The Hidden Truth About Shelters Being Our Last Safety Net

[0:16]  Welcome back to the Heart and Hustle Podcast. I'm Ephraim and we have Miss Collins. How you doing today, ma'am?

[0:21]  Good, thank you, and thank you for having me.

[0:24]  Yes, I'm super excited. This has actually been a conversation a year and a half in the making, actually. so to have this conversation the first time that I sat down with you virtually, you had me in tears. You you you you had me realize that there was still some trauma that I had to overcome. And I s I'm still work in progress. And it was really due to my mom that is homeless. and that is just kind of where you've given your life to to make sure that you could help. those women that are on the streets homeless. How do we get there, Collins?

[0:56]  I think that the crisis of homelessness that we're facing today has been decades in the making. It has been a combination of social and economic factors that are systems-wide. wages have not kept pace with cost of living. I think you see additionally. Fixed incomes like Social Security for our elders and disability for those with special needs have not kept pace with the cost of living. I think all of us are feeling what that means like on a daily basis when we see the gas rising, groceries rising. Those of us who have lower incomes, more so. And so we've had some broad systemic factors that are beyond any individual or family's control. And then we have other layers of challenges, things like domestic violence, gender-based violence that is so prevalent in our in our country and is a lead cause of homelessness for women. We have the mental health issues from a system that has really not recognized the importance of addressing trauma that people experience in childhood. And that becomes, in many cases, a lifelong battle for mental health. And so we see those issues of lack of access to mental health care. And to basic health care. I mean, so many people in this country are uninsured and do not have access to health care. And so when a medical crisis occurs, they can find themselves losing their homes,

[3:04]  Mm-hmm.

[3:05]  struggling to meet the needs of their children or their parents, extended family members. And so we have reached a point in this country where. Over a million women and over two and a half million children will experience homelessness every year. That's a crisis. And it's made more so by the fact that we have not invested in the safety net in our country. That is, what do shelters look like? How are they resourced? Are they struggling to put food on the table, keep the lights on, provide for all the many needs of the women, youth, and children entering the doors? The answer is yes, in every single community, large and small, across the US. So that's really how we've gotten here.

[3:59]  Do you think that it's getting better? I mean, you've been doing this now for what, two decades, a little bit over two decades. Is it getting better? Do you see it going backwards, especially right now, what's happening at the government level with funding's being cut? Is that making it harder for you? Where where do you lie on the financial side of all this?

[4:21]  Yeah, I think the answer is it's not getting better. I think that we are becoming more conscious as a society of the numbers of people who are living out on the street. whether you see that as a public safety issue for a community, as many have sided on, or whether you see it as a crisis of care in our country for one another. It either way, it is a crisis level. And there's been a very little appreciation of the importance of shelter as part of a community's core safety net. That is, we understand the fire department, we understand hospitals, schools, police infrastructure within our communities on some level. but there's been very little appreciation of the fact that shelters are actually the last and final safety net for millions of women and children on a yearly basis. And so those shelter systems have really in many, many communities been forced to become essentially charitable endeavors. That are completely under-resourced for the level of need that we're facing across this country. And I I think that appreciation for shelters and the role that they play in our communities has been lacking for a long time. I mean, the shelters are d doing

[6:09]  Yeah.

[6:10]  bake sales and galas and trying to raise funds through any number of charitable or philanthropic avenues. And yet their their role in ending homelessness has largely been overlooked and in many cases tremendously devalued.

[6:28]  And you you mentioned something when I spoke to you the first time about just woman homelessness, that you often do not see them as much as you'll see a a male that is homeless. W what was the reason for that, Miss Collins?

[6:45]  Be yeah, because the because women survive by being invisible. I mean, that's the reality of it. A a woman who's

[6:52]  Mm.

[6:52]  living on the street is a target for vandalism, for robbery, theft, and of course for violence, physical violence, sexual violence, death. So in order to survive, women are are invisible or try to be try to pass as if they're not homeless.

[7:20]  Yeah.

[7:20]  and yet if we if we're paying attention in our communities, we can see them. You know, they if they're panhandling, most likely there is a male homeless individual who's collecting those funds from them or they are at risk of. So many women will not enter a gender neutral shelter because they know that they are potential potentially at risk. and s and so they are you know, h literally huddled in alleyways and laundromats and public restrooms, hospital hallways, abandoned buildings, places where they will not be detected, or so they hope.

