Latest / Our Community, Our Mission / Ep #233 – Home is the Key: A Conversation with Janice Watkins

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Ep #233 – Home is the Key: A Conversation with Janice Watkins · Our Community, Our Mission

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Father, you're good to us.
• 0:00
  Speaker 1: God, we're just so thankful for this time.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: God, we're just thankful for everything you do, everything you've been doing.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: God, I pray that you just bless this conversation and bless the listeners listening to it.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: God, that they would just hear you through us.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hello everybody, this is Our Community, our Mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission here on Wednesday, july 31st of 2024.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Miriam, it's episode 233.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I know, isn't that cool.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: You wake up every morning wondering what episode we're going to do next right, yeah, absolutely.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Well, it's really easy.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Just remember the last one.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: It's top of mind all the time, just for people who are listening to this.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: In 2050, they'll know.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, because will we be doing this by 2050?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Not you and me, we'll just be thinking it.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Well, you and I just hope we're going to be around From afar.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Well, we have a special guest today.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: We want to get right into this, but we do have a special update.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: By the way, this is Marian Crable, who is Deputy Director at Topeka Rescue Mission.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I'm Barry Feaker who is hosting this today, and LaManda Burroughs is not able to be with us.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: She's always on these special assignments anymore.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Exactly, she sounds like a reporter.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: She does, she's out on special assignments.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: She's definitely going to bring back some good information.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, she will.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: She will.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So, miriam, this is a special time of year it's July the 31st.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: And something's right around the corner.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I saw in the paper that they're getting ready here pretty soon to close the swimming pools.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I know, you know what that means.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I mean this is like not a time to close pools, right?
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I?
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: know, I know, I know it's not the right kind of weather to do it.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: No, but it means that it's almost time for school.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Almost time for school.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: That's right, it's almost time for school and we start our back to school giveaway and are doing it on the first and the second and so far we've got 376 kiddos signed up.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: That's grown a lot since we talked about this last.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Not including the kids that we have at the Hope Center.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: So we have a lot of kids that are going to be blessed and I know that even today, people will still be signing up.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I saw emails that were coming to our TRM email and was forwarding them on.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: So lots of kids will be blessed.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: And they don't just get school items, they also get a new outfit.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: They get to pick the backpack that they want.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: So we try to give them as many choices as possible so they're excited about going to school with new stuff.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: And last week we talked to the guys from the DC about this in regards to a child who maybe comes to their first day of school, really wants to fit in with the rest of the kids and if they've got new stuff at the same time, that's awesome to be able to have that.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: If they don't, they really stand out and they don't feel as good in the first day has got to be the good day.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: It absolutely does, especially for some kids in particular, and especially if they're living at the Hope Center.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: They already feel maybe just a little bit awkward.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: So it's wonderful that we get to do this, because people bless us.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: We get donations for all of this stuff.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Do we have all the donations we need for back to school?
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: No, we still have more needs and we can find the updated list on our website at trmonlineorg trmonlineorg and they can just click on the back to school and then be able to see the whole list of things that we need.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: But I know we were still needing both regular and wide rule paper, yeah, exactly.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I know there's like a technical name for that, but I don't remember what it is.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: It's not called the Chief Tablet anymore, Mary Ann.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: And you know that that's what was in my head right.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: See the big red thing with the Chief Indian on there and they don't have those anymore, but I wish I still had one.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: They'd be worth a lot of money.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: They probably would.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: They'd be all scribbled all over though.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: They would, they would.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: So anyway, there's always needs and even after the fact you know the kids staying at the Hope Center have needs for school supplies all year long because they're with us all year often.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: So anything that people can do will be greatly appreciated.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Thank you to all of you who have already helped make kids back to school really exciting and there's still more opportunity for people to help bless Absolutely.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Folks that are going to come to the Peaky Rescue Mission and there's other distributions around the community and there's a coordinated effort to make sure there's not overlapping and those kinds of things.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: So help our kids.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Things are tough right now.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: They've been tough for a while and families are facing some astronomical challenges in regards to making ends meet, whether it's the rent prices gone up, property tax prices gone up, grocery prices, gas prices, medical prices, Everything seems to go up.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Wages haven't gone up that much, and then school supplies are expensive as well.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: They're expensive, exactly.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: So here we go again.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: We're always challenged, but we always see people help meet the need.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: And you know, when kids show up at school without school supplies that are needed, the teachers are the ones that often pick up that cost Reach in their own pocket, don't they?
