kathy:So there are several different ways that somebody can be considered homeless or unhoused and by HUD's definition, they have guidelines that we follow when we are working with individuals. It's somebody that is literally experiencing homelessness, they may stay in a shelter, they may stay outdoors. And are considered unsheltered. They may be staying in their vehicle or renting a motel room. It could be somebody that is couchsurfing on a family member's couch, or a friend's couch or wherever they can lay their head at night. It also could be somebody that is fleeing domestic violence and has no other resources. They're considered to be homeless or unhoused. They also look at those that have persistent moves. So by definition, if you have two moves in the last 60 days, and that next housing is not permanent in nature, you're considered unstably housed or homeless. So there's lots of different levels, I would say, of homelessness or being unhoused. And we follow those guidelines to help identify the best housing opportunities for those individuals.
Rachel:Can you give us some background about what Family Children's Services' Homeless and Diversion Services are and how you became involved?
Kathy:Sure. Homeless and Diversion Services is the majority of the programming at the Salvation Army office. That's our satellite office for Family Children's Services. We provide outpatient mental health and co occurring disorders to adults 18 and older that are experiencing homelessness and have a severe mental illness or co occurring disorder. The diversion piece is integrated in several programs. We have a prison reentry program that supports housing and they have a little bit more stability as it relates to housing when they release from prison. The homeless outreach team participates in a municipal docket that for those that are identified as homeless or have some other needs or barriers can connect with us on a, through city tickets and in the city docket to help meet those needs so they can become clients of Family Children's. They are connected with a case manager and all of our eligible services so they can meet those needs, become stably housed, maybe gain some income so they can not continue in the legal interaction with the legal court system.
Chris:You have an outreach team, right?
Kathy:I do have an outreach team. All of my staff are considered community based employees, so they have that expectation and love to go out into the community and either look for clients that we haven't seen in a while that are just not engaged in services. Maybe find some other folks that appear to be homeless and experiencing mental health issues to educate them on the services that we offer and encourage them to engage in services with us.
Rachel:Can you describe some of the day to day operational challenges that your team might encounter while providing these services and being out in the community?
Kathy:There are lots of opportunities. A lot of challenges. One of the primary challenges that we've experienced this year is just space issues. With clients that are unhoused or homeless, there isn't really another confidential space for us to meet with them. So our office becomes that confidential space. And we have seen, unfortunately, an increase in services and an increase in clients that we see. So sometimes there isn't enough space for us to meet with all of our clients and meet all of their needs as quickly as they would like to and as quickly as we would like to address them. A lot of the other challenges that our clients experience are things like not having proper identification. So in order to apply for housing to To get a vehicle to apply for employment, you have to have identification. So our case managers work to provide that. We are able to provide some flexible spending to pay for that ID, to order that birth certificate, so they have those two forms of identification to be able to apply for housing, apply for employment, and really help them on that track towards stability in their life.
Rachel:You told us about some of the challenges that your team might face. What are the challenges that maybe your clients face day to day?
Kathy:Unfortunately, they experience a lot of challenges and barriers. We talked about employment, needing identification, those things. The cost of things these days is really hard. The cost of housing has increased a lot over the past couple of years, and for somebody that is on a fixed income may no longer be able to afford an apartment that they did two years ago. They may not have a vehicle, so transportation can be a barrier relying on the bus system. Maybe their only way to get to work or get to the grocery store or get to a doctor's appointment. So those are a lot of the limitations that we see regularly and we do our best to help mitigate those by providing a bus pass or ordering a Lyft ride so they can meet those needs and get to their appointment on time so they can be successful.
Chris:So it sounds like you are going beyond the mere homelessness aspect. How are you serving the whole person?
Kathy:We can't just give someone or find someone housing if we don't look at the whole person. So that encompasses their mental health symptoms, maybe their substance use. It encompasses their medical care. So we have a nurse on staff who can provide that medical care coordination, provide them with education on how to better manage their medical symptoms, help them with the medication adherence, or just teach them the value of taking medication because this is how it will impact their lives for the better. I have a really passionate team and they are willing to do a lot of things above and beyond to make sure their client's needs are met.
Chris:Can you share some long term success stories with us?
Kathy:I have a lot, so I'll, I'll pick a few. Some of the longer term success stories and I'll speak specifically to the medical piece of it really quick. We have a nurse on staff and that is because of CCBHC and our ability to expand services, and we started a pilot program with her when she was really new to our team to provide injections at our office because transportation is a barrier, and these are the clients that have pretty significant symptoms, so it's hard to engage them. And by doing that, we were able to increase their ability to get their medication every month. Out of, I think, the six pilot folks that we had, four of them were consistent for three months in a row, which we hadn't seen before with these clients specifically because it takes a lot to have them come to our office, get the transportation to another office, sit and wait to see somebody before you get that medication. So, all they do now is come to our office, see the nurse and get their medicine. It's eliminated a lot of steps, and increased their ability to be more well. We celebrate many successes. If we have a client that gets housed, that's a huge success. If we have a client that attends their appointments, sometimes that's a huge success too. When clients are able to get employment, that's a success. When they're able to reconnect with their animal after a hospital stay, that's a success. Because what that means is they are trusting others with their... animal, their emotional support animal, their family member to get the help that they need. And by reconnecting that shows them that we are trying our best so they can be their best. And we work with a lot of community partners to make that happen. We can't do everything. The community partners are what helps us do what we can do.
