Heroes of The Homeless Crisis: How Savonna Stender-Bondesson of Pivotal is Helping To Support Some Of The Most Vulnerable People In Our Communities
Seeing folks struggle isn’t easy, and it’s even more difficult to be that person, so use your empathy. Before you look away, or try to avoid eye contact (as many do), imagine what it must be like to be experiencing a stay on the streets. “Not easy” would be an understatement. Say hi, treat them with dignity, respect, and kindness and most importantly, know that any small acts of kindness really do matter and can even echo beyond that moment for others.
As a part of my series about “Heroes Of The Homeless Crisis” I had the pleasure of interviewing Savonna Stender-Bondesson.
Savonna is the Director of Coaching Programs at Pivotal, a non-profit in the Bay Area focused on academic and career coaching for youth currently and formerly in foster care. Savonna has been working as a social worker in the Bay Area for the last six years.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your personal background, and how you grew up?
I was born and raised in San Jose, California. Growing up, there was a lot going on in my family so at 18 I decided to ‘get away.’ I moved to Utah to live and go to school by myself, figuring out a lot on my own. I found my passion for working with teenagers when I worked with homeless youth in a downtown shelter and in a transitional living facility. I came back to California to pursue social work and earned my Master’s in Social Work at SJSU. I have intentionally focused my work in education equity spaces because education was how I was able to get out and do my thing, so it’s very personal to me when I can help those who also want it. More recently, I’ve been interested in healthcare advocacy, especially at end-of-life stages, because I was a caretaker to my mother who died from ALS. From that very personal experience I learned that the medical care system needs to get overhauled. That might be my next step.
Is there a story or incident that inspired you to get involved in your work helping people who are homeless?
There was this time when I was working graveyard shifts at a motel while I was still in my undergrad program. We routinely threw away blankets, comforters, you name it, that weren’t suitable for the business. We had some blankets; each had just one cigarette burn but were otherwise clean and had been washed. We were about to throw them out when I had someone come to the door in the middle of the night and tell me how cold he was (I had moved to somewhere where winters were harsh). I just decided right then and there he was going to get those clean blankets, even if my employer might not think it was the “right” thing to do. From there, I worked with folks who were houseless, and those currently and formerly in foster care. There is much overlap between the two populations as many foster youth end up experiencing homelessness at some point in their lives.
Homelessness has been a problem for a long time in the United States. But it seems that it has gotten a lot worse over the past five years, particularly in the large cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, and San Francisco. Can you explain to our readers what brought us to this place? Where did this crisis come from?
Where do we begin? Systemic issues are seen as ‘too big to tackle’ but that’s what keeps cycles of crisis occurring. On-the-ground work is excellent work and systems need to compassionately change for there to be the kind of relief and the kind of dignity given back to those who have lost so much in the last few years, including their homes. We have not prioritized economic justice, so that folks can have equitable opportunities to create a material life that can then allow them to move beyond paycheck to paycheck. Data from Nielsen in 2019 as well as Bankrate’s latest financial security index have both found that 3 in 10 adults have no emergency savings and that even families making $150,000 a year are living paycheck to paycheck. In San Francisco, a family would need a combined $350,000 a year to even barely fit into lower-middle class. Bankrate also found that student loans, credit cards, and unexpected medical expenses deal such a huge blow to an individual’s economic situation. The same study noted stagnant wages along with rising costs of living making the struggle even harder. The modern economy leaves too many people out. Median household incomes in black households are still 61% of that of a similar white household. Median income in 1970 for black households was $23, 800 and in 2018 was about $33,000. This pay gap has persisted over time and is just one example of economic injustice disproportionately affecting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). Having to live paycheck to paycheck does not leave folks with the ability to think outside of survival and instead be able to live and think of themselves as workers with autonomy, creativity, and dignity. Too many people feel like a cog in the machine. BIPOC are disproportionately affected by inequitable economic systems and policies, and have been all throughout history. BIPOC are also disproportionately represented in the foster care system, so now imagine being system-raised, BIPOC, and trying to live independently when your chances of economic thriving are so highly different from those of white counterparts who have not lived with foster care experience.
For the benefit of our readers, can you describe the typical progression of how one starts as a healthy young person with a place to live, a job, an education, a family support system, a social support system, a community support system, to an individual who is sleeping on the ground at night? How does that progression occur?
No same person has the same progression. What I can tell you from my own experience in this field is that homelessness is not typically the result of some series of unfortunate events or ‘bad choices’ that snowballed out of control. Instead, it’s the result of one or two things that fall out of place, which bring a person’s or family’s life to a place of houselessness and instability. Job loss, mental or other health issues that are inadequately addressed due to poor healthcare access, toxic stress levels, an argument with a roommate who kicks you out, all these things and then some can play a factor.
