This episode of “The Pinnacle Pod” features Josh Henges, a passionate advocate dedicated to ending homelessness in Kansas City. In addition to discussing his commitment to the cause, Josh speaks to the needs of the unhoused, the challenges communities face, and the path toward a “functional zero” solution. Josh, 2023 Pinnacle Prize winner, currently works as the Houseless Prevention Coordinator at the City of Kansas City, MO and is interviewed by Pinnacle Pod host Maurice Watson.

Transcript:

Maurice Watson:

Welcome to “The Pinnacle Pod”, the voice of The Pinnacle Prize, an annual award recognizing passionate people who are driving positive change in the very fabric of Kansas City. I am Maurice Watson, your host, on this conversational journey to meet dynamic emerging leaders. Each month we’ll delve into tales of resilience, learn from innovative approaches, and be inspired by the determination of these remarkable individuals.

This week I am pleased to welcome 2023 Pinnacle Prize winner Josh Henges, crusader for the homeless. Josh has devoted his life’s work to ending homelessness and the stigma surrounding it. From the time he was a child, he had been obsessed with helping those without a home. As he entered his professional life, he committed his career to addressing the root causes of chronic homelessness, severe and persistent mental illness and substance use disorders. Josh works to create and implement innovative, community-wide strategies to assist the houseless and those at risk of becoming houseless. As the first ever Houseless Prevention Coordinator for the City of Kansas City, Josh collaborates with public and private organizations along with various committees and task force on strategic long and short-term goals, including large system and infrastructure projects and policies that aim to ensure services to the houseless and housing insecure. Josh has shown a deep commitment to this work and will continue pushing toward the goal of reaching a functional end of homelessness in Kansas City. Josh, welcome to The Pinnacle Pod.

Josh Henges:

I am so excited to be here. This is great. This past few, what’s it been, a month and a half, two months since the announcement of the prize has been incredible. People kept saying it’s gonna be life changing, and I didn’t really know what that meant, but that has certainly been the case and I can’t thank you all enough.

Maurice Watson:

We’re delighted to hear. This concept is so large, homeless, houseless, the unhoused. How do we tackle such a widespread issue as homelessness in Kansas City and can it even be done?

Josh Henges:

In one word, I would say it’s commitment and, first of all, yes, absolutely no question about it. Any problem that can be solved, is solved with people and money. This problem absolutely can be solved, but it’s gotta start with a commitment because it’s not easy and it requires investment. For some reason, and I don’t know why, people think homelessness or homeless services arrive or remain in a vacuum, but it is absolutely interconnected to almost every facet of how a city operates. With that being said, because the components are so widespread, the solutions are widespread too. If we work together and we’re committed, absolutely, this problem can be solved.

Maurice Watson:

So why have past efforts been ineffective? Lack of commitment?

Josh Henges:

Yeah, I believe that that is the case. You can’t have your toe in the water on this issue. I counsel a lot of nonprofits or churches or folks that say, hey, I want to get involved in homelessness. And typically using the example of a church, what I always tell ’em is, once you start working with this population, that is what you’re going to be doing now. You can’t do it halfway. This population requires full commitment. You can’t do it a little bit. And it’s the same thing on the highest levels of decision making in a city. Civic leadership funding, elected officials, there’s gotta be a full on commitment, no reluctance, all in. That’s what we gotta do.

Maurice Watson:

Are there examples of success in ending houselessness or homelessness?

Josh Henges:

The term is called Functional zero, and that is a term that means you are able to house the number of individuals who become homeless in a given month. So month to month you’re at zero. Of course that relies on an inventory of housing, street outreach workers. The ability and the logistics to get someone from the street into permanent housing. And right now, and several cities have achieved Functional Zero, the city that I look at and want to model the most right now is Houston. I’m really, really impressed with Houston and what they’ve been doing. Their leadership there has been incredible. The way they’ve responded since COV has been the model of how a city can do it. They have an incredible track record and their goal is permanently housing individuals who are experiencing homelessness. And of course that has to be the goal. So they have the inventory to do that. They have temporary accommodations for folks who are on the way there. They have outreach workers to get there to, and they have the full commitment of the city that is basically saying, we’re not going to tolerate homelessness. And I don’t mean that in a negative way. Not tolerating homelessness means you are committed to ending it.

Maurice Watson:

Why is addressing houselessness or homelessness so important an issue in Kansas City now?

Josh Henges:

Kansas City is experiencing the highest number of homeless in its history. And Kansas City is ranked according to HUD [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development], the federal government, the city with the most unsheltered homeless in the country, per capita.

Maurice Watson:

Wow.

