Shining the Light on the Homeless Issue in America - Dr. Robert Marbut

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,120
Hello, everyone. I'm Stephen Strang, and welcome to the Strang Report podcast. And today, we're

2
00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:21,680
going to talk about a very important problem in our culture. It's that of homelessness.

3
00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:28,560
You know, America is arguably the richest country in the world, yet we have a terrible problem with

4
00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:35,600
homelessness. My guest today is Dr. Robert Marbet, and he has written a book. He's just come out

5
00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:41,280
with an interactive study guide that I have right here. They're doing a documentary and a movie.

6
00:00:42,160 --> 00:00:49,840
And he is the president and CEO of Haven for Hope in San Antonio, Texas. He was appointed by

7
00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:57,280
governor by President Trump and also served under President Biden as sort of the czar of the homeless

8
00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:02,080
or something like that. So let me thank you first of all for taking time from your very,

9
00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:07,280
very busy schedule. I know you're traveling all over the country. Today, you're talking to me from

10
00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:13,840
Seattle, Washington. We're down here in Florida. It's amazing what this technology will do. And

11
00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:20,400
it gives us an opportunity to do a little bit of a deep dive into this problem, because really,

12
00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:25,760
the church has been involved with helping the homeless, going all the way back to the Civil

13
00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:31,680
War. Maybe you can tell us a little more about that. But something happened in the 80s that kind

14
00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:37,840
of shifted that. Why don't you, and the problem has gotten much worse and seems to be getting

15
00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:42,640
worse almost by the day. So I want to find out from you what's happening and how we can get

16
00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:50,720
Christian believers involved in meeting the need. Well, the faith community really led the way in

17
00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:56,480
dealing with the first types of homeless we saw in America shortly after the Civil War. That's when

18
00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:01,680
the Salvation Army got set up in the United States. That's when the rescue missions, you know,

19
00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:08,640
Bowery, one of the, well, the oldest mission in America, and the American Red Cross. And I

20
00:02:08,640 --> 00:02:13,600
understand the American Red Cross has become more secular since then. But the other two are very

21
00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:19,680
much grounded in the faith community. So for about 110 years, it was those three groups and other

22
00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:26,160
independent, like your church you were mentioning earlier, it has a program in its help. And so

23
00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:31,920
they led the way. We led the way. The faith community, the church community led the way for 110 years.

24
00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:39,040
And then in 1987, the federal government came to the table and said, we're going to get very deep

25
00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:44,880
into homelessness. And interesting enough, when the federal government got involved, things got worse.

26
00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:51,120
And there's some reasons to that. Some of that was happenstance, but some of it was what the

27
00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:58,960
federal government was asking groups to do. And then that sort of part of our number one mission

28
00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:04,240
with the interactive study guide, our Bible study, if you will, is how to get the faith community

29
00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:11,360
back into helping and be the leader like we used to be. And also, how do we improve and

30
00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:15,920
use modern technology and modern techniques to improve our response to homelessness?

31
00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:23,360
We know since I started Charisma Magazine in 1975, we have covered these kinds of topics

32
00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:31,440
over the years. I've personally gotten involved in my own community, particularly in Sanford,

33
00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,760
Florida, which is right next door. It's kind of a small southern community. And the poverty we

34
00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:42,320
have there is more rural southern poverty than it is urban blight, so to speak. And I was actually

35
00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:50,800
on the board and raised a lot of money, you know, large for this local area for a rescue mission.

36
00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:57,920
In fact, that was their name, who helped the homeless, gave them food, kind of like a local

37
00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:04,000
version of the Salvation Army and fed them. They had a soup kitchen. And I know that they got

38
00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:08,480
hassled from the government because they got money from the government. They also got money from

39
00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:16,800
the United Way if they even had a cross-up. And in their case, they tried to get help people

40
00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:21,840
temporarily, not permanently. But you know, your interactive study guide goes into a lot of things.

41
00:04:21,840 --> 00:04:30,320
You talk about how it's not really helpful to go out and pass out food in these tent cities that

42
00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:38,400
we see in the news along the streets in the major cities. And you talked about how most of the people,

43
00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:43,440
in fact, you talk about several myths. Maybe I could just ask you these myths.