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, to make sure that kiddos are taken.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Well, we know they're rolling in the dough.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: So this helps out teachers too and not having to be able to provide for their kids that are coming to their classes.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: It just is better for everyone when we can help people out.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: It's good all the way around.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: It is Speaking of good all the way around.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: We have an organization in this community that's been here for quite some time.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: It's affiliated with a national organization that is a game changer for bringing practical help to people, as well as this thing that we all look forward to and that's hope we have today the CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Topeka, janice Watkins.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Our Community, our Mission.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: So happy to be here.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: This is Janice's first podcast you've ever done.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: It is I'm a little nervous, you don't need to be.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Janice Watkins is nervous.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: A little bit.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: That's wild.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: So you've been interviewed by print media, television media, and this is your first podcast, and we were discussing this earlier.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: It's probably only because you just never have time for it because you are one busy person.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: That's probably true.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but anyway, glad we could kind of introduce you to this.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: It's fun, we have a good time.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: We'll be very kind to you today, with no edits, barry is not always kind.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: He is to me Always to the guest, always kind.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: He is to me Always to the guest.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah he is always to the guest.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: There's some people that earn kindness, Mariam.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Oh hey, Josh, can you like go ahead and pull that knife out of my back?
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: No, I'm kind to you, mariam, you know that.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I know you are, and tolerant.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: I know, so anyway.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Janice, talk a little bit about Habitat for Humanity.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: We associate that with housing, of course, providing people with homes.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: A lot of people know about it.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about the bigger picture.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter kind of kicked this off and so talk about the history and what you know about history in Topeka as well.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an exciting year for us because at Topeka Habitat we turned 40 this year 40.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, is that 40 here in Topeka, 40 in Topeka?
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: 40 years of impact, 40 years of building hope, building community, building homes.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: We are really an affordable housing provider, but we consider ourselves so much more.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: We're a pathway to individuals finding that strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter, and that takes a lot of different forms.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I think you're right.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: A lot of people associate us with Jimmy Carter, who did not found Habitat International.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: He didn't, but was the biggest promoter of it.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Probably put it on the map.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Approximately how long has Habitat for Humanity been an organization?
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: A little over 45 years, so we're one of the oldest affiliates in the country.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: No kidding.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, why do you think that is?
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: A dedicated group of volunteers came together in 1984 in Topeka and said let's do something to change the climate of housing.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: And they worked hard for 28 years before we had staff, and so they really got together and just made a huge impact on community.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: So we think of Habitat as building homes, getting volunteers together and also engaging with the person who's going to be living in that home to I heard the term sweat equity.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: They have skin in the game.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Whatever the case might be, they get to participate in building that home.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Is that the only thing that you guys do?
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Is that the main thing you guys do?
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: What do you do here now?
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think our partnership housing model, which is our traditional model, where we build in partnership with individuals and families, is probably what we're most known for.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: So those individuals are selected based on a need for safe and affordable housing, a willingness to partner with us with that sweat equity component and an ability to pay.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: I think everyone thinks that we give away homes.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: It's not.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: It's a hand up, not a handout, and so they pay an affordable mortgage to us, actually a zero percent mortgage to us.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: So we're the bank, but we've also seen that we need to address housing in Topeka in a lot of different other ways.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: So we have a robust Aging in Place program that I think is probably impacting our community in leaps and bounds, greater than even our new home construction.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: New homes are super important, but repairing and revitalizing neighborhoods and homes for the aging is making a huge impact in our community.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: So how did you come to that understanding and aging in place?
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, we're thinking, you know, I think that's where somebody gets to stay in their home of some kind.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: How does Habitat get involved in that?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: The why, first, and then practically, what does that look?
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: like yeah, I think the why for us was Habitat nationally about eight years ago was saying we have to do more.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: We're in the middle of a post-housing crisis from 08.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: We're saying we can't build fast enough.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: We have all of these dedicated volunteers, but we need to do more.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: And the population is aging.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: We were one of the first affiliates in the country to pilot a holistic aging in place program no surprise.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so our component for our aging in place program is a little bit different.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: It's not just about home repairs, it's about access to food, companionship, medical transportation at times.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: So we do wraparound services in that program to make sure that the individual or individuals are going to stay in their homes with a lot of supports in place, not just grab bars, not just new showers, but access to services.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: And we make that easy by walking hand in hand with them every step of the way.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Miriam and I are really glad we know you.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Especially.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: Miriam Glad to know you too.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: No, you know, I think those are the things that we are aware of in homelessness now is that there's a growing aging population of people who are losing their homes, their ability to afford to stay anywhere, and they're coming to shelters, like the Topeka Rescue Mission, in wheelchairs.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: It's really sad, isn't?
