KGCI: Real Estate on Air - LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Welcome, everybody, to episode one of EXP's brand new official diversity, equity, and inclusion podcast, culturecast. I'm Cody Yocason, senior manager of DEI here at EXP. This will be a podcast where I'll be interviewing guests and having open and honest discussions and telling stories to help us work through what makes us us. From cultural identities to mental health, to gender and sexuality, and all the intersectional parts that are the building blocks of our sense of self. As always, I'd encourage you all if you have an already to join the EXP Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group, as well as one EXP on Workplace. I'd like to welcome my very first guest. This is Jacob Jennings, founder of the Sherlock Holmes Foundation. Welcome, Jacob. Hello, Cody. How are you, my friend? I'm so good.

I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad we're finally doing a podcast, and I'm so glad that you're my first guest. Today, our topic is going to be LGBTQ homelessness and the Sherlock's Homes Foundation. is the first only? One of those things, maybe both. A real national organization that's making an impact on this silent epidemic. I wouldn't say we are the first. There are organizations like Covenant House, which says great work.

But I would say we are our focus of being exclusively LGBTQ and being in multiple states. We are one of few. I feel comfortable saying that. But thank you. That was a great introduction. I know we're going to be talking about a pretty serious topic. I like to keep it as light as possible, but I will be driving home some key points

to help, you know, get the important things across. But if I say something inappropriate, well, I do a lot of hard work every day, so get over. All right. Let's dive right in. So what are the key factors that contribute to the disproportionately high rate

of queer youth experiencing homelessness in the United States? Okay, that's a great question. And there's a lot about intersections. So when you're talking about homelessness overall, it's a reflection of multiple, multiple factors. You're thinking mental health, you're thinking some income and equality. You can be racial and gender factors that come into play. It's a whole multitude of all sorts of things.

But what I focus on what I do want to talk about here as far as LGBTQ is a lack of understanding, for one. I live in the free state of Florida, as they claim. And we are seeing our LGBTQ trans youth really getting attacked, gender affirming care being denied, having families that are supportive of their children and trying to have a loving and encouraging family life that shouldn't involve government putting their nose into things. They're being threatened to be rich away from their families because of gender affirming care and taking away from their siblings, all of the kids being put into foster care. I mean, this is breaking an already, this is already making an already broken system even more fragile and breaking homes down. And no one's listening because if it doesn't affect them, well, then why pay attention to it?

But here's the slide. Pull that slide back about foster care. We deal primarily with youth, but if you were to think, okay, we're taking these kids away and we're putting them into the foster system, oh, someone will take care of them. Well, who is that? Here are some things you want to know. When youth do age out of foster care, they are immediately homeless. Most people will think if you're involved in the system as a guardian or as a kid or as a housing provider, there is a paycheck that comes with it. And all too often, people will do some things for money that are not ethical or humane.

And we see that all the time in foster care. So many other sides, which I have later, 80% of all individuals in prison and incarceration have had experience in the foster care system. Then when you go and you go here, more than 20,000 young adults involuntarily leave foster care without the stability of the family. And 70% of those kids end up having to sell their bodies and or drugs within 72 hours of leaving their final placement. I think the next slide talks about 40% of those kids identify as LGBTIQIA. So when these kids, when these gay kids age out of foster care, right, they've never had a positive example. of anything healthy, they may have had a traumatic encounter with a foster parent or an adult and had no one to report it to. There's always abuse that's been either started off before they got there or when they're in the homes.

And because of that, there's a lot of mental health that needs to be addressed, whether they are gay or straight, it does not matter. There's trauma that has to be addressed. But they're already stigmatized because when instant any of us when especially when we're younger, we hear about them. We think, oh, you're a foster kid. We think instantly you're damaged. And we confuse someone's situation with their identity. And there's a difference because when we do that, we lose compassion. So one and two of those kids, by the way, when they age out of foster care, they will only only half them gainful employment by the age of 24.

