Season 2, Episode 10: Hope for life change

MUSIC - Seeking the Truth

CRAWFORD_MY HUSBAND WAS REALLY
DEBBIE CRAWFORD [10:27] My husband was really good at hiding stuff. And I was really naive. And I didn't know what he was up to until it was too late.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Debbie Crawford didn’t know her husband was dealing drugs. She didn’t know he’d sold the house until he put her out on the street and left her, alone and homeless in Easely, South Carolina.

CRAWFORD_I LIVED IN A SHACK
CRAWFORD [1:22] I lived in a shack in a field in a pasture for like, almost a year.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: A woman from a local church heard about Crawford and offered to help. She gave her a place to stay, then helped her get her own house.

CRAWFORD_AND THEN MY SON DIED
CRAWFORD [1:46] And then my son died. [TK] He was shot.

[1:52] So, then I got on drugs because I didn't care. I wanted to die.

AJB: Crawford’s life was in pieces. Then, along came Chris Wilson and the Dream Center.

I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

SS: I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

AJB: And this is Effective Compassion.

SS: So far this season, we’ve tracked nonprofits from Amish Country to El Salvador, ministries for families and refugees and recovering addicts. We’ve seen challenging, personal, and spiritual programs … and aid that hurt more than it helped.

AJB: In this final episode, we’ll visit two organizations with similar goals: They want to help the homeless, people who have lost everything and have nowhere to go. But these two organizations chose different strategies...and ultimately, got very different results.

END MUSIC

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PADS_JUST ME
PADS - Dinner

9:32 You got a roommate? 233, yeah I do. Got forks? Yeah I put em in.

SS: The sun is setting in Waukegan, Illinois, and there’s a foot and a half of snow on the ground. People come in twos and threes, shoulders hunched, hands in pockets to keep warm, breath misting in the bitter-cold air. They knock on the door of a hotel room.

PADS_JUST ME
PADS - Dinner

[9:58] 237, just me. Can I get some--just you? Your roommate gone? Oh he somewhere else. Can I get some garbage bags? You want some chili too? Can I get some garbage bags and toilet paper? That’s all.

AJB: The hotel room is crammed with cardboard boxes and garbage bags full of supplies like toilet paper, socks, and deodorant. A white plastic table stands near the door, covered in stacks of white styrofoam to-go boxes, each one mummified in plastic wrap. A steady stream of people come knocking, take a meal, and head off back to their rooms. Some are unassuming, polite.

PADS_WHAT IS YOUR ROOM
PADS - Dinner

8:37 What’s your room number? 210. 210. Did you already give laundry money? Tomorrow.

AJB: Others are a little more colorful.

PADS_WHAT IS YOUR ROOM
PADS - Dinner

8:40 Hey let me get some more of that cake too though. I got a roommate so I need two trays. I be eating sweets late night...Can I get two trays? I got a roomate, 304. Thank you so much, y’all have a good night.

SS: They’re all homeless. And they’ve come to Lake County PADS for shelter.

POWELL_OCTOBER 1
MEGHAN POWELL FILLER [1:47] October 1 through April 30, was our typical shelter season.

SS: Meghan Powell-Filler is executive director of the nonprofit. PADS provides emergency shelter and services to help get people into permanent housing. The organization has had to make some changes because of COVID, but homeless people still start off at PADS’ main office at the day center to get checked into the system.

POWELL_THEN WE PROVIDE
MEGHAN POWELL FILLER [3:13] Then we provide case management services. And we used to have lifeskills groups twice a day...Or if they had other appointments to do, they could go and do other appointments, apply for jobs, whatever they needed to do during the day.

AJB: Then, PADS buses everyone to a separate site that provides a place to sleep for the night. Before COVID hit, it was usually a church. PADS isn’t a Christian organization, but it partners with a lot of places that are.

POWELL_WE WORK WITH
MEGHAN POWELL FILLER [1:50] We work with 15 area churches. So every night would be a different church site. [2:11] While they were at the church, they received dinner from the volunteers and then they would be able to sleep. There's like mattresses on the floor. So like four inch, four inch mattresses that were on the floor, usually in a big gym type area.

SS: In the morning, the church would give them breakfast and a bag lunch for the day. Then, PADS would pick them up and bring them back to the day center.

The day center isn’t a big place.

