KUAR
January 24th, 2022
By Michael Hibblen, Maddie Becker, Remington Miller
A lack of affordable housing and uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic has made it harder for homeless people in Arkansas to get back on their feet. That was one shared assessment of a panel that recently discussed the issue. Finding shelter is especially important during the cold months of winter.
The panelists, who assist people facing housing challenges, spoke during the most recent Issues That Matter, a series of public events hosted by KUAR, the Central Arkansas Library System and the Pulaski County chapter of the League of Women Voters.
Joining host Michael Hibblen, news director of KUAR, were:
- Our House Executive Director Ben Goodwin
- Jericho Way Director Mandy Davis
- City of Little Rock Homeless Services Advocate Chris Porter
Highlights from the discussion included the need for an expanded voucher program, results of an eviction moratorium being lifted, conflicts with the U.S. Census recording homeless statistics, and how Arkansans can best help the homeless in the state.
The three panelists also discussed the burnout often felt by people who work to assist the homeless because of the ongoing challenges. Since the live discussion took place virtually on Nov. 18, Davis has announced her resignation from Jericho Way after six years in the position.
Chuck Levesque, president of Depaul USA which operates Jericho Way, praised Davis for her work, calling her a “public intellectual” regarding housing who used her voice to call for more effective services for the homeless.
“Mandy never lost sight of her social-work training. She threw herself into the most difficult cases. Her efforts were creative and intensive, working to place people in housing, and create conditions so these men and women could build more stable, dignified lives,” Levesque said.
The radio program can be listened to above, while an edited transcript of the discussion is below.
MICHAEL HIBBLEN: Maybe we can first start by having each of you introduce yourself, talk a little bit about your background, and what your organizations, or in the case of the city, what you guys do to assist the homeless population. There are very different missions among the different groups out there.
Ben, why do we start with you, executive director of Our House, tell me a bit about yourself and what Our House works to accomplish.
BEN GOODWIN: Thank you, Michael. Thanks for shining a light on this topic and for inviting me to participate. I have been at Our House for 12 years now. I started as a part-time employee and have worked my way up to become the executive director as of 2017.
I’m motivated in this work because I recognize that any of us can experience struggle, can experience challenges in life through bad luck, through systemic issues, through many challenges that can confront any family, even families that feel stably housed. Things can happen and a community that wraps around a family or an individual that’s going through a hard time is just really important. And so at Our House, I see our role as sort of being that community of support for people as they work hard to make a better life for themselves.
At Our House, our mission is to build a pathway out of homelessness and we specialize in serving families with children, but we also serve single adults and we try to help our clients to succeed in basically every aspect of their lives. We start with a real focus on finding employment. So finding a job, finding a good paying job, saving money from that job and then using that money to start putting the pieces together to move out of homelessness and into stable housing. We know that there’s a lot more that goes into it, and so we offer other services, including childcare, including mental health services, workforce training, financial skill building and connections to all kinds of other resources in the community, including those offered by my partners who are on the call today.
The lifeblood of our work is the support from the community. This community, I think, is a very generous community, really cares about other people and that’s what helps us do what we do. And one important part of the community is all the other great agencies out there that we work with. We really do, I think, work well together with Jericho Way, with the city of Little Rock, just a lot of partnerships there and with other agencies as well. So I look forward to talking more about that.
