January 10, 2024
Season:    7

How SEPTA is Making a Difference in the Lives of Vulnerable People

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Host Paul Comfort interviews Ken Divers, Director of Outreach Programs at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), and Flora Castillo, President of Pivot Strategies and former APTA chair, about SEPTA’s innovative SCOPE (Safety, Cleaning, Ownership, Partnership, and Engagement) program. Ken and Flora talk with Paul about how they created the program over a weekend and its goals for helping vulnerable people.

One of the main goals is connecting people with resources to help them with housing, food, healthcare, and other services, but SCOPE is also about playing an active role in the homelessness crisis. SEPTA–and transit agencies–can’t solve the crisis of the growing number of unhoused people on their own, but they often bear the brunt of the effects. People just looking for a warm and dry place need to be helped and supported, not treated as unwanted guests. The SCOPE program makes sure everyone is treated with the respect and dignity they deserve while also keeping SEPTA safe for everyone.

The SCOPE program won APTA’s 2022 Innovation Award for its groundbreaking work helping people access resources and get a fresh start with a whole new approach to the problem.

Flora and Ken’s excitement and pride in their work should inspire all of us to look at how to help vulnerable people in new ways. Enforcement isn’t always the best option, and SCOPE has shown their approach can make a real difference in people’s lives.

If you have a question or comment, email us at info@transitunplugged.com.

Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo.

Transit Unplugged team:

Paul Comfort, host and producer

Julie Gates, executive producer

Tris Hussey, editor and writer

Tatyana Mechkarova, social media

00:03 Introduction and Background

01:17 Interview with Ken Divers and Flora Castillo

02:03 The Birth of the SCOPE Program

05:49 The Journey and Impact of Kenneth Divers

09:24 The Approach and Success of the SCOPE Program

13:16 Partnerships and Future Directions

20:46 Coming up next week on Transit Unplugged

Transcript
Paul Comfort:

This is Transit Unplugged.

Paul Comfort:

I'm Paul Comfort.

Paul Comfort:

What do you think the primary mission of a public transit agency is?

Paul Comfort:

I think most people would say it is to provide public mobility.

Paul Comfort:

Whether it's on buses, trains, or microtransit.

Paul Comfort:

But did you know public transit agencies are working in a lot

Paul Comfort:

of other areas too, whether it's education, whether it is land use.

Paul Comfort:

And also, now, they are working with vulnerable populations who are in the

Paul Comfort:

transit vehicles and transit stations.

Paul Comfort:

In Philadelphia, SEPTA, the transit agency there, has a

Paul Comfort:

program called the SCOPE program.

Paul Comfort:

That stands for Safety, Cleaning, Ownership, Partnership, and Engagement.

Paul Comfort:

The leader of the program is a very engaging man himself,

Paul Comfort:

and his name is Ken Divers.

Paul Comfort:

He's the Director of Outreach Programs.

Paul Comfort:

I sat down with him.

Paul Comfort:

At the recent IMPACT conference to talk about their program along with Flora

Paul Comfort:

Castillo, former APTA chair with a long history in transit and healthcare who's

Paul Comfort:

helping to, consult on this SCOPE program.

Paul Comfort:

They talked to me about how they're working with vulnerable populations

Paul Comfort:

in and around the SEPTA transit system in Philadelphia, what some

Paul Comfort:

of the results have been, and where they're headed with the program.

Paul Comfort:

I think you'll find it a fascinating conversation.

Paul Comfort:

I hope you enjoy it on this episode of Transit Unplugged.

Paul Comfort:

Well, we are in, uh, Phoenix, Arizona, and who would know that I would

Paul Comfort:

meet a neighbor of mine, basically.

Paul Comfort:

Kenneth Divers, uh, who works at SEPTA in Philadelphia.

Paul Comfort:

And I wanted to bring you some very good, interesting information

Paul Comfort:

about a program he runs.

Paul Comfort:

Ken, thanks for being with us.

Ken Divers:

Thank you, Paul.

Ken Divers:

It's great to meet you.

Ken Divers:

I've been heard about you so often and uh, it was always my dream in the

Ken Divers:

industry to meet THE Paul Comfort.

Ken Divers:

So, this is great.

Paul Comfort:

Thank you.

Paul Comfort:

Thank you very much.

