Humility Homes & Services Chief Development Officer Megan Brown-Saldana sat down with WVIK, providing an update and background on the Davenport non-profit operations.
Our conversation with Brown-Saldana is below, with edits made for clarity.
Brady Johnson: How long have you been a part of the organization?
Megan Brown-Saldana: I've actually been here for about a year and three months. So not very long, but long enough to get a really good understanding of what we are trying to do.
Johnson: And for people in the Quad Cities who may not know about the organization, can you summarize what Humility does for the community?
Brown-Saldana: We actually do a lot of really great work. Most individuals might hear or know of us from our foundation. The Sisters of the Congregation of Humility founded our organization in 1990. They had gone and marched in Washington, DC. They were outraged at housing injustice. They said, 'What do we want? Housing. When do we want it? Now.' And they came back to the Quad Cities and put their money where their mouth was and they bought their first fourplex and housed a St. Ambrose University single mother in that house. And today we own over 150 units of housing, both Illinois and Iowa side. However, most people know us for our emergency shelter. We have an 88-bed, low-barrier emergency shelter located here in Davenport.
Johnson: And what do you mean when you say low-barrier emergency shelter?
Brown-Saldana: So, Humility Homes and Services Inc. has the only low-barrier shelter in the Quad Cities. And what that means is that you don't have to be sober. You don't have to be straight. You don't have to have a state ID. There are great other options in the community. However, they typically require you to have an ID. And how unfortunate of a situation, if you have lost everything, that you then are required to produce something that would normally go, you know, in a wallet. And if you've lost everything, you might not have the ability to then have crucial support services when you most need them. That being said, because we are the low-barrier shelter, we are also going to see people who have higher needs, people who don't qualify for resources other places, people who haven't been able to get like a mental health bed or haven't been able to get into a program that has much more strict and rigid expectations. We see a lot of individuals who are not a good fit other places. And so we are really tasked with the ability to meet people where they're at and provide crucial emergency shelter and therefore hopefully supportive, safe, affordable housing.
Johnson: And could you summarize the process of how that would work if someone came into the shelter in that process towards supportive housing?
Brown-Saldana: Yeah, so sheltering and housing, two different things. Similar in a lot of ways, different in a lot of ways. We both operate in a way that you could experience either of those sheltering or housing independently based on your need. And we also operate in a way that you might be in shelter for whatever reason. And you fill out some different information called coordinated entry. And then they use that list to pull into housing. So you might have a brief stay at shelter and then we're able to rapidly rehouse you. We have, Humility Homes and Services has a very large amount of programs. It is a mouthful. It is something that a person who's not an expert in housing might find pretty confusing. And so I like to tell people we have funding streams for specific reasons. And then we help people in specific ways. And so, rapid rehousing is an example of a specific way we help people who have the ability to pay rent or have a job or sustain their success. They just need a little help in that rehousing. It might be that we give rides to the Social Security office so that they can get their Social Security in order so they have income. It might be that they shop at our corner closet and get towels and pots and pans. For their first move in. There are a lot of different ways that we can support people.
Brown-Saldana: When anyone in this community who is looking for that housing is going to fill out coordinated entry. Which is a really big word for a housing list. There are only three entry points, on ramps for coordinated entry. That is us, Salvation Army, and the Davenport Library. There are lots of exit ramps off of the coordinated entry list. So there are a lot of amazing organizations that pull people into their housing programs. So, one of the things that people are surprised to hear is that our shelter serves as a coordinated entry point. And so coming to our shelter is that crucial, you know, sheltering gets you out of the elements. But there are also interventions for helping you get on the CE list, access other resources. There's a job board. There's a resource room to hopefully have homelessness be a brief and one-time experience. Because then the success usually happens in what does it look like when we house someone.
Johnson: And going into this season, what does the low-barrier 88 [bed] shelter look like? Is it at its limit now? Is there still availability? I know you mentioned the start of the organization was needing housing now and today it's the same issue.
Brown-Saldana: And this is actually a conversation that we probably will dive more into. The Quad Cities has an affordable housing crisis. 50% of Quad Citizens pay more than 30% for rent or mortgage. That's half of us. That's half. That's me. That's you. That's everyone that I work with. That is a lot of people. And so when we talk about emergency shelter, and especially as we go into the cold weather months, we have an 88-bed emergency shelter. It's 40 beds for women, 40 beds for men. And then that additional eight is actually reserved for veterans. We have a net zero for veteran homelessness here in the Quad Cities. That doesn't mean there aren't homeless veterans. It means that if we find one, we have a bed in our emergency shelter reserved for them. When it comes to the weather, we typically, the last five years, we ran a winter emergency shelter. And what that means is it was extended beds, amounts of beds, extended capacity. And during those five years, we had agreed to take that on when another organization could no longer do it, only if we were able to get the support necessary to run it safely. Unfortunately, we did not get that support in those five years. And so we didn't, we're not running additional capacity this year. So it's the 88 beds. Typically, we would serve about 100 additional people in our shelter. That money comes from, we have to hire a new security officer. We have to hire additional monitors for the shelter. But it's things like, you know, bed bugs and cleaning. And what does it look like when that many people are using the same plumbing? And we don't even have an industrial washer and dryer at our shelter. And so when we extended capacity, it was in a way that it was like, here is what we can do without very many resources. And so we would pull mattresses out onto the floor for people to sleep on up until we hit the fire code. And then we couldn't house anymore. So, the need is exponentially greater than an additional 100 individuals in the winter. That's just what we were able to provide. And so when we look at the needs in the winter, there are a lot of people that sleep outside in the Quad Cities. It was 551 at our last point in time count. And so what that means is that you would go out and what you can see and observe is someone sleeping outside. That counts in a number. So 550 people, we have an 88-bed shelter. Since July 1st, we've served over 700 unique individuals and families across our programs and emergency shelter. That's a lot of people. And so no matter how many beds we have, there's still going to be a need. And when it comes down to it, the need is always there. It's just when the weather is severe, people are more likely to die.