Josh Henges:

That’s true. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s the truth. And we’ve, we gotta solve problems in the reality we’re in. That is our reality, and we gotta talk about it. Getting real means we can get real resources and that’s where we’re at. We’ve got to get victory because we are at the bottom right now.

Maurice Watson:

What’s the end goal? To eliminate homelessness?

Josh Henges:

Yeah. If that’s not the goal, I don’t know why we’re doing it. There can be no other goal. Truly, and I hear this all the time too, can you really end homelessness? And I’m like, it’s not like ending jealousy. It’s an actual logistics problem, right? You can solve this thing. So yes, it’s doable. We should be doing it, and Kansas City needs to take it seriously because it could actually get worse than this, even though it is at the worst.

Maurice Watson:

Take us back to the beginning of your path toward helping the houseless population. What was that moment of impact for you?

Josh Henges:

Yeah, I remember the first time I saw someone who could be defined as chronically homeless, someone who was living outside, rough sleeping. I was four or five. And look, we grew up real poor. My mom continues to be my hero for what she overcame in her life. But what I saw was different from what I understood as being poor. That moment has never left me in the footprint of the Kaufman Performing Arts Center. When I saw that person from there, that that fire has never gone out. It hasn’t, and it won’t. It has been intense since that moment as it is now. When I was eight, our family went on vacations, my stepdad worked at this company and sometimes they would send him to another branch in another state. So he would take one of the work vans, we’d all pile in. It doesn’t matter where it was gonna, we were all gonna go with him. He had to go to California. We went to Santa Monica Pier and I saw homeless there when I was eight years old and I had that same fire and I, all I wanted to do was spend my time talking with them. Yeah, it’s the, the fire’s been there since childhood.

Maurice Watson:

Tell us about your professional experiences with the Veterans Community Project and the City of Kansas City.

Josh Henges:

Veterans Community Project was the best learning opportunity I could ever have. I will always be grateful to Veterans Community Project. What they showed me is, number one, if you work hard and you’re surrounded by people who are committed, you can do anything. At VCP, we did not go after money from the government because we knew it came with strings and the opportunities we wanted to create needed to be without condition and we were hugely successful. So I saw what the general public could do if they put their mind to it. I also saw what the general public wants is a plan, right? They want to know it’s going to be successful and they want to give to success. That paved the way. The hard work, of course. I mean, look, we were working seven days a week for years. This was a startup, right? In a startup you’re wearing a million different hats at the same time. You’re working with a very difficult to work with population. But my goodness, it was incredible. And, and without it, I don’t think I would’ve been prepared to work for the city, in as much as you can be prepared to jump into this job. I love this opportunity at the city. It is easily, without question, the hardest job I’ve ever had. It’s not even close, but it’s worth it because of what I get to be a part of. The commitment from the mayor’s office has been incredible. Commitment from the city manager’s office has been otherworldly. Without them, there’s no way I could have remained in this position. But getting folks in leadership to see and experience what the problem is, to find a solution, that’s a dream come true to get to do that.

Maurice Watson:

Right now in Kansas City, we are in the middle of a sustained weather pattern of days with temperatures, some cases below zero. Your team has been working to open cold weather shelters. Where do we stand? Do we have enough space? Is this population safe?

Josh Henges:

I would say that this population isn’t safe until all of them are off the street. And I don’t mean that as like a hyperbolic rallying cry or something you could put on a sign. It’s true. So we probably have, using the best estimates we’ve got around 2000 people experiencing homelessness, people sleeping outside.

Maurice Watson:

In below zero conditions.

Josh Henges:

Yeah. It’s dangerous. It’s life-threatening. Now keep in mind, these folks are survivors. They are so much stronger than you think they are. I promise you that. It doesn’t mean that their toughness can overcome life-threatening conditions in any way. We have the best response to cold weather we have ever had in this city so far. And it’s a testament to a team I have, of course the city, but the nonprofits that have stepped up to say yes, 450 beds is pretty good. But what I’m always thinking of is, what about the 2000? What’s happening with that 2000? Getting that kind of coordination to get 2000 beds? I don’t know. Yeah. Is it possible, absolutely possible with the current set of resources? There’s no way it could have been, and it probably wouldn’t have been practical either. But in my mind, I mean zero degrees, 19, I mean, what’s the line of what is and isn’t safe to me, 19 degrees is life-threatening, 40 degrees if you’re living outside, is life-threatening? Because I believe living outside is dangerous. And if you live outside at some point you are going to die.

Maurice Watson:

There’s a stigma around the houseless population. Why are those stereotypes so harmful and what do they get wrong?