DAY CENTER_THIS IS WHERE
DAY CENTER TOUR

[1:39] This is where we would do like all the reception and check in, obviously, so many new clients would come up here.

SS: It has room for a couple small groups to meet.

DAY CENTER_THIS IS WHERE
DAY CENTER TOUR

[2:03] So and then this room…[2:11] This is like where our group area was.

AJB: Once everything shut down because of the pandemic, churches wouldn’t or couldn’t take groups of homeless people. So PADS started renting individual hotel rooms.

MUSIC - Scurrying Around

POWELL_SO NOW WE ARE IN
MEGHAN POWELL-FILLER [5:43] So now, we are all in hotels, about 137 hotel rooms, serving anywhere between like 225 people right now to 250 people.

SS: That’s more than double the number they used to serve. Before COVID hit, PADS served about 80 to 100 people. So what’s behind the surge in requests for emergency shelter? Powell-Filler says it could be a combination of things. First, many people who can’t afford their own home or apartment go “couchsurfing,” staying with friends or relatives a few nights at a time. But COVID made people leery of that.

AJB: Another factor could be the economic downturn, leading to more people unable to afford rent.

And it could be because people like hotel rooms better than a mattress on a gym floor...the way it used to be.

POWELL_HOTELS ARE MUCH

POWELL-FILLER [24:55] Hotels are much, you know, much more ideal than the rotating sites. Just because you have your own place to stay, you don't have to carry your belongings around every night, like, you know, it's one place. It's kind of like an apartment.

END MUSIC

SS: Since switching to hotels, PADS has seen more people staying longer. Powell-Filler worries about that because she doesn’t want people to stay in an emergency shelter situation for too long. The longer they stay there, the harder it is to get out.

POWELL_THEY DO NOT HAVE
POWELL-FILLER [10:42] They don't have the stability, they start looking at life in like 24 hour sections of time. So very, a lot of more survival skills. And when you're looking at it from that perspective, it's harder to think about the next week or the next month, or getting yourself out of there, when you're trying to figure out what you're just need to eat for the day, where you're going to sleep for the night. So that's why the shelter model is a little difficult, and you want to provide like as much safety as you can and security, so that hopefully, they can feel secure and not having to figure out what they're going to be eating or sleeping. So that they can think about, okay, in a month, I might be able to have some kind of housing.

AJB: It’s hard to keep both of those things at the same time: We want you to be safe and comfortable, but we don’t want you to stay forever. And PADS has very few requirements for people that stay in the shelter. They’re supposed to meet with a case manager once or twice a month, and try to get on waiting lists for affordable permanent housing options. But other than that...there’s no time limit for how long they can stay, and there’s nothing they need to do to be able to stay. In other words, PADS doesn’t aim for CPS...help that is challenging, personal, spiritual.

SS: The goal is to get people out of the shelter and into permanent housing within 90 days...60 if you’re being really optimistic. But how often does that happen?

POWELL_NOT VERY OFTEN
POWELL-FILLER [23:23] Oh, not very often.

MUSIC - Secret Life of Squirrels

AJB: PADS does try to keep its services personal. It assigns a case manager to each person who comes for help. The case manager touches base with their clients once every couple of weeks. They help the client come up with an individual action plan, and encourage them to take the steps necessary to get into permanent housing. The system is designed for each case manager to handle about 50 clients.

POWELL_BUT RIGHT NOW
POWELL-FILLER [39:37] But right now our case managers are like hovering around like 100, like 90 to 100 people.

SS: That’s way more than they can handle. So many clients are flying under the radar.

POWELL_LIKE THEY ARE NOT
POWELL-FILLER [37:23] Like, they're not applying for jobs, they're not applying for housing, they're just kind of sitting there and doing whatever they want. Usually, there's some behavioral issues that come with that.

SS: PADS just hired two more case managers, so Powell-Filler is hoping that will make things more manageable.

AJB: About half of the people that come to PADS have some kind of mental health issues. The case managers can point those individuals towards counseling or healthcare, but the ultimate goal remains the same.

POWELL_THE ULTIMATE GOAL
POWELL-FILLER [8:02] The ultimate goal is to move them from shelter into permanent housing as quickly as possible.

POWELL_PERMANENT HOUSING
[16:35] Permanent housing is the solution.

END MUSIC

SS: Back in Easley, South Carolina, Debbie Crawford had hit rock bottom. It was 2017. She’d been homeless for a year, addicted to drugs, and lost her son.