Paul Comfort:

I appreciate it.

Paul Comfort:

And I love the work you all are doing at SEPTA under Leslie, uh, there as your CEO.

Paul Comfort:

Um, just phenomenal work.

Ken Divers:

Yes, yes.

Ken Divers:

Leslie is a phenomenal leader.

Ken Divers:

Without, um, her leadership, none of this that we're doing right now, innovatively,

Ken Divers:

would have been possible for us.

Paul Comfort:

That's great.

Paul Comfort:

So kind of interesting story.

Paul Comfort:

We're going to talk about, um, the homeless program that you operate

Paul Comfort:

there, the outreach program that helps, uh, unhoused people and other folks.

Paul Comfort:

Um, but we're at breakfast now.

Paul Comfort:

We were going to go to this conference impact, uh, conference here to their

Paul Comfort:

breakfast, but they moved it up an hour and Ken and I were talking

Paul Comfort:

on the elevator and I said, dude, let's just record this right now.

Paul Comfort:

We were going to do it, uh, Over the phone later, but this worked out great.

Paul Comfort:

Great, terrific.

Paul Comfort:

So Ken, give me, uh, up front a little bit about the program that

Paul Comfort:

you operate right now at SEPTA, which is the Southeastern Pennsylvania

Paul Comfort:

Transportation Authority in Philadelphia.

Paul Comfort:

I think it's the fourth or fifth largest transit system in America.

Ken Divers:

About the fifth or sixth.

Ken Divers:

It kind of vacillates.

Ken Divers:

Yeah, it kind of vacillates.

Ken Divers:

Back in, I've been at SEPTA for about, uh, 29 years this past August.

Ken Divers:

I started in 94, believe it or not, as a bus driver.

Ken Divers:

And, um, I did, I drove the bus for about, uh, 17 years.

Ken Divers:

Did that for about 17 years.

Ken Divers:

I got promoted to an assistant, excuse me, a transportation manager.

Ken Divers:

I did that for a number of years, which was really where I built the Ken Divers

Ken Divers:

brand, um, things that I was involved in, you know, world stage events such

Ken Divers:

as Eagles, when we won the championship, the, uh, Merriam golf tournament.

Ken Divers:

But as a result of that and the work that I put involved, put in place, I

Ken Divers:

got promoted to an assistant director, what we call the chief on the street.

Ken Divers:

I manage over 80 supervisors and also the operators.

Ken Divers:

so did that, got promoted in 2021.

Ken Divers:

Uh, I believe that was February the 7th of 2021, February the 27th, my COO,

Ken Divers:

Scott Sauer, pulled me, uh, to find a solution to this humanitarian crisis

Ken Divers:

that found its way in our system.

Ken Divers:

Now, this crisis of homelessness or the vulnerable population

Ken Divers:

did not start in 2021.

Ken Divers:

As you know, it kind of preceded that.

Ken Divers:

But the pandemic exasperated the issue, like it does with most companies.

Ken Divers:

So, when I brought on Flora Castillo, very, very wonderful

Ken Divers:

woman in the industry.

Ken Divers:

She reached out to me and said, Ken, I see what you're doing.

Ken Divers:

Let's get together.

Ken Divers:

Let's talk about how we want to solve this.

Ken Divers:

And she and I, in a weekend, developed what we call the SCOPE program.

Ken Divers:

SCOPE is an acronym which stands for Safety.

Ken Divers:

Cleaning, Ownership, Partnership, and Engagement, and that is a comprehensive

Ken Divers:

plan to address the social ills that found its way on the transportation company.

Ken Divers:

Now, let me just say this on the onset.

Ken Divers:

My job at SEPTA, SEPTA's job is not to house the homeless.

Ken Divers:

That is not what our core competencies are.

Ken Divers:

Our core competencies, as you know, is to move people.

Ken Divers:

However, we have to rethink our business model.

Ken Divers:

And one of the ways to do that, Paul, is to find a solution or find a framework

Ken Divers:

that we can bring in social workers, or what I call certified peer specialists.

Ken Divers:

Those people who have lived experience, who were once members

Ken Divers:

of the vulnerable community.

Ken Divers:

And just for the audience's sake, many people ask, why do

Ken Divers:

we call them the vulnerable community instead of the homeless?

Ken Divers:

Because the vulnerable community, they have members.