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: it Miriam.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: It's incredibly sad.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: It's just almost like you walk in.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: It's almost like an emergency room, medical emergency room anymore now.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: And yes, and it's just so sad when you think about folks have lived their whole lives and now find themselves in those kinds of situations not being able to afford their home or not being able to care for their homes and they end up then here at emergency housing, which is is not what anybody planned and not what any of us want.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Right, janice, you with this kind of innovative thing that Habitat's done nationally, and then, of course, grabbing a hold of it here in Topeka.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: No surprise there, because of the just incredible things that you've done on your watch here and people before you.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: It's prevention of homelessness.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: In that regard, in so many ways it is.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: It is We've impacted over 750 households.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Of those, everyone is still in their home or it's been maintained in their family if they've passed on, because we do put in that legal resource.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: So is that the 750 number of the aging in place, correct yeah?
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: That's not like the whole 40 some years of people keeping.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: No, that's from 2017.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's huge.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness yeah.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: That is a lot.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: It is that needs to be front page we stay very busy yeah.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: That needs to be front page stuff it really does.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's huge.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I mean we need to be, which.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: I know we're working more about addressing bigger pictures of homelessness here in our community now and going forward.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Those are the kind of things that we have to look at that are going to be helpful to not continue to grow a chronic homeless population in our community, supporting those kind of efforts, because the fastest growing number of homeless people are 60 and over.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know yes, and we know that well, don't we Barry?
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: You've told me about it every once in a while, since we're in that age group now, we are 60 and over, and over, yeah.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: So, janice, I didn't prep you for any of these questions of course, that's okay.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Never do, but what's your guesstimate of how many homes Habitat has provided that are the sweat equity bill homes?
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: Oh, I know that, exactly 118.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: 118.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: 118.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: Approximately 312 individuals.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: So the people that have participated in this, they get qualified.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: They just don't walk in off the streets you mentioned, have to have income, they have to have some sweat equity.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: They do pay you guys back at 0%, which I wonder how we could get that deal, but we won't qualify.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: So that's a huge amount of people, but you just don't flip those overnight and build them, do you?
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: No, it takes time.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: I mean it takes time.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: We build about two to three new homes a year, depending on the family size.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: So we're actually in the middle of our open selection.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: Right now.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: Anyone can pick up a packet at our offices at 121 Northeast Gordon from now until August 16th, although I would recommend doing it before August 16th because the packet is extensive.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: They turn it back in and from there we will go through qualifying individuals to meet our base requirements and then we scrub all of the identifying information from the applicants so that the committee that selects has no bias.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: So, whether it's one person or 10 people, both of which we've served in the last three years, there's no bias against how we're going to build or what we're going to build.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: So we build very tailored to the family, to their needs, to their size, to their accessibility, to their goals, and so it's anywhere from a 12 to 24 month process for our families.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: So we're still serving two families from last year because it is a long process and we want to be very dedicated stewards of our mission and of our fiscal resources.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: So you know, the first six to nine months are really planning.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: It's meeting those goals, reaching some form of stability to prepare for that homeownership.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: As the bank, we take a very serious effort into this preparedness piece.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: So a lot of one-on-one meetings.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: What are your goals?
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: How do you budget?
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: How can we learn those soft skills?
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: And because of that we have a very strong track record of almost no foreclosures.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: That's fantastic and you have to have all that front end stuff.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Some of the folks that you've housed have come through homelessness through Topeka Rescue Mission.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: That is true.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Who went to that next level.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: The value of resources at the Topeka Rescue Mission are help stabilize people, get them ready to be able to go to that next commitment level.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Not everybody that comes through an emergency shelter is going to be ready for your program.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: That is true, but the ones who are.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: What a great opportunity, Janice.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: You've done some other things here, Topeka locally.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: How long have you been in the CEO position?