[8:16]  Yeah.

[8:16]  And many, of course, suffer tremendous violence out on the streets. And those women who have children often are using different strategies. Though they hide, they may be couch surfing children in tow, going from home to home of others, hoping to find some stabilization. And oftentimes ultimately entering entering the shelter system as as beds become available. There is an enormous shortage of beds across this country. and many cases staying in abusive relationships because they're so committed to keeping a roof over the heads of their children.

[9:09]  Wow, and and you just saying that just you know, you see it all the time, panhandling and and you are right. I'll see maybe the woman that is panhandling, the man sitting on the side, you know, it and and now you're just saying that it's starting to put one, you know, two and two together per se. one of the things you mentioned was you didn't start here, right? There was a moment in time that has happened that really shifted your mindset. And we always talk about it here on the Heart and Hustle Podcast don't chase paychecks, chase passion and purpose. What was that moment that made you pivot and say, wait a minute, I'm doing this all wrong. I need to take a different approach of what I'm doing in life. What was that moment for you?

[9:47]  So I used to be in commercial real estate, investment, finance, business, and corporate law. I was building what would turn out to be the last building that I ever completed in Coral Gables, Florida, and encountered a woman living on the street. And I got to know her, you know, a dollar here, a dollar there. I wanted to understand why she was living on the street. Why wasn't she in the shelter? And ultimately learned from her over the course of many months that she didn't feel safe in a shelter. At that time, I wasn't aware that the shelter system in our country was so. meager, that there were very few women's shelter programs that really catered to the special needs of women. I'd learned over the course of time that We did not have a a woman's shelter in Miami where someone could really get back on their feet. A short-term stay for two or three weeks somewhere doesn't do it. You know, you have IDs and and and clothing and basic core health and mental health needs that need to be addressed when you're coming off the street. This is not an easy process. and it takes a lot of resources wrapping around an individual, a lot of support to help them. Make the transition to a home. So in her case, I began to research what were the choices and realized she didn't have any. And it was at that point in my own career where I realized I did not want to get to the end of my life and say, this is what I had done. It wasn't enough, didn't have enough meaning for me. I could build all the buildings in the world, but they were just buildings. And and so I was very fortunate to wrap up my business within six months after that time frame, successfully, and set out to open a women's homeless shelter. In the heart of the historic African American district of Overtown, Miami. And it was very small in the beginning, like most shelters, a rundown old apartment building. I fortunately, having come from the real estate world, knew how to renovate. and we opened in March of 2006 with 34 beds for women. And I learned what it meant to operate a shelter for very high special needs women who were coming straight off the street or who had been cycling through shelters for a long time. And that the most important thing that we could offer would be love. Of course.

[13:12]  What does that do for w what did that do for you, Colin? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[13:12]  Foo, of course, meals and things like that. But it would be that sort of open coming with an open heart, being wanting to listen and understand, and then to find the resources that it took to help each person one by one make it. And they did.

[13:30]  I'm always a big believer that through different chapters in our lives there's something that we learn. What were you learning from before you get into this space of building these women shelters? That building of the buildings, right? The big tall buildings, the beautiful buildings. What do you think you learn from there that you now implement into everything that you're doing today?

[13:50]  So I would tell you that everything I learned in business, in finance, in real estate development, in law, in navigating a world of those with means, high net worth individuals who were engaged in who were part of the 1%, if you will. I learned everything that I would need. To launch the shelter and to help it grow and to nurture it and to ultimately steer that nonprofit foundation and the shelter into what is now the largest women's homeless shelter in the nation in state-of-the-art facilities that are a model on a national level. That said, What I didn't learn in the business world that was essential to the success of the work that we would do, I needed to learn and did from the women coming in the shelter. I learned about the high levels of trauma experienced by so many women. youth and children. I learned about the importance of mental health care and access to health care embedded within the shelter so that there were no barriers to accessing that care. I learned, of course, about the importance of providing other resources, education, job training, employment assistance, supports for children to go to school, learn and thrive. Therapeutic interventions that would make a difference, the importance of evidence-based therapy, and ultimately the service-driven research that could inform all of our work on a national level. And I learned that shelters are too often in silos because we lack resources. And that is what led to the formation of the National Women's Shelter Network.

[16:02]  Can you educate people on what your day to day looks like? 'Cause I was actually fascinated knowing that one, again, you're not doing this for money, but you're truly traveling throughout our country and really empowering others to continue this mission. What does that look like for you, Collins, for those that are watching or listening?