Ken Divers:

Who are suffering from, sexual abuse, elder abuse, mental health

Ken Divers:

abuse, uh, or, or, or suffrage.

Ken Divers:

We have people in that community who are young adults, and then

Ken Divers:

we also have members of that community who are homeless.

Ken Divers:

And that's why we call them the vulnerable community.

Ken Divers:

Gotcha.

Ken Divers:

So a part of the vulnerable community, what we do is, is I bring on, uh,

Ken Divers:

I think back then in 2021, we.

Ken Divers:

Uh, contracted with three outreach firms and the RFP was written as such that when

Ken Divers:

these individuals or these certified peer specialists or MSWs, BSWs, and for those

Ken Divers:

who don't know MSWs, Masters of Social Work, BSW, Bachelors of Social Work.

Ken Divers:

Yes, most of these outreach workers are credentialed.

Ken Divers:

A lot of them are, but most of them are not.

Ken Divers:

They're what we call certified peer specialists.

Ken Divers:

And again, as I said before, these are people who have lived

Ken Divers:

experience who came out of that.

Ken Divers:

that community.

Ken Divers:

Now, I myself was a member of the vulnerable community.

Ken Divers:

I used to live in an abandoned building when I was in my early

Ken Divers:

twenties for quite a while.

Ken Divers:

Um, my little brother currently is still out there.

Ken Divers:

Matter of fact, my outreach members that I hire probably have engaged my family

Ken Divers:

members, my little brother, my little sister, who's out there, my older brother

Ken Divers:

before he passed, my nephew, my uncles.

Ken Divers:

So this is very near and dear to my heart, Paul.

Ken Divers:

So what we do is with our outreach teams, my outreach team, we go and

Ken Divers:

we engage this vulnerable community and we lead them off the system.

Ken Divers:

We offer them services, a wealth of services, housing, mental

Ken Divers:

health treatment facilities.

Ken Divers:

I mean, I can go on and on down the line.

Ken Divers:

Now, what we do differently, what's unique with us, with SEPTA in Philadelphia, is

Ken Divers:

when an individual refuse service, the love, the care, the compassion that we

Ken Divers:

show them and that we offer them, when they refuse service, what my team does,

Ken Divers:

we gently ask them to leave the system.

Ken Divers:

We do not tell them, we do not kick them off, we gently ask them.

Ken Divers:

If you can leave this system and believe it or not, we have

Ken Divers:

a 70 percent success rate.

Ken Divers:

70 percent Now, I know we only have a few moments, so I don't, I don't have

Ken Divers:

to, I can't get into everything that we're doing under the SCOPE program,

Ken Divers:

but just some highlight features.

Ken Divers:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Let's talk about unpacking.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

The folks who listen can maybe mirror some of these that are successful.

Ken Divers:

So one of the things that we did, we knew very earlier

Ken Divers:

on that partnership is so crucial.

Ken Divers:

That's the P in scope.

Ken Divers:

Again, safety, cleaning, ownership, partnership, and engagement.

Ken Divers:

But let's just kind of back up a little bit with the ownership piece.

Ken Divers:

Many believe that transit companies should own the problem and employ and

Ken Divers:

deploy increased levels of enforcement to address this humanitarian crisis.

Ken Divers:

Well, number one, transit companies have owned the problem.

Ken Divers:

We have in some cases have employed and deployed increased levels of enforcement.

Ken Divers:

I know we have.

Ken Divers:

However, enforcement cannot solve the issue.

Ken Divers:

And SEPTA transit companies cannot do this on its own and that's why what we

Ken Divers:

do, we advocate with our state legislator in Pennsylvania, our city council.

Ken Divers:

Our mayor's office, our managing director's office, et cetera,

Ken Divers:

to take ownership of this public health crisis that found its way

Ken Divers:

on this public transit system.

Ken Divers:

And as a result of that, we were able to build a robust network of

Ken Divers:

partners within our service area.

Ken Divers:

SEPTA is in five counties.

Ken Divers:

We're in three states.

Ken Divers:

We service over 2, 200 service miles.

Ken Divers:

So we were able to build a robust network of partners, including

Ken Divers:

universities such as Drexel University, where we have, this is our third

Ken Divers:

cohort, the third year doing this.

