Sunday Interview with Christie Bevis: 'Humor is the biggest asset I think you can have.'

Christie Bevis sees the dark and lonely side of Columbus.

For more than three years, the north Alabama native has been executive director of Home for Good, a non-profit agency under the umbrella of the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley.

Her charge is to attack the city's homeless problem, find solutions and bring together the agencies working on the issue.

It is a difficult task.

Recently, she sat down with Ledger-Enquirer reporter Chuck Williams to discuss the homeless problem.

Here are excerpts of the interview, with some of the questions edited for length and the order of some of the questions rearranged for clarity.

Does Columbus have a homeless problem?

Yes, but you need to define a problem. So, we do have individuals experiencing homelessness and we have chronic homelessness, which are individuals who have been on the street the longest and who have some type of disability. It could be a physical disability, could be a medical disability, mental health, substance abuse, or any of the combination.

Often when people think of homelessness, they think about the chronically homeless because those are the people you most often see on the street. But chronic homelessness is a small percentage of the overall population of our communal members who are experiencing homelessness. So, we have a large number of folks who are at risk of losing housing or they are experiencing short-term homelessness and they could be couch-surfing between family and friends due to most often an economic situation.

But I think when you talk about homelessness to the general population, that first image that comes to mind would be somebody that you see out walking the streets.

You also talk about the stigmas that are attached to homelessness.

There's a lot of stigmas.

Talk about them.

I think one of the biggest stigmas in this perception is people choose to be homeless, and especially for the chronically homeless. And if there's a mental health issue along with alcohol and/or drugs, often they get labeled that they chose that. But if you have a serious and persistent mental health illness and you're not seeking treatment on a regular basis, you're disconnected from services, so how can you make a rational decision?

And if you're self-medicating through the use of alcohol and/or drugs, then you're certainly not in a situation to make what we would consider a rational decision. And it's only after we can help those individuals by putting them into housing first with the wrap-around services -- and that's mental health services and recovery services -- are they able to become self-sustaining and maintain housing. But it's got to be a combination of housing and support services to help people maintain housing stability. But that, in and of itself, people choose to do that, is the biggest misconception and the biggest stigma that I would love to break through.

The goal of your organization is to end homelessness in what year?

We're participating in the national initiative called "Zero: 2016," so we are prioritizing housing for veterans to end veteran homelessness by the end of this year, 2015, and end of chronic homelessness by the end of 2016.

Basically, what it means it's not that we completely eradicate homelessness forever, but we have the resources and housing and support services in a coordinated entry system that if someone faces homelessness, we transition them back into housing in a very quick rate.

Ending homelessness is not totally possible, right?

I think there's always going to be a degree of folks that are at risk of losing their housing, and again, a lot of it goes back to financial security or lack of financial security, financial hardships that put people at risk if they don't have a stable job. We also know affordable housing is very difficult. For the median apartment rate in this area if you work at a minimum wage job, you have to work 80 hours a week in order to afford that apartment.

And you know the way the economic situation has been over the last few years, sometimes it is even difficult to work even 40 hours, much less trying to get a second job, moonlight, second shift. So, that has put a lot of our community members in a very precarious state over the last few years and that's where sometimes you see the homeless numbers going up again for the people who are at risk or maybe experiencing short-term homelessness.

That is a real reality every day, but it kind of goes back to what can we do about alleviating poverty. We know there's always going to be poverty, but we can certainly do a better job of helping give people resources and lift them out of poverty. It's the same with homelessness. How do we do a better job? Having the resources available to help lift the folks out of homelessness.

What is the biggest obstacle to eliminating homelessness in Columbus?

That is a good question. I think one of the things has been in the past enough housing opportunities, right? So, unless you have housing you're not going to end homelessness. And I think the last few years has been a great opportunity for Columbus because there are a number of partners who have come to the table and stepped up. The Housing Authority, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, the Department of Community Affairs, the VA have all committed housing vouchers for us to use.

So, now the next challenge is making sure we have enough housing stock to accommodate. If we have almost 300 housing vouchers available, how do we make sure we have enough apartments and houses to be able to place people into housing using those vouchers? We've got to do a better job of reaching out to our landlords and property management offices and not only educating them about what we're trying to do, but establishing stronger partnerships so they will commit not only when they have units available, but to be a part of this collaborative and become a viable stakeholder in what we're trying to do.

What is a housing voucher?

It's like Section 8, for a lot of folks who know that (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) language. It is now housing choice vouchers, so basically it is a rental subsidy that someone can use to go into scattered-site housing. And that could be an apartment or it could be a house. But it is allowing people choices on where they go with the housing. Another stigma is we're just giving away this housing, but it's really much more economical to be able to do a housing voucher with support services than to let someone stay on the street unsheltered.

We know typically if someone has long-term homelessness and they are out on the street, it costs the community in public service dollars upwards to $32,000 or higher. If we can do a housing choice voucher, which is that rental subsidy, along with support services, we can do that at a rate of about $12,000 a year. So, that's at least a $20,000 a year cost saving per individual. And if you're looking at 150 folks that we are trying to house, or even if that's less, that's a significant cost savings.