WVIK comment: At this point in our interview, we moved to talk about the Humility Homes and Services Holiday Sip and Shop event that occurred on Saturday, Dec. 14th. You can find our story on that at wvik.org. Now, here is the rest of our conversation with Megan Brown-Saldana.
Brown-Saldana: As we head into the spring, lots of other ways to support. We are always asking people to consider giving and donating their gently used items to us. If you get new pots and pans for Christmas. Or you get a new set of towels. Those old towels. Those old pots and pans. They are super perfect for someone who's just moving in to their first place. And we take those items at our corner closet. Monday through Wednesday. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. That's at 525 Fillmore Street. And there is more information online for what we do and don't take. But pretty much anything that you might use getting ready for your day are items that we would take to help empower other people to have successful days.
Johnson: And that is something that is provided to people who need those products at no cost?
Brown-Saldana: Absolutely. So we have kind of have like a whole ecosystem here. So when we ask the community to donate items, that's going to first go into our corner closet. It comes up the ramp. Our corner closet associate goes through everything. Anything that's a good fit for someone sleeping outside is going to go to outreach hours. And individuals who sleep outside come and take showers in those two hours of outreach time. Monday through Thursday. In October we serve 400 and some odd people with the showers and crucial, you know, the underwear, the towels, the things that people really, really need when they're sleeping outside. And then all of the individuals in our housing programs come with their service coordinators and can shop the corner closet for whatever they might need as they need it. And so those items are all free. Anything that's donated that's kind of like specialty. Like we got some, you know, creepy crochet dolls. There's a seven-person toboggan out there. Those are not things that are going to be of use to someone who is currently unhoused or formerly unhoused. And so we sell them over here at the Fresh Start Center. And people always say, oh, well, you sell items that are donated. We sell specialty items that are donated. And the government will match those sales in housing dollars. And so there's a lot of little pieces that kind of fit together at the end of the day. To make sure that people have what they need to be successful once they're housed.
Johnson: And by government...federal, state, local government matching those dollars?
Brown-Saldana: We're funded. We have federal funding. We have some state funding. We have local funding. We have grant dollars, private donors. It really takes all of those things. We have a $1.25 million community support, budget line. And so that means that it's my job to raise $1.25 million to cover those gaps. So we might have really great, strong, committed funding streams. Let's say, for example, to make sure that buildings are ADA compliant. But they might not pay for the maintenance person's time to flip a door around so that it opens in the right way to have clearance for someone who has mobility issues. And so those unrestricted funds allow us to do that 1%. The thing that takes it across the finish line. And so it's important to remember that although we have great support in great amounts, it's that in between. It's that bridge that we have to build to get someone from housing first to housing as a solution.
Johnson: Thank you so much, Megan and with that is there anything that you see in housing discussions local or nationwide that you'd like to clarify an aspect on or something people may have forgotten in housing for Americans?
Brown-Saldana: You know, I think in general, it's such a large topic. And it's there are so many systems that co-mingle in this issue. I think, and our organization really believes in a housing first approach, which means that you don't have to earn housing. Housing is a basic human right. And then everything after that, we can then help and build success stories. And that's going to include barriers in mental health and physical health. That's going to include barriers in child care and in job attainment and in low wages. All of those things have to also be addressed. In ending the affordable housing crisis. A lot of people think that there are clear reasons why a person might end up homeless. A lot of times people talk about mental health or addiction issues. The two main factors in becoming unhoused are poverty and not enough access to affordable housing. And so those are two things that for the most part an individual can't control. And so the solution has to be in how do we diversify our housing here in the Quad Cities to be able to meet the need for everybody? And according to silos to solutions, which was put out by the Quad City Housing Council, we're about 6000 units short in the Quad Cities. So it's not just that we need more new construction. We need that. And we need an investment in historical buildings. And we need an investment in land buyback. And we need an investment in tiny homes. And we need an investment in ADA compliant multi-family homes. And we need an investment in making sure that renters who are already renting have legal help like rent abatement was passed in Davenport. So people don't have to pay rent if their living conditions are substandard. And so it takes all of those things. It's not just get a job. It's not just stop doing drugs. Do individuals that we serve often have those barriers? For sure. It is a... that's across the community is pervasive. We might see it more often because we're low barrier and therefore can be more of a help to people struggling. But I think it's just really, really important for the everyday average Quad Citizen to understand that we are all just one bad thing away from not having any options. There are people that stay at our emergency shelter that have full-time jobs that have college degrees that have, you know, leadership awards and have done all of the right things. And then something in their life happens like a death of a family member is a great example. I met an individual whose mother died from COVID and her hospital bills ate up anything she might have left. And he sat on his front stoop and he had to Google. What do I do if I have nowhere to stay? And our shelter was his best opportunity at that time, which is just so very unfortunate because you shouldn't be in a crisis situation when you should have everything that you need, medical debt should not make people go homeless. It is very unfortunate. And it takes a solution to all of those things to really have an equitable community. But the good news is there are a lot of people who really care and believe in that, too. And so all of the systems, for the most part, are trying to work together to provide affordable housing, so that we can then address all of these other crises that our own community members are facing.