And less than 3% of them ever get a college degree, ever. And that's interesting because there are programs, for instance, here in Florida, where if you are a foster youth, you actually do get, you can go to the state college system and get your education for free. They're trying to address these things. However, these kids slip through the cracks and they disappear because they would rather be on the streets because it is safer for them to be there than in the final placement. So when they're on the streets, they have no one to report to their case manager can't find them, and they don't know that these resources are out there for them. And besides, why are they going to care about education when they don't know where they're going to sleep tonight? Who cares if I'm going to go, you know, I'm already struggling through normal school and trying to get my life together there.

Why do I care about college? I don't know where I'm going to eat next. Yeah. So it doesn't, these benefits are there, but they're not addressing the trauma that these kids focus on. when you add being LGBTQ to that mix, your trauma goes way back further because when you are LGBTQ, you know you're different very young. You always look back like, oh, I knew that was there. I felt different. And that feeling of isolation is magnified when you are LGBTQ. And if you're a foster care on top of that, I mean, it's compacting trauma, right? Right. So, and I, and I,

You know, I want to, you know, this isn't in our prepared questions, but I think that there's something here that I find value in personal stories and that sort of thing, right? So I think you and I both come from a place where this is deeply personal for us. As a queer youth, some people know this. Some people don't, but EXP, here's part of my story that you haven't maybe heard yet. when I was 15, I came out of the closet to my mom. And it was during a suicide attempt. And my mom saved my life, but she wanted me to go to counseling. And her version of counseling was basically an intro-level conversion therapy.

And the idea was given to me that either you have to continue with this. or you don't get to live under my roof anymore. So for a time between I was 15 and 17 when I graduated high school, I was homeless. And I was couch surfing between different family friends who had more supportive parents. And I wound up getting up in Georgia, we had something called the Hope Scholarship, where if you kept to be average in high school, you were to be able to go to state college. So I went to state college and got my degree. But that point in my life, I often think back

if I would have had someone that was a real true role model or ally, it could have changed my life. And I also think about what if I wouldn't have had the safety net of friends, parents who would let me couch surf for two years? You know, and it's a privilege that many, many don't have. Why does this resonate so personally with you, Jacob? Your story is so similar to mine. It's freaky.

We've talked about this once before, but I was 14 when my parents discovered that I was gay and I spent two years in conversion therapy. When that didn't work, they moved us deeper into the Bible Belt because my mother thought that they could beat it out of me with enough. Enough actressisms. We were Pentecostal. I was raised to be a pastor. I had to try this.

I had to try to pray it away. I mean, what else would I do? Well, let's just say some things did not go according to plan. And I found myself living out of my car graduating high school. And I, like you, had wonderful friends who had parents who were able to support me in some of these challenging times. I went to school and I would get off at, I think, 2 o'clock.

and I would do homework until my shift started at Chick-fil-A at 4 o'clock. Yep, that's where I work, until 4 o'clock, and I would work until closing at 10 and go back to someone's house or sleep in my car, and I would finish my homework, go back to sleep, and it was back at school at 6 a.m. the next day. And this was pretty, this was my life. It's what I knew to be normal. It actually provided a sense of structure for me. I chose, I mean, when my mom kicked me out, like it was bad,

but my deciding to not go back because there was there was challenges no matter what there still is to the day but i was deciding it was easier or safer for me to stay in my car couch serving with friends than it was to be at home with my parents and my family like i felt safer away from them and um it is very common i mean again they're what we're really fighting is a lack of understanding a lack of compassion a lack of education. So if people don't realize that you are, like you don't choose this. You're born this way. Yeah.

And if that's how you're born, well, to really love yourself, you have to be honest with yourself. And that's why I will tell you that these kids that we support that we come to, my God, they're brave. Because even in today's day and age where they do have it a lot easier than we did, they're being attacked in different ways and in other ways, being online bullying, being, which is the biggest one, still having to, you will find that in this side of housing where you have a lot of the foster youth and LGBTQ youth in group homes,

the pimps go and hang out there because they know how to find the vulnerable youth and put them into sex trafficking. So we're talking about housing, right? Like it's funny where this is a real estate podcast. Where's all this coming up from? Where's it there? Well, is that intersection. If you don't understand the stability a home provides you, if you take it for granted because you've always had a home,

because you've had a loving family and a support system in your community. If you take that for granted, let me just tell you, by the grace of God, you have that. The grace of God. And you are definitely, you need to see that that is a blessing. A blessing. And not everyone has that blessing. And there are people out there praying on more vulnerable people.