44
00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:51,280
So respond to what I'm saying. And then there's these three myths that I want to talk through one

45
00:04:51,280 --> 00:05:00,640
by one. And one of the ones you just hit a second ago is the way I like to present it is grace with

46
00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:08,880
accountability, without accountability, is very enabling. And we need to, whatever we do, is move

47
00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:15,200
to a more engaging environment, engage people into programming and treatment and recovery,

48
00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:21,440
and don't enable people. That's why we talk so much about it's very devastating when you give

49
00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:29,680
cash out the window at a corner. Well over 90% of that goes to substance use disorders, alcohol,

50
00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:36,000
and prostitution. And nobody would ever roll up to a corner and say, let me give you a six-pack,

51
00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:40,800
let me give you a nickel bag of Coke. You would never think of that. But that's what we in essence

52
00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:45,200
do when you give money out the window. So instead of giving money out the window,

53
00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:50,800
give money to your rescue mission or to a Salvation Army that really runs a well-run program.

54
00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:57,520
You know, one of the myths that I want to discuss is that adult street-level homelessness

55
00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:00,720
is actually a hunger problem. What is the real problem?

56
00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:07,200
Yeah. And what we have found in street-level homeless, and the federal government has 10

57
00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:13,520
definitions. So street-level homeless is the two definitions of literally what you see on the street

58
00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:18,800
under the curves. I've been to your community. So, you know, it's under the underpasses out in the

59
00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:26,080
lake areas and some of the waterways areas and some of behind the malls and such. And the people

60
00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:32,800
that are in and out of rescue missions or a Salvation Army, that group has 75% of that group

61
00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:39,360
has a substance use disorder and 75% of that group has an untreated mental illness and often

62
00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:44,800
it's self-medicating. It's not recreational. There's some recreational in that, but most

63
00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:51,840
is self-medicating. And so when you hand money out the window, you end up funding that habit,

64
00:06:51,840 --> 00:06:57,520
not helping that habit. And so that's one of the biggest myths. Every Salvation Army I've

65
00:06:57,520 --> 00:07:04,160
ever been to, every rescue mission I've ever been to has plenty of food. It provides a, in fact,

66
00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:11,120
a very nutrition-balanced type of meal setup. So all three meals are coordinated and such.

67
00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:18,880
And so this idea that you hand out donuts out the window and a $5 bill is just really unproductive,

68
00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:23,680
but that's one of the myths. And there's this myth that homeless and hunger come hand to hand,

69
00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:27,520
and they absolutely not. That they're not connected whatsoever.

70
00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:35,040
And also another myth is that all homelessness is the same. You actually touched on that a minute

71
00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:40,640
ago and a lot of the homeless are actually children who for some reason or other are living

72
00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:47,360
in a car with a mom or something like that. In fact, just yesterday I drove by one of these

73
00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:54,400
extended stay motels. It's not a slum, but it's a cheap hotel. And someone had told me

74
00:07:55,600 --> 00:08:01,120
that there were a lot of people that couldn't afford an apartment who were based semi-homeless,

75
00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:07,120
I guess, they don't have a real home. And I was behind a school bus and they must have let 15 or

76
00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:14,480
20 kids out at that hotel. And I thought, those poor children are in some, they don't have a

77
00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:20,960
real home. Would that be one of the categories? Absolutely. And those are what you described

78
00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:26,240
are actually come under the five categories of Department of Education and with Families with

79
00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:34,560
Children, they're 1.5 million kiddos in America. Think about that. 1.5 million people under the

80
00:08:34,560 --> 00:08:39,520
age of 18 and most advocates, by the way, think we're underestimating that number,

81
00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:47,520
under counting that number. And those come from two or three sort of causalities. One is

82
00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:52,240
fostering out is a big part of it. There's a lot of media around that.

83
00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:57,680
But the other part and the biggest part is domestic violence, where the partner starts

84
00:08:57,680 --> 00:09:05,280
beating up mom. Normally, it's the husband or the boyfriend beating up mom. And then mom starts

85
00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:10,720
worrying about the safety of the children to escape the guy. And now they lose part of the

86
00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:16,000
income and then they have to move location. And that causes all sorts of trauma in the

87
00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:22,080
children. And what we know is the most important thing you can do for a kid to be successful

88
00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:28,400
is to stay through the same academic year all the way through in that same classroom.

