RCRanger03

Probably shouldn't out myself after some of the earlier posts in this thread I've been a property manager at Community First Village since before it opened and helped manage a MLF truck location before that, AMA

That CNN piece is trending on their home page as the feature US story and it went from a few hundred thousand views to 1.5 Million in a day. If you have a minute to drive some traffic through their link or share it on social media to keep that media snowball going downhill I'd greatly appreciate it! https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/275028123212271 https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/us/iyw-town-for-the-homeless-trnd/index.html Attention like this will be immeasurably helpful in getting OTHER communities looking at the model for their cities. We're doing quarterly training and showcases essentially at no cost for people who are considering replicating, including more in depth secondary and tertiary programs that go deeper and into the nitty gritty as they progress with plans (there's already 4 graduated programs that are developing communities in other cities). Mobile Loaves & Fishes has it's limits, and we need to keep empower other organizations (existing or even not yet existing) into similarly minded developments to continue improving conditions for those in this situation and as a byproduct the cities and communities that they live in.

Big supporter of Jimmy here, the person who runs Church under the Bridge/Mission Possible is one of my residents

If anyone is interested in checking out Community First let me know and I can probably arrange a tour

And now I'm back around and it's late after a long day at work, so a pre-warning this will possibly be incoherent and rambling but hopefully it will some sense. I definitely don't have much in the way of hard answers (lots of anecdotal evidence to support my ideas though), but happy to have the conversation either here in the thread or by PM if you want some specific questions discussed... Some background I've been working for the past 5 years at Mobile Loaves & Fishes both with the Food Trucks and as one of the property managers at Community First Village To start there's a few different types of homelessness you might see: 1) Transitory: Something happened and shit fell apart but it's probably not going to stick and within 3 months things usually are on the up and up. This is usually the easiest to assist, and the system does a decent job at serving and helping these folks transition out of homelessness. Occasionally if during this time more issues happen (addiction, physical or mental health degradation, criminal activity) then it can transition into one of the next two. 2) Episodic: Usually tied to mental health or addiction issues. You'll see this population cycling in and out of rehabs and similar programs. A good number of these folks end up in supportive housing communities like Community First! Village. If they lose the social connections because of this cycle it's usually what leads thing to the third type. 3) Chronic Homelessness: a year or more on the street consecutively, or multiple episodes adding up to a year in the past 3 years or less. These are often people who have degraded social connections completely (family, friends, church communities etc) either by the own actions or by outside circumstances. We believe that this catastrophic loss of family and community is the root cause of this type of homelessness. Maybe the instigating circumstance would have been bad enough to create transitory or episodic homelessness, but without people to turn to and to rely on when things are going to shit, it becomes a increasing feedback loop of ostracization and departure from the normal social structures which further ingrain the issues that got them there in the first place. Chronic homelessness is most of what you see encamped around the ARCH and it's the hardest to break out of, because most programs/individuals are maybe willing to throw money out there to feed/clothe. That's very good and important (it's been MLF's bread and butter for 20 years). Maybe a step up from that is getting people into housing or work. Thats even better than the first option and it works for some people (mostly those in Transitory or Episodic homelessness) however often it's much more expensive than an individual or private community (like a church) can sustain outside of single cases, and it's not very effective for Chronic homelessness (about 25% - 30% effectiveness is the absolute best that I've seen), because it's often predicated in taking an ostracized and outcast person (for whatever myriad of reasons) and putting a roof over their head and assuming that the rest will follow, but their still an ostracized person with all of the same myriad of reasons and most of the time still without any community or social structures. Work if it is available at all often requires consistent transportation, figuring out the healthcare system on your own is a nightmare and try it without insurance, Without that support and exchange of humanity (that we take for granted) it more often than not ends up being expensive temporary shelter rather that further fucks their record (with evictions and collections). It's not impossible I've seen some ASTOUNDING success stories through that model, but it's not resolving the issue that you encountered. It's a better bandage but it's still working on the wounds at the surface, we have to go deeper. People who are fantastically and traumatically abused and hurting don't just need a roof and four walls, they need someone to care about them and someone they can care back about. If there isn't purpose and relationship in people's lives then struggles What we do at Community First! Village is try to go upstream and address that root cause of lost community by making it the forefront of what we offer. We get people into housing, we provide good dignified well paying work onsite in everything from woodworking to catering to blacksmithing to farming and on and on, mental and physical health as well addiction recovery resources are on site and free. More importantly we flood the community with relationships. The houses are built in a orientation to encourage and foster relationship, volunteers come out to the village by the droves and are lead in their work by the residents which not only builds up that person but breaks down the stereotypes people who volunteer bring with them about what being "a homeless person" mean. We setup a community council system the neighbors to elect representation that comes to the table with staff to make changes to better the community. We're 3.5 years into having residency out here and we have 85% retention or positive transition without relapse. We're already even building 300 more homes to be finished and ready for move in next year, and are pursuing options to expand to over 1000 residences if possible. I'll be the first to admit t's not perfect, but it's definitely a new approach thats working. Don't just take my word for it though, if you spend a day volunteering or even just coming to an event out at the village you'll see the difference community makes. Most of the people you see thriving at the village were not long ago the same people you saw languishing outside the ARCH or flying a sign panhandling on the street corner. Anyways I'll give it a rest, and answer questions, but I wanted to briefly respond to the OP's original set of questions, because I appreciate his willingness to listen to the person that he met and actually take some energy to think about the issues brought up. In a world of people not giving a shit about each other, you did and that means a whole lot, so thank you.

