good morning. welcome to mosaic. i'm the lead pastor of st. mark's lutheran church in san francisco. i'm delighted to introduce today our two guests from project homeless connect. this is may gan, the ceo of project homeless connect and your associate carla. you're the co 0 chief operating officers. welcome. >> thank you for having us. >> we want to hear what it does and how people can support you, where you're located. so start about -- start with

the where. >> sure. project homeless connect has just recently moved into our new neighborhood really welcomed wonderfully. we're neighbors. we're sharing facilities with st. mark's lutheran church and it has been a wonderful sim be iott tick relationship where we're all engaged with our neighbors and the urban life center all frying to support people in need. >> it has been around for awhile. 15 years. which one of you could tell us some of the history. >> yes. >> we began in 2004 and we started really with a community wide effort led by, then, mayor gavin newsom and fellow community members to bring together a number of services in one day to make sure that people experiencing homelessness could access services more easily. we started with that big event and since then, we have expanded our services to much

more. >> i was looking at your website and you don't have a huge staff. but you have thousands of volunteers. what is your staff do and then what do your volunteers do? >> yes. we are a small mighty team of about 12 people and our two main programs are hosting large- scale expo style service days. we call them community taser vis events and the model was created because somebody at risk of homelessness or being homeless was spending hours everyday just trying to access proper care. the system can become complicated so our team coordinates these event toss bring hundreds of providers together in one room in one day making sure you can access that care immediately and efficiently and safely. that is what a big part of the team does. then between the event we have a services team and they

provide direct services really building on the success of those events so that people can be connected to care between the events. connect is in our name. that is a big part of what we do. we are making it easier for somebody in need to be connected to exactly what care is going to help nem find housing, employment, mental health, and other services. it is only possible because 2,000 volunteers come help us do this every year. each event is about 500 volunteers. it is really big community effort. >> those are the bill graham auditorium. >> yes, most are there. 500 volunteers come out, many providing a service. many participant escorts serving meals, helping in a number of ways. then we have hospitality volunteers and outreach volunteers. they help us everyday engage with the community, make sure they know our resources and

even provide services as simple as a listening ear or a cup of coffee. >> we'll hear more about the community events in a month but let's hear about some of the participants that utilize project connect. >> yes. one story comes to mind. one of our big services and the way we expands our programs, we bring our caravan to different neighborhoods to make sure we're reaching people who otherwise might not come into our building and we had one participant that we met through the building, but having a hard time engaging with him and we ran into limb in his neighborhood where we expanded services. by connecting with him in his neighborhood where he felt more comfortable, we were better able to work with him to get hearing aids which he had been on the street and was really having a hard time staying safe and just for that reason didn't

move from his neighborhood. that was a successful connection in someone that really benefited. >> yes. i imagine not every participant would feel comfortable coming to you. you have to go to the participants, right? >> exactly. >> you also have a presence in the san francisco public library i was hearing about. >> yes. >> what do you offer there? what services do you offer? >> yes. we partner with the library. we're there guys twice a month and we bring reading glasses, access to our vision, dental, and hearing program and basic needs and problem solving and it is a space where a lot of people already are so we're there with our table connecting with people letting them know what services are available and handing out reading glasses and handing out hygiene kits and socks and engaging with people that way to start the

conversation of bigger goals. >> we'll hear more from project home less connect in just a moment. we will be back.

%fo welcome back to "mosaic". with me this morning from project homeless connect, service providers in san

francisco and i have the ceo megan free beck with me and carla prag llhan the co 0 with me telling us about what project homeless connect does and we have heard -- we're going to hear more about the services, but you provide education because you're going out into neighborhood and you're bringing those services and you want to be a good neighbor with those who are in the neighborhood but i major gin there might be some resistance to your presence there. what is the education or the story that you share with neighbors? >> yes, of course. we really respect all of our neighbor's housed and unhoused. we want to hear their concerns and we want to understand where they are coming from. we know as san francisco cans ourselves that homelessness is not only affecting people without a home, but affecting everyone and it will take everyone to make a real difference. what we like to do is we do

host presentations and learning opportunities to talk about misconceptions and stigma, but also what can you actually do, what are the resources available if someone is near your home in need. what are the resources you can use to call, that you can offer? we provide that information and then, of course we engage the neighbors as volunteers and we go to a new district for example the richmond district, we go once a month. we ask richmond residents to join us in the effort to walk the community with us, to inform us about what their needs are in the area so it is both listening and understanding and stigma reduction but also action and involvementment >> yes. and the action then carla, the actual services that project homeless connect provides, walk us through that. >> yes. we have two pieces of our services. we have our large scale community days of service which we spoke a little bit about and