Ken Divers:

We have 17 first year medical students doing their six month

Ken Divers:

practicum on our system, and we call them health navigators.

Ken Divers:

Now, these first year medical students, they are regaled in a

Ken Divers:

vest that's emblazoned with the trappings of SEPTA and their logo,

Ken Divers:

and we call them health navigators.

Ken Divers:

And these medical students, they go onto our property, at our stations, on

Ken Divers:

our trains, to engage the vulnerable community, to lead them off the system

Ken Divers:

and in the places where they can get help and it's been successful.

Ken Divers:

This is our third year doing it.

Ken Divers:

We also have a relationship with another university, Cabrini University,

Ken Divers:

and um, they gave us their health and exercise science students.

Ken Divers:

And because of these partnerships, we were, we were

Ken Divers:

contacted by Newman University.

Ken Divers:

We were contacted by LaSalle University because they want

Ken Divers:

to get into the fray as well.

Ken Divers:

but these are some unique partnerships, but not to be outdone.

Ken Divers:

We even had a company called Northeast Treatment Center, AKA NET.

Ken Divers:

They actually read about what we were doing and wanted to

Ken Divers:

be a part of the solution.

Ken Divers:

They knocked on our door and said, Ken, We believe what SEPTA is doing to

Ken Divers:

address this crisis, how can we help?

Paul Comfort:

Okay, so you've got all these volunteers and then you've

Paul Comfort:

got some paid staff it sounds like.

Paul Comfort:

So let's, let's get real down to earth practical.

Paul Comfort:

So I'm sitting on a bus, I'm a vulnerable person, I don't really

Paul Comfort:

have any other place to go.

Paul Comfort:

Absolutely.

Paul Comfort:

It's warm on the bus.

Paul Comfort:

So I want to sit on there.

Paul Comfort:

Uh, one of your folks addresses, comes to me.

Paul Comfort:

What happens then?

Ken Divers:

Yes.

Ken Divers:

Great question.

Ken Divers:

So, uh, actually it's two, we, we work in pairs of two and we're not, and we

Ken Divers:

are, and we are not tethered by police.

Ken Divers:

We do have our own police force, SEPTA police.

Ken Divers:

My outreach team is not tethered by SEPTA police because they're not connected.

Ken Divers:

Sometimes the cop go out with that.

Ken Divers:

Yes.

Ken Divers:

And that's called a.

Ken Divers:

That as you, I don't know if you're familiar with it, but

Ken Divers:

that's called a co responder model.

Ken Divers:

That's right.

Ken Divers:

Yeah.

Ken Divers:

Yes.

Ken Divers:

When you have a police officer with an outreach worker, I'm not a

Ken Divers:

big fan of the co responder model.

Ken Divers:

And I'm going to tell you why, because as those co responder models are ambulatory.

Ken Divers:

In other words, instead of being static at a station, a hotspot

Ken Divers:

location, they're ambulatory.

Ken Divers:

They move around to the system.

Ken Divers:

It's very difficult to measure their success.

Ken Divers:

Okay.

Ken Divers:

So you guys are on the buses.

Ken Divers:

Mike, well, we're not on the buses because believe it or not.

Ken Divers:

We don't, in Philadelphia, we don't have a major issue with our buses.

Ken Divers:

We have them on our stations with our subway, our elevated,

Ken Divers:

our, our trolley stations.

Ken Divers:

That's where the issues are.

Paul Comfort:

So, okay, so now I'm sitting at a station.

Paul Comfort:

You're sitting at a station.

Paul Comfort:

I've been there for three hours.

Paul Comfort:

Exactly.

Ken Divers:

All right, so then what happens?

Ken Divers:

Great question.

Ken Divers:

My team works in pairs of two, they go into the station, they may see 10

Ken Divers:

people experiencing homelessness, or 10 vulnerable individuals at that station.

Ken Divers:

My team go and they say, hey guys, my name is Ken, this is Paul, we're from

Ken Divers:

SEPTA Outreach, we're here to help you.

Ken Divers:

Anything you need, we're gonna offer that to you.

Ken Divers:

Uh, housing, mental health, etc.

Paul Comfort:

I'm hungry and I'm cold.

Paul Comfort:

Absolutely.

Paul Comfort:

Okay, that's my thank you.

