 A few years ago, the New York City Rescue Mission staged an experiment where they had people dress up to look homeless as unsuspecting members of their very own family walked by. In every instance of this experiment, not a single person recognized their own son or daughter, brother or sister, or in this lady's case, her father and mother. Would you recognize your loved one if you walk by them on the streets? Probably not. Neuroscientists at Princeton and Duke have found that the part of our brain that activates when we see a person does not activate when we see a person experiencing homelessness. When we walk by, we tend to see problems to be solved, not people to be loved. For 30 years, my uncle Mark was one of the 600,000 Americans who sleep on the streets every night. But I never thought of uncle Mark as a homeless man because he was just a beloved member of my family. He remembered every birthday and was the guest of honor at Thanksgiving and Christmas. And it wasn't until uncle Mark passed away at the age of 50 in a halfway house that I started thinking, gosh, everyone I'm walking by, that's someone's son or daughter, brother or sister, or some kid's beloved uncle. And so in 2014, I decided to stop walking by and start listening. I spent a year having conversations with my unhoused neighbors as neighbors and getting to know their stories. And I invited 24 unhoused individuals to join in a storytelling project that I created where a GoPro camera around your chest and narrate your experience of what life is like on the streets. I just walked by you, you're still here. What's it like to be you? I watched hundreds of hours of truly heartbreaking footage where my new unhoused friends were scorned, pitied and often ignored. But in one of the clips, I heard something that changed my life and it was really encapsulated by this quote. I never realized I was homeless when I lost my housing, only when I lost my family and friends. I never realized I was homeless when I lost my housing, only when I lost my family and friends. You know, this made sense to me, but I had never heard any government agency or homeless service provider articulate something like this. So I thought maybe I could just walk down Market Street, go up to every single person who I see who's visibly homeless and just ask, do you have any loved ones you'd like to reconnect with? And that's how I met Jeffrey. Jeffrey said he hadn't seen his family in 22 years. I sat down with him and I asked if he'd like to record a video to his loved ones and he said yes. I recorded a message from him to his niece, his nephew, his sister, his dad. I went home that night and I found a Facebook group connected to his hometown. So I posted the video there with a little note and within one hour that video was shared hundreds of times. It made the local news that night. Classmates started commenting, hey, I went to high school with Jeffrey. I work in construction. Does he need a job? I work at the congressman's office. Does he need healthcare? In the first 20 minutes of the post, his sister was tagged. We got on the phone the next day and she told me that Jeffrey was a missing person for 12 years. Broad daylight, downtown San Francisco, a few days before Christmas. Within a few days, Jeffrey and Jennifer were able to reconnect on a phone call. Within a few months they were able to reconnect in person for the first time in 22 years. And I started doing this work full time because I knew Jeffrey wasn't the only one and this shouldn't be happening. And so I started a nonprofit called Miracle Messages to help end what we call relational poverty as a form of poverty. Relational poverty, isolation, loneliness, disconnectedness, stigma and shame that accompanies it. To embrace our unhoused neighbors as neighbors, as the brothers and sisters, friends and classmates, aunts and uncles that they are. Miracle Messages helps people experiencing homelessness rebuild their social support systems and their financial security. We offer three programs that are cost effective, humane and scalable. First, our family and friend reunification services where we have now a network of volunteer digital detectives that make phone calls, write letters and do internet searches to find loved ones, deliver messages, help people reconnect to their loved ones. That's led to over 800 family and friend reunifications. Second is our phone buddy program where we have volunteers all around the world who have committed 30 minutes a week for phone calls and text messages with an unhoused neighbor. One-to-one phone calls, text messages and we currently have more unhoused individuals looking for volunteers than we have friends. So if anyone would like to volunteer you can do it anywhere in the world. And over 150,000 conversation minutes have been logged. And third, direct cash transfers in which we launched the first basic income pilot for people experiencing homelessness in the United States. In 2020 when we launched that initial pilot we gave $500 a month for six months to 14 individuals who are in our phone buddy program. No questions asked. Within six months two-thirds of unhoused individuals secured stable housing. They use the money better than I could have used it for them. Housing, food security, healthcare, mental health, childcare and other essentials. And today I'm excited to share that we have received an expansion of our basic income pilot to the tune of a $2.1 million randomized control trial. Funded by Google.org and other individuals and foundations and in partnership with USC to give out $750 a month for 12 months to over 100 unhoused neighbors in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles. Thank you. So we've seen thousands of miracles already at Miracle Messages. Lives transformed, tearful reunions, person to talk to when there's no one else and two-thirds of people getting housed from $500 a month over six months. This work has transformed my own understanding of this issue and I think it could inspire and empower you as well. And I share this in my upcoming book When We Walk By, which is coming out in just a few weeks, November 7th. But I'm not here to sell books, I promise. This issue is really big and we know that in order to do our approach of nurturing relationships combined with direct cash transfers, it requires a lot of experimentation and unrestricted resources. And that's where you come in. So I invite you to go to our website, MiracleMessages.org, say hi, reach out, we're a friendly bunch, invest in our work, and join our movement to offer a model that's cost-effective, scalable, and humane to embrace our unhoused neighbors as neighbors. Because when we embrace people experiencing homelessness, not as problems to be solved, but as people to be loved, problems get solved.