Addressing Homelessness with Dr. Julie Hayden

[00:00:00] thanks for being here today my name is Kevin Conover and you’re listening to educate for Life radio we’re broadcasting down here in Southern

[00:00:05] California on K praise 12 10 a.m as well as FM 106.1 and one of the Hot Topics

[00:00:13] coming up this year and really or in 2024 and every election year is the

[00:00:18] issue of homelessness especially here in California just recently a huge study

[00:00:24] came out it’s called the benioff homelessness and Housing Initiative uh study at the University of California

[00:00:29] San Francisco and um the report is titled toward a new understanding the California Statewide

[00:00:36] study of people experiencing homelessness and it’s really uh obviously this issue

[00:00:42] is gigantic in California because although California has only 12 percent of the nation’s population it has 30

[00:00:49] percent of the nation’s homeless population and half the nation’s unsheltered population so just for those

[00:00:56] of you uh just to update you on terms someone who is homeless is defined as someone who lacks a permanent indoor

[00:01:03] place to sleep but on the other hand someone who is unsheltered is living in an area not meant for human habitation

[00:01:10] like a car or tent on the sidewalk and so um California has 30 percent you put

[00:01:17] those two together of the nation’s homeless population and that’s a that’s a crisis right how does one state have

[00:01:23] that and it’s it’s honestly it’s not enough to say people are saying it’s not enough to say California has great weather and so that the homeless just

[00:01:29] gravitate towards California what they’re now finding is that actually most of the homeless I believe nine out

[00:01:36] of ten of the homeless in California are actually from California so they’re not moving from other states to California

[00:01:42] and I have a guest on the program today Dr Julie Hayden who is familiar with

[00:01:48] this issue because she heads up the East County Transitional Living Center here in East San Diego and we’re dealing with

[00:01:56] all kinds of issues related to homelessness the mayor Mayor Bill Wells is an expert on homelessness as well and

[00:02:04] so everybody’s working real hard to try to do the best we can to deal with this this issue Dr Hayden thanks for being on

[00:02:10] the program today glad to be here I’m excited for you to address this topic and get more

[00:02:16] awareness out there and before we get too far into it I do want to give a plug for the ectlc’s

[00:02:23] event on September 30th they are going to be hosting a concert and actually the

[00:02:29] mayor is going to be performing in that concert he does this every year and it’s to raise money for the East County Transitional Living Center Dr Hayden

[00:02:36] tell us a little about a bit about the ecl TLC and what happens there

[00:02:42] absolutely so I fell in love with ectlc just visiting their main campus and how

[00:02:49] many places for housing families but it’s actually has several locations all

[00:02:55] throughout San Diego and usually when people come in the first place they go after they they stay there and we make

[00:03:02] sure they’re in a good stable spot we send them to what we call the ranches one actually looks like a ranch out in

[00:03:08] dozura and that’s where the men go and they stay there for stabilization just to be in a good spot as we know there’s

[00:03:15] a lot of trauma that goes into being homeless so they can just be in a safe space be in a place where it’s it’s a

[00:03:22] comfortable environment and get stabilized the women’s we don’t disclose where their location is because

[00:03:27] sometimes honestly we have people that are getting out of a domestic violence relationship or sex trafficking and they

[00:03:33] just go to a place to to be stable and calm and have peace after the three

[00:03:39] months they come to our main campus and they finish out their year there they’ve got classes they have different work

[00:03:46] activities where they’re learning a vocation eventually getting a job and the goal permanent housing it is a

[00:03:53] faith-based program so we do integrate Bible studies and we plug them into faith community on the family side they

[00:04:01] can come straight in they don’t go anywhere else they just come straight into our main campus kind of looks like a hotel room and that’s where the family

[00:04:09] stays there’s about 70 to 80 families we can house in any one time frame and so

[00:04:15] those Emergency Shelters anyone could stay that meets our qualifications for

[00:04:20] an emergency housing and if they choose to stay then they need to participate in the program it’s a year long so all of

[00:04:27] it on on all these sides is to get them in a good spot in all areas to be able to have a job be connected with

[00:04:35] relationships and have permanent housing that’s fantastic I mean that that

[00:04:40] Ministry is incredible everybody who lives in East County knows about it and if they’re at all familiar they know

[00:04:46] what an incredible um work it is and it and it does work that’s what’s awesome about it is that

[00:04:52] it works and so as far as you’re concerned you know I I know right now I’ve been seeing a lot of

[00:04:58] Bill Wells Mayor Bill Wells on uh social media where he’s constantly referencing

[00:05:03] that the city of San Diego is trying to force uh homeless by giving them basically uh coupons to stay at hotels

[00:05:11] in uh East County in El Cajon and they’re he’s saying hey this is a

[00:05:16] problem you can’t do this you can’t just give everybody tickets and then all of a sudden they they they’re all you’re filling up all our hotels and what all

[00:05:23] it’s doing is creating problems with drugs and human trafficking and we’ve even had a couple people die actually uh

[00:05:29] because of this what they’re what the city of San Diego is doing um as far as

[00:05:35] you know what works and what doesn’t work what is the contrast between ectlc

[00:05:40] and what maybe other people are trying to do what is it that makes ectlc work whereas other programs a lot of times