Houses keep you safe, but a home makes you whole. God. Oof. Chills. I love that. So talking about all this, how does queer youth homelessness impact those people's mental health and well-being? And what are there some strategies that you employ to provide appropriate support and resources? So let's talk.

That's your question. So there are several things that that factor in. The biggest one is stigma. Okay. They're already battling stigma. if they are when you're homeless when you have a situation people stigmatize you so we let's go back to COVID right if you had COVID there was a stigma around oh my god you have COVID you're going to give me COVID and then there was sympathy first there was fear and then there's sympathy and then there may be

consideration to do something to support or help if it felt convenient well that's human nature all right there's fear first which is stigma and until we address the stigma like we did with COVID, we educated ourselves all the time we were braiding with news, whether false news or real news, who knows, there was always something to educate us on. And then we can make a decision. Well, when it comes to homelessness, there's not enough conversation for us to be educated in order to make a decision. People are scared to talk about homelessness because they're so scared, honestly, most of the time with how quickly and unprepared they are and they know it could happen to them at any time. And recognizing that truth,

terrifies everyone because they don't know what it's like. Right. Well, once you overcome it, well, you know you can overcome it. But if you never have to address that fear, it will always have more power over you. And listen, it's by the grace of God that we have, we live in the United States of America, where we can find housing, where we have, where it's easy to find opportunity when you know how to find it. It's easy to get housing if you have help, if you have family, if you have all these conditions lined up perfectly. But it's also easy to lose your housing no matter who you are in the United States.

I think the last statistic I saw was most Americans are unprepared for a $400 financial emergency. Ooh. And that is terrifying. Yeah. Now, if that is your situation, you're not alone. That's the majority of Americans. and the others who aren't in that situation need to consider themselves blessed. Yes, you've worked for it, but you've also gotten lucky, had more education,

you maybe had some help and you were preparing yourself. And that's great. You should be proud of yourself. You're proud of that. But if you also need to remember that there are other people who need you to not give them a hand out, but a hand up and respect them. Give them the dignity to pull themselves up and see them as human. That's it.

And I, you know, I talk about this often. People hear me say this over and over and over again that my DEI journey was sparked when I heard Amber Hikes speak. And Amber Hikes is the woman responsible for the more colors, more pride flag. She added the black and brown stripes to the flag. She spoke at an out in equal conference in 2017, and she said something about weaponizing your privilege that spoke to me so deeply. And it's that same sort of message that if you recognize that you have something that others don't, it's your. responsibility to help those that have less. It's not on women to fight sexism and misogyny. It's not on trans folks to fight transphobia. It's certainly not on disabled folks to fight ableism.

It's on you and it's on me and it's on us collectively to take care of those people. Because there comes a point where they live that struggle and they don't get to take a break from it. So they need the support. It's the same thing that we're saying now in the midst of 170 new bills targeting the LGBTQ community and legislature, where we say to our allies, now is not the time to be tired and take a break of your allyship or to get scared and turn a blind eye. Because now we need you more than ever because we can't take a break right now. We take a break and they could take back the rights that we fought since the dawn of time to get. We just got marriage equality. That seems like an old thing.

Marriage equality is 10 years old. Right. And how long do we fight for it before we got it? Right. Yes. And it can with the swift of a little ink pen can go away. Right. And that's a very real threat to us right now.

and they're targeting in particular our youth who are vulnerable. We're talking about all this stuff with housing security and that type of thing. But what person under 18 years of age, what person under 21 years of age is really truly concerned about am I going to have a roof over my head? If that one baseline given human thing is taken away, that can totally throw completely throw, their life into chaos. It ruins it. Actually, I have a slide about Maslow's higher group needs. Pull that up. That one is, there you go.