Paul Comfort:

I'm hungry and I'm cold, so what are you gonna say to me?

Ken Divers:

Oh, come with me.

Ken Divers:

Okay.

Ken Divers:

We will take you and we will do what we call a warm handoff.

Ken Divers:

To one of our other service providers that would take you off

Ken Divers:

the system and get you in that place of respite where you can get help.

Ken Divers:

Here's the interesting thing.

Ken Divers:

99 percent of those people that we've experienced says no.

Ken Divers:

They just do not want service.

Ken Divers:

They don't want to go?

Ken Divers:

They do not want service, Paul.

Ken Divers:

This is a hard reality to me.

Ken Divers:

Wow.

Ken Divers:

When I started this in 2021, I did not realize that, that 99 percent of

Ken Divers:

the individuals that we experience, experiencing homelessness or a vulnerable

Ken Divers:

community, they just do not want service.

Paul Comfort:

Okay, so you come to me and you offer me, come

Paul Comfort:

with us, we're going to get you.

Paul Comfort:

some blankets, we'll get you a place to stay, and some food,

Paul Comfort:

and I say, no, no, no, I don't want that, so then what happens?

Ken Divers:

What happens is, my team says, we understand you don't want

Ken Divers:

service, my name is Ken, here's our card, reach out to me if you need me.

Ken Divers:

By the way, do us a favor, do you mind, you know, SEPTA is not

Ken Divers:

meant for human habitation, do you mind stepping off the property?

Ken Divers:

We don't kick people off, we don't push people off our property.

Ken Divers:

We guide them off the property.

Ken Divers:

Okay.

Ken Divers:

Believe it or not, Paul, um, and this is non enforcement, it's non enforcement,

Ken Divers:

but believe it or not, 70 percent of those individuals actually get up and leave.

Ken Divers:

You know why?

Ken Divers:

Because we treat them with dignity and with respect.

Ken Divers:

Now, so 70 percent of those individuals actually leave the system without

Ken Divers:

being coerced or forced or anything.

Ken Divers:

Now, to put that into perspective, last year, Our outreach team, we had

Ken Divers:

over 44, 000 removals off the system.

Ken Divers:

44, 000.

Ken Divers:

And sometimes those who were experiencing violent tendencies,

Ken Divers:

we had to call SEPTA police.

Ken Divers:

SEPTA police had to come and address those issues and remove those individuals

Ken Divers:

who were showing violent tendencies.

Ken Divers:

But our team, without the aid of SEPTA police, Paul, we had about, I

Ken Divers:

think it was about 38, 000 removals without the aid of SEPTA police.

Paul Comfort:

Gotcha.

Paul Comfort:

So let's, let's, uh, break out a little bit into the services that are offered.

Paul Comfort:

Mm hmm.

Paul Comfort:

Okay, so we just went through a potential story that you would say come.

Paul Comfort:

Alright, so tell us about your partners.

Ken Divers:

Yes, we partnered with the Philadelphia Office of

Ken Divers:

Homeless Services, Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral Health and

Ken Divers:

Intellectual Disability Services.

Ken Divers:

We partnered with a lot of the homeless service providers within the city of

Ken Divers:

Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.

Ken Divers:

Such as Gaudenza House, Your Way Home.

Ken Divers:

There's so many partners that we can't even get on this three minute podcast.

Ken Divers:

Yeah.

Ken Divers:

But it's so many partners that we partner with.

Ken Divers:

In fact, SEPTA actually have access to, Philadelphia Office of Homeless

Ken Divers:

Services, HMIS system, and HMIS is a homeless management information system.

Ken Divers:

Most transit companies have access, may have access to that via their

Ken Divers:

outreach firm that they hire, however.

Ken Divers:

Not so with us.

Ken Divers:

Our outreach firm had access to the HMIS system through SEPTA

Ken Divers:

for us, which is very unique.

Ken Divers:

Very unique.

Ken Divers:

And why is that important?

Ken Divers:

Because we can easily manage those folks that my outreach team

Ken Divers:

engages and better give them what they need to see where they were.

Ken Divers:

Where were you last week in the system?

Ken Divers:

We can better identify those things.

Ken Divers:

So that's why it was very crucial.

Ken Divers:

Flora and I dealt with the Homeless Management Information System for

Ken Divers:

quite some time, trying to advocate to get that on board, and we were

Ken Divers:

able to successfully do that.