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Oh man.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Now that I don't know About eight and a half years.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: That's fantastic.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Well, you've done a lot of keep the momentum going forward, expand it, but there's some things that you've done that are unique here, that maybe are being looked at or replicated on a national level.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: We want to talk about those.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: So one of my favorite programs that's newer to us is called House to Home, and that was our initiative really to start addressing people in predatory contract for deed situations.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: So one of the things that we were seeing when we were working in Highcrest specifically, we were doing some really dedicated neighborhood revitalization in that area was a lot of folks that didn't own their home but thought that they did.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: So they thought they had title, they thought they had homeownership, but what they were in were these increasingly predatory, like rent-to-own type situations, oftentimes where the individual renting to them didn't even own the property, and so we were seeing anywhere from 20% to 54% interest payments on those contracts oh my goodness.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: And then folks not able to get out from under them ever, and so we created a program in partnership with the Topeka Community Foundation and Network Kansas to use our bank lending arm to purchase their contracts and convert them into an affordable mortgage and then make some repairs on the back end.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: So we have helped three households directly through that program that now are mortgage holders with us, but we've also indirectly assisted over 38 individuals by helping them navigate, getting out of those contracts with legal resources on their own.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: We did get noticed on a national level for this.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: There are now nine affiliates piloting that program and we are told there will be over 10,000 new homeowners by the end of next year.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: That's incredible.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if everybody understands this, but you know when you when you're looking for a place to live and sometimes you're very desperate if you don't have resources to kind of go the traditional way and somebody says, yeah, I can do a contract for deed, In other words, you can pay rent but it goes towards your future ownership, or you can be owning it and just pay me directly, but it's not legit.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I bought a home on contract for deed.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Fortunately, we went through a title company and so that it was all legal.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: But you know, I was wanting that home so bad and I could not get a traditional loan many years ago.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And so the owner said, yeah, we'll do this, but we want to go through a title company.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: And so we sat down, it was all legal and everything had no problems with that whatsoever.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: It was kind of a traditional thing.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: The owner was the lender at that point, but I paid the contract company or the title company and then they turned around.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: I think it was a $4 fee per month, which wasn't much in the day, but then they paid those folks the money with interest and those kind of things.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: But if I wouldn't have done it that way, an owner might have taken advantage of me and I might have paid on that thing for years and then never had any way to have ownership and could have got evicted and lost you know Everything Year, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years and that's what you stepped in on because you discovered there was a lot of this going on.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: A lot, a lot.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: I mean we were seeing just person after person walk into our office that had been paying on it for 20, 30, 50 years for one of them, that were nowhere closer to owning their home, and seeing a few bad actors in the community that were purposely evicting people at the end of the contract and they had no knowledge that they had rights and equity under that contract.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: And so we really saw this need and said let's do something about it.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: That is just so shameful.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: I can't even believe that.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: How awful must you be to be able to do that?
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: to people.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Bad actors yeah, let's put it mildly, it's the ultimate taking advantage of somebody who really trusted somebody in an agreement.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: So with the program that you initiated here that's gone national now.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Do you have to then acquire that home to be able to help that person?
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Or is there some type of legal action that you help to maneuver through to get that bad actor or person to become responsible and that person's equity or whatever they put into it is recognized?
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: Both, both.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: So we have some individuals that we've just provided the legal resources to the knowledge of how, to kind of say, I'm owed this much if I were to leave today, which can turn the bad actor into uh-oh let me sign this on over.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: I got a lawyer letter, right.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: And then there are a couple of times that we have definitely had to just step in and say we're going to purchase this out because the individual or the owner is not willing to work with those folks and we don't want to see more people become unhoused.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: So you become a hero to some and an enemy to others.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: That is correct.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: But it's it's.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: It's um standing in the gap for people who are in need, and that's what Habitat's done Now.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: You, eight plus years, have done this in the community Um who are in need, and that's what Habitat's done Now.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: You, eight plus years, have done this in the community.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I want to get to your why in a second.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: But is there other things locally that you're doing that we should know about?
