 Good afternoon and welcome. I'm really pleased to be here this afternoon with Rita Markley who not only is the executive director of COTS But also my birthday sister So we were both born on the 27th of September that is nine 27 that's nine Plenty of shopping days left ahead to get your gift exactly labor is trying to find balance That's what we're trying to do and today We're going to talk about Rita's career at COTS because she has announced in the organization has announced that she's stepping down as of the end Of September right after your birthday. Yes, and I thought we could just look back and look ahead a little bit So my first question is how did you get to Burlington? I? was living in Washington, DC and at that time Crack had hit the city. There was a lot of out flight and It it didn't feel safe And I didn't like looking between every single car when I was walking down a sidewalk to see if somebody was there to jump me You could hear we were the murder capital of the world, and I thought Maybe there's another place to live and I went to the Library of Congress because I lived just five blocks away and I started researching places and Vermont, I mean, I love the mayor of Burlington at the time, you know, I'd read about Bernie and It just seemed like this magical place. I came up and visited and I decided I Want to do my 30s I want to see I want to try living somewhere that I haven't been before that has Universities so there's going to be good speakers writers, you know interesting things going on But with the backdrop of beauty that just soothed you no matter what Chaos is going on and then what I mean, that's actually kind of brave And I stayed it I stayed in Burlington I didn't after I came to college because I and I had friends and I created a life, but by the time I was 30 You know, you have a social network and now you're coming and recreating an entirely new one What was that like? Why didn't like go with some of the old ones, but It felt new like you're sort of on the edge of yourself and you're Awake in your life and your community in a very different way Then I would be if I had stayed in the same place I don't think you notice as many people and there were a lot of we were all young and there were a lot of young people coming into Burlington and I Because I had always volunteered I went to the United Way's volunteer connection and asked for What place can I volunteer that works with the poorest and they directed me to Cots and I met a lot of When I was still a volunteer. I met a lot of people through Cots. That's fantastic Neighbors like my neighbors. I'm gonna just fix your this because I don't want it to hit against your beautiful necklace Okay, do you know this is a hat pin from it's the tip of a hat pin from my great-great grandmother. It's beautiful Fantastic, so you were be came a volunteer, which is a great way to meet people and you went to Cots I know what the Cots and sister Lucille was there Lucille was there and she was not like any nun. I had ever met in my life She was the opposite of your image of some nuns Yeah, she was kind she was funny. She was creative and I just so admired her and the work of Cots like it was this scrappy resourceful team of people Focused on an issue that not a lot of people were paying attention to and the numbers were starting to go up. We'd just Begun to see families with kids. That was kind of new Um Yeah, and then you went from being a volunteer to working in development. Yes, that was your path and then tell us a little bit more about this situation and it we're talking about the early 90s now and Tut kind of draw the picture a little bit more of of the housing crisis at that time Yeah, I don't know if we it was the crisis was emerging But you could still get a two bedroom apartment for five hundred and eighty dollars Which was a lot on a low wage, but it wasn't impossibly high the way it is now and The the length of time in shelter was really short because there were vacancies people could move in and the Market was small enough that even then we had special landlords. We could call Please bill come on. We think they're gonna make it and you know So there was so the average I was looking at this the average length of stay at the firehouse family shelter when I first started Was 21 days three weeks that somebody would come in they'd be in crisis We could find something and they would move out that was the average I mean, obviously they're people shorter like two days because it was an abuse issue or But the average was 21 days now it's over six months and why and for single adults The average length of time at the way station shelter was 17 nights And now and now same thing four to seven months And what how do you describe what has changed to make that? True well, I think there's more people who have come to Burlington and we haven't had the public Investment in housing that we need HUD retreated from doing, you know big capital projects big loans So Vermont and every other state was struggling to sort of fill Well, how do we create new housing if we don't have the resources to pay for it? So things like the low-income housing tax credits VHCB, but We've never really been able to keep pace with a number of new people coming in so, you know, you get a 90 unit project, but then we have Young professionals or the graduate program at UVM expands or st. Michael's so more people coming to the area as the economy did well The housing market suffered in a way, you know, it's kind of interesting us Reading a book and it was pointing out that Housing always gets its share from any kind of great wages. So and that The places with the least number of homeless are Alabama and Mississippi. They have extraordinarily low rates of homelessness Why because our housing is affordable But cities like Seattle with high living wages very progressive policies They have a housing markets just as tight or worse than ours So there's something that needs to be tweaked in the way we approach Creating housing options for people, especially those who are working, you know Hourly jobs one of the things I think that was important about the work that you've done at Cots and Cots has done is Understanding that finding someone housing isn't this isn't the only solution to the problem in this idea of a continuum of Care