[00:05:46] don’t work but I think it’s definitely multifaceted and that’s maybe the main point is that

[00:05:53] you can’t just address it from one aspect you know a common one that somebody might think is hey we need

[00:05:58] housing let’s get housing you know and so there’s places for people to to be housed that doesn’t necessarily fix any

[00:06:06] kind of large-scale problem though a lot of times those who end up homeless there’s a story behind it you know all

[00:06:14] the stories are different but there’s definitely themes a lot of times people do come from a background of trauma

[00:06:19] addiction mental health difficulties and so just having a safe place to live

[00:06:25] doesn’t really address the full picture of what they need to stay stable so if

[00:06:30] they’ve had a severe mental health issue then just having housing is it going to get them to a place where they stop

[00:06:37] hearing voices or seeing things if they have a severe addiction housing sometimes backfires and that’s what

[00:06:43] we’ve seen with the housing you know the vouchers at ectlc we had a slow down a

[00:06:49] significant slowdown in men and women singles coming into our program families

[00:06:54] actually have always been pretty consistent that there’s a waiting list and that is is on the increase but the

[00:07:01] the men and women slowed down and that was right around the time where there’s these vouchers and we talk with people

[00:07:06] and that would be the comment is I don’t want a treatment program I don’t want to get clean and sober why would I when I

[00:07:13] can continue using and be in a hotel so good intentions you know everybody’s

[00:07:18] trying to fix this problem but if you address it only from one or two perspectives you miss quite a bit that

[00:07:25] goes into it so I I am a person of Faith so I do believe having the opportunity

[00:07:31] for people to connect with God in a personal way where it becomes their faith and they want to live a life you

[00:07:39] know that would make God proud kind of a thing that that goes a long way so teaching them how to have a relationship

[00:07:44] with God and sometimes coming from all that trauma to be forgiven and start

[00:07:50] fresh you know with the renewing of their mind body social uh you know

[00:07:55] aspects all of it and then I love ectlc’s work model so it very much eases

[00:08:03] you into it but after you’ve been there uh in in a good place to where you’re

[00:08:08] stable you start working around campus so you might do jobs where you’re helping with laundry or you’re you’re

[00:08:15] helping to be at the front gate uh it just reception who knows you’ll be somewhere on campus working and you’ll

[00:08:21] be taught work ethic and sometimes how to do stuff at industry standard if you’re working in the kitchen for

[00:08:27] example and then eventually you might get a job on a work call so out in the community and so people are out there

[00:08:34] for me ctlc helping the community all over we have people at Goodwill we have

[00:08:39] people at local businesses the the guys will go up and down the streets of El

[00:08:44] Cajon probably why Mayor Bill Wells loves us so much you know and they do a good job keeping the street clean um

[00:08:52] with clean and safe so they pour back into the community through their work and then they get a job

[00:08:59] even while they’re in the program and so by the time they’re ready to graduate there’s what’s built into this person

[00:09:05] that’s needed to have a good work ethic to continue that and we work on all the

[00:09:10] other resources that get them to having permanent housing anywhere from you know

[00:09:15] medical appointments that they’ve put off to the DMV and getting their registration cleared up and their credit

[00:09:21] back on track you know you work on all these things throughout the year so when you’re graduating and you’re ready you

[00:09:28] can really have you know a good chance of sustainable you know long-term

[00:09:33] permanent housing it’s very different I haven’t seen anything like it actually other than what I see at ectlc yeah

[00:09:40] teach a man to fish instead of give a man a fish right so exactly that’s really so critical in this whole process

[00:09:48] um I was looking into this and and studying up on it and um California over the past four years has spent 17 and a

[00:09:54] half billion trying to fight homelessness um and yet the the Homeless Problem

[00:10:01] continues to increase it is not decreasing and so that’s a big issue and

[00:10:07] and there like you said there’s a lot of people saying Hey listen we just don’t have enough housing units and therefore

[00:10:12] we need to build more housing and I I like what you said there that hey you if

[00:10:18] you put somebody in a you know an apartment or whatever and all of a sudden now they don’t

[00:10:24] um they’ve got a place to stay but it doesn’t mean that they’re off an addiction and and the stats uh said that

[00:10:30] at least 66 percent of people are so that’s two of every three are dealing with some sort of mental health issue

[00:10:37] some sort of addiction issue whatever it might be that is um also uh maybe maybe the main issue

[00:10:45] that they’re dealing with I know I I you know that’s that’s just people argue about that whether that’s the issue or

[00:10:50] not um so when it comes to you know what the the state’s doing as a whole

[00:10:56] um and you see you know there they are trying to build more housing and in certain places they are

[00:11:02] um what would be your feedback to say the governor or you know the mayor of LA or from your experience about

[00:11:10] um hey we need to we need to deal with it this way versus that how do you deal

[00:11:16] with such a massive homeless population I know I’m asking you a huge question here but but uh if you had the ear of

[00:11:22] the mayor or whatever I’m sorry the governor what would you say regarding those issues

[00:11:28] I definitely think if we are using government funds to address a homeless

[00:11:33] population it has to be more than housing so if they set up communities or they did anything trying to address it

[00:11:40] to bring around you know support for mental health support for addiction you

[00:11:45] know a lot of people have gone through trauma so they have Generations after Generations after generations of living