If you look at the news lately, there have been a number of crimes in high homeless areas from murders to rapes to stabbings to assaults. What's the cause of this?

That is a really good question, and I think that's what we've been asking ourselves among service providers and allied partners. Is it crime that's committed within the homeless community, or because they are a vulnerable population, or is it people from outside coming in preying on them? We automatically make an assumption that it's just within the homeless community. I would venture to say we need to be mindful because that is a vulnerable population that it certainly could be folks coming from outside to take advantage and prey on the homeless community because they are so weak and so vulnerable.

For instance, there was a story about the couple that was at the pavilion and a guy pulled a gun for a scratch-off lottery ticket. Again, he had a gun and I would venture to say likely it was someone outside of the homeless community coming in to take advantage -- that is often the case when we start hearing about a lot of crime.

I think it is a real issue and it's also being mindful of how do we do a better job of outreach and engaging our homeless community so we can start trying to place them in housing and remove them out of harm's way. Because, how secure are you if you're sleeping in a tent in the middle of the woods? You never know what could happen. You don't have that safety or safeguard that you do being in a secure home for a number of reasons, whether that's crime, protection from elements, making sure you have a safe place to be put your head at night so you don't have to worry if you've got asthma, if you've got other chronic problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes -- all of that plays into it.

If you look in our homeless community, you can get fed anywhere from 11 to 15 times a day in a two-and-a-half-mile radius. Is that a problem?

It's a double-edged sword. We want to be sure everybody is getting access to food and to basic needs. But how does that really end homelessness? So, I think we can do a better job. I think it's a real opportunity for our community.

I think it's a way to engage the faith community where we haven't done so in the past in a much bigger, larger-scale manner. So, if we could start doing a better job coordinating and making sure every day we have a schedule -- whether it's churches, volunteers doing that feeding -- then we can start talking about, OK, what are the other opportunities to engage these ministries and volunteers in helping us? The opportunities are really endless.

We can look at how do we help if people are needing moving assistance to get into a home. So, we have a large number of housing vouchers, but often it's for the rental assistance itself and it does include a security deposit, utility deposit, or even furniture or a welcome basket of whether it be dry goods, towels, cleaning supplies, whatever someone needs to get set up in a house.

I think that's an avenue that could help them. How can we help coordinate around making sure people are linked in because a lot of these ministries have been working with our community members for a while now? They know them by name and they know what their issues are, and they know if their health starts to deteriorating. How do we take that person who is on the street and get them plugged into services? So, it helps to streamline a very comprehensive coordinated entry system. And then I think it ultimately is about how do we do a better job of meeting people where they are, doing coordinated outreach and feeding, to be able to assess for housing needs, because we have got to start putting people into housing or we're never going to end homelessness.

Which brings us to "Home for Good." That's part of the reason "Home for Good" exists, right?

Yes.

To be that umbrella group that puts everything under it.

Yes. I feel like we're a facilitator. So, there is a lot of folks in the community, a lot of agencies, that have been doing this work, and doing it well, for a long time. I think for us it feels like we help facilitate opportunities of making connections for folks and help build capacity and look for opportunities to collaborate together.

We're charged with doing the city's 10-year plan to end homelessness. I'm part of the United Way. There's a tremendous amout of stakeholders there, but sometimes it feels like there's a lot of moving pieces and "Home for Good" is trying to help make those connections.

Your job trying to end homelessness has got to be like herding cats.

Yes.

There are ways to do it, but no way to do it, right?

But I think that's what other communities are facing too, so it's not unique to Columbus. And I think we've got to take what best practices are out there, what communities have done and done it really well. Are there aspects from those models we can bring here and tweak and make it work? Because what works in Mobile -- because Mobile has functionally ended homelessness and has done a really great job -- what works there may not be that model to sit here in the middle of Columbus and it's exactly going to work. But there could be pieces of that that we could borrow from and that are innovative in helping us push our efforts to another level.

How do you convince people who have been dealing with this problem for decades, two decades, that your motives are pure? Are your motives pure?

Yes, my motives are pure. It's about the community -- it really is. I really see us as being a resource to build a stronger community, and I absolutely see us as being a vital part of economic development. Because it's not only the right thing to do to lift up our fellow community members and help them become self-sufficient and a viable part of the community, but it's economic development.

We can do the housing piece, and do it well, and it's a cost benefit to the community -- it's a huge cost savings, and I think people don't realize that. Again, going back to if you let someone stay out on the street and shelter and they're cycling through the ER, they may be going through the criminal justice system, they may be going through the emergency shelter system, and it is a huge cost burden to our public service dollars. Housing with the support services is much cheaper, it builds stronger communities, and it certainly helps along economic impact for the community because it's not being that extra burden and we can reallocate our dollars to go more toward the intervention and prevention for families who are at risk. And those are the people who need it as well.

It's not just about the chronically homeless. Again, there are only about 10 percent of our overall homeless population, obviously those people are experiencing higher barriers and we need to focus on them and help them get stable, but it's also how do we help the rest of our community's at-risk homeless.

How many homeless people are there in Columbus?