So, this is over 120 years old. Dr. Maslow was around back, God knows how long ago, he's dead now. But he came up with the base structure that every human being needs to live and thrive. And the physiological needs that we all have as human being, we all need to breathe, we all need air, right?

We all need water. We need to eat. We need food. We need shelter. sleep, clothing, and reproduction. And believe or not, clothing is for temperature regulation and protection from the elements. I mean, these are things that we need. Like there's no if, answer, but we don't have one of those things and we die. Right. So if we don't have air, we die.

We don't eat, we die. We don't drink. We die. Like, that's what happens, right? Above that is where you have safety needs. That's where you can actually have where you can get employment. We can have basic personal items, like a toothbrush. shampoo, clothes.

I mean, these are your basic property that we take for granted as well. Now, the other thing about this, the next level is once you have your safety needs met, you can get a job because you have employment and other resources. Now you can start building relationships, right? You can start trusting here. You can build friends, have family, sense of connection. You start to see where you go in a group, right? We have a group of friends who's the lynchpin, who's the outlier, where are you in between?

what do you bring to the table? How do you contribute to your community? And the thing that most people get wrong, when they say they want to help, when they want to get involved or they see this, is they start at the wrong part of the pyramid. And they don't understand why you have to go in a certain flow. You have to build a pyramid from the base up.

You have to build a foundation in order to reach your highest point. The pinnacle doesn't start. You don't start by providing mentorship, when you can't help them find a place to eat or sleep, something to eat or a place to sleep. Yeah, you can't do that. You can't say, oh, I want to, let me coach you in investing.

Let me help you in learning how to do real estate or help me find a job. Well, again, job, you can't find a job until your physiological needs are met. I can't sleep somewhere, I don't have something to eat. I don't care about finding a job. I am so stressed right now, all the calories I've been able to consume

are being deployed into finding solutions, for my immediate need. Yeah. And if you don't build your approach, if you don't meet someone where they are, this is a great way of understanding that line meets someone where they are. If you don't meet them where they are in this hierarchy,

you're not going to be effective. You're not going to be a resource to them. And their lives are not going to be changed. So when people are trying to think, how can they help an organization? Or they help Sherlock Holmes or anybody like that. Well, first go to Sherlockshomes.org. S-H-E-R-L-L-L-L.

C-K-S-H-O-M-E-S dot ORG. Check us out there. But then also take a look at where that person is on the hierarchy. Talk to them. Ask them if they're safe. Do they know where they're going to sleep at night? Do they have something to eat? Do they have a job?

How can I help you? And let them talk to you. But know that if they don't have a place where they can get mail, they're still struggling. They have to. You cannot get a job without an address. It is so hard. Yeah.

And, you know, to me, this also really hits home to the fact if we do dig back to the base of this situation. When these kids were de-homed, right? Someone taking away a base need like this is so damaging of a thing that we have to also recognize that part of this conversation is fostering a culture of the people around us so that we don't know people who would take this sort of action. against another person, much less their own family, much less their own child, right? Yeah, that's what we think.

And, you know, unfortunately, we see it everywhere. It's the politicization of sexuality where it has become something that is a, is something that we can disagree about. To me, being queer, being gay, being a lesbian, being transgender is a fact of life that exists, and it's not up for debate. So if we have a difference of opinion over the existence of people, this is a problem we have to address, right? Yes. A lack of compassion for each other. You see, I don't think you have to be gay, straight, Republican Democrat, white, black, by try. I don't it doesn't matter if you believe that human beings deserve to live safely with a roof over

their head that's that should be a universal yes human beings deserve a safe place to live we just deserve that should be a basic human right yeah there's see there's nothing political on that statement human beings deserve have a safe place to sleep at night nothing below about that you know I would go so far as to say it is sort of against human nature to try and take anything from this list from another person. It would be. But what's interesting is that more often than not, it's done unintentionally because people don't realize what they actually have. They take it for granted. So they take these things away.

