# Mayor's Task Force to End Homelessness - February 11, 2026 > Auto-transcribed civic record · February 11, 2026 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6688 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6688?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2026-02-11 - **Last revised**: February 13, 2026 - **Length**: 11,467 words - **Speakers**: Clerk, Chair > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1, with speaker labels folded in from Granicus closed-captioning. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington Task Force convened at the Lexington History Museum for this meeting. No presiding officer is recorded in the available meeting data. The session covered three agenda items, all informational in nature: the Stand With Her Story Initiative, the Stable Recovery Program, and Community Engagement. No votes or motions were taken during the meeting. Two public comments were heard over the course of the session. ## Attendance The following individuals were present at the February 11, 2026 meeting: - Mandy Higgins - Liza - Frank - Christian - Charlie - Jeff - Zach - Council Member Sheehan - Council Member Morton - Council Member Ellinger - Jenny - TC No members were recorded as absent or late. ## Public Comment Two members of the public addressed the meeting during the public comment period, both speaking on the subject of addiction and recovery programming. - **Christian** [timestamp: 1:00:18] spoke about the challenges individuals face during addiction recovery and emphasized the importance of having a structured program in place to help people reintegrate into society. Christian's remarks underscored the need for organized support systems as a critical component of successful recovery outcomes. - **Frank** [timestamp: 1:01:20] followed with comments focused on the Stable Recovery Program specifically, highlighting the program's success in employing its graduates and noting the strategic partnerships that have been formed with employers to facilitate that process. Frank's remarks pointed to concrete outcomes — job placement and employer engagement — as evidence of the program's effectiveness. Together, the two speakers offered complementary perspectives: Christian framing the broader human challenge of recovery and reintegration, and Frank pointing to a specific program and its measurable results in addressing those challenges. ## Stand With Her Story Initiative [timestamp: 0:00] Liza and Mandy Higgins presented information on the Stand With Her Story initiative to the meeting body. The initiative is focused on collecting and displaying stories that highlight women's contributions to society. These stories are intended to be featured at the Lexington History Museum, providing a public platform to recognize and preserve women's historical contributions. The presentation was informational in nature, and no formal action or vote was taken on the item. ## Stable Recovery Program [timestamp: 1:00:18] Frank and Christian presented information on the Stable Recovery Program, an initiative designed to help individuals in recovery find employment and reintegrate into society. The presentation was informational in nature. No additional details regarding specific program metrics, funding sources, concerns raised, or action items are available from the meeting record. ## Community Engagement [timestamp: 1:42:05] Council Member Ellinger and Jenny led a discussion on community engagement efforts related to homelessness solutions. The conversation centered on listening sessions that have been conducted with various community groups as part of an effort to gather public input on addressing homelessness. No formal action was taken on this item; it was presented for informational purposes. --- ## Full transcript Women Voters of Lexington, and Mandy Higgins, the Executive Director of the Lexington History Museum. So, thank you both for being here with me today to talk over this new and exciting project. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah. Liza, can you tell me a little bit about the project, just kind of a general overview? Absolutely. Stand With Her Story is an initiative based upon the fact that women historically have been very underrepresented in history, and so we thought doing something that might overrepresent us a little bit might be a really neat idea. So, this is an all-call for stories about how women are making our society work. It could be everything from a six-year-old saying, my mom is the best, to someone who has an employee that just always lifts the morale, all the way up to Isabel Yates as an icon and everything in between. So, it's a quantity versus quality type of an initiative, and all of the people who are submitted, their stories will live in a display here at the Lexington History Museum. So, you can come and visit and type in the name and be able to see the impact that those women have made. Thank you. And so, this started with the League of Women Voters of Lexington, but you are now partnering with the History Museum, and we're in the Lexington History Museum right now. Mandy, tell us a little bit about this partnership, how it has evolved, and what the History Museum's role is going to be. Yeah, so WISA came, WISA kind of cold-called me, which was great. Instead, I have this idea, and I think the museum would be a great partner. And so, we met at Marteen's, you know, somebody wants to nominate Marteen's, that might be a great one, and had a conversation about the importance of what the work that we can do in uplifting women's stories. So, the Lexington History Museum tells everybody in Lexington stories, and we were immediately really intrigued with this idea of being a place where you could come to learn a little bit more about everyday Lexingtonians, as well as our, you know, most well-known folks. So, we started talking about how we could do that, how we could honor women. It came to the conclusion that a permanent kiosk of nominated and self-nominated stories would allow us to do that. And then, what's so exciting for us, and for history lovers, is that we're going to get stories we never had before to understand Lexington. And so, we're really excited to see, you know, who people nominate, and what kind of stories we can tell that tell us a lot about the larger Fayette County over the course of its 250 years, and how we're thinking about ourselves today. Yeah, and we're standing next to some, you know, great women of Lexington's history. Like, we've got Isabel Yates here, and Pam Miller here, among some other women that are highlighted. But this is a broader call, right? So, we oftentimes think about, like, award winners, or you have to do something grand, you know, to be nominated for an award. But this is broader than that. So, it's not an award, but it's like a recognition of, like you said, all the everyday people. So, tell me a little bit more about the stories you'd like to share, or some examples of who to nominate. You mentioned a couple before. Yeah, I mean, so for me, history is made by all of us, right? So, any one of us are impacting the people around us every day. Those are the stories we want. The person who made sure that kids went to school with shoes every day, but we didn't know their name. Or the Fortune 500 banker who made sure that a small business got a