Josh Henges:

So this is where we gotta do some nuance. I get the most pushback around this topic. I don’t believe the stereotype is about homelessness. I believe the stereotype is about behavior. The behavior that folks get upset about and maybe, uh, kind of condition themselves to think, well, it’s about the homeless. No, what they’re talking about is severe persistent mental illness and substance use disorder and the behaviors around that. I completely understand why people get frustrated or don’t like it, or neighbors get mad. Doesn’t mean I like it. It means I understand why they do it. But leaning into those stereotypes are so dangerous because they pit neighborhoods against solutions. And then once again, we find ourselves in a situation where we are doing something that is perceptionally good, but has absolutely no impact because we have to satisfy the stereotypes of neighborhoods, leaders, that kind of thing. They’re dangerous because those stereotypes, and keep in mind, believe the nuance that I’m putting into this, those stereotypes remove the ability, truly, to end homelessness. So we’ve gotta get realm on the social services side, we’ve gotta get real in saying they’re not mad ’cause they’re homeless, they’re mad because of the behavior. And we need to start addressing those behaviors and listening to that complaint. On the same time, those folks who are complaining, they need to jump in and say, I am going to remove how I feel about it and say yes to solutions.

Maurice Watson:

We know there are people who want to help. What can they do? And how can the community get involved in a way that is effective?

Josh Henges:

Effective is the key word there. This is an incredibly difficult population to work with. Number one, it requires commitment. I’m gonna say that a million times. Just showing up and handing out food by itself, one time, is not helpful. I hate to say that. I know people feel good, but my goal is to end homelessness. Not to make homelessness comfortable. If you’re handing out food just for the sake of it or handing out a coat just for the sake, that’s fine. But it doesn’t have an impact. The impact is showing up every day, every time, building that relationship. And when you’re building that relationship, you are earning the right to speak into that person’s life. And you gotta cash in that moment at some point when you say, are you ready to come inside? So when people say, well, how can they get involved? If you’re gonna get involved, get involved all the way. If you can’t get involved all the way, give your money. <laugh>, we need it. Give it to someone who can get involved all the way. ’cause it takes true commitment. Little bits of commitment here and there, aren’t gonna cut it. We gotta go all in.

Maurice Watson:

So for the people that want to make a monetary or financial contribution to some of the most effective, programs and initiatives, where might you direct them?

Josh Henges:

We’ve got amazing partners here in Kansas City, especially the folks that are working with us through this cold weather response. Hope Faith has been an incredible partner. Care Beyond the Boulevard, absolutely invaluable partner in this. Any organization that is working with chronically homeless people, using a low barrier approach is worth giving money to. But I’ll say this, there’s a lot of organizations say they do that, do some research because that money is critically important. Especially right now. We need nonprofits that are doing this the best to receive the most resources. Spreading it out the way we’ve been doing is totally ineffective because, and I’m just being honest, with the number of agencies that that say they work with the homeless here in town many of them are ineffective, but people don’t know that. So check what they’re doing. You’ll find out.

Maurice Watson:

Where do you check?

Josh Henges:

There’s a few ways to check. Number one, reach out to my office. We’ll talk to you. Now, we’re not here to slag organizations. We we’re gonna do is tell you here are the organizations that are doing well with this kind of big picture. Things to keep in mind, is the organization that you’re working with collaborating with other organizations, do they have an eye on the bigger vision of what’s happening in Kansas City? Are they sharing data, because that’s a big thing? Does nonprofit A know that nonprofit B is performing the same service at the same time to the same person? If it’s an organization that does meals, how many meals are being given at that one site? Are we talking about midnight snacks here or are we talking about lifesaving measures? Because there’s a lot of overlap, just do a bit of research and you will find out. Just go that one extra step and you’re gonna know.

Maurice Watson:

What’s next for you. Josh, will you stay in government?

Josh Henges:

I will stay wherever. The best opportunity to end homelessness is in Kansas City. Right now, it is at the city of Kansas City and I don’t know if there’s anything close to it, but I will go where that is. I am loyal to this cause.

Maurice Watson:

Thanks everyone for listening and hearing the story about Josh Henges and the work that he is doing to end houselessness in the Kansas City community. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter at pinnacleprizekc.org to continue to listen, learn and be inspired by dynamic emerging leaders in our community.

CONTACT:

• Email the Office of Unhoused Solutions: unhoused@kcmo.org and learn about Zero KC here.
• Organizations mentioned in Josh’s interview: Veterans Community Project, Hope Faith, Care Beyond the Boulevard.

Hosted By Maurice Watson

Maurice is a recognized community leader and has more than thirty years of experience working in law, social and public policy and board governance as a lawyer, advisor, and board member. He is the co-founder and principal of Credo Philanthropy Advisors.