Reflections from the front lines serving people experiencing homelessness, in a September excessive heat warning, sheltering 900 people per night on Key Campus, outreaching 400-500 more who remain unsheltered, and launching into Campus renovations to improve indoor and outdoor spaces.

As the first newsletter of the month approaches, I start to think about what to write, anticipating our Development team is going to ask me, “when will your blog be done?” Sometimes I have thoughts ready, a purpose, a message waiting to be delivered. Other times I run through current events and think they are all rather mundane or repetitive. I don’t desire to sound like a broken record. There are also times I have so much I’d like to say and either the timing isn’t right, or it’s really, really, really not politically correct.

This morning on my commute I heard a song for the first time, “Skin” by Rag’n’Bone man. As I heard the words and connected with my innermost emotions, I felt the lyrics and found the message for today.

“When I heard that sound
When the walls came down
I was thinking about you
About you
When my skin grows old
When my breath runs cold
I’ll be thinking about you
About you”

I thought of my Dad. September 10 is the 18th anniversary of his passing. Although each year has become more gentle on me, it still is a month where I typically repeatedly hear Green Day’s lyrics, “Wake me up when September ends.” Grief is a mighty powerful emotion.

What does this have to do with ending homelessness or Keys to Change?

Allow me to share.

Every so often I am asked during a media interview, or a leadership workshop, or in meeting new people, “Why do you do the work you do?” or “How did you get to this role?”

I didn’t make a career choice based on my “why.” The transition I made from for profit to nonprofit was not well planned. In 2004 while finding little to no joy in for profit sales/marketing roles, I quit a job and was referred to the Loaned Executive program at Valley of the Sun United Way. I learned about my community, the needs, the social service providers, and donors. I created a fundraising campaign speech using an experience from Milwaukee winters to describe why homelessness was a critical issue. In September of 2005, I started a full time position at United Way in the Community Impact Department with the assignment of learning about the issues of hunger, homelessness, domestic violence, and safety net services. On my learning journey I did a 24-hour homeless immersion in August of 2006. The experience transformed me. That’s an entire story in and of itself.

While I was in the 24-hour immersion I met multiple men who reminded me of my Dad. I could see him in their eyes. When witnessing experiences with alcoholism, I saw my Dad. While listening to people share their journeys, I heard my Dad. When processing in the days following, I felt my Dad. I was looking forward to a future conversation where I could talk to him about that 24-hour period that taught me more than any articles, classroom study, or conference session.

Sadly I didn’t have the chance as my Dad passed away on September 10, 2006. He’ll never know that I saw him, really saw him. Finally. After years of a strained relationship. I saw him in my heart and soul.

Today, I continue to meet unhoused people who remind me of my Dad. And I meet family members and friends who want to understand the people they love who are unhoused. I firmly believe that homelessness is unacceptable. In our stoic, individualistic Americanism we allow homelessness to continue.

That is my “why.” I do this work because we live in the United States of America with enough of everything to make it so that people who have crises could access services quickly and either never fall into homelessness in the first place, or their episode of homelessness could be brief. The ripple effects of achieving functional zero on homelessness would be monumentally broad. Helping families stay together, supporting people in maintaining employment, destigmatizing mental illness and substance abuse, and more.

Music. Memories. Grief. Vision. Vocation.

My “Why.”