CRAWFORD_IF I HAD NOT
CRAWFORD [8:57] If I had not...come here, I would have been back doing, I probably would be dead.

SS: The woman from the local church who’d helped her knew about Chris Wilson and the Dream Center. She got Crawford into the program.

CRAWFORD_WHEN I CAME
CRAWFORD [3:05] When I came in here, I'm like, you know, this is not me. I didn't trust people. I didn't like people. [3:32] I didn't want to be bothered with them, you know, I'd rather get back to the shack where I was myself. And then when I came, it took me a while but the people here I'd never seen people like this.

AJB: The Dream Center was one of WORLD’s 2020 Hope Awards finalists. It has a lot of moving pieces. A tiny house village. A 12-month residential program. A series of free classes open to the community. A thrift store. And all of it is centered on Jesus.

SS: Crawford joined the year-long residential program and moved into one of the tiny houses.

CRAWFORD_SO FOR THE FIRST TWO MONTHS
CRAWFORD [11:14] So, for the first two months, you're on...blackout. So you didn't, you had to turn in your phones, you couldn't have visitors. No real contact with anybody outside. You know, you went to the church, they said, you get to church to you went to classes every day...I didn't want to do none of it.

SS: But try as she might, she couldn’t escape the inexplicable kindness of the people around her.

CRAWFORD_I DID NOT KNOW PEOPLE
CRAWFORD [2:55] I didn't know people was like that, you know. [3:14] I mean, they just do stuff here that's like unreal.

AJB: Crawford had three coaches—a case manager, a financial adviser, and a care coach.

CRAWFORD_YOUR CARE COACH JUST
CRAWFORD [24:32] Your care coach just talked to you about everything that was going on in your life. It was really, really beneficial for me because I got to talk to somebody...she knew everything, she knew my anger, my hate, all of that she knew that and she still cared, you know. And I wasn't used to that.

SS: The coaches worked in tandem to develop Crawford’s physical, financial, and spiritual wellness. The goal was not just to find housing. It was to achieve whole-person health: Physical, mental, and spiritual.

MUSIC - The Missing Link

WILSON_MY HUSBAND AND I
CHRIS WILSON [10:00] My husband and I were active in our church. [10:10] I was the vacation Bible school director, I led the prayer ministry...

AJB: This is Chris Wilson. We talked with her back in Episode 4.

WILSON_MY HUSBAND AND I
CHRIS WILSON [10:20] But I was never around a person different from me. I had never had a conversation with a homeless person.

AJB: Wilson started to feel God calling her to do something more...to get in the game for real. So she gathered a group of people, and started helping others who were materially poor.

WILSON_WE DID NOT KNOW WHAT
CHRIS WILSON [2:46] We didn't know what we were doing...we just said, we want to have a place where we can...offer hope and help and a hand up...And we didn't understand at the time that we're kind of helping them in the wrong way...When I say the wrong way, it was offering handouts and handouts and handouts, and then expecting their behavior to match what we our expectation.

AJB: Wilson faced constant disappointment.

WILSON_LIKE WE THOUGHT
CHRIS WILSON [3:24] Like, we thought if they were homeless, then we just needed to find them a home, or if they were jobless, we just needed to find them a job. And so we would do that. And I would say, Okay, now, here's your new place to live...But, you know, you can do A, B and C, but please don't do D or you'll get evicted. You know, within two days, they will jump right over A, B and C straight to D...and they would get evicted. Or we would get them a job, pull some strings, get them a job and three days later, we'd get a call that said we had to fire them. They were like the worst employee ever.

END MUSIC

SS: Wilson was frustrated. It seemed like it should be obvious. Someone doesn’t have a house, get them a house. Problem solved. But it wasn’t working.

Then, Wilson had a lightbulb moment.

AJB: The organization had been helping this one particular woman off and on for at least a year, but she was still stuck in a cycle of poverty, living day to day, just trying to keep custody of her kids and stay off the street. She was a regular at the soup kitchen Wilson ran, and one day, Wilson was short-handed.

WILSON_AND SO I WENT
WILSON [7:45] And so I went to her and I'm like, you're gonna have to help us hand plates out tonight...And she's like, No, I'm not. I don't want to do that.

AJB: Wilson made her do it anyway.