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we provide a lot of education to our neighbors, so we're providing a lot of home maintenance workshops.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: We're providing a lot of pathways to homeownership opportunities.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: So working with individuals that may not quite be ready to qualify through a conventional lending process, but working with them in the same way that we would our partner families, to build some financial literacy, to work on building some credit safely so that they could go purchase through a bank with one of the FHA programs or one of the down payment assistance programs.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: And that's really because we hate telling people no.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: We just saw so many people apply for our program last year more than ever.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: It was quadruple plus, and so all of these individuals that were so absolutely ready for homeownership but weren't quite there, we wanted to provide that pathway to homeownership.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: So we're now working with individuals that have actually been told no through our program to find them a yes, elsewhere that's wonderful, and don't you have this like nifty little tool bus kind of thing?
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's so fun.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Talk about that a little bit.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: The tool bus is really like the brainchild of one of my staff members, josh Beshears.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: We have like a strong belief on our team that no idea is a bad idea, and so he had come back from visiting another affiliate in Utah and said I have an idea about bringing something like a bookmobile to the neighborhoods, but filled with tools.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: And so that's what it is.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: It travels out to neighborhoods or to community groups but filled with tools, and so that's what it is.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: It travels out to neighborhoods or to community groups.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: It brings the tools.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: So we want individuals to be able to make repairs on their home, and sometimes that gap is just having access Right, and so we show them how to use the tools, they check out the tools, they make the repairs to the property and then we go back and we take it out elsewhere.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, see, I think that is just the coolest thing.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: So do you target certain neighborhoods and let people know about it.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Anyone can request it really, they can call you up and say, hey, I need a ladder.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Anyone can really request the resources from the tool bus.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we don't really require any type of need proof.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: I would like to use a tool, or me and my neighbors would like to get together and kind of clean up a block.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: We've had folks kind of request it to say we've got a lot of aging neighbors on our block.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: We want to get together and do something about it and I think the power of neighbors helping neighbors is just so incredible.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: That's so true.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about Restore.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, restore is our fundraising arm.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: We don't have a black tie gala.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: Talk about Restore.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, restore is our fundraising arm.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: We don't have a black tie gala.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: We don't have a big you know, put money in a jar.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Restore is our revenue generator, one of the primary ones, so it's also our environmental responsibility.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: So if individuals are remodeling or cleaning out their garages, they can donate home items to the Restore, and then they're available for sale to the public at a fraction of the price that you would find at another store, and so the ReStore is just that way of providing more resources to the community.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: It's on the north end of NoTow.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: And it's a beautiful facility.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: That former hardware store.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: It was yeah.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: And so people can go in there, and that's where your offices are, as well yeah, all they're really fancy too.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: A little hardware store.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: It's great that they have a lot of wonderful stuff.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: If you haven't been in there, you should, so you can get your needs met with with your home remodeling with some stuff that really looks pretty close to new, if not new.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it is brand new.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and also help out all of these efforts that you're doing here locally.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Janice, I want to talk about your why and then want to talk about your future vision for this community and for Habitat and anything else you want to talk about.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: You've got some genetic predisposition to service that's in your family line and talk about that.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: And then what involved your why in this area?
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I like to say that I grew up nonprofit and that's probably actually true.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: So my grandmother was sometimes referred to as like the Mother Teresa of.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Topeka.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: So Marge Roberts, and she was one of the first, I think she was the first paid director of let's Help, and so she kind of started that with another gal, patty Gofflin, out of the back of her Bonneville, and my grandma and grandpa had 10 kids and a lot of grandkids.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: And all of us were expected to pitch in at that time she didn't pull a big salary so she relied heavily upon the volunteers, and so I can remember working Christmas Bureau from the time I was five.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Marge Roberts.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Mary, you knew the name.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: I know the name, yes.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: I never had the pleasure of meeting her.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: It was like truly Mother Teresa of Topeka, kansas, and I was terrified of her.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: She was kind of scary.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: She was scary, but she had command of people who were really rough.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: And I really wasn't terrified of her.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I just thought I'll never, ever be as cool as Marge.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: Roberts is?
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: I don't know that anyone could.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: No, they can't, they really can't.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: So so you grew up around service um, people in one of the most desperate needs are that they have.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: And um so, um, prior to eight year, eight and a half years ago or so, you were doing what?
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: And then why Habitat?