[00:11:52] in an unhealthy manner whether it’s it homeless may be a byproduct of it but

[00:11:58] there’s other things happening that a person ends up in a crisis mode homeless so it might not even be that they’ve

[00:12:05] been homeless for 20 years although you have those as well it might be that something happened recently they have no

[00:12:11] support system that’s common with addiction is you might have burned every bridge so there they end up homeless

[00:12:19] because they have no one else that will support them at that point because they’ve burned the bridge they had it

[00:12:24] before so how to build back the social relationships so there just would need

[00:12:29] to be a lot of other types of entities coming on board somehow to support that

[00:12:35] and I do think that could happen what I like about ectlc is we we actually do

[00:12:41] have times where there might be a grant that we can take advantage of for example for emergency housing and things

[00:12:47] like that from you know government uh Grant areas but a lot of it is our

[00:12:54] donors and our work so the guys and and ladies are out there working and that

[00:13:00] brings in uh various agreements on funding sources so we have various

[00:13:06] agreements out there with lots of businesses on funding sources for us so we can kind of be self-sustaining with

[00:13:13] low numbers it’s not always that way anymore we do count on donors as well but we’ve done a pretty good job

[00:13:18] actually within what’s happening and our work we go do that it funds itself so I

[00:13:25] like that model because we can do what’s going to work best we don’t have to rely on Government funding but if a

[00:13:32] government was doing it I definitely would want them to tie in more of the resources around just the housing

[00:13:39] now are there restrictions on what you’re able to use funds for like uh you know if you were to get money from the

[00:13:45] government I know that you know there’s a lot of Ministries that do incredible work some of the ones I’m familiar with

[00:13:51] or have been involved with in the past like Teen Challenge they also um are a drug rehabilitation program they do

[00:13:57] amazing things then there was um a prison prisoner um excuse me prison

[00:14:03] fellowship um Chuck colson’s Ministry and I know that there’s you always come into this

[00:14:08] bump where because of the fact that you have the Christian side you have the side of involving God in in it some

[00:14:16] people you know from the state from the government go oh no no we can’t we can’t do this

[00:14:22] um so do you face those same kinds of obstacles absolutely it just depends on what the

[00:14:29] funding source is sometimes it works just fine you know and we do try to

[00:14:34] offer a variety of paths so it doesn’t mean every person coming in has to do

[00:14:40] our full program so we do a lot of emergency shelter that anyone could take

[00:14:45] advantage of that if they need it and then if they choose to they stay for the full program and they’re voluntary

[00:14:52] voluntarily entering that program and that’s where we can be overt in you know

[00:14:57] our faith-based integration and then participating in the program there’s only so many spots so somebody doesn’t

[00:15:03] want to be there I wouldn’t want them there so that’s kind of how we’ve been able to navigate some of it is

[00:15:09] emergency shelter for more people and if they’re going to stay that’s when our

[00:15:15] program is going to be implemented but if you’re looking at various Government funding sources it could look like oh

[00:15:22] there’s money everywhere oh they’re you know they’re helping so much but yes you’ll have certain ones where they say

[00:15:27] if you take this here’s all your requirements what you can and can’t do and then that can be limiting so each

[00:15:35] one you have to take at and research it thoroughly to make sure it’s a good fit I will say you know entering in to

[00:15:41] leadership um the new very recently three months I I’ve taken over as CEO at ectlc and so I

[00:15:49] knew I was entering into government you know quite a bit more but I’ve really enjoyed it and I do think it’s East

[00:15:55] County you know we have some great officials that you know put aside whether they appreciate or don’t

[00:16:00] appreciate faith and recognize that a lot of these institutions are great doing great work in the community so we

[00:16:07] have a lot of support by a lot of government representatives and that they

[00:16:12] may or may not necessarily hold to any particular Faith but they definitely see the evidence of it working and actually

[00:16:19] helping improve the homeless population and they support it so that’s that’s been refreshing

[00:16:24] that’s fantastic yeah it’s I mean the evidence is everywhere honestly you know about the impact of uh we’re not just

[00:16:31] physically meeting the needs of a person but we’re actually spiritually meeting the needs which you know you provide a

[00:16:36] person with hope you provide them with prayer you provide them with community in that spiritual Community

[00:16:43] um I mean that’s it is the evidence is overwhelming that that works and um you

[00:16:48] know the Bible teaches it and it’s it’s absolutely true so um hopefully more and more uh people in

[00:16:55] authority and we have more and more people um like yourself and Mayor Bill Wells who who recognize the significant impact

[00:17:03] that Christ makes on people’s hearts and Minds in in transforming their lives and

[00:17:08] so that’s wonderful so um again I said earlier you have this event coming up on

[00:17:14] September September 30th that is to raise money for ectlc uh the concert and

[00:17:20] uh tell us a little bit about that where has that taken place and um what’s happening there what can people respect if they get involved

[00:17:26] sure I just say look it up and talk around if any of his attended because

[00:17:31] it’s so much fun so it’s going to be at the Magnolia in El Cajon it’s a very

[00:17:37] large Auditorium about 1200 seats can fit it’s a beautiful location

[00:17:42] um near the courthouse and Bill Wells is a musician and and he has several

[00:17:48] instruments he plays but he’s gathers together some of San Diego’s best