In my work with foster youth, I have seen a young person have a disagreement with a roommate who initially agreed to provide a temporary stay on their couch and then within a day was living in their car again. They had already outstayed the maximum amount of days they would be provided in a shelter that serves former foster and they were also no longer in the foster care system, which meant no housing support from their county. The rules in some of the shelters and other housing options are meant to keep some structure but are also often even more restrictive than one might have for their own teens. Have you ever stayed out longer with friends than your parents wanted you to? Well, in a place with a never-ending influx of foster youth or others in need, that could be grounds for expulsion from the program. It does not take much, and it is not always avoidable.
I have also watched a foster youth who had a landlord who was relentless about receiving their rent payment on time with no consideration for the circumstance, evict them for being 6 days late on rent for the very first time. The youth had been working, and through no fault of their own, the organization they were now employed by had miscommunicated start dates, causing a delay in when she could begin and receive her first paycheck. Because of the delays, the organization opted to pay the youth through digital means (PayPal), but with a typical three day hold on transfers to bank accounts, it caused another delay. Three delays were too much, and that youth ended up in their car for some time again.
A question that many people who are not familiar with the intricacies of this problem ask is, “Why don’t homeless people just move to a city that has cheaper housing?” How do you answer this question?
First, moving itself is expensive. Generally, if you are moving more than 100 miles, without even factoring in movers, you could spend on average anywhere from $900-$2,000 with the cost of gas, truck rental, moving items, and motel stays. Second, moving somewhere with cheaper housing is not a solution in and of itself. Cheaper housing might come with a less favorable job market, with less available opportunities. Lastly and most importantly, folks who are houseless are human just like any one of us. We have friends, family, close relationships, places we enjoy. None of these things are less so for someone who is houseless. In some cases, these very things might provide the support someone needs to get back to housing stability. They’re just as important for anyone. Foster youth, as with anyone, are drawn to the Bay Area and to Silicon Valley. Even entry-level, minimum wage jobs here in San Jose pay 2x as much as the federal minimum wage, even though that is still not enough to live solo in Bay Area rents. Transportation, resources, and job opportunities abound and are growing compared to rural or less expensive areas. Foster youth also have families, connections, and roots. I know so many foster youth who have taken on informal responsibility for younger siblings in and out of the system themselves, so they inevitably make choices not just for themselves since it also affects others they care about.
If someone passes a homeless person on the street, what is the best way to help them?
Seeing folks struggle isn’t easy, and it’s even more difficult to be that person, so use your empathy. Before you look away, or try to avoid eye contact (as many do), imagine what it must be like to be experiencing a stay on the streets. “Not easy” would be an understatement. Say hi, treat them with dignity, respect, and kindness and most importantly, know that any small acts of kindness really do matter and can even echo beyond that moment for others.
What is the best way to respond if a homeless person asks for money for rent or gas?
You know yourself best and you know how comfortable you may be in responding to this request. I would suggest if you’re uncomfortable or cannot support them financially, try to know about some local resources that you can give to them to search for their material needs. Some local shelters and other coalitions tackling homelessness have info cards that you can keep with you.
Can you describe to our readers how your work is making an impact battling this crisis?
We’re tackling a small part of this crisis but know this: 40–50% of foster youth will become houseless within 18 months of leaving the system. Our scholars are persisting in high school with diplomas, persisting in community college, and graduating with their bachelor’s degrees at 10x the national rate of their foster youth peers. Education can’t be taken away from someone, nor can the confidence and skills they build in our career readiness and summer internship programs. We’re coaching and preparing the most vulnerable youth to have the skills, abilities, critical thinking, and leadership necessary to live economically, independently, and to become future allies and leaders in the homelessness and foster youth space.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the homeless crisis, and the homeless community? Also how has it affected your ability to help people?
It’s not easy to be living in a pandemic without space to social distance or keep yourself as safe as one might like or need to. It has affected our ability to help people, but only in that it has forced us to work within the new parameters. The work hasn’t stopped and it’s not going to. The most surprising fact for folks in the community to know is that the digital divide is huge. Even foster youth do not always have reliable access to technology including phones or computers, nor reliable Wi-Fi, which are an absolute must now with digital learning. Our first step once we moved to digital work was to do a huge survey of who had reliable access to technology and internet. We then followed that all the way through to securing funding specifically to ensure that our foster youth had the laptops, phones, and internet service needed to not only do their virtual work, but to stay connected with their Pivotal coaches.
Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?
Right now, what makes me most proud is how quickly Pivotal moved to create an Emergency Assistance Fund for our scholars. We had it up and running with all hands-on deck within two weeks of shelter-in-place. Through the EAF we supported not only some of our scholars who are without a home, but also supported scholars with financial assistance so that they could keep their places of residence and not become homeless.