It's little things. So if you go back to the esteem right here, so for DEI, respect. someone by either using their pronouns or asking them what, just asking them about their gender identity or their racial identity, you give them that benefit. You want to, those communication guidelines help you navigate a framework in which you can have a healthy relationship. And that's up the high self-esteem. So it's up to someone who has, you know, everything else beneath it, to go, okay, it's my job to recognize that it's my responsibility to help the people beneath me who aren't at that level, it may not know to ask me,

or may not know to have that conversation or have that framework. And that's the part that we don't learn until we address that we might have been taking it for granted this entire time. But once we address that, well, how cool is it? It's actually very empowering. It's very, okay, I can see where that is and I can work with it. It's not a scary thing to get to know yourself, right? It should be an empowering thing.

We all have dark places. We also all have light. We have to turn it on. That's beautiful. I don't write that down. Yeah, right. So back to talking about what we're doing with LGBT homeless youth.

Could you share some examples of the specific challenges that these types of views face when they're seeking shelter and support? Yes. Yeah, what are some challenges that they face? So when I started our foundation, it's 2020, and six weeks later, the pandemic hits. And I'm living with five, five to seven, but usually there were five formerly homeless LGBTQU living with me. Okay. Now, all those five, I will tell you that 80% of them were coming to move with mental health issues.

They were either coming out of rehab for drugs, for substance use disorder, alcoholism, or mental health. those are what those were. One had autism and was from the foster care system. He had been homeless for four years and sleeping behind a dumpster before he met, before he came to us. There was one who was putting himself through school. But in order to do that, he couldn't afford rent. So he would go work at the customer service center, then he would prostitute at night and use the money to pay for school.

And to him, that was just what you did because that was normal from where he grew up. So is history repeating itself? He was trying to break the cycle by going to college. He still hasn't finished. But he's trying. So these things are coming on. Then you had your trans youth,

which I got a lot of calls actually from a lot of Christian organizations that were local, that had some trans youth that they did not know what to do with. They didn't serve them. It wasn't within their bylaws. It wasn't what they believed. And let me tell you,

it's very interesting because calling those individuals, knowing they don't have your same belief system, but they're still humanitarian. They don't want to throw people out. They just don't know how to place them. It's not the right place for them. And I respect them for that. I may not agree with them,

but we're still working to make the world a better place. Right? So, side note, what I do want to say here is who you want to serve. that's a calling, right? Who needs your help is data and how you'll help them as strategy. You need all of that figured out and you need your community partners

that don't serve your community to look out for each other. Like there's a lot of collaboration in social work, especially in housing. Anyway, so they were sending me trans individuals because they didn't know what to do. Most of the time when they have group homes, they will either have this male or female,

boy or girl. And for a trans youth, and let's be very clear, let's go through this in their mind. These are youth that typically are homeless, who come out of the foster care system or who are abused. They already have mental health issues. Can you be compassionate for that reason on its own? Yeah. Like, can you just be compassionate for that reason? At a rather crappy hand to begin with.

And so they already had a hard time. Now they're living in a place where they don't understand things anyway as in a healthy light. They don't have a healthy lens to as a perspective. And now they may or may not be trans. Yeah. Okay. But they don't have a safe place to figure it out because they can only go to a boy or a girl home. And if they don't identify with that, they're living in a place where they're typically preyed upon.

So what do you do with that point? Well, our homes, we have a non-binary housing model, which means you can be any gender identity. As long as you are contribute to the peace and tranquility of the home and you're constantly trying to work and improve your own and yourself. That's what we have. That's the basis for our programs. And because they have a shared life experience of being LGBTQ, that automatically creates a family of choice. And they're able to start having conversations and dialogue.

And for the first time, they understand that, hey, I'm not alone. Someone else gets me. Like, I can have these conversations. I can talk about what it's like to be me and not be scared at home, which is the first place they may have ever felt that before. Yeah. It's a really cool feeling. That is great. I want to dig more in while we've got time into what the homes are like at Sherlock's homes. Well, I will tell you, they are definitely, they're definitely campy.