[00:17:53] musicians which if you know that sphere we have great musicians like San Diego really has some wonderful musicians and

[00:18:01] so he’s bringing them together and they play cover songs so they play songs that people are familiar with some of the

[00:18:06] best and so it’s fun so just be a really great event we have Bob Taylor from

[00:18:11] Taylor Guitars coming and he’s going to play and he’s has two guitars he’s gonna

[00:18:17] auction off and then we have a silent auction so of course we’re looking for people to come out and support us

[00:18:23] financially just by buying tickets and coming that helps us but also it when

[00:18:28] you’re there the silent auction sometimes there can be some really wonderful items that you get and support

[00:18:34] us just because people have donated them and they’re a part of it so I think you know we’re always looking for fun events

[00:18:40] now I think after covenants everybody’s still twitching a bit and want to go do something fun so I think this would be

[00:18:47] really a fun night for for anybody to go to the event yeah that’s going to be fantastic I’m

[00:18:52] going to be there so uh so yeah we’re looking forward to that it’s gonna be a good time so uh nice to see uh you know

[00:18:59] all these friendly faces and say hello to people you haven’t seen in a while so that’s fantastic um so um also your background is in

[00:19:06] counseling um tell us a little bit about rhombus um you you’re wearing a multiple hats

[00:19:12] now and you’re doing all kinds of stuff but your your background is great for what you’re doing so that’s fantastic fantastic tell us a little bit about

[00:19:19] rhombus yeah I’m very grateful for the name so if you remember rhombus is the math term

[00:19:24] for diamonds so we need it now because the the purpose originally was you know people are complex and to approach some

[00:19:32] of these topics in our society we’re gonna have to come from a lot of different perspectives it’s very

[00:19:37] multifaceted so that is what’s happened and so we’ve gathered together many so

[00:19:42] rhombus as an entity is out there to equip people strengthen families and impact the community and we have a

[00:19:50] university rhombus University training therapist they are able to get a master’s degree in counseling psychology

[00:19:56] and get licensed in California as a therapist and so whether the students do

[00:20:02] their internship at ectlc or at Genesis recovery our drug rehab or our

[00:20:08] counseling centers New Vision Counseling Center we have various entities but they’re all working to help people

[00:20:14] change their lives to get the tools they need for their own individual health to turn around and strengthen their

[00:20:20] families and have their families be healthy and then of course we’re going to see the impact in the community so

[00:20:26] that’s been fun to pull together our resources one really fun way these are

[00:20:31] connecting is Genesis recovery is a residential treatment by Hospital level it’s it’s accredited and that’s where we

[00:20:40] can stabilize people both with mental health and more severe addiction so we’re going to bring that into the mix

[00:20:46] with ectlc that if people come in they can ha we’re going to save a certain amount of scholarships for ectlc that

[00:20:54] they can go get stabilized at Genesis recovery first and then enter the program and of course I would love this

[00:21:01] it’s my passion but when I came that’s what I was hearing on a regular basis is that maybe 30 percent had to be turned

[00:21:08] away because they their mental health just wasn’t stable enough for being with

[00:21:13] the whole group there so I’d love to not turn away people I’d love to get them stable and and that was the other car

[00:21:20] minute that I’ve heard is when this person you know comes back and their mind is right man they’re phenomenal and

[00:21:27] they could do the full year program and they could be a leader out there in the

[00:21:33] community after so I’m really excited about that being added in wow that’s really encouraging

[00:21:40] um absolutely I mean that that is a critical component of making this happen so um when you say that are you saying

[00:21:47] that that before you know this was integrated in or you’re beginning to integrate this in you had to turn people

[00:21:53] away just because their mental state wasn’t sufficient to even be able to participate in the year-long program so

[00:22:00] they were they were so far gone um that that and is that typically because of drugs

[00:22:06] it’s a mixture and that’s probably the age-old debate I love that one we’ll have to do a whole nother session on

[00:22:12] Mental Health addiction you know which came first but with throwing the spiritual there too and you’ll make it

[00:22:18] exactly exactly oh we do need to plan that one next uh so it it you could have

[00:22:25] both you know you can have addiction that led to mental health difficulties somebody on meth heroin you know they

[00:22:31] can have times where they’re paranoid hearing voices and then vice versa people could have schizophrenia and then

[00:22:38] uh you know turn to drugs and alcohol to to stop the voices so yeah both and in

[00:22:43] both you find homelessness well um what’s more common than not is that

[00:22:50] somebody we would try to have somebody there and they might hear voices or see

[00:22:56] things at such a level that they’re not safe so they might you know be threatening somebody else or threatening

[00:23:02] themselves so if there’s any kind of risk for a person either to themselves or to other people then we have to get

[00:23:08] them a higher level so sometimes sending them to hospital County Mental Health you know there’s various places we try

[00:23:14] to get them plugged into uh to get their mental health stabilized but once you send them out to the other resources you

[00:23:22] never know what’s going to happen so there’s a couple good locations in San Diego you can take people to

[00:23:27] but they’re not going to keep them long and there’s there’s just no telling what that person’s going to do after they

[00:23:34] leave that location so that’s the unfortunate piece of homelessness is