Ken Divers:

Not to be outdone, Paul, we've also purchased 500 emergency shelter

Ken Divers:

beds from the Office of Homeless Services so that any individuals

Ken Divers:

that our outreach team engages, we have places actually for them to go.

Ken Divers:

Now, mind you, this is temporary.

Ken Divers:

It is an emergency shelter bed.

Ken Divers:

It is not a long term housing.

Ken Divers:

We are working very aggressively to get long term housing, work with our partners.

Ken Divers:

But I want to say this and as we wind down, Paul, SEPTA, we do

Ken Divers:

not measure our success by how many folks we get into housing.

Ken Divers:

We measure our success by how many individuals we get off the system.

Ken Divers:

Our secondary benefit is to get those person housing.

Ken Divers:

But my mantra that I always say, I shared this with you the other day.

Ken Divers:

Our goal is to make homelessness on SEPTA rare, brief, and non recurring,

Ken Divers:

while creating an environment that is clean and safe for our employees

Ken Divers:

first, and then for our riders.

Ken Divers:

In that order.

Paul Comfort:

Very great partnerships you've got going there.

Paul Comfort:

Now, um, you just won an award last year for all this, right?

Paul Comfort:

At APTA for your program, SCOPE?

Ken Divers:

We did, yes.

Ken Divers:

We won, uh, APTA's 2022 Innovation Award.

Ken Divers:

Uh, last year we accepted that award in Seattle.

Paul Comfort:

That's awesome, man.

Paul Comfort:

And if people want to know more about this so they can, you know,

Paul Comfort:

check it out, where can they look?

Ken Divers:

Sure.

Ken Divers:

Uh, they can go on our SEPTA's website, septa.

Ken Divers:

org, and under there, there's a tab you click on safety, and then

Ken Divers:

you'll see, uh, scope program.

Ken Divers:

In the scope program, you'll see a wealth of information for me.

Ken Divers:

My contact information is there, kdivers at septa.

Ken Divers:

org.

Ken Divers:

Um, you can also call me at 215 580 8105.

Paul Comfort:

I think that's a first.

Paul Comfort:

I don't think, at 265 episodes anybody's ever given their Phone number.

Paul Comfort:

So that's great, man.

Paul Comfort:

Thank you.

Paul Comfort:

Absolutely.

Paul Comfort:

No worries.

Paul Comfort:

Well, Ken, this is an amazing program, and it sounds like you're

Paul Comfort:

having great success with it.

Ken Divers:

Yes, we are.

Ken Divers:

We have a lot of work to do, Paul.

Ken Divers:

I would never say scope is the panacea.

Ken Divers:

Yeah.

Ken Divers:

But it is a framework that we can build and pivot where necessary.

Ken Divers:

So we do have a lot of work to do, but the needle is moving in the right direction.

Paul Comfort:

That's great.

Paul Comfort:

And we've been joined here at breakfast now by a big name in the industry, Ms.

Paul Comfort:

Flora Castillo, who kind of helped put this together.

Paul Comfort:

Hey, Flora.

Paul Comfort:

Good morning, Paul.

Paul Comfort:

You know, I've wanted to get you on this podcast for years.

Paul Comfort:

So look, I roped you in this morning.

Flora Castillo:

So pleased to be here with you and obviously Ken has done

Flora Castillo:

such a great job at SEPTA with the implementation and then pretty much the

Flora Castillo:

design implementation of the program.

Flora Castillo:

We were just, you know, as a consultant on the project him we're impressed by the,

Flora Castillo:

leadership of our general manager, Leslie Richards, who, you know, told Ken and I

Flora Castillo:

to just be as innovative as possible, try anything, because, um, she did see this as

Flora Castillo:

a business imperative to be able to ensure that the system was safe, and that the

Flora Castillo:

employees felt, uh, safe coming to work, so that our riders could come back to

Flora Castillo:

work, so, um, I would say, uh, as someone that's been, um, very passionate about the

Flora Castillo:

intersection of homeless In transit and healthcare, I was pleased to, help develop

Flora Castillo:

a holistic approach that not only, shows our, uh, riders and our, uh, partners

Flora Castillo:

what we're doing, but also engages them in and activates them to do and support

Flora Castillo:

us because we cannot do this alone.