Yeah. But what do we offer them at these homes? Oh, that's a great one. So the model is, our model is actually based off of real estate investments. So we have two sides of Sherlock's homes, right? So you have everyone has a place in society. So everyone has a place in the solution. If you're either part of the solution, you're part of the problem. That's not cut and dry, y'all. So are you helping address homelessness?

Are you not? It's that simple. It's an epidemic in our country, but we're trying to address it. Some people can address it on the real estate side, right? They want to be real estate investors. They want to make an impact in their community. So we give our investors the opportunity to help us find a home. home and then we operate out of it as a nonprofit helping vulnerable populations.

Okay. Now, this model that we have done allows us to have multiple organizations like Sherlock's homes, but also like Kate Salas Foundation, also like you guys may know, a flight center, which is here in Fort Lauderdale, love what they do. So we put social groups in those homes, and as a real estate professional, that's a tenant lander relationship. That's simple. Now, in the operation that we have for Sherlock's homes, we provide.

We provide the cost of housing for them. They get their own bed or their own room, depending on the location. Sometimes we have shared rooms. Some people want to have a shared room because they want to boot the sibling or they don't feel safe by themselves, whatever it might be. Some people want to have their own room because maybe they're in transition and it's an awkward stage. Whatever that might be. So we give them their safety.

Then we offset some of the food by having food drives and we do clothing drives to get them access to clothing that they may not otherwise come from. Some of the individuals we take in have come out of incarceration. So they don't have anything like anything. We help them open up bank accounts. We help them try to find jobs. We are now working with 101 financial to give them the basic education on, hey, this is called a checking account. This is what credit does. This is how to opening up a savings account.

Like they give them everything up to how to qualify for a mortgage. Then we also have Apex Systems working with them to help get them one-on-one job recruitment, how to write a resume, how to interview. So we're trying to build the first two and three levels of that pyramid in our homes. However we can. And it's a lot of work. It's a lot of fun because once you build it, they can maintain it. Right. And then that starts to change their actual identity, who they see themselves as and how they appear in the world.

It's very empowering for everyone involved. That's amazing. And where are the homes located? Currently, we open our second home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And then we have our third home is Raleigh, North Carolina. So our Colorado Springs home is a LGBTQ primarily trans rescue. in Peyton, Colorado. Our home in Raleigh, North Carolina

is an LGBT-Rewr recovery home, so people there are getting over substance abuse or alcoholism or Justin's involvement. And then our third home is in Richmond, Virginia, and that one is an LGBTQ-safe space workforce housing project. So there are three different models, but they all vertically integrate into our foundation. And it's been a crazy process.

but very, very exciting. That's fantastic. So I want to leave on this one. What are some actionable steps that real estate professionals like those at EXP Realty can take to support our LGBTQ plus youth who are experiencing homelessness?

Well, there are a couple things that they can do. One, you have to address who you are first. And I think once we all understand that when we see someone walking down the street with a homeless sign and they say anything for food, whatever, you feel guilty and ashamed and slightly frightened when you see them. Sometimes you might give them money,

you wonder what they're going to do with it. Sometimes you turn away or you check your phone because you don't want to make eye contact. Let's address the fact that that's a reality, and we all do it. Why do we do it? Because we're scared. Now, I want to ask you,

why are you scared of that person you've never talked to? Is there a reason to be scared? Yeah. There might also be a reason not to be. So first, address that with yourself. Okay, you have to address it with yourself. Second, you have to understand that someone's situation,

not their identity. A situation can change. An identity can improve. Right? The next thing I want to understand is you have to look at real estate as when we're thinking about as real estate brokers. I am a licensed broker. I'm supposed to say that. By the way, you have to understand that housing is two different things. You have property and you have social or home, right? A house and a home aren't always the same thing. But community is based off of homes. You build a community off of a sense of home, of belonging. When you are looking at housing and you're trying to serve your clients,

encourage them to look at doing alternatives like donating a part of their equity to a nonprofit to help support them in their local community. Examine things like 170 exchanges. You know, there's no one over here doing nonprofit. real estate. And there is one third of our economy that is nonprofit, whether it's government buildings or other social causes. And no one's over here talking about what we need to do to serve that part of our

economy. And nonprofit real estate has so many cool benefits to investors with tax benefits and implications. It's amazing. That's a different podcast. We should do that one. That would be fun. That would be fun.