[00:23:39] sometimes the agencies are disconnected too so you’re doing your best to get them to a resource doesn’t mean they’re

[00:23:45] coming back to you yeah absolutely I I mean I’ve I’ve seen this firsthand I I’ve I’ve seen this I

[00:23:51] know people who have been through these sort of situations I’ve I’ve followed their path where they’re going and so uh

[00:23:59] it seems very difficult a good friend of mine was heading up um the women’s shelter downtown and uh

[00:24:06] He was discussing the problems where the police were even in a situation where they they have somebody they need to

[00:24:13] give them to somebody but he was like Hey we’re full there’s no way we can even accept anybody else and the police

[00:24:19] are like this is not my responsibility they had the policeman at the time actually was very upset he said because he said what in the world am I supposed

[00:24:26] to do here I can’t just let this person go back out on the street they’re absolutely out of their mind and really there was there was nothing that could

[00:24:32] be done it seemed um and so this is a big part of the the problem is

[00:24:38] um dealing with this and so so as far as that’s concerned

[00:24:44] um you know getting this person and do they have to go go through like a detox like let’s say somebody comes are you

[00:24:51] hoping that you can provide the resources to actually take a person like that bring them in put them into some

[00:24:56] sort of a detox like a a 72-hour hold or something like that is that what you you would like to see happen

[00:25:03] yeah so detox would be you know however long they need to be medically stable so

[00:25:09] Genesis recovery is not a detox currently although we can get that approval so that will be one of the next

[00:25:15] steps but right after that so detox you know their their officially medically

[00:25:21] stable they’re still gonna gonna be in a process of not being comfortable yet so

[00:25:26] and with mental health they still may be hearing voices seeing things so there’s still more that needs to be done so we

[00:25:33] can we we have a psychiatrist that’s very good at helping to stabilize that person and he is a Believer which we

[00:25:41] love and it’s not to just put a person on medication but to consider what’s

[00:25:46] going to be best for this person what they need what’s addiction versus mental health he does a really good job

[00:25:51] filtering that so I would say there’s still people we will use our other detox Affiliates you know people we’ve built

[00:25:58] relationships with for example alcohol benzos like anti-anxiety medication they

[00:26:04] need to have medical care 24 7. while they get to a certain medical stability

[00:26:10] before they come even to Genesis but Genesis can take a chunk of people that

[00:26:15] ectlc would not have the capacity for uh you need highly trained therapists you

[00:26:22] need a psychiatrist you need stuff like that so we’ll at least be able to take a good chunk more and then we’ll be going

[00:26:28] after the detox eventually wow that’s so cool I I feel like you know you’re kind

[00:26:34] of building a almost a One-Stop shop in a sense where we can we can take them from the very beginning all the way

[00:26:40] through and boy that to me sounds like a real solution um honestly and

[00:26:46] yeah go ahead and bring bring them back as Leaders take them all the way through and have them come back as Leaders yeah

[00:26:53] yeah and I’ve seen that too and then you come back with a perspective that I know what you’re going through and so then

[00:26:59] you have you’re able to have the compassion and you’re able to really put yourself in the shoes because you were in their shoes so

[00:27:05] um I think that’s that is an incredible message for the rest of California um the the size of our homeless

[00:27:12] population is unreal uh in California and we we see the Havoc it’s reckon uh you know on downtown in our own downtown

[00:27:19] along with you look at what’s happening in La it’s just a disaster um and uh just providing housing or just

[00:27:27] throwing money up the solution is obviously not working uh they’ve spent so much money in the last four years and

[00:27:32] the problem is not getting better and so and that’s with California’s uh you know where our population we’re losing many

[00:27:39] people so we’re still getting more and more homeless we have more people on welfare by far than any other state in

[00:27:46] the country and so something has gotta gotta be done so I think this is

[00:27:51] wonderful what you’re doing and the fact that we can have an event where we can raise money for the ectlc and provide

[00:27:59] you the funds with that kind of leadership and that kind of vision is an incredible opportunity so I think for

[00:28:04] anybody listening um if you want to make a difference and you’re frustrated with what you’re seeing because I know everybody is it’s

[00:28:11] it is the the issue when it comes to voting so people are very very frustrated it’s in your face it’s

[00:28:16] everywhere there are homeless encampments everywhere they go away and then they come right back and it’s just uh horrible and it creates so many

[00:28:22] problems so again September 30th please consider uh joining uh the the

[00:28:29] concert on September 30th at the Magnolia in East County in El Cajon and learning more about the ectlc and then

[00:28:36] finding a way to be involved and what’s really cool too is how you have a school to to actually train people up I mean

[00:28:42] it’s just absolutely phenomenal um so if you were to get you know let’s

[00:28:48] say somebody is somebody hears this and they hear about what you’re doing and they’re incredibly excited and they’re

[00:28:54] they give you a a big contribution a big donation to where would that money immediately go

[00:29:00] um what what would you want to put that money towards right now what’s the most pressing need that you think is the most

[00:29:06] important currently the fence around our pool so we we have

[00:29:11] a great location right in the middle and it’s a pool it’s um a play yard and then

[00:29:17] just an empty spot for kids all in clothes and we want to replace that so that’s top of my list uh of what I want

[00:29:25] to do and then we definitely have um we have 13 rooms that are offline