could you talk about that? Well, it's like life some people need more help or you to walk with them a little longer than others do so When we instead of just a bunk bed and a blanket and a shelter you need housing but after that housing you also need health care sometimes and Not being able to take care of your health care can affect employment or there may be mental health issues real struggles and Knowing how to navigate complex systems is not a reasonable Expectation for many people who are working 40 50 60 hours a week. That's another difference wait I was going to say so as wages Like in Burlington When I first started whiting brush was still open you could make 18 dollars an hour there That person now would probably be a security guard at the University Mall making 10 or 11 dollars an hour So wages in some ways flattened as housing costs were going up. That was another issue driving it So in the 90s and then you became executive director in what year back to me Is that what we're doing back to me back and forth? So Lucille got called back by the nuns Which kind of shocked all of us the mother ship she had to go back to the water ship and Take care of business. Yeah, that was 1996 I became executive director and had you were you prepared to be executive director? I mean You've been trained like what prepares you to be an executive director other than maybe going to business school I mean, I'm not sure or public and maybe public administration. I think I Knew our programs really well So I knew the staff I Knew our money because I raised the money and I'm I wanted to know where it was spent and how so I did a Lot on our budgets always And I knew What I hoped the organization could become so instead of we had a small number of housing units but I had been doing a lot of just personally going through our data and I realized that 70% of the people who wound up at cost had housing. It wasn't just about creating new housing It was how do we hang on to the units people hang on to the homes? They already have So I wanted to really focus on prevention doing not just covering rental arrearage because for 900 bucks if you can keep a family in their home and They don't get their credit destroyed their housing track record They've got a chance and then kids don't suffer the trauma or the shame of that kind of upheaval so I Had a lot of things. I wanted the organization to do and I think Because I had worked with volunteers when I didn't know something I didn't know how to do a newsletter you find your old Franny Seguin knows how to do graphics or this person knows Brett Hughes used to do and did some of our graphics. You just know people and you start calling them in so I Think you don't have to be an expert at everything. I knew that We needed people who were architects or engineers for our buildings like property people some smart finance So I figured that they could be my resource experts And then it also brought them close to the work we do because people think oh volunteering at Cots or Spectrum you're doing direct service and some aren't comfortable or good at it But there are so many other ways to help So I had my quick dials my speed dials and didn't really Expect to be I've learned a lot since then. I also had no idea I had no idea what I was getting into either so I Think if I had known back then I would have had more caution, but Well in a way, it's better that we don't know he's kind of like raising children Never a good time. That's actually true And then you go ahead and and I think one of your real strengths is what you're describing as your ability to Reach out to people and recruit them to the effort And I think that one of the things you did and you could describe this is you built partnerships with other Organizations who are working on the same or related issues. So talk about the you know mark mark Redmond at Spectrum Talked about that in your a little bit in some of the materials related to your retirement But to talk about What well he said that you were a great partner? I mean not only you were personally inspiring to him but that your partnership building and you're Seeing the opportunities I miss that quote. Thanks mark. I'll find it. Um, it's because so I I Donated when BCLT would have a fundraiser or spectrum and we were all kind of doing our or women helping battered women and I think there was a grant opportunity that came to Cots and It was perfect If we could for all of us like it didn't make sense for Cots to go alone because we do need Help for people struggling with DV and cost doesn't have the expertise, but we honor it in women helping batter steps now And spectrum youth we didn't have a youth shelter so we got everybody together and Wrote the first continuum of care grant. This is in 1990. I knew it was going to be a Slaw because sister Lucille want me I it's this portable laptops who are brand new She let me use it at my house so I could just go straight You know what happened to Henry Cisneros who was the secretary of HUD a woman had died frozen to death on the front steps of HUD in Washington He wanted to appear dramatically expeditious and so I'm going to give a hundred million dollars For people who can figure out a better system for the homeless So we pull our crew together spectrum Howard CVO EO. I think was in thought CVO EO everybody who Partially worked and went for this grant and we wanted a million dollars never never have so few people once We want a million dollar grant and then We just we had fun doing it too along the way So we decided to keep meeting and we met monthly. It wasn't a HUD requirement. It was Because we called ourselves back then the bottom feeders, you know, if we weren't sort of watching out for each other We were the ones who bore the impact of failed mental health policy Insufficient housing resources or emergency resources and And we all because it's Burlington volunteered or donated to each other's organizations anyway But we began to think more deliberately about a system of care and who could bring what to the table and that Became what is the continuum of care now suddenly HUD wanted us to have it like our school organically Cuz it's Vermont. Mm-hmm, and then Henry Cisneros came didn't he? Yeah, yeah to look it over I think we have how do you remember that? Well, we have it in