WILSON_AND SO I WENT
WILSON [8:12] All she had to do was hand out plates...So, at the end of the night, she came up to me and she said, I was just wondering if I could do this again tomorrow night. And I was like, really? Um, she said, Actually, I wish I could do this every night.

SS: That moment changed everything.

WILSON_AND SO I WENT
WILSON [8:35] Her whole 37 years this woman had been stuck down here. And when you're stuck down here, you're okay with it...But not one time in 37 years had she ever experienced what it felt like to hand somebody the plate. You know, she had always been the person being handed the plate and in that one evening she experienced like a purpose greater than a handout, you know.

SS: Wilson resolved from that moment on...no more handouts. Instead, the Dream Center programs would help people work toward their own success.

CLASSROOM_OH THE CLASS
CLASSROOM 1 SHOTGUN
[1:55] Oh the class? Yeah it’s in classroom one today.

CLASSROOM_SOUND
[3:40] SOUND OF CLASSROOM

AJB: Anyone from the community can come to the classes. They’re led by community volunteers, and range from budgeting and job readiness to parenting and anger management.

CLASSROOM_I KNOW YOU
CLASSROOM 1 SHOTGUN

TRUMAN [7:37] I know you finished the second half of chapter five with Christy last week…

SS: This Bible class is studying John chapter six and the feeding of the 5,000. One woman carries a backpack and grocery bag and wears a pair of slippers. Another sits hunched over, barely speaking the whole class. Others speak up often.

CLASSROOM_EVEN AS CHRISTIANS
CLASSROOM 7
[0:06] Even as Christians. Yes you have to pray and God does provide, but He provides on His time, not ours.

AJB: Another class is learning financial basics.

FINANCIAL CLASS_LIKE YOU SAID
FINANCIAL CLASS

[0:07] Like you just said, Betty, what would happen if I bought a cheaper version instead? So sometimes it’s good to do your research and compare prices...

AJB: If you go to class regularly, you earn Dream Dollars...currency you can spend at one of the Dream Centers’ nearby thrift stores. If you’re enrolled in the year-long residential program, your Dream Dollars go towards renting one of the tiny houses in the tiny house village.

TINY HOUSE_THIS IS AMANDA
TINY HOUSE VILLAGE TOUR SHOTGUN
[19:46] [Door creaking open] This is, Amanda just moved out of this house.

[18:13] Walking

WILSON [18:20] Nobody lives in this one right now, but this gives you an idea...very small.

SS: Wilson says the results of the program have been unbelievable...both for the people coming for help, and for the Christians providing it. Wilson doesn’t want to see any more armchair Christians. She says they need to get in the game.

WILSON_AND SO WHEN PEOPLE
WILSON [12:48] And so when people come here, we're not only trying to help people who are in poverty and homeless, to find their purpose and to live a purposeful life and to...be self sufficient. We're trying to help Christians live out their purpose and have a purposeful life and know that it's not just drinking coffee and going to Bible study, which is what I did for a very long time.

AJB: One of the reasons the Dream Center is able to do so much is because of community partners. For example, the Dream Center runs a sewing program that trains women to sew for local manufacturers. It partnered with a local technical college, a sewing company, and the South Carolina Department of Commerce to get the program up and running. A local manufacturing company donated the sewing machines. Now, the program helps women gain job skills and work experience, another step on their way to being self sufficient.

MUSIC - Private Inquiry [underscore]

SS: Back in Waukegan, Illinois, PADS also partners with other organizations in the area. Meghan Powell-Filler wants to focus on emergency shelter and getting people into housing, and she knows PADS isn’t equipped for mental health support. So the organization works with other providers in the area that can supply that service.

AJB: But Powell-Filler says even with those partnerships, there’s only so much they can do. Why? Because there’s not enough affordable housing. That’s Powell-Filler’s biggest frustration. She says even when a client is doing everything they’re supposed to, it’s hard to find someplace for them to stay long term.

POWELL_SO THEY ARE TRYING TO SAVE
POWELL-FILLER [12:14] So they're trying to save, they're trying to work when they're supposed to, but just the lack of affordable housing that's out there, they're not able to live on their own.

POWELL_HUD WOULD JUST
AJB: What would need to happen to get more affordable housing?

POWELL-FILLER [30:24] HUD would just have to give us more money.

AJB: That would be the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

POWELL_HUD WOULD JUST
POWELL-FILLER [30:27] So the federal government would have to have to put in some real investment.