Still at work, but imma come back around to this one with an annoying long and detailed post because it's been what I've put the past five years of my life both professionally and personally into addressing through my work with Mobile Loaves & Fishes in our Truck Program, and Community First! Village. In the meantime check out a video or the most recent CNN article on us. https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/us/iyw-town-for-the-homeless-trnd/index.html Also I have all the contacts you could ever want at every homeless resource in Travis County (and a few other cities like San Antonio Haven for Hope), send me a PM and I'll get you the info you need

Beto/Buttigieg 2020? if just for the Pence VP debates

Well Derka you had the better team all season, but at least I held out till the last day. I’m now officially eliminated just short in a few categories. Your Rondo pickup was a game changer Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Says the man who picked up Rondo and got a Trip Dub 3 days later lol. Not that it matters because you got another from Lowry I'll take being your nemesis though.

Man... dropping more games for "rest" from Jimmy Butler and Kevin Love. Basketball is just the WORST on this kind of thing. I get the logic behind it, but you're paid mega millions to be an elite athlete in a relatively low impact sport, and average joe is buying nosebleeds a month in advance with no way to know if they're seeing the best players that they're paying to see. plus it's screwing over my fantasy team which is real injustice lol

That's what I'm seeing, it looks like maybe because the default rankings they have the top 4 record teams in there, and my record is still #5? Weird that it would override your commissioner changes though... I guess you could just crown me champion and be done with it?

That stroke of luck did not escape me Somehow my misfortune missing 3 games of Paul George, and 2 combined games of Love and Bledsoe actually depressed my last place TOs into a win... and then to advance on a crapass line like that is terrible. Radical Larry you deserve better! That being said...

Well I just got the news he decided to take a 2nd game off tonight (NOT what I meant when I said double time GEORGE) apparently you need a week off for shoulder soreness and Love who said he had no reason to rest (given that had already sat out the whole season essentially) is sitting out today too. It's cool though I don't need my best player to play or my third best player to play in this or anything... just kidding I'm dead now. Imagine just dropping 2 or 3 games of Harden or Westbrook off you team, you're gonna have a bad time Oh well I'm just gonna play through and see what happens, Rad's got a better than me even with those two guys anyways

Wow just saw that Paul George just straight up didn’t play tonight... that’s terrific Good thing I’m not in a tooth and nail battle where each and every stat counts in a win or go home matchup. Paul you Better double time next game for this bullshit Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lol who do I look like?!? ROCKO? I'm a poor non profit worker (Support Mobile Loaves & Fishes so we can better serve the homeless... but mostly to pay me more) But seriously I appreciate all these recommendations

I wouldn't feel too bad, this was probably the most active competitive year we've had. Usually you have 2 or 3 teams that just get kicked around for an easy 10 or 12 win week for every half managed team. Great regular season all around lads... ya know except for Derka winning and not me

In interest of full disclosure: I was offering AD trades up and down the league since he started that whole trade mess in New Orleans well before the trade deadline. The one that ended up going down was a counter offer I received after the fact. I'm happy to cancel all my current trade offers to Playoff bound teams (3) and Non Playoff bound teams (2) if we want to institute an informal trade deadline this season too.

Fair enough, I've suggested it in the past that we match the league's trade deadline. It would create a flurry of trades which would be fun Another piece I think would be beneficial to the league is lock or limit streaming transactions in the playoffs that way you have to dance with the team that brung ya (once again just like the league). Multiple years I've been just bludgeoned by games played (+8 or +9 games) because they were willing to play scrubs every night (we have 2 weeks worth of transactions in those matchups so if you stream A TON). I'll admit after multiple years of clinging to my principals on this matter and not streaming, I've started to just because you basically don't have a shot if not.

Any particular brews I should partake of copiously

From the league main page: Full payment received:Bobby LightRadical LarryRC RangerRex Wilson$15 received:Derka For this year I'm fine with whatever just as long as the league winner doesn't have to be chasing down people after the season. In general I think it's a good policy, maybe we can vote for next year, to pay before the playoffs, especially if you're in the playoffs haha.

I may be toast with how the trade deadline devalued 3 of my top 5 players but at least I'm getting some guys healthy in time to try to make a run Is the league paid up?

The way I'm reading it at the moment is (maybe I'm wrong, but because the divisions don't matter) 1 Best Not Miss 2 No Longer Freaky (+6) 3 Radical Larry (+7.5) 4 Sucka Punchin Rudy T (+13) 5 Capn 81 (+18) 6 Anthony DaytoDayvis (+22.5) 7 ROAD2ATL SEC (+29.5) 8 Yippi Kyrie Mutha F uckers (+34.5) So Capn looks safe it's more me and ROAD2ATL scrappin for the 6 spot and yall top 3 seeing who gets a bye