[16:21]  okay, so I guess what I would say is it might look like chaos normalized on some level, but

[16:29]  Ha ha ha.

[16:30]  I have you know, in the midst of the pandemic, I realized you know I'm operating the shelter. I had moved back into the shelter because we were facing so many crises of of health care, of fear, of people becoming sick and needing attention, of wrestling with rescue squads that didn't want to enter our doors, of keeping my team together in the midst of the pandemic and doing that by demonstrating I was willing to live in the shelter and we were going to continue nonstop. And in the midst of all of that, I also realized that The shelters needed to connect with each other. I wanted to learn from other shelter leaders. They could learn from what we were doing as well. And so the volunteers who no longer entered our doors because everyone was afraid were

[17:33]  Yeah.

[17:34]  put to work and we asked them to research and develop for us a database, and they did. of women's and youth and family shelters around the country. And then at the tail end of the pandemic, after many thousands of calls, we we hit the road. Myself and some team members began the laborious process of driving up the East Coast, into the Midwest, down the West Coast, into the Southwest. And we continue to do that, by the way, meeting with shelter leaders. visiting shelters. I've visited at this point over 225 shelters in this country. and we built the network grassroots from that one shelter that I oversee still to this day, Lotus House Women's Shelter in Miami, to 612 shelters, I believe, at this as of today. With a network that provides over 19 million shelter bed nights, over 30 million free meals, and serves over a million women, youth, and children on an annual basis. And that network is learning from each other. We are connecting, we are providing education and training to advance best practices, to advance standards of care, to learn from each other. Through conferences, through webinars that are we're creating, through other experts who we connect with. And we are aiming to raise public awareness of the importance of safe shelter in saving lives. It's time that our communities started to recognize that shelters are an important part of their safety nets. And instead of expecting people who have the least to get by with the least, the leftovers. We want to invest in people to change that experience of homelessness into a window of opportunity for them to rebuild their vibes. And so my daily, my daily basis is phone calls and Zoom calls and getting in the car or getting on a plane and traveling to wherever it might be. Going into shelters, helping them do makeovers with incredible philanthropic partners like Mattress Firm, for example, you

[20:10]  Yeah.

[20:10]  know, literally providing us this year over a thousand mattresses so that we can deliver them into the shelters firsthand, including us at their point of sale donations. We need more corporate partners, honestly, because the shelters. Are desperately in need of resources. You know, everything from building supplies to appliances to furniture. We want to ensure that the environments and our shelters across the country tell the women and children coming in that they matter, tell them that they're valued, offer them respect and dignity, and provide them with the kind of resources they so deserve to get back on their feet. So that's what my daily life is like. And it is unceasing, to put it mildly.

[21:06]  When when it comes to communication, like I guess how is the word spread when we talk about resources, when we talk about education? Is it just a website? Is it, you know, getting into into these centers? I think now more than ever, sometimes we just don't know what's in our own backyard. How do we spread the message?

[21:26]  Right, so there are a lot of different ways. I mean, first of all, the National Women's Shelter Network has a public awareness campaign for which we have had all free social media awareness, podcasts like yourself. televis televised PSAs that we have created with the help of an all volunteer creative team, Gloria Estefan and Giselle Buncheon, as celebrity spokeswomen and women with lived experience participating in the PSAs, free billboards, free social media. we have to get the word out in this country. That safe shelter saves lives, and that our shelters across the country need resources. The NWSN is one way that that happens. We receive donations and distribute them across the nation so far, over $2 million in in-kind goods. We've been able to distribute from donations from corporate partners, generally speaking, who care about this issue, who care about their local communities. At this point, we have shelters in all 50 states and three US territories, and we are driving resources to those shelters. So that's one really important way that people can help. They can also really look at their own communities and ask, what do you need? You know, most of the shelters have websites with. online opportunities to give. You know, whether that's that's the need for baby formula or diapers or clothing or food. A lot of rescued food comes into our shelters. And we still need to buy more food. I've been to way too many shelters across this country and looked at the pantries and seen a small handful of remaining canned goods or dried goods on the shelves. It's a travesty. As far as I'm concerned. And then at the federal level, we need to educate our federal, state, and local government officials on the importance of shelter, that we care about women, youth, and children experiencing homelessness. And we need to drop all the misinformation and the judgments and the stereotypes and realize actually homelessness can happen to anyone. And very likely. Nearly every family in the US has someone who is struggling who needs help. Let's reach out. Let's not pretend it's not happening. We have the ability to help. And we need to begin to deepen our work to care for each other. These are very divisive times, but I think if there's one thing we could all agree is that we would like homelessness to end. And we

[24:31]  Yeah.