[00:29:31] because of Plumbing you know uh repairs that need to be made and we are working

[00:29:36] on that but everything just you know we have to take our time financially to to be able to pull this off so that those

[00:29:42] would be the two big things is getting the the rooms up so I can take 13 more families and then just making sure the

[00:29:50] pool fence is in good condition that’s great yeah well that’s really important got to protect the kids

[00:29:57] um another question I had you know we’ve been hearing for quite a while now the

[00:30:02] fentanyl problem that’s going around and um I don’t know if if now that you’re

[00:30:08] the CEO of um the Transitional Living Center if this is becoming something

[00:30:13] you’re becoming more aware of you’re seeing more of these issues um now that you’re you’re there

[00:30:19] is it as big of an issue as people make it out to be I mean um the staff according to the the recent

[00:30:26] thing was that you know two of every three people are struggling with some sort of mental health issue how many

[00:30:32] people actually are struggling with drugs and um is this as big of an issue

[00:30:38] as we’re hearing in some of the news outlets um from your you know feet on the ground respective perspective what’s what what

[00:30:46] are the biggest issues with drugs and everything right now

[00:30:51] you know I I it cut off just a little uh if I had to guess I’ve asked

[00:30:58] people at ectlc when I came on you know three months ago and they’d say 90

[00:31:04] so 90 coming in so I don’t know if it’s quite that high but it’s definitely a

[00:31:09] consistent problem uh this is my observation so I don’t know if others

[00:31:15] would disagree but the men and women coming in that definitely I would guess 90 is pretty dead on uh wow maybe even

[00:31:22] higher the families you have a mixture you have people that come in one parent or both parents or kids and it may be

[00:31:29] truly just homelessness in the various stories that led up to that and we have a lot of those families it’s a

[00:31:36] consistent waiting list but there’s still addiction definitely in there as well so it’s just pervasive uh and

[00:31:46] Fentanyl in particular is also increasing it is I would say probably what you hear

[00:31:53] is under reported I’m like wow it’s probably a worse problem than anybody

[00:31:59] truly realizes in my opinion boy so this definitely has to be tackled from all angles

[00:32:05] um whether it’s uh law enforcement immigration you know the Border all those sorts of things

[00:32:12] um are are increasing the problems and the issues so uh really matters in the

[00:32:17] upcoming election too in 2024 who we vote for and really going who is going to have the spine to be able to uh make

[00:32:25] you know make a difference because it takes a lot of um uh persistence right

[00:32:31] um so what is some of the as you’ve joined you know when you join ectlc uh

[00:32:36] what are some of the big issues that maybe you weren’t you weren’t sure that um you know how it

[00:32:43] was going to go what’s new to you that now that you’re you’ve joined this and how can people pray for the ministry and

[00:32:49] pray for you as a whole just to um you know add you to their prayer listing and to keep the ministry in mind

[00:32:56] sure I would say it was a surprise but not necessarily a surprise it was a

[00:33:03] refreshing experience I guess the people there you know those who are there day

[00:33:08] in day out pouring into everyone they just have amazing Hearts and Spirits for

[00:33:13] the work so it wasn’t like I came in and had to work hard to get everybody on board you know everybody was on board

[00:33:20] even with change to a big in the big picture of it because they want to be as

[00:33:27] effective as possible they don’t mind at all at all changing something that’s going to make it more efficient or to be

[00:33:33] able to help more people so that’s as a CEO that’s very exciting you know you

[00:33:38] don’t know if you’re coming in and everybody’s irritated you’re there it was something that was just a very rewarding experience to come in and feel

[00:33:46] like we could hit the ground running and that everybody was joined with me to

[00:33:51] improve things so I would say some exciting things I’m looking forward to proving basically is implementing some

[00:33:58] of my strengths into it the gentleman that was over it for 20 years was phenomenal and did amazing things with

[00:34:06] it and he didn’t have a clinical background so being a psychologist I get to have that perspective so what are we

[00:34:13] doing for trauma that’s kind of number one I see little kids that are angry you

[00:34:19] know I see adults that are angry you know so the trauma side of it I want to

[00:34:24] bring in tools for healing I want to bring in like we talked about for the addiction piece and skills for

[00:34:31] relationship building and I see things from that biblical perspective so right there in Genesis you have work and

[00:34:38] relationships you know and I think that’s very tangible we need to teach them how to be in good healthy

[00:34:44] relationships with each other and how to work hard and those two things are fundamental to Being Human and um and

[00:34:51] kind of with that but a bigger picture of that is of being a leader and I think

[00:34:57] people resonate with that when they understand they were created in Genesis to to be a leader to be a manager of a

[00:35:05] garden you know eventually uh you know more when we when we left the garden but that’s in us God God was creating and

[00:35:13] labeling and pass the Baton to Adam and said you do it so people respond to that

[00:35:18] so building a leadership perspective of somebody not just getting clean and sober not just getting out of

[00:35:24] homelessness but turning around and making an impact in their family and in their community that I’m excited for the

[00:35:32] outcome of that as we kind of drum beat that in what we have now yeah yeah and and you know having known

[00:35:40] you for a while I know your big heart is for the family and for healthy families and really the family is the Bedrock of

[00:35:46] a healthy Society if you have Healthy Families you have a healthy Society you have a healthy Community you have