AJB: Either build cheaper houses and apartments, or just subsidize existing housing.

POWELL_BUT I THINK THAT THAT IS
POWELL-FILLER [29:47] But I think that that's one of the hardest parts and just the frustration, I think because some of it seems like such an easy solution. Well, I say easy because we've identified it, like just have more affordable housing. That seems pretty easy.

END MUSIC

SS: Chris Wilson used to think it was simple, too. But not anymore. She’s seen too many people with too many complex problems come and go. That’s not to say people don’t need housing. They do, and sometimes they need emergency shelter like PADS offers. February 2021 was pretty brutal in Illinois, with weeks of single-digit temperatures. Nobody could stay on the street overnight, and finding a place to sleep was literally life-or-death.

AJB: But once the emergency is past, it’s important to shift … and tailor the type of aid to the person’s situation.

Debbie Crawford needed housing...but that wasn’t the most vital thing. She needed a relationship with God and with others.

CRAWFORD_TO BE HONEST
CRAWFORD [13:25] To be honest with you, the day I walked in those doors, I could feel the love of God.

[13:36] I didn't know God at the time. But after that, and seeing all these people and the way they were, you know, and they truly, truly cared about you and wanted you wanted for you to have a better life and do better and to help you. And once you see that, it all changes. Or it did for me.

MUSIC - Suspicion Mounts

SS: The first two months of the program are an intense period of self reflection and Bible study. That’s when Crawford met God...and Deanna Smith.

CRAWFORD_I AM LIKE I AM NOT
CRAWFORD [6:17] I'm like, I'm not gonna like her. I don't like the rest of them, I'm not gonna like her either.

SS: But Smith came straight over and gave her a hug. And Crawford knew something was different about her. Smith and her husband, Jason, had been drug addicted and homeless living in a tent before they came to the Dream Center. That was about six months before Crawford arrived. And in that time, the Smiths had undergone radical life transformation. When Deanna Smith told Debbie Crawford how her life had changed, it sparked something in Crawford. She wanted that, too.

AJB: Crawford and Smith became fast friends. While in the program, they both worked at the Dream Centers’ thrift stores. Everyone has to volunteer in some capacity. When they finished the program, they stayed on to keep working. Debbie Crawford now manages the Easley location, while Deanna Smith oversees the entire thrift store program.

END MUSIC

SS: Crawford’s life looks completely different than it used to. She’s been mourning her son, rebuilding her thought processes, learning how to live differently. Everything is different, from the big things…

CRAWFORD_FORGIVENESS LEARNING HOW TO FORGIVE
CRAWFORD [21:01] Forgiveness, learning how to forgive...my husband...the cop that killed my son...

SS: ...to the little things.

CRAWFORD_I MEAN SIMPLE STUFF
CRAWFORD [28:50] I mean, simple stuff that I used to, like birds, I never listened to birds, [27:38] stuff that I used to take for granted. I don't do that.

SS: But it wasn’t the classes, or the housing, or the work that Crawford credits with her life change.

CRAWFORD_THE WAY GOD HAS TRANSFORMED
CRAWFORD [20:19] The way God has transformed me from the way I was to the way I am now is absolutely amazing.

AJB: Housing helps. Counseling does too. Financial assistance, life skills classes, healthcare, they’re all important pieces. But none of them are the ultimate goal...or the ultimate solution.

MUSIC

CRAWFORD_NOW I WANT TO LIVE
CRAWFORD [7:35] Now I want to live. I want to serve God...He's healing my heart.

SS: Homeless or not, that’s the healing and hope we all need more than anything.

I’m Sarah Schweinsberg…

AJB: And I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Season Two of Effective Compassion was produced by the creative team at WORLD Radio. Our producer is Leigh Jones, our audio editor is Paul Butler, and our podcast engineer is Rich Roszel.

As Season Two of Effective Compassion comes to an end, we’d love to hear from you. Let us know what episodes you found particularly inspiring or helpful. As we begin working on Season 3, what sort of topics would you like us to explore? Do you know of a ministry or church that you think should be highlighted? Write to us. Our email address is effectivecompassionpodcast@wng.org or leave a comment and rating on whatever podcast platform you use. And if you have some constructive feedback, we’d like to hear that as well. That email address again is effectivecompassionpodcast@wng.org. On behalf of the entire podcast team at WORLD Radio, I’m Paul Butler. Thanks for listening.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.