[24:31]  want the inevitable. Women, children, youth, families, everyone who's in transition to have a safe place to lay their head at night, to feel cared for, loved, and to get the resources they need to live full productive lives. We have the ability to end homelessness in this country. We have to stop telling ourselves that we can't or that it's unsolvable. We know how to solve it. We just have to have the political will. the will within our communities to do so.

[25:05]  How do individuals get involved? I mean, from volunteering to you mentioned in-kind donations. Is there a specific website that someone goes into to educate themselves, to make the difference? And I would say put their money where their mouth is? Because a lot of people want to help until you ask for help and then realize, wait a minute, how do I help? You know, so educate those individuals that really want to be part of an impact.

[25:32]  Yes, so at the national level, you can go to vnwsn.org. That's our website. You can learn about the issues, you can learn about the solutions, and you can find ways to help. And then don't be shy about doing research in your own communities as well. There are shelters in need everywhere we go. There isn't a shelter that I've walked into in this country that has all the resources it needs. We need help at the national level. We need the big national corporations, businesses, foundations to recognize the importance of shelter and to want to be part of the solution. And so I am hopeful that those who hear of this podcast will share it and they will learn more about our work and reach out. We can't possibly reach all of them by ourselves. We're a we're a small, lean, but mighty team that works at the national level. and we need everyone's help.

[26:40]  Collins, it was it was good just having this conversation with you. You know how I what I I stand on this. I was actually talking to my mom that adopted me and I was kind of telling her what my where my mind has been really since talking to you a whole year ago. And it's still been on my heart to have that conversation with my biological mother because you are right. Sometimes people just need to feel seen. People need to remember that they do have purpose and I feel like I it is not that I'll be able to fix the complete situation, but I could possibly make that difference of just showing up and allowing someone to know how they too have purpose. And a lot of the times it was it was not their fault, right? As I continue to kind of dig deeper into who my biological mother was, she was born into this already and she then found men that didn't make it any better and then to cope it was the drugs and then it became so hard. But I tell you what, every time we have these conversations, we don't know who's listening, even I don't know who's going to say what on the other side. I'll tell you a good convers story that I heard recently was this gentleman. He's now I think late forties, early fifties, and he I s I always ask the why. Why do you do the work that you do? He's working in a a rehab center. He said, Ephraim, ten years ago I gave up cocaine and heroin. I was homeless. I was a drug addict. He says, Ephraim, this wasn't my second chance. It was my first chance because for the first time in my life, someone seen me and believed in me. And I'm like, wow, the hope that it gave me. I said, Man, you don't even know me. But what you just did is allowed me to know that my my mom too could see the other side. So for those that are watching and feel like it's not possible for someone to overcome because they've been in, you know, going through this for decades, it's not true. We just have to show up. and try because we don't even know if we don't try. We're so quick to make assumptions. And when we make assumptions, we're only hurting ourselves and the others, right? So I

[28:41]  Yeah.

[28:41]  appreciate you, Ms. Collins, for just showing up for others and being the voice for others and and just giving me hope that my biological mother that is is struggling today too can see the other side. That there that there's places for her to go to. And while there's still the lack of resources that you're still pushing every single day to make sure that you're making that impact. so I thank you. Is there any words that you want to leave? Maybe that individual that is going through this right now alone and just needs that word of words of wisdom. What is the words of wisdom that you leave today?

[29:14]  I would say remember that we're all in this together and to reach out for help if you need it and to know that you matter. Your life matters. You have the ability, with the help of those around you, to get back on your feet. And we, as a community, as a society, as a country, as a world, have a responsibility to each and every person. on this planet to make sure that we care, that we love, that we support and nurture, and that we provide the resources that people need. So I I'm hopeful that if anyone takes anything away from this, it's that we can end homelessness in this country. We we know how to do it. Let's do it. Let's let's show some love.

[30:07]  Thank you so much, Ms. Collins. For those that are still wanting to know where you get information, the website is the nwsn dot org. My name's Efrain. This is Ms. Collins. We'll catch you on the next one later.

[30:08]  Thank you. Take care.