[00:35:52] healthy churches and so um absolutely that’s uh so fantastic what you’re doing there

[00:35:58] um so yeah there was um some scriptures too that uh you know are just supportive

[00:36:05] of what you’re doing too which is really um awesome I just looked up some scriptures obviously if you’ve studied

[00:36:11] the Bible at all you know that God has a big heart for the poor Proverbs 28 says whoever gives to the poor will not want

[00:36:17] but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse so uh that’s really important

[00:36:22] and then all all throughout the Old Testament the levitical law specifically deals with hey if you have abundance

[00:36:28] then help the poor you know go out and make a difference and get involved and if somebody wanted to get involved with

[00:36:35] what you’re doing is there a way that volunteers can get involved are there opportunities that they can come and and

[00:36:41] join in on the work absolutely we definitely need volunteers and our website’s a good location we’ve

[00:36:49] been improving it so it’s it’s actually already redone it should be working well but it might get better and easier to

[00:36:55] use but I know you can put a comment in there and it’ll get to me so if somebody wanted to volunteer they could put it

[00:37:01] through the website they could call they could call me I don’t mind at all if people want to come and get a tour of

[00:37:07] the location it might not be me giving the tour but possibly and just get a feel for what it is and we are putting

[00:37:14] together some projects right now that we need volunteers for so it’s a good time if anybody wants to join and see what

[00:37:20] you might fit in naturally with what we’re already doing yeah there’s a lot of good people locally too A lot of people that are

[00:37:28] very handy also and are able to make a difference so you said you had 13 rooms that needed to be fixed up so I know

[00:37:34] there’s a ton of contractors and uh Tradesmen in East County so boy that

[00:37:40] that should be able to get done in no time flat um so we just gotta pray and get the word out of those needs so if you’re

[00:37:47] listening please spread the word if you know so a contractor who would uh who loves the Lord or and wants to see God

[00:37:54] work in our community then please reach out to ectlc.org and again the event on

[00:38:01] September 30th ectl.org forward slash events if you

[00:38:07] want to find out more about that how to get tickets and so forth that’d be great uh to be able to do that

[00:38:13] um so uh let’s see here

[00:38:21] so you know um Governor Newsom coming up in the election here

[00:38:27] um it says here that in California we have a 170 000 unhoused people and uh that’s

[00:38:36] only growing you said uh Julie that you don’t know of any other organization that’s doing what your organization is

[00:38:43] doing um for for other people that want to come and check it out and learn more

[00:38:49] about it and see that you said that they can come take a tour but they can learn

[00:38:54] more about your model um just by talking to you or or getting more information why is it that

[00:39:01] um you know I guess people are nervous that they can’t you know because it’s religiously

[00:39:06] oriented they can’t give money to what you’re doing um but are there other reasons people

[00:39:12] are afraid to you know integrate uh Christianity into what they’re doing

[00:39:19] um I’ve heard that that Skid Row up in La is only growing and I’m just I had a friend who told me Hey Kevin he was

[00:39:26] involved with this sort of thing and he said you know they’re brainstorming trying to figure out what to do and they can’t they can’t figure it out you know

[00:39:33] they just are a lot of people are just at a complete loss um do you think that they’re hesitant

[00:39:38] because they’re afraid that that somehow you know spirituality is going to hurt

[00:39:44] people or what what has gone through their minds or they’re just afraid of a Christian theocracy or somehow somehow

[00:39:49] you know Christianity taking over uh and so people are real hesitant to do that I even heard that prison fellowship got

[00:39:55] kicked out of a few prisons simply because they were reading the Bible in prisons what do you think is going on on there

[00:40:01] yeah I think there’s probably a lot of different stories you know that kind of

[00:40:06] give some themes but the themes I’ve seen people believe it shouldn’t be so

[00:40:12] there’s definitely a mentality of what you know they take church and state you

[00:40:17] know separating church and state to an extreme and they think it’s not supposed to be so you couldn’t have a faith-based

[00:40:24] organization that was funded by government that that would be intrinsically wrong can’t happen so if

[00:40:30] they’re taking applications and and they have that Viewpoint and they’re looking at applications they have one that’s

[00:40:35] overtly faith-based they’re setting that aside they’re not even seen as an option um to be in the Run for the grant money

[00:40:42] uh so that’s something that’s just a pattern now how fully somebody took it

[00:40:47] you know like the words and stretched it that far that I don’t know because if you look historically Christian

[00:40:54] organizations have been doing so much for the community for years so we’ve been there all along uh so why it has to

[00:41:01] be so separated in some people’s minds I don’t fully know but they believe that you know so it’s at their core values

[00:41:07] sorry they don’t even want to hear it it’s faith is no and then there’s those

[00:41:12] that might have had experiences where they have had negative experiences and unfortunately I know that’s true so

[00:41:19] there’s Christian organizations that have a bad reputation in certain areas and then it spreads and so they have

[00:41:26] done things uh I know people are afraid of prostatilization so art is a

[00:41:32] faith-based program if people are in there they are gonna be introduced to God and introduced to the Bible in

[00:41:37] Christ and so to some that don’t come from that perspective they think that’s

[00:41:43] you know the worst thing ever they they would think that that’s totally inappropriate you know that should not