Flora Castillo:

We need partners.

Flora Castillo:

We need the housing, players.

Flora Castillo:

We need the mental health providers.

Flora Castillo:

We need the elected officials who control policy.

Flora Castillo:

And, uh, we need our employees and, you know, anyone who, um, you

Flora Castillo:

know, needs to support this effort.

Paul Comfort:

So, it sounds like you guys have done that, though.

Paul Comfort:

You've partnered with a lot of people.

Paul Comfort:

This is an industry that, I mean, this is an issue.

Paul Comfort:

That's affecting more than just SEPTA.

Paul Comfort:

It's affecting everyone.

Paul Comfort:

You have a great perspective on the industry as a whole.

Paul Comfort:

What's your thoughts on that?

Flora Castillo:

indeed, Paul.

Flora Castillo:

This is an issue that was with us before the pandemic, but, um, post COVID,

Flora Castillo:

obviously, has continued to exacerbate because there's just so many issues

Flora Castillo:

that, um, have created this condition.

Flora Castillo:

lack of affordable housing, uh, lack of good paying jobs, um, the,

Flora Castillo:

uh, issues around accessing, uh, treatment beds for individuals who are

Flora Castillo:

having a substance use, um, disorder.

Flora Castillo:

In our industry, um, what I've noticed over the years is that we have really

Flora Castillo:

started to own the issue in terms of, using the power of transit as a convener.

Flora Castillo:

As an educator, as a, um, you know, community stakeholder to bring the

Flora Castillo:

parties together to, build the bridges, anywhere you go, um, LA Metro under the

Flora Castillo:

leadership of Stephanie Wiggins is doing a great job in thinking about multiple

Flora Castillo:

innovations, you know, CTA in Chicago under the, um, you know, Dorval Carter are

Flora Castillo:

trying new innovative ways of partnering.

Flora Castillo:

you have small systems, uh, in Orlando where we were just, doing APTA where

Flora Castillo:

the new, uh, executive director is, is looking at ways to how to, uh,

Flora Castillo:

approach this because not only does it affect, uh, riders, but it affects,

Flora Castillo:

um, tourism, it affects how people, uh, show up in, in the downtown, so.

Flora Castillo:

I would say that as someone that, um, loves this industry and sees, um, the

Flora Castillo:

innovate, the ways that we need to approach it, I'm very, pleased on how

Flora Castillo:

in the progress that we're making.

Flora Castillo:

And, it's not our issue.

Flora Castillo:

It's a societal issue.

Flora Castillo:

And, uh, we're making a dent in terms of breaking those silos and bringing

Flora Castillo:

other, you know, other people together.

Flora Castillo:

The last thing I would say Paul is that I'm very happy that, um, you know,

Flora Castillo:

the Biden, uh, Harris administration has created the All Inside Initiative

Flora Castillo:

under the auspices of the Interagency Coordinating Council on Homelessness,

Flora Castillo:

where they have identified six cities, plus the whole state of California, to

Flora Castillo:

provide technical assistance that cuts across housing, so if you think about HUD,

Flora Castillo:

they send money for the emergency shelters and others, health and human services,

Flora Castillo:

mental health, We heard just yesterday they are making some significant, um,

Flora Castillo:

uh, changes and impact by just changing small things that are breaking silos

Flora Castillo:

amongst all these different providers that get in the way for people getting,

Flora Castillo:

uh, housing ultimately and then through a, you know, to a path of independence.

Paul Comfort:

That's great.

Paul Comfort:

Well, thank you both for the work you're doing at SEPTA and thank

Paul Comfort:

you for sharing that today with our audience here on Transit Unplugged.

Ken Divers:

Thank you, Paul.

Flora Castillo:

Thank you, Paul.

Tris Hussey:

Hi, thIs is Tris Hussey editor of the Transit Unplugged Podcast.

Tris Hussey:

And thank you for listening to this week's episode with our special

Tris Hussey:

guests Ken Divers and Flora Castillo.

Tris Hussey:

Now coming up next week on the show, we have Adam Barth, CEO of the

Tris Hussey:

Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority.

Tris Hussey:

Talking about consolidating two agencies into one.

Tris Hussey:

And the advice he got from an early mentor that makes him a better CEO today.

Tris Hussey:

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