those happen around four times a year. large events, over 500 volunteers and 100 providers from the dmv to optical services. and then we have drop-in services so we provide safe space at our offices where people can come in as they are, get a cup of coffee, rest, get some reading glasses, hygiene kits and also talk to a service coordinator about where they are at right now and try to problem solve with them. >> i know it is helpful for people to have a case manager, right? yes. >> do you help make that happen? >> yes. we take an approach. we don't have a case manager, but what we really do, we have learned that being available to people where they are when they need us is really helpful so people can drop in and we will work with them as na go. then once they connect usually

through one of our core senses programs and we're able to provide glances or hearing aids or something tangible, we then are talking to them about nary larger goals once their basic needs are yet. >> so you're developing a relationship. >> yes, building trust is a big part. >> the mail delivery. i know that is a particular service. >> yes. >> why is that so important? >> it is such a basic need that you forget about. if you do not have an address to provide or if you do not have identification, you're not going to be able to access services to sign up for benefits. what project homeless connect is really doing is, we're understanding that there are so many services available, but you need the pieces to connect to them and one of those is a mailing address. it seems simple, but if you don't have a home, you don't have an address so we support people by being their address.

>> absolutely. you forget how necessary it is and people are getting their i.d.s delivered to us and then they can access benefits or getting you know paychecks delivered to us so we're really that connection, too. >> how do you work with the city and all the other agencies trying to provide support? >> well, connection is a huge part of what we do and collaboration. way believe very strongly that the only way san francisco is going to be successful is if we work together and we collaborate and we work to not duplicate services but to emphasize one another's services. what we do is understand who the experts are and that area. for example if somebody is in need of legal services or eviction prevention, we want to tell them where to go that

immediately. if they are a veteran, we have connections there. we understand what they offer and connect properly. the city department las created a homeless outreach team which we work closely with so if someone wants to get into a shelter bed or no more about the city opportunities we can make sure to connect them there, as well. >> okay. so you're really helping your participants sift through all the options for them and direct them the appropriate way. >> absolutely. >> yes. >> a few years ago -- and we do believe in evaluating for success. one of the questionsway ask is did we provide you with the service you could not have otherwise easily received and we track flat and make sure we're giving people services that otherwise would have been difficult without us being there. >> we will be back in just a

moment. force

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community project from kpix 5. good morning. welcome to "mosaic." our show today is about how to provide compassionate service to those experiencing homelessness or the unhoused. and with me is megan freebeck and carla prag llhan from project homeless connect. there has been a lot of stories, a lot of conversation about the issues of homelessness, the frustration, the safety concerns, the news stories that were all aware of. >> yes. >> what is your assessment? is it getting worse in the region? maybe it is more numbers are more accurate now, but what is your assessment of this as a regional issue? >> certainly regionally and statewide truly. homelessness is increasing and

every two years san francisco does the point in time count and it has changed how they are doing that count to include people staying in rvs and people staying with friends so that does affect the numbers, but you only have to talk to somebody who is living and working and staying in san francisco to know that this is an issue and people are frustrated that even outside of the numbers there are human beings that need our support and need it now. >> yes. where are the gaps then? what still needs to be done? what is not being done that we need to do? >> certainly, homes, you know housing. >> affordable housing. >> affordable housing is the answer to homelessness. it is the definition but we need sustainable programs for people, mental health support, substance abuse support, employment programs that give people the skills for jobs so

they can sustain the housing in the bay area. of course we need everyone involved. we need the whole community. most of the time when people are frustrated with homelessness, they are very often frustrated with the symptoms of homelessness and not the person experiencing homelessness themselves so it is two things we need to address. >> yes. and d you have anything to add? >> no. i think that sums it's up, but definitely affordable housing is a gap. and maintaining affordable housing, keeping up with, you know, we can't quite house people fast enough. >> and not enough shelter beds for people. >> yes. >> i know project homeless connect is trying to be so relevant to this. how would you like to grow if you had more volunteers? >> yes. >> and donations,