[00:41:49] be allowed and so they wouldn’t support it I do like currently how we have an

[00:41:54] opportunity for emergency housing that can really make a dent quickly to anyone and then we have the option for the

[00:42:01] long-term program I think that’s uh that people like that but I do know people

[00:42:07] have their personal experiences with Christians that backfire and then they hold that so I’ve seen I’ve seen a

[00:42:15] variety of reasons why people believe that I do think this model could be there’s a lot of this model that could

[00:42:21] be copied I don’t think it will work without Christ not like it is

[00:42:27] you really want people’s lives transformed you know you’re not going to get the same effect without having

[00:42:35] Christ transforming a person but those that have that come from a completely

[00:42:40] secular Viewpoint they don’t do not understand them so what would you say to what would you

[00:42:45] say Julie to somebody who says a Christian on their side who’s afraid who says look if you take government money

[00:42:50] they’re going to take over they’re going to control your organization and um are you uh is that a is that a

[00:42:58] concern of yours do you do you um feel like well I got to be really careful about taking this money or do you think

[00:43:04] hey no we have enough in place enough boundaries in place to say that we can take the money and still legally we can

[00:43:10] share our faith and integrate um you know the Bible and Christianity into our uh the process of healing and

[00:43:17] so forth I definitely think the concern is very real and we have to be wise uh ectlc is

[00:43:25] a non-profit organization with a board the board is concerned you know they do

[00:43:30] want to know if I’m signing something you know what am I agreeing to you know

[00:43:35] because we do have um you know ways that we express our faith and we want to be free to do that

[00:43:41] so we want people that are voluntarily coming that want to be a part of this so

[00:43:46] if if there’s any government funding that is something always to be aware of I do I am a Christian I am a

[00:43:54] psychologist and uh in the field of psychology as a whole you definitely have these same Dynamics where you have

[00:44:01] the profession the field very against uh Christianity as a whole and and then you

[00:44:08] have Christians very nervous about psychology so I spent you know 20 years in this Dynamic of we can be Christian

[00:44:16] psychologists and ethical and professional you know there’s a path for it that’s why the universities there

[00:44:22] because I think we need to teach people how to be professional how to be ethical and smack in the middle of helping

[00:44:29] everybody with our faith intact not backing down from what we believe but still treating

[00:44:36] people well treating people with respect and and I think there’s a path but

[00:44:41] anytime you are accepting government money specifically I do think you have to read what are the requirements and is

[00:44:50] it worth it so I don’t think we would actually change some of our core values

[00:44:56] just for money we would say I’m sorry we can’t do that and then that’s where we end up relying on uh donors and

[00:45:03] fundraising and everything else we do but I love that we also rely on our own work you know people out there helping

[00:45:11] the community with their labor is another model of income stream you know

[00:45:17] and it comes in and those business organizations supporting us in various ways so it’s a really wonderful model so

[00:45:24] that doesn’t have to be it that if we say no to this one government you know

[00:45:30] uh funding source then then we’re closing we’ve got to keep it Diversified and that that’s our job you know as

[00:45:36] leadership we have to always be watching for how can we make this viable if one

[00:45:41] thing dies out and we can’t count on it anymore well I I really think it’s wonderful to

[00:45:48] hear your vision and hear your heart and I’m sure other people feel the same way um like you said you’ve recently taken

[00:45:53] over in the CEO position with uh the center and um I think I think they chose a great

[00:45:59] person so I think it’s really wonderful what you’re doing and we’ll all be praying for you that God blesses it and

[00:46:05] blesses the ministry and uh I I mean if all that you have on your heart comes to be it’s going to be pretty amazing so

[00:46:11] that’s that’s fantastic praise God

[00:46:17] um so we’re about wrapping up here and uh Julia I just want to thank you for being on the program it’s a big blessing

[00:46:22] thank you very much it was great to be on absolutely and um if you’ve been listening we’ve had some great shows

[00:46:29] recently um and we do have some really great shows coming up Larry blyde with apologia is going to be with us next

[00:46:34] week we have Dr Jeremy line with creation of the Dead Sea Scrolls that’s going to be right around the corner also

[00:46:39] and then some really really cool shows we’ve got uh uh a tour guide from the

[00:46:47] British museum the largest museum in Britain who uh contacted us and she’s going to share with us some amazing

[00:46:53] things that are going on in the British museum they’re giving archaeological biblical tours so that’ll be coming up

[00:46:59] to a fantastic interview so thank you so much for being here and uh we look forward to being with you next time God

[00:47:06] bless you I hope you have a great week and thank you Dr Hayden big blessing having you on

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[00:48:42] 619-222-0766 hi this is Jason Hall president of Team Home Loans a branch of

[00:48:47] synergy One Lending I just want to take this opportunity to thank Kevin Conover for the profound impact he’s had on mine

[00:48:53] and my wife’s spiritual life as well as being an incredible teacher while our kids were his students his knowledge and

[00:48:59] passion have taught us all how important it is to be Defenders of our faith it’s our honor and privilege to support Kevin

[00:49:05] and his show it is our sincere hope and prayer that you will continue to learn to be Defenders of your faith through

[00:49:10] Kevin’s radio show and through his educate for Life teachings thank you Kevin from the hall family and team home

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