Nearly two months after setting off from their Hope the Mission headquarters in North Hills, founder and CEO Ken Craft and President Rowan Vansleve have completed their 3,500-mile bike trek to Washington, D.C., to raise nationwide awareness of the plight of the homeless.
The pair arrived at the capital on May 2, after leaving the San Fernando Valley-based nonprofit on March 12. They’ve spent their time there calling on and meeting with several representatives to discuss the homelessness crisis, among them Congressmen Jim Costa, Mike Garcia and Brad Sherman.
“[We’ve been meeting with] each of these groups just talking about how do we make homeless[ness] history in the United States and start addressing the systemic problems that are leading to such a high level of poverty,” Vansleve said.
“We’ve been stuck at about 12% of the population living in poverty for a really long time. It’s time to make some structural changes to allow people to end their poverty and move forward and truly be a part of the United States.”
On Tuesday, May 7, Sherman presented the men with a $850,000 check to build permanent supportive housing for seniors experiencing homelessness. Hope the Mission has been looking at a piece of land in North Hills to build the project, Vansleve said, to start construction in the fourth quarter of the year and open it early next year.
The two men undertook this long journey – dubbed “Cycle to the Capitol. Understanding Homelessness from Coast to Coast” – to fundraise for a new sobriety shelter for women. The goal is to raise $700,000 – half to build the shelter and the other half for services. As of press time, the nonprofit has raised over $380,000.
The journey was anything but easy. Tornado warnings, uneven terrain and a bout of pneumonia were all things the men encountered during their trek. One of the most difficult parts, Vansleve said, was biking through the Appalachian Mountains and going up and down its many hills.
“One day, we did about 6,000 feet in elevation, so anyone who’s thinking about riding across America, don’t do it,” Vansleve warned. “The Appalachians will break you in half. It was absolutely exhausting.”
Craft’s and Vansleve’s journey took them to various major cities across multiple states, including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Amarillo, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During their visits, they learned about what services are available for the homeless in those locations; the stories they collected will be used in a documentary to explore what is and isn’t working in those areas of the country.
Albuquerque was a particular standout for Vansleve. He said that the city had created a community safety response as the third branch of public safety, in addition to police and fire departments, where social workers act as a de-escalating force in response to a person suffering from psychosis or a manic attack.
Vansleve also developed a greater understanding that homelessness is no longer a political issue. One of the first things to do when addressing the problem is to treat people with dignity.
“For too long, it’s been a political football argument about how we’re going to pay for it,” Vansleve said. “Different plans, different theories on ending homelessness rather than … saying this is not acceptable and we’re going to do everything we can to end homelessness in the United States.”
Conversely, Vansleve said that conservative states were not accessing all the resources from the federal government and letting them pass through to the local community. Oklahoma City, he felt, was an example of a community not getting the help it needed. Vansleve described seeing a deficit of affordable housing and protections around evictions, making homelessness a common occurrence.
“We can do better, just with better policy protections of renters to ensure that if somebody is housing insecure, we create those guardrails where we can keep them inside. Because we know, statistically, once somebody’s living on the streets, their mental health declines, the rate of addiction goes up and the rate of trauma goes up and bringing them back inside is just so much more expensive,” Vansleve said.
Craft and Vansleve will continue to meet with other political officials before returning home on Saturday, May 11. Although their cross-country ride is over, the fundraiser for the women’s shelter will remain open until it reaches its goal.
When asked if there was anything Vansleve specifically learned during the trek that he’ll incorporate into his work at the nonprofit, he responded, “The biggest theme of everything we learned along the way is that Hope [the Mission] has to be a place where everyone is welcome. … We’ve become very tribalized and if we are to rise up and meet this crisis head-on, we are going to have to come together.”
To donate to the “Cycle to the Capitol” fundraiser, go to https://support.hopethemission.org/campaign/cycle-to-the-capitol/c550269.