89
00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:36,080
And so domestic violence breaks that up and makes it impossible. And so domestic violence

90
00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:42,560
is a number one problem. And then probably next to that would be fostering out.

91
00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:49,440
And so that's obviously very different than the street level adult male and adult female,

92
00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:55,360
which is different than a post-traumatic stress soldier or service person. Somebody

93
00:09:55,360 --> 00:10:02,560
who fought veteran, combat veteran in particular, who has a lot of that stress related to the combat.

94
00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:09,520
Here's the other myth, the third one, to solve homelessness. We need to give away tents, sleeping

95
00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:16,800
bags into food so people can camp in public. And when you see these, they look like tent cities.

96
00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:22,960
And I've been told that sometimes these people don't even want to stay in a regular shelter.

97
00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:27,600
And you've got a particular problem in Florida. Like I've done a lot of work in

98
00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:32,000
Florida and worked in over half the counties in Florida and used to live in Southern Florida.

99
00:10:32,560 --> 00:10:38,560
And because of the weather, you get everybody from the Northeast coming down. A lot of homelessness

100
00:10:38,560 --> 00:10:45,200
are seasonal and come down. And I literally went to a church very near you. I don't want to,

101
00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:52,560
I'm a big believer you don't sort of out people in public and you do it in private,

102
00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:59,680
but there's a pretty famous church in your area that was handing out tents and sleeping bags

103
00:10:59,680 --> 00:11:05,120
in camping equipment in little small Coleman stoles, you know, with those heater things on the

104
00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:12,960
bottom. That's the most unproductive, unhelpful thing we can do. Instead, use that money, use

105
00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:18,160
that funds to get people into treatment, get people into recovery. Let's deal with the untreated

106
00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:24,000
mental illness. Let's deal with the substance abuse. Once you do those two, then you do workforce

107
00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:29,520
development, job training and employment. And if you do those three things, we can be very,

108
00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:36,640
very successful. Likewise, if you just enable a person to stay on the street or an encampment

109
00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:44,320
or in the mangroves or under the back behind the mall or under an overpass, that's very,

110
00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:49,680
very unproductive. And all we're doing is helping a person staying homeless rather than helping

111
00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:56,960
them exit homelessness. And your goal, you told me earlier before we started the podcast, is actually

112
00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:03,200
to help reengage the church. That's why you have this interactive study guide that goes over a lot

113
00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:10,320
of the things that we've been discussing. And you've also done a documentary and a movie. And

114
00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:16,880
you told me that the documentary is being privately screened even today out there in Seattle. And

115
00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:24,640
then it's going to go through the... We call it the festival circuit. Festival circuit. Thank you.

116
00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:32,000
And then it's streaming. And then you're going to do the movie later. So the streaming is this

117
00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:37,360
summer and the movies in the fall. Tell us about it so that people can get involved and learn about

118
00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:44,400
this. And then as we wrap up the podcast, I want you to tell people what individuals can do to help.

119
00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:53,040
Because I know in my own circle, I mentioned that I've had a heart for this, but I've seen...

120
00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:58,880
You know, I'll have panhandlers come up to me when I pull off the interstate on a trip to,

121
00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:05,920
you know, get a hamburger and they'll want money. And I sort of understood intuitively what you're

122
00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:10,480
saying, that you don't give them money because it's pretty obvious that they have some kind of

123
00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:19,760
substance abuse program. And several times, I've offered and I've gone in and actually bought them

124
00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:26,080
a meal so that I wasn't giving them cash. But I've also had people turn me down for that.

125
00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:32,320
But I'm just using that as an example of how I know how I feel. And I'm guessing that a lot of

126
00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:36,560
people that are watching and listening will feel the same way. So what can people do to help?