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: I was working nonprofit Big surprise, I know so.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: I was working for about 10 plus years with Kansas Legal Services doing program management and advocacy for mostly the aging and children in foster care.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: I won't lie, I got a little jaded on the systems and the hurdles in place for especially low to moderate income folks not being able to access the services they need.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: This opportunity became available and I said let me give it a shot.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: I actually said I'm not qualified for this, but Habitat took a chance on me.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: I took a chance on them and here we are eight and a half years later and I can't believe I get paid to do it.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: That's so great.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: So why I mean yes, nonprofit.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: You were raised nonprofit.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: You've been in this arena as far back as you can almost remember, maybe.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: As far as you can remember, you can do a lot of things.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Janice, you're very intelligent, you're a go-getter.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Why this?
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Home is the key.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: It's the key to everything.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Home has always been the key for me.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: I was blessed to grow up in a home with my parents that my dad had built when we were kids and then purchased my own home when I was 19, which I still think is crazy.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: Why did a bank do that?
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: I was a single mom with a little boy and it was the way that I got stability in my life, went to Washburn, had a home over my head, had a home over my childhood and built my family there.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: So home has always been the key and I think, even looking back to doing Heartland Share produce lines with my grandma, home was always the key for folks coming in to get reduced groceries.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: I see the power that a stable and secure home can bring to our community and it's something I feel really strongly about everyone having access to home.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: I don't think many people that have home and never really thought about not having home understand the value of home.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: It's like we've talked about before you don't value a thing until you don't have a thing you had.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: And the number of people lost and more and more losing today, that that thing that we take for granted as a home and in the United States of America, you know, if there's any place that ought to have homes for people, it ought to be here, and it's growing into a situation, or has been growing to, where more and more people find themselves without that.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Or, in the case that we've talked about here today, they may have a place, but it's not adequate to be able to take care of their aging issues or the breakdowns, or we don't have any tools to fix something.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: You're filling a lot of gaps here we try.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: So, how do you not get overwhelmed with the magnitude of what you're seeing, whether it be the home to home, the contract for deed frauds that are going on out there, the dilapidated homes we see in the community, the time it takes to build a habitat, homeidated homes we see in the community, the time it takes to build a Habitat home.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: How do you keep focused in the right direction here?
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: I don't know that I don't get overwhelmed.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: I mean I definitely do at times because the need is greater than ever.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: I firmly believe we're in an affordable housing crisis like nothing that we've ever seen and that it's going to continue to get worse.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: But I keep just coming back to those moments of joy, the handing over of the keys to families, or when an aging in place client calls us and said I bathed for the first time because of what you were able to do.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: Or the individuals that are so close to losing their homes and you're walking through their home with them and you see that typical in a home like the little pencil marks on the wall like here's Jerry when he was five and here's Jerry when he was 17.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: And them kind of just like caressing that wall, thinking I'm going to lose this, I'm going to lose this entire place that has kind of become the epitome of my life and has been the landing place for my family.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: And so every time that we can step in and either provide an intervention or keys to a new home, that just fills me with hope for our community and the drive to keep doing so much more.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Is it kind of shocking to people?
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's not the right word.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Is it difficult for them to sometimes, when they haven't had stability, to get stability and be able to realize they are in something stable?
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: I think so.
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so, and I think the gratitude of individuals is just insurmountable, the ability to either own a home, keep a home, or now own a home that they were purchasing on contract for deed.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: It's so much better than going with people to court, let me say I don't know how you get it all done, really Seriously, don't.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: So one more question on the bigger front here affordable housing crisis.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: What does that mean?
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: Well, I think, like what you touched on earlier, property taxes, the cost of goods, rent increases are insurmountable and wages have not kept pace with that.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: There was a report out recently that said in Topeka, kansas, someone has to make $20.50 an hour to afford a home or an apartment, and so housing affordability is based off of you don't pay more than a third of your income on housing, and that's just not rent, that's not just mortgage, that's utilities which are incredibly expensive, that's the upkeep of that home and that's the basic things you need for that home.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: And so, right now, what we're seeing is an average of people spending 54% of their income on housing half and when you're doing that, you're often choosing between keeping your housing or feeding your family or having gas to go to work, and so, as we see, the cost of housing just continue to increase.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: We're looking at a huge crisis, and I think some of that is with the aging.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: A good amount of it is with the aging.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, my grandpa was in that position before he passed.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: He was absolutely a requisite professional.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: He was a legislative lobbyist, he had a great career, he outlived his income.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: He absolutely did not think he was going to live till he was 97 years old.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: I'm so grateful that he did and wish I could have more years, but he did not have the ability to continue to pay for his home if he would have lived much longer, and he was starting to see that draw with property taxes, with maintenance, with upkeep, with utilities.