our archives actually There's pictures of you with him, but we also we have video of that trip It was so handsome. You remember. Yeah So if reflecting now on the strength of the institutional partnerships, how would you describe them today? The continuum of care and how the organizations work together. I think now they're really tight, especially following COVID but You know, I will say HUD and HUD requirements administrative burden is state thing estate Put a real strain on it because what had been Voluntarily coming together and setting we used to be able to set our own priorities That's why we all agreed spectrum needed. Am I running out of time? No, no Cuz I can just go on and on but we knew spectrum needed a youth shelter We knew that the thought that mentally ill people who were in more acute Crisis than what we could handle needed a place and we created safe haven and we would sit around the table and sort of By the demographics look at what was the need and choose it. It wasn't my organization gets the issuers It was what did this system? What do we as Chittenden County, Burlington need? and then HUD started requiring you have to have this kind of database with these and We're going to make chronic homeless the priority Our philosophy was never to cannibalize put one vulnerable group and set them against another and HUD under Clinton started chronic homeless chronic homeless come first That's 15 percent of the population and back then it meant that term You have to be over 65 have been homeless for 24 months and they basically took away the ability of Communities to really plan what was the priority because you wouldn't get funded and There I don't know There was a lot of strain and administrative burden and it became it did become kind of difficult And there was also a push to include more people which was good But at the same time if you have a decision-making body and not everybody is equally invested the decisions and votes, you know can sometimes Not be ideal, you know, so that has gotten better and the relationships despite all the HUD requirements because there are far more. I mean, it's astonishing what they require We don't even receive that money anymore. It's just so onerous and proscribed and it's The very place where we used to be creative that table is now almost where innovation goes to die or gets choked But everybody there is Wonderful and has good intentions. It's more the pressure and structure overlaid So what happened is outside that table? We all still talk get together and during co-vid Everybody it was like the early continuum days. We met every single afternoon like money me the the whole gang Mike Mark Redmond everybody What's going on? What do you need helping distribute and allocate? Protective gear that one person didn't have cuts was the depot because we never shut down so people could come and pick up things but Yeah, that felt that so now it's really I mean it's closer than it's been in a while because The warmth and the flexibility hasn't been It's still there for a certain grant, but we remembered all the other things that put it So when you think about leaving your position Will you miss that? Will I miss the people? Oh, yeah, and I'll miss the brainstorming and I'll miss the debating I mean we used to have really wonderful, I don't know arguments debates where We would actually refine positions based on what we were hearing or the data and I Always learned a lot like you think you know because you've read this or that But then you go to the table and you hear from the person at women helping battered women They have an entirely different perspective on Something so yeah, I'll miss that and I'll miss I'll miss cut staff. We have the most amazing talented Creative and they're funny. We laugh a lot even though it's hard work There's a lot of irreverence and humor there Well, you come to it with such an open heart even after all this time and such difficult work that I think I can Imagine that the staff Does enjoy working together and working under your leadership? Tell me can I tell you something? Yes. Yeah, I also celebrate successes. So listen in the past 18 months the past 18 months We have been able to get housing for a hundred and forty three Households that didn't have that were in emergency shelters or emergency motels 143 in the past 18 months and when you look at our vacancy rate and how difficult and cumbersome our system is Especially when people couldn't even go looking units with COVID. So we celebrate that or 14 people just this past month got Housed so there are even though the numbers keep climbing There are also some amazing victories And you know looking back again over three decades. What else stands out for you as some of those accomplishments? You're being you're pleased about a long time ago now they're standard but we got a Donor to fund a risk guarantee pool because my staff were getting really frustrated No lean lords. We're going to lose section 8. So I'm going to go back to DC the subsidies because no lean lords will take them and and Instead of you know the landlords in the enemy we invited some in and talked to them and said What what would it take? You know and some said well, I can afford a risk on a tenant In one unit, but otherwise the cost of an eviction or this for that. So instead of it being oh bad landlords Things the sky is falling What we do is try to focus on the fix what would fix it So then we got into the numbers. Well, how much does an eviction cost? How much does? damage typically cost worst-case scenario and Then they know six seven thousand dollars Well, what if we held money for that unit for 18 months a year and a half like an audition and then if at the end of the year and a half nothing happens they become a regular tenant, but you've had the chance to test it out no risk and a Lot of them agreed and that began the first risk guarantee fund for housing and people who really didn't have a chance at all We're suddenly able to get into housing and we thought when we did when that it was the Brenner foundation when they when we did it We thought like we'd lose half every year like we sort of budgeted the best thing about it Though is we're still like it was 80 We still have 80% of what we began with and that actually kicks off money And it's not like you've