127
00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:42,960
Well, that's exactly why we've come up with these communication devices. So one is the

128
00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:48,800
Interactive Study Guide or a Bible study. And that's supposed to re-engage the faith community to

129
00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:55,360
come back and start re-helping like they led the way for 110 years. We did. And then also do it in

130
00:13:55,360 --> 00:14:01,760
a smart way with the understanding and logic of the new information we have. The documentary

131
00:14:01,760 --> 00:14:08,480
has sort of a different target market. That's for the sort of wonky political activists, the

132
00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:15,920
Capitol Hill staff, Congress people, governors, mayors, senators. And so the documentary that

133
00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:22,720
we're starting to privately screen now and we'll be taking on the festival circuit for a premiere

134
00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:28,240
later date than ultimately streaming, that's for the policymakers. That's for the people

135
00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:32,960
who are making federal policy. And I know we don't have time to go through it, but the federal

136
00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:39,040
policy that has sort of pushed out the faith community or limited the faith community ability

137
00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:45,280
to handle it, that's a lot of what we spend time talking about there. And for the general public,

138
00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:51,760
we have the movie, a novel, and a soundtrack. And that's trying to get the overall general public

139
00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:58,960
engaged, come up and help a salvation army, come up and help a rescue mission, stand beside and help

140
00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:04,880
and stop giving money out the windows, stop bringing a hamburger to a park. That just doesn't

141
00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:10,240
work. That doesn't get people out of homelessness. And tell people how they can connect with you.

142
00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:17,120
Of course, this would be available on Amazon and other online book sellers, but you also have a

143
00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:24,080
website. Tell us how people can connect with you. And if you just type in no address, the movie or

144
00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:29,920
no address movie, you'll see our website come up. And from there, you can learn about our five

145
00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:37,520
different things. We have some connectivity for if you're a service nonprofit service agency,

146
00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:42,960
we have a program for that called the big game. We want to be able to help those groups so you

147
00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:50,480
can come in and click on there. If you have a Bible study or a small group, the interactive study guide

148
00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:57,360
that you can get on Amazon, and you can go click on it too. So there are a lot of ways to plug in,

149
00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:03,520
but the best way is start at our website. And or if you want to go ahead and buy a Bible study

150
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:08,800
for yourself or a small group, go to Amazon, and you can click on and get that real quickly.

151
00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:14,400
And I noticed one of the things in the study guide that you said was you encourage people to pray.

152
00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:20,080
You have like essays by a lot of different people. I thought it was very interesting how you put it

153
00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:26,400
together. And one of them kind of focused on that. So as we wrap up this podcast, are you comfortable

154
00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:31,760
with leading in prayer? And I'm going to ask people who are watching and listening to join with us

155
00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:39,600
in prayer. There's so many things we need to pray about. The poor, helpless, homeless people

156
00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:47,760
that need a change in their lives, but also the attitude and our culture among the policymakers,

157
00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:54,080
the media, the general public. Would you just pray and we believe in the power of prayer.

158
00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:58,080
And I believe that it's important not to just talk about it, but to pray.

159
00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:04,000
Oh, Lord, thank you so much for the opportunities and for being on a show such like this and having

160
00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:09,360
such a host who has such a loving, caring heart for the people experiencing homelessness.

161
00:17:09,360 --> 00:17:16,000
And always remember to have a tender, outreaching heart toward people experiencing homelessness.

162
00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:22,080
And please be with family members who have family members who are experiencing homeless

163
00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:26,080
and give them the patient, give them the wisdom, give them the old, the new.

164
00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:32,640
And give them the wisdom, give them the hope to help and give special blessings to all the

165
00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:37,920
different workers and volunteers inside of Salvation Armies and Rescue Mission. And thank

166
00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:44,080
you for the heart you've given them to help people that are often the least, the last,

167
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:52,080
the lonely, the forgotten. And please give us all faith, give us hope to help us address this issue

168
00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:58,880
in a positive way, in a way that really helps to reduce homelessness and help our communities

169
00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:04,080
and most importantly, help the people who are experiencing homelessness. In the name of Jesus,

170
00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:12,160
Christ we pray, amen. Amen. And remember that Jesus said that when you do it to one of the least

171
00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:19,040
of these, and in our culture, other than maybe people on their deathbed, there's no one lower

172
00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:24,880
or more in need than people who are homeless, who are living on the streets or some variation of that,

173
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:30,240
living in a car or whatever. And when we help them, we're doing it as unto our Lord. Thank you for

174
00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:36,480
tuning in to The Strang Report. I encourage that you send this to people, post it on social media.

175
00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:42,320
If you like what you hear, subscribe to my Strang Report podcast, click the little bell so you

176
00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:49,760
know when we're on live Tuesdays and Thursdays, Eastern time at 4 p.m. Thank you for watching and