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: And if that's my grandpa, then what about the individuals that haven't worked most of their life?
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: And so a huge amount of the folks that we're seeing are making $1,200 or less.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Let's just do the math on that.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: How can you afford that?
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: And so the more that we can do as a community to provide this prevention is going to be absolutely critical to not continuing this housing crisis.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: I think that we just really need to be talking about that more and more and more, about the realities of this, because to a lot of people it was a long distance away.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I can't relate to that.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: You know, when somebody's property taxes went up and they were talking well, I can't live here anymore, we'll quit griping, just pay them more money.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: You know well, if they don't have it, they don't have it and things have escalated so much in so many different ways.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Maryam, it's to the, to the things that have been talked about here, a lot about the significant increase of people coming by for food help at Speaker Rescue Mission post pandemic.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: It's just Absolutely.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Or the people that are emailing saying do we have rent or utility assistance or rent assistance or anything like that?
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: The numbers for those kinds of things are increasing, and I think the other thing that we're seeing here is people that we wouldn't normally have seen, right so it isn't people who are living in extreme poverty.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: We're talking about people who are in a low-medium income kind of range that are just trying to figure out.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: How are we going to do this?
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Stable housing, stable neighborhoods, stable families, stable community.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: If we don't have all of those things working together, we have a community that's not healthy.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: And so we wonder about escalating crime issues and other things that are going on that are related to those kind of things, that there is a solution here and that stabilization and home, safe, affordable housing is is is a big part of that, and otherwise, um, we get into um, reacting, and reacting, and reacting.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Well, janice, I don't know if you have any time to be able to think about something else, or what's next, or your vision.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I'm always thinking about something else yeah.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: I know you are, so I say that kind of tongue in cheek because but you're doing so many incredible things so well, not just for here, but a model for the nation, which is kind of cool.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: That is kind of cool.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: That really is cool, isn't it?
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: What do you envision down the road for Habitat, for the issue of housing homelessness, yourself personally, this community?
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think one.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: We have to change our perception of what poverty is.
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: To Miriam's point, like we consider, you know, our friends and neighbors in the encampments on the river, we have to consider also the mom working at Blue Cross and Blue Shield with five kids in a similar state of poverty, believe it or not, struggling from day to day to make ends meet.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: And so I'm constantly thinking about our community perception and I know you and I have had a lot of conversations, barry, about our unhoused neighbors, and that has been weighing heavily on me for the past couple of years and it probably even goes back to when I was five and working at the Christmas Bureau.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: To be honest, and really getting to that nimbyism situation not in my backyard, I'm very sick of the narrative.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: Those people, those people are our neighbors, they're our friends, they're members of our community and they have a lot to give and they are simply lacking housing.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: And so, as I think towards the future of Habitat and not just continuing to provide new homes, revitalizing homes, maybe rehabilitating homes, I'm thinking a lot about some strategies that we can put in place to address the transitional housing piece and be a part of that housing ecosystem, because we are a big part of that.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: We're just not loud about it.
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: We're very humble providers and so we're talking about kind of a model that mirrors a model coming out of Kansas City called Eden Village and that is I love the name one my daughter's name is Eden, so it's kismet in that way but kind of taking a little bit about what they're doing and kind of forming it into more of a Habitat-esque model.
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: So looking at transitional smaller homes I won't say tiny smaller homes where we can take some existing infrastructure, maybe from a trailer park or somewhere else, maybe a commercial space, and become a part of that conversation about how to get folks more stable and get them into safety and affordable housing while they work on that next step.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: That's exciting.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: And I think that piece is just such a huge missing part.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: You know, especially when we talk about our neighbors who have been living outside for a while, it's like they can't even imagine themselves in what we would consider normal housing, whether it's an apartment or a house or a duplex or even a shared kind of situation.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: They can't even visualize that for themselves.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: And I think what you're talking about here would just be so amazing to help them on that next step of seeing that they are so very worthy of something more than just living outside or being ushered to a new place outside or whatever the case might be.
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: I think that is so exciting, I mean our vision is everyone I mean everyone deserves a safe, decent and affordable place to live, Absolutely.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: I got a feeling it's going to happen.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: I think it will too.