In our first Emergency Assistance requests, we had a young person who desperately needed rent money. At the beginning of the pandemic she got laid off from her customer service job and had just turned 18, so her financial assistance from foster care had not yet transferred to her name. She had also just moved to a new place and now had no way to stay current on payments. We helped with 1 month of rent, which helped relieve the financial and emotional stress. Luckily, she ended up getting a job soon after and was able to support herself. In a big picture snapshot, 45% of our emergency assistance money went to support rent payments and 50% to groceries. That’s an astonishing amount of basic need that foster youth could not support on their own and needed to ask for financial assistance for in order to just live.
Without sharing real names, can you share a story with our readers about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your work?
I worked with a young person who was constantly having housing instability. They were back and forth from living in a shelter space, while also spending time in their car, friend’s houses, and hotels. Luckily, they were able to finally find a permanent living situation. We were with them every step of the way, through every journey to look for new housing, to making sure they got meals while living in their car and hotel. That’s not the part that makes me proud, though — I am so proud of that scholar. They went through all of that while still staying active in college and getting through classes. They want to be a doctor someday.
Can you share three things that the community and society can do to help you address the root of this crisis? Can you give some examples?
I’m all about the preventative, but of course many needs are present and current.
Give to organizations who not only serve the homeless but who also work to prevent homelessness from happening. Stable jobs, stable necessities, stable connections also help prevent homelessness.
Advocate for (with your voice, your money, your anything) mental health resources that are not only affordable and accessible, but also destigmatize seeking mental health. JAMA Internal Medicine did a randomized study on 40,000 people and found that while 8% were living with depression, less than 30% were seeking treatment. Not seeking treatment happens for several reasons.
Serve as a mentor, especially if you aren’t white. It’s important for foster youth, as well as any child, to have strong mentors who look like them and come from their communities.
If you had the power to influence legislation, which three laws would you like to see introduced that might help you in your work?
- Legislation that provides quality access to internet for all areas of the United States. Internet should be a utility like gas, water, heat, and not a service.
- Legislation or laws that allow parents and families to be in Court prior to children being removed. Once youth enter the foster care courts it can be so difficult to get out. Why not bring the family and professionals together to work on things before that happens? It just seems to happen too quickly without much parent input.
- National legislation that gives foster youth the choice to stay in care from 18–21. California has this, called AB12, but not every state does, and some are still leaving the system at age 18, sometimes still in high school at that age.
I know that this is not easy work. What keeps you going?
People. People from all walks of life fill me up with so much love and bring me so much joy. I love working on behalf of someone and for someone. I see myself always being in this kind of helping work.
Do you have hope that one day this great social challenge can be solved completely?
I do, it keeps me going, but will it ever really happen? I don’t know the answer to that.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
Speak up. I have spent too much time thinking others had better things to say than me.
It is okay to feel and speak from the heart when something does not feel like it is serving your community or your population.
That not everyone is going to “get” the work you do. Find people who do, or at least people willing to listen and love on you during the tougher days.
Find things you enjoy outside of work. When you are in this field, it is not just a job, it feels like a life mission, but even your life needs things that fill you up, too. I like to try new things and try to get good at them. Most recently, I bought a motorcycle and I’ve been practicing riding.
You come in with heart and think you could never be racist, or judgmental, or biased. You are. We all are. Don’t stop working on knowing when those things come up for you and how to address them.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
To be honest, I’m a white cisgender queer woman, that is to say: I don’t need to inspire a new movement, I need to support my BIPOC colleagues who are already creating, sustaining, and maintaining movements. The work must get done before, during, and after, and we all need to share the weight to keep something going.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Everyone is and can be a leader. I have spent too much time in my professional life thinking others knew more or were smarter. Here’s the real deal: you’re intelligent, you know yourself, raise your hand in class, say that thing in the meeting, because the world needs you and your leadership.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Laverne Cox. I saw her speak once at an event near me and a child came up to her on stage and asked about how to deal with bullies who were mistreating her since she likes to dress in “boy clothes.” Laverne had a beautiful response, of which I can’t remember all of it, but what stuck with me was her beautiful way of “being” with the child. She bent forward, asked her to come closer, and just wrapped her up in so much love and compassion and kindness. I’d love to feel that energy for an hour. Also, have you seen her dance videos on Instagram? She’s fire.
How can our readers follow you online?
I’d rather folks follow my org at Pivotalnow.org for insightful and creative content on what we are doing during this crisis on behalf of young people.
I can also be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/savonna-stender-bondesson/
This was very meaningful, thank you so much!
Heroes of The Homeless Crisis: How Savonna Stender-Bondesson of Pivotal is Helping To Support Some… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