Probably 1,500 or more. Chronic homelessness is about 10 percent of the population. When we did the annual census at the Point-in-Time Count, we surveyed 53 during that week that were chronically homeless. But again, that's just a snapshot. It's not the comprehensive picture.

Is that one of the things "Home for Good" is doing, getting away from anecdotal evidence and building data?

Data is going to drive this. It's got to tell the story. We've got to have a transparent process for doing it. And part of that with "Zero: 2016" is having access to the national technical assistant providers that help us build better data to tell the story.

It's around the collection making sure it's reliable data, it's accurate, and how do we use that to form what we're trying to do. And it's not only about reporting the numbers. OK, we identified 53 chronically homeless during the Point-in-Time Count, but what does that mean for what we're trying to do around planning? Do we have enough housing to accommodate those individuals who need it? The data is not just about knowing the numbers, but it really is around the planning and making sure we have a solid strategy for going forward and enough resources.

We're talking about a broad problem, but you're talking literally about one at a time.

One at a time. That's how we do it. And I think that's the other thing. It's often been this big, lofty, ambiguous kind of "we're going to end homelessness." Well, what does that mean? So, if you start breaking it down into initial target goals -- let's go back to the veterans, 86 -- if we've got 12 months to do it then how many a month do we need to be housing?

Initially, we were looking at eight or nine, but now we've said, "No, we're going to do at least 10 a month." It makes it simple when you have that monthly goal and it also is a great way to check in, even though it sounds very simple -- great checks and balances. Are we on track? If not, how many more do we need to do? Are we ahead of the game? So, breaking it down into those very doable tangent monthly housing goals makes it reality. And it is one at a time.

How did you get into this line of work?

I started in non-profit back when I was at Mississippi State University with a graduate assistantship in the sexual assault service program. So, that steered me down the path of non-profit. I've been in non-profit since 1997. I've worked in the areas of sexual assault, I've worked in the areas of community health. The common theme has always been about vulnerable populations and at-risk populations. And now I'm working on the sole focus on how do we house our homeless community.

In that line of work, you see the problems every day. You go to work to help people who have very bad problems. How do you stay sane?

Humor is the biggest asset I think you can have. You have to have a sense of humor. If you don't have it you will get bogged down because even when I was working in the sexual assault arena where at times you felt vicarious trauma, you didn't even realize you had taken it on, so one, I think you have to have a good sense of humor and you have to have a good support network.

I'm very close to my family. Family means a lot to me -- they've been a strong support network. And I think the other thing is you have to have a sense of commitment. It's not just a job, and you've got to in essence eat, breathe, live it, and if you feel strongly about building stronger communities -- and I do -- that carries you away, even when you are having difficult issues.

So, you have become in your work life an advocate for the vulnerable.

Yes. That's probably a good way to say it. Sometimes I think about the path that gets you here, and again going back to family, both of my grandmothers were probably the mainstay. I had my maternal grandmother who was very strong in the community in giving back, and I think I get that from her. And my paternal grandmother was a little bit of a rebel and independent and doing her own thing, and obviously had a huge sense of humor. So, I think a combination from both of my grandmothers.

As you work with the vulnerable in our community, what do you know about them that others who are not touching them day-to-day don't know?

There are more similarities with us than not, and I think again we try to put them in this category that separates them from us because I think there's a sense of vulnerability that if we can acknowledge that they are really more like us than not like us, then it puts it right there.

So, there's always that defense mechanism, that sense of vulnerability, that if you try to categorize them in a separate box, you maintain this distance. But what I know is the people in our community who are experiencing homelessness are more like us. There's more similarities than not. There are the same issues that we face.

Sometimes they get magnified because they are out on the street, kind of in that fishbowl so they become the focus of attention.

Mental illness as well.

Mental illness as well. And again, there's so many misperceptions and stereotypes out there about it, and often if there's any bad behavior that happens in the community, it gets attributed to the homeless community automatically. Again, sometimes with those stereotypes sometimes rightfully so, but often it's about the stereotypes. And a lot of blame and labels get put on the homeless that should not be happening because, again, they are part of the community and they are just like us.

How do you get people who don't want to believe that to believe that?

Perseverance. Sometimes it's like politics or religion -- sometimes you agree to disagree, but again, it's not always about the warm fuzzies and reaching out and lifting your fellow man up.

It's also about the cost benefit, and if you start putting the numbers out there and really talk about the benefit and the bottom line to our community by being able to provide housing to our chronically homeless, it's hard to dispute that impact.

Data?

Data is it. So, for the naysayers, it may not be the warm and fuzzies, but it's the data.

Christie Bevis

Age: 49

Job: Executive director, Home for Good: The Alliance to End Homelessness, for three 1/2 years.

Hometown: Florence, Ala.

Education: Mars Hill Bible School, 1984; University of North Alabama, bachelor's degree in sociology, 1997; working on master's degree in sociology at Mississippi State University

Family: All of her family lives in Florence; Max, 14-year-old Peekapoo.

This story was originally published August 9, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Sunday Interview with Christie Bevis: 'Humor is the biggest asset I think you can have.' ."