Rachel:And can you tell us about our community partners and how that works?
Kathy:Yes. Family Children's Services is part of the Tulsa continuum of care, which is called A Way Home for Tulsa. We have been active members for a very long time. And within there, there are over 48 partnering agencies and some of them we have probably daily contact with. It's a lot of the shelters. So Day Center for the Homeless, we embed there. Educate their folks about our services. Provide a group there. We go to Iron Gate every morning during their breakfast time to talk with clients connect them with services and really help break down those barriers. Salvation Army Center of Hope is where we have office space. So we have a lot of interaction with their individuals, their residents that stay there. So. The example that I gave, Paws4Paws is a community resource that we use when somebody does need to go either to a physical medical hospital or needs to receive some type of substance use treatment or mental health treatment, and they will foster animals during that stay and then coordinating the return of that animal when they have completed treatment. We don't have that capacity to foster animals, but they do, and it's just a really vital partnership. That works so well to meet the needs of our clients.
Chris:So how can individuals get involved? And I'm curious both about advocates for your programs, people who just may want to help out. How can those individuals get involved? And also people seeking assistance. How do they engage with you?
Kathy:We have a lot of different avenues for engaging with our embedded services at various community partners. They're able to talk with our clinicians, learn about the services, and then find out how to become engaged in services. They're able to walk in our office, Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, and begin that process of engaging and enrolling in services. We also have walk in services at our main location, 2325 South Harvard. And they can do a walk in intake, and if they prefer homeless outreach, they can be transferred to our location to receive those services. So a lot of avenues, if they have a phone, they're welcome to call and schedule an appointment as well. For Tulsans, if they're interested in getting involved there are different ways to do that. And I have a couple of recommendations. It's getting involved with the local nonprofit community. If they want to volunteer maybe with a shelter. Every year in January, we do a point in time count throughout Tulsa. And they ask for volunteers every year and that's just to help count our homeless population so we can provide that data to HUD and see where we need to improve services, change services, tweak services to meet the needs that Tulsa has identified. The clients are the ones that know what they need the most. We shouldn't be the ones to dictate that. So we always, there's always volunteer opportunities during that time. I know Iron Gate, who is the Soup Kitchen, they always have volunteers. That's a great way to learn more about the community that they serve and just to become more educated. Getting involved in housing planning committees is a big help to understand what housing looks like in Tulsa, what the barriers are, what the needs are of those experiencing homelessness. Advocating with City Councilors for affordable safe housing for all Tulsans is extremely important. The City of Tulsa has a Housing, Homelessness and Mental Health Task Force and Family Children's has been able to present to that committee, that task force this year to talk about mental health, the services that we offer as it relates to the clients that we serve that are homeless and talking to city counselors is a great way to advocate, to learn more about the needs of the individuals in the city and to help just learn more what it takes. It's more than just finding a place for somebody to live. It has to be affordable. It really needs to be safe We like to live in safe places and they like to live in safe places, too. Those are just some of the ways that somebody can get involved.
Rachel:We hear about the rise in homelessness across the country. It's often talked about on the news, but do you have a sense of how Tulsa compares to other cities?
Kathy:I think Tulsa is very similar to other cities across the nation. We have experienced an increase in homelessness based on our point in time data. We have experienced an increase in the rising costs of housing and that impacts our ability to help our clients to the fullest. Instead of paying an application fee, it is now paying an application fee and a deposit without the guarantee that the person is going to get that housing. Sometimes there's this non refundable fee that the client has to pay, or they're not even considered for an apartment, which we haven't seen before. That's something new within the past couple of years. So, I think that's probably similar to across the nation. Income isn't rising with the inflation rates that we've seen, and if somebody is on a fixed income, that's not rising with the inflation rates, too. there are homeless people that panhandle. There are also housed people that panhandle. And they do it for a variety of reasons. They may be on a fixed income and they can't afford their bills. And so in order to live in a place and remain housed in a place, They have to find a way to make money and they have chosen that way to make money and I would consider that person unstably housed and maybe in need of some housing services to help find something that's more affordable. So that's something that we have seen. We are very protective of our clients, and while we don't, we may not see people that are posing as homeless, we do see people that try to exploit our clients and try to take advantage of them because they are in a vulnerable situation. And that's disheartening for us because we always want the best for our clients and we always want people to see the best in them as well. And that is not always the case.
Rachel:There's been a lot of talk about unsheltered homelessness in Tulsa. Can you tell our listeners what exactly that is and is it affecting our community?