>> yes. >> where would you put it? >> it is a goal to make it a brief one time circumstance stance and we want to work with them to address that. volunteers certainly give us more of a reach so that we can connect to people immediately and get them access to their need much more quickly. joining us in the outreach efforts, joining us in the compass that and connection effort. all of that is really integral to what we do. so where project homeless connect is looking to go is to continue services with a deeper impact, preventing people from becoming homeless is important to these efforts so making sure we address those issues, as well. >> carla, tell us how you are funded. where does the funding come from? >> yes. we receive funding through the

department of homelessness to provide our services. we also have foundation greats and individual supporters, so we're a mix and we really rely on both city funding as well as the community to support our efforts. >> and the community day of service events are supported by corporate sponsorships so we're very grateful to receive those both volunteerism and the contribute because to cover the big cost of the venue. >> the next one is in december, the date is not out yet but people can go to the website. >> yes. >> to find out about that and ways to volunteer or donate. >> absolutely. >> the website is. >> www.project homeless connect.org. >> okay. the location again is 1031 franklin street. but you're not open five days a week or seven days a week. the calendar on your website indicates when people can just

drop by for support. >> yes. we are providing services five days a week, those are just not located at 1031 franklin all those days so please visit our calendar if you're in need of services and you can find out where we're located on that day. 0 very good. well, we will be back and we're going to hear about some of your wonderful volunteers and how people can use their gifts to support project homeless connect. we will be right back. >> okay.

welcome back to "mosaic" where we're learning about project homeless connecting and ways people can volunteer. you know, getting back to watt you said earlier megan, i think people want to help, but they don't know how. >> yes. >> or they don't feel trained. >> absolutely. >> you can provide that. carla, tell us about those volunteer opportunities. >> absolutely. we have several volunteer opportunities. one is through our community day of service where we lose over 500 volunteers and that is a great opportunity for someone who has never, we have many return volunteers and some who have never done anything like that. you can come with a group or on your own. we do monthly outreach walks where again, you can just come,

we will train you on how to talk with folks on the street and have some pretty real discussion about the challenges and there are a lot of ways to get involved. >> other ways right at the site at 1031 franklin on your drop- in days? >> absolutely. once a month we host a volunteer on boarding which you can sign up our website and it is a first step to be connected to any of our volunteer roles. one of the most impact full one is as a hoss spit stal ty at our site, serving coffee and hygiene kits and you see why we refer to the people weiser vis participants. we're asking them to participate in their goal and be a part of it with us. you're not just there to receive care, but engage with the care you need and volunteers can be a part of those achievements and it is an impact full day. >> i met one of the volunteers

race sently and shri admitted herself she had done very well in the tech industry and she volunteered with you as a way to give back, give back to the community. >> yes. >> i think so many people want to help, want to give back. want to be connected with someone that they might not have the opportunity or feel afraid of being connected with. >> yes. >> and so you're breaking down those stigmas even amongst your volunteers. >> absolutely. we like to get creative. if you have low mobility, if you have obscure hours, we'll fry to find something you can do to still be involved and work with us. >> yes. >> you emphasize you're not a shelter, but you are a resource and referral community, just tell us again about what you do. >> absolutely. the goal at project homeless connect is to make accessing services efficient and swift and something that anyone is able to do because they are

connected properly to the proper place that immediately meets their needs. there are so many services in san francisco but it takes too long to navigate them soway help save time and we help do this in a compassionate way so when you come to project homeless connect, you're going to get the proper referral. >> >> another sorry you shared with me is that so important for people to have the proper eye wear so they can navigate around the city or get for the resources or a proper hearing aid. are some of your participants older, younger? who are they dem graphically? >> it reflects those experiencing homelessness. a lot are over 65. many of the people come to us, do come to us first to receive prescription reading glasses

and prescriptions. we ask them what they can do now. they say now i can see the housing application i am filling out and i will be able to find a job. now i'll be safer crossing the street. that basic need is often the first step to other greater needs we're able to provide. >> yes. >> you're doing wonderful work in the city. >> thank you. >> we're stow grateful to have you here today to learn more about project homeless connect of course saint mark's lutheran church is happy to partner with you. your website? >> www.project homeless connect.org. >> wonderful. thank you. >> thank you. >> for telling us about project homeless connect. i want to thank my co-host reverend ron swish eerie sently retired, not from "mosaic" but his congregation so he will be back with us . have a good and

wonderful sabbath day. thank you.

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a knife wielding attacker targets a chanukah celebration sending five people to the hospital. >> and laptop thieves are on the rise in berkeley especially near the campus. police offer suggestions for dee tearing that type of crime. a helicopter crash in hawaii. what caused that accident during a sightseeing trip. it is december 25th, 2019. >> i'm devin fehely. >> i'm emily turner. it is going to be a wet day today. we have seen a few showers out there. our high def doppler