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think it might.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Well, it coincides with what was done at the city level, where they brought in a consultant and had a team to study this, and this was one of the three recommendations they had.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: Is pilot something that was going to be and they use the word tiny home in this regard that a community that was permanent for people and Eden can be either transitional or permanent.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Love the model.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Well, I say this and please don't take this wrong, but the thing about Janice Watkins is she does not.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: She has a BS meter.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: She sees it when it's BSing and she addresses it while you yes, you're humble, you're quiet, you don't have time for that kind of stuff and you want to get her done.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that so much, absolutely.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: How do I say this?
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: That's probably something I picked up from my grandma.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Marge was like that as well, and so well.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Janice, we're blessed to have you at the helm here in this community, not only for Habitat for Humanity, but for just so many other innovative things in the community that you've done.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, there's some serious, never-before-seen challenges that we have, but we're blessed to have individuals like you who aren't just sitting over here dreaming up stuff.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: You're doing stuff that you dream, and how can we as a community support your efforts?
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Go to Restore, talk about when that's open, but also how else.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so resource open to uh, thursday through Friday, thursday through Saturday, goodness gracious.
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: Uh, thursday through Saturday from 10 to four, so we don't have, you know, a ton of hours, um, but we make it work, um, and people can drop off stuff from Tuesday through Saturday, from nine, 30 to 330.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: But really, you know, I don't want to ask people for money or to come swing hammers.
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: What I want people to really do to help support our mission is to really take a look at what's happening in our community.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: Um, you know, if, if we're going to continue to address these issues, I need people to start thinking in a different way.
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: Not those people, those are our neighbors.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: I've talked to a few folks about this potential of Eden Village, not in my area.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: It's already happening in the area.
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: So why would you not want to see something more stable with wraparound services in place?
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: And so you know I'm really.
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: I could ask for money, I could ask for people to swing hammers, but what I want people to do is to take a look at what's happening in our community right now.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: I think that's a great place to start.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: That may then result in wanting to swing a hammer and also get money.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: So if they do that, you're not going to say no right.
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: I would never say no.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: No we absolutely rely upon volunteers.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: So anyone that's interested in doing that just visit our website, topekahabitatorg.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: Come by our office, come in the ReStore and ask some questions.
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: But really I just need people to be thinking about their grandmas and grandpas and what that means for them to continue to age in place.
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: You know our neighbors that are in the encampments.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: It's hot, it's going to be hot.
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: What does that mean?
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: Is there water available?
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: And really it means helping support our friends here at the TRM who have done a great amount to support some of the families that we work with and to provide some of those stopgap services, because we can't do it all.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: But I really just want people to start thinking about what the housing situation in our community looks like, because it is getting worse.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: It is it really is, but we don't have to stay worse.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: We do not.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: When we can come together like we're here today and we're talking about this, and people who are listening to this podcast today may be inspired to check it out more, and I really like what you're promoting.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: More is get educated understand what we're really looking at here.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: Because when we do that and we understand the reality of a situation whether it's our family or next door neighbor or it's in our community then we think differently and we need to think differently to be able to do this and so appreciate that.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: So much, Janice.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Any last thing you'd like to share with on your first podcast ever.
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: It wasn't that bad.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: Actually being surrounded by friends was not that bad.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: You know, just continue to think about housing in our community If you are so inclined.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: Please continue to just bless the Topeka Rescue Mission and Topeka Habitat for Humanity and our efforts, because we don't work as an island.
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: We work as a continuum and a community of partnerships.
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: We have so many partners.
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: We're blessed that the TRM is one of them and we just want people to continue to work together to help our neighbors find that stability.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Well said, Well said Well.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: You heard from Janice Watkins, who's CEO of Topeka Habitat for Humanity, and it's just more than a name, it's a real thing.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: She's a rock star in our community and we're going to post the website of Habitat on our Facebook Topeka Rescue Mission, and I want to thank you for taking time to listen to this, because it's individuals like you who help people like Janice do what they do and the Topeka Rescue Mission and others in our community.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: If you'd like more information about the Topeka Rescue Mission, you can go to trmonlineorg.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: That's trmonlineorg and you can quickly go over to back to school information, because that's starting tomorrow if you're listening to this on Wednesday, the 31st and there's still be some opportunity even after kids go to school, because kids come to the rescue mission all year long that need school supplies.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: So thank you for caring, thank you for listening, thank you for thinking and thank you for being a part of our community, our mission.