Kathy:Sure. Unsheltered homelessness is somebody that is homeless but not staying in an emergency shelter, or they're not couch surfing or staying in their vehicle. They're literally staying outside, or they're staying maybe in an abandoned house or abandoned building, those types of things. And there is an increase in unsheltered homelessness. Our shelters are at capacity, so there are more homeless individuals than our shelters can accommodate right now. And for a variety of reasons, people choose to stay outside during their experience with homelessness. They may feel maybe unsafe in a shelter or the amount of people that are there makes them uncomfortable or is difficult to manage with some mental health symptoms. So they're choosing to stay outside and we have seen in downtown where the homeless shelters are, we see the concentration mostly of the homeless population and they are hanging out downtown because that's where the services are, but not all services are offered all day every day for all of the homeless population. Sometimes people have to wait. They have to wait for their I. D. They have to wait for the birth certificate to come in. They have to wait to go to that job interview. So they have a lot of. Time that is not structured and not having that structure can be difficult. So they're just hanging out. But it is causing issues with businesses. I understand businesses have businesses to run. We have a business to run. We provide services to those homeless people. But it's challenging because not everyone needs the services 24/ 7. We want to provide the appropriate services and it might not be all day, every day. And some of the services are limited. Some individuals can no longer attend some of those services for a variety of reasons. So there's a barrier there for that. One of the things as being a part of the A Way Home for Tulsa continuum of care and having several community partners, we want to make sure that our clients are best served, but it also shows that we are trying to play well in the sandbox, if you will, with other agencies, other businesses, and making sure that their needs are taken care of and our needs are taking care of. We see these clients in a different light. We may be a little biased because they are our clients. But I also understand that people have needs and they may have perceptions that we can maybe educate them on. At the end of the day, I want to serve our clients and I want to serve them to the best of their ability and utilize all of the community partners whether it's a business whether it's a nonprofit to meet this person's need so hopefully whoever is listening to this podcast will want to reach out and have those conversations and learn more about this population and how great they are and How much they have to offer.
Chris:These are complex conversations and the solutions are multifaceted. So, what does playing well in the sandbox look like? What are some first steps for a solution?
Kathy:Playing well in the sandbox means really utilizing the community partners to do what they're meant to do. So, utilizing Housing Solutions Outreach Team, Mental Health Association Outreach Team, contacting Family Children's Homeless Outreach Team, to meet those clients literally where they are and provide that education. And it might be education like this. Look, you can't stay here. Let's find a better place for you to stay today, to sit, to stand, whatever it is so we can partner with the businesses and understand that they may not want those individuals outside. That's great. Let us talk with them, talk with the client and help them find a better place to be for that day. And in the meantime, we can help provide those resources. So we're helping the business, hopefully, to move these people to a different location that's a better spot. Also teaching these individuals where the resources are, where the services are, how they can get connected, so they can start that journey towards that stability. Stability in housing, stability in employment, stability in mental health services, all of those things. By making it more punitive by saying you can't be here or I'm going to call the cops, which the police officers are community partners of ours too, we rely on them. But just by calling them and issuing a ticket or referring them to the legal system just creates more barriers. And that isn't going to help them further their stability when they have a ticket they can't pay.
Rachel:We have a slogan at F&CS: Hope Starts Here. What does that look like in the work that you do?
Kathy:It looks like a lot of things. We have a lot of hope because the clients that we serve are more than just a number. They are people and people matter. They are individuals that have families. They are moms. They are dads. They are brothers and sisters, they are grandparents, and when we look at them as a person, not just a client or not just a number on a survey, it matters, and it matters with every single client how they are successful. If they are asking for help, we are going to help them because they know where to turn and they know that we will provide that. We will do what we can within our scope to meet their needs. So I love to come to work every day because I have a very passionate team, and I also recognize that everyone has struggles. We are no different than the clients that we serve. A lot of individuals may be one paycheck away from experiencing homelessness. They may be one crisis away from calling COPES and being able to recognize that can really help in just serving them in a different capacity and just looking at it in a different perspective.
Chris:Well thanks Kathy for being with us today. This has been really great information.
Kathy:Thank you so much for having me.
Rachel:Thanks for tuning in. If you found value in what you heard today, there are a few ways you can support and stay connected to us. First, be sure to hit that subscribe button wherever you're listening to us. Subscribing, ensures you never miss an episode, and it's completely free. It also helps us continue bringing you quality content. Consider leaving us a review. Your reviews not only make our day, but they also help others discover the podcast and join our community. Share this episode with your friends, family, and anyone who might find it interesting. Word of Mouth is a powerful way to grow our podcast family and we truly appreciate your support. We're always eager to hear your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions for future episodes. okstateofmind.com for all of our episodes. You can also email us at communications@fcsok.org with any episode ideas or questions. We'd love to connect with you. So thank you once again for accompanying us on this journey. Until next time.