Yeah, that'd be fun. But the last thing I want to do, if you're trying to help an LGBTQ youth, one, recognize that. they are already vulnerable and they are going to have trust issues. Don't add to it. If you don't know how to handle it, let someone else. Don't ignore them. Ask them how you can help them, right?

In the state of Florida and just like we're also seeing in Texas, some in Tennessee and in Utah, we are seeing that these homeless youth aren't telling you that they're homeless. They will sleep in their car. They will go sleep under a bridge. They will sleep and couch surf with friends or they will, be selling their body to have a place of sleep. They won't tell you right away.

Be patient with them. And if you have an LGBTQ youth or someone who is in that situation, understand that they are already at a higher risk of suicide. They're already a higher risk for drug and alcohol abuse. They have a higher abuse rate from domestic, from their domestic family, their nuclear family. So don't shame them for something that you may not understand, right? Yeah.

Yeah. That's a big one. Help them by getting them in touch with, well, you have to be careful, especially right now. Like the advice I've been given you a year ago is not what I can give today. They're under so much attack. We are being here in Florida, if you, if they're trying to, they just pass that bill about if you give health care to a trans youth and you're the doctor, you can be charged with a felony if you have religious disagreements and you're a doctor.

you can deny service to the individual. There are so many little things that people don't think about, but they're really targeted at one group, and they're being stacked. So if you see a trans youth, tell them you're proud of them. Give them some love. Ask them if you can help them. Yeah.

Just talk to any of them. And, you know, I would add to that, that you come to them where they are, right? That it took me until I was an adult. to recognize at that point in my life when I was fighting with mom and wasn't welcome home to put the name the big age on it like oh I was homeless yeah like I didn't it didn't that's something that I didn't even it didn't even register in my thought process then it was just my mom is being awful to me she doesn't understand she refuses to get it and you know

side note it's it's one of those situations we're still to this day she says um you know i have no interest in changing my mind on this subject right so uh that is something that you have to be aware that this person could be going through they might not know how bad it is because they're in the middle of it right and then they have denial that's it it's it's I was like you. I didn't realize I was homeless. And that's the thing. That's why it's called invisible homelessness.

And that's the highest population of people and families who are homeless, the ones that are couch surfing with relatives or friends and just trying to get on their feet. That's the most common expression you're going to hear. They're going through a tough patch or a rough time or they got to get on their feet. You know, it's, you'll hear these terms. Recognize that when people are, one, one argument, one disagreement, meant one popsicle stick.

There was a story, one of the homes that we had. Someone told me how they were kicked out of a house because they ate the last popsicle. So that's my example. Like one popsicle stick away from living in the wild. And our wild has houses. Our wild has apartment buildings and businesses. But if you are living outside, expose the elements with other predators that aren't

just animals or other human beings, too, you're living in the wild. Be grateful for every home that you have, every home that you have. every home that you sell. Bless everyone that's there. Learn about nonprofit real estate and visit sherlockshomes.org and see how else you can get involved with the fight to help end homelessness and support your youth and LGBTQ housing and secure adults in your area. We would love to join forces with you.

Love it. And there's no better way to end this podcast. So I'm going to leave it with that. Thank you so very much, Jacob, for being here with me. If you want to learn more about Sherlock's homes, you can visit Sherlock's homes. you can visit sherlock's homes.org. And please, if you haven't already, if you're at EXP, join us at diversity, equity,

and inclusion on workplace. Thanks again, Jacob. We'll see you soon. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.