spent it and it's gone. There's still a slot when 18 months are through It's a rotating slot so somebody new gets to use it and now the state of Vermont has that tool We shared it years ago with the Rutland prevention homeless prevention center. So I'm proud of that Just they thinking of not what's wrong at this there will never be enough federal resources. This guy's always fallen But what's the fix exactly? That's a great idea building capacity in the community so that you can actually work around the challenges that there are Which I think is part of your creative mind. So it's just what you pay attention to Anything more recently that you're pretty proud of 95 North 95 North used to be the Burlington College and it was Right, it's right at the intersection of North Street and North Avenue and it was pretty badly Worn like it had a lot of maintenance and structural issues and Our day station had flooded out and we were looking for a place Where could we put the new day station and we're always looking for housing and when that went on the market? We jumped and it was a way to get out of a Difficult office program space on North Runuski Avenue and build something designed specifically for the people we serve not trying to make this place work and well we can Change around the door but to design it from the inside out so We bought it we Worked on planning we always talk to the people we serve. What would they want in a day station and showers Washer dryer heavy-duty washer dryer so you can dry a tent or a sleeping bag And we've got all of that on site plus 14 units of deeply affordable housing and The biggest homeless prevention initiative in Ramon is the housing resource center. That's our program That's right there and we have a model. It's an aspirational housing model Where often with federal programs you start to do well and you lose a benefit I mean, we've even hired staff that can't become the assistant manager because they'll lose their daycare or whatever So we built in a subsidy so that when somebody starts to do well Their rent goes down And we can bring it down to the equivalent all the way of two hundred dollars So you want to take a train you finish a training class you whatever and The test of this idea got interrupted by COVID, but we're kicking we I mean we still subsidize But what was possible was very different for two years. So now we're starting now So it's like a skull. It's like a scholarship. So we don't I mean we're not violating the federal rules if they have a housing thing but they get They get assistant to cover the it creates incentives rather than the opposite Which it sounds like is the structure of the federal aid at some way. Yeah, it's that whole benefit cliff I'm sure you So and so it's to aspire. What would you do? What would you want to be like? It's that poem the warmth. What would I grow to be or become in the warmth of other sons? I think it's Langston Hughes and If you've always had to tread water the way you think your life is very narrowly Circumstant, but if suddenly you have a little bit of relief And you have $50 extra a week. Maybe you could get a second-hand car. Maybe you could I mean Suddenly things seem possible. So we put no requirements on it. You don't have to spend it on housing You don't have to be sober. It's just like we're just gonna see what happens And so far it's pretty promising. So I'm proud of that So now that you're you decided to wrap up Being the executive director I wonder what I mean you we talked a little bit about the the people that you'll miss and Are you gonna continue this kind of work? I can't see that you would not stop being passionate about social justice and equity ever But what do you see, you know, just talk a little bit about this transition before we wrap up for you Well first because this has been the most exhausting two years ever in three decades in 30 years it has been the hardest just So stressful with COVID and quarantine and I mean just horrible so I'm gonna take a long winners nap as I told you and then Kind of see what feels right. So maybe I'll take classes at UVM classes and things I didn't have a chance first time around like astronomy But in terms of social justice in some ways, I'll be more free to say things That I couldn't as the executive director of Cots and that will be really interesting to see, you know Where I want to do advocacy And what do you hope for in the next executive director? What would you say to them? As they come in or what would you say to the board as they're looking? That we keep that focus on the solution because there's always gonna be problems and that keeps you in the right now But have your eye on the world or the way you want it to be To be brave and willing to take a stand when everybody else thinks like chronic I don't think something is a good idea to speak up and not in a disrespectful way but To have had the courage to speak up and not just go along and To hire really talented creative people to help I mean part of an organization being Innovative or having a good board is the energy that you create and that's done by what you pay attention to and results so When 95 North was just a dream and there are people who now work in it or the idea of what do you mean? You're gonna pay rent for people who didn't and you actually launch a very large prevention fund Those things are because you feel that you have volition over what can sometimes Be perceived as an intractable problem. So somebody who's able to keep that I don't know that energy and the Ideas what's the best defense against a bad idea a better one So focusing on the better ideas or the kind of getting the kind of staff and board and volunteers who generate them Thanks so much for speaking with us Rita Markley and thanks for your 30 years at service and you're not not dead We're not gonna treat you like we're this is a eulogy, but I just want to thank you so much. You've always been such an inspiration for me We were neighbors too. We're not just birthday sisters. Yes. Are the fountain days? Yes We actually we had many things overlapping That's why it's been great to live in Burlington and grow up in Burlington Yeah, so thanks for watching we've been talking with Rita Markley and Rita's retiring executive director at Cots There's nothing retiring about her now