loan, which led to the next thing. And we didn't know the banker's name, right? We only know about that business that took off. We want those stories, because that tells us so much about who we are, and who this community is, and who it could be, if we all knew all of these sorts of things. And we also want for individuals to realize their own power in this, right? That you, every day, are interacting with people that you are making a difference when you're doing that, and you may not know it. So, this is a chance for me to nominate a friend or a colleague who I see doing really incredible work. And for that to be recorded in history, and it doesn't just stop with me knowing they did it. Now everybody has a chance to know they did it. Yeah, and I think the stories can not only recognize someone whose work might have not gotten recognized in the past, but also can inspire others to do something that they might see as like a simple task, but really has an impact on someone else's life and the growth of Lexington overall. So, tell me a little bit about how to nominate someone. We try to make it as easy as possible. We do have flyers that we're kind of placing around town with little QR codes, but you can go to the League's website, which is lwvlexington.com and slash her story will get you right there. And so, it's a short jot form that it'll ask for your name, the name of your nominee, a little bit, about 250 words, up to 250 words. It doesn't have to be that long, about the person. And we're also asking when this impact happened, because maybe it was a grandmother that, you know, from several generations ago that made some sort of an impact. And then you can upload pictures or a little video or whatever you'd like to, to be able to contribute to your story. Then we're excited that in March, we're going to do a reading of all the names that have been submitted down at the stand. So, everybody will be able to have their name publicly brought forward. And then we're real excited about the opportunity to maybe get more people into the museum, so that they could come in, type in Li Zhihan, and see the wonderful impact that you've made. Well, maybe. So, tell us where the stand is too, because not everyone might be familiar with that, because that is also an achievement for our community. It really is. Very few monuments are made for women. And Breaking the Bronze Ceiling was an organization really designed to make that happen here in Lexington. And so, there is this gorgeous, like, super tall statue of suffragettes that is on the back side of the blue building. So, I believe that's on High Street. Yeah. So, you can see that monument downtown, but that's where the reading of the names for all of those in this project will be. So, the call to action here is for you to think of one, two, three, five, ten women whose stories that you want to recognize. And then go to the League of Women Voters of Lexington's website and submit those stories, so they can be preserved and everyone can know about all the great things going on in Lexington. Thank you, everyone. You really got me Don't ever set me free I always wanna be by your side Girl, you really got me now You got me so I can sleep at night Yeah, you really got me now You got me so I don't know what I'm going Oh, yeah, you really got me now You got me so I can sleep at night You really got me You really got me You really got me See, don't ever set me free I always wanna be by your side Girl, you really got me now You got me so I can sleep at night Yeah, you really got me now You got me so I don't know what I'm going Oh, yeah, you really got me now You got me so I can sleep at night You really got me You really got me You really got me Well, I play an old guitar From nine till a half past one I'm just trying to make a living Watching everybody else having fun Well, I don't miss much If it happens on the dance hall floor Mercy, look what just walked through that door Well, hello, T-R-O, you hear me? Tell me what in the world you're doing there, O-N-E Yeah, I say, hey, good L-O-V-E-R-O-K-I-N-G Well, I smell T-R-O, you feel me? Yeah I was a little gritty baby when my papa hit the skids Mama had a time, time to raise nine kids She told me not to stir, cause it was important life She did the best she could to try to raise me right But your mama never told me about nothing like a Y-O-U Said your mama must have been another good-looking honey too Hey, hey, good L-O-V-E-R-O-K-I-N-G Well, I smell T-R-O, you feel me? Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Well, you're sweet-talking, sexy-walking, honky-talking, baby The men are gonna love you and the women gonna hate you Reminding them of everything they're never gonna be Maybe the beginning of a world war three Cause the world ain't ready for nothing like a Y-O-U I bet your mama must have been another good-looking mama too Hey, hey, good L-O-V-E-R-O-K-I-N-G Well, I smell T-R-O, you feel me? I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey I said, hey Well, I smell T-R-O, you feel me? Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Long blonde hair, sky blue eyes Yeah, that well-bred look is easy to recognize A tailored dress fits so fine And it adds up to the question on my mind Honey, do you love as good as you look? And you satisfy your man like your body says you can Judging from the cover, I'd love to read the book Honey, do you love as good as you look? If you could read my mind, you might blush blood red But then again, you might come over here instead I see they brought your check, soon you're bound to go If I don't make my move right now, I may never know Honey, do you love as good as you look? And you satisfy your man like your body says you can Judging from the cover, I'd love to read the book Honey, do you love as good as you look? Judging from the cover, I'd love to read the book Honey, do you love as good as you look? Honey, do you love as good as you look? Return to Cinder, Return to Cinder I gave a letter to the postman, he put it in his sack Bright and early next morning, he brought my letter back She wrote upon it, Return to Cinder Address unknown, no such number, no such song We had a quarrel, the lover's back I write, I'm sorry, but my letter keeps coming back So then I dropped it in the mailbox, as any special deed Bright and early next morning, it came right back to me She wrote upon it, Return to Cinder Address unknown, no such person, no such song This time I'm gonna take it myself, and put it right in her hand And if it comes back the very next day, then I'll understand Writing on it, Return to Cinder Address unknown, no such number, no such song Return to Cinder, Return to Cinder Return to Cinder, Return to Cinder Maybe we can talk all night But that ain't getting us nowhere I've told you everything I possibly can There's nothing left inside of here Maybe you can cry all night But that'll never change the way that I feel The snow is really piling up outside I wish you wouldn't make me leave here I poured it on and I poured it out I tried to show you just how much I care I'm tired of words and I'm too hoarse to shout But you've been cold to me so long I'm crying icicles instead of tears And all I can do is keep on telling you I want you, I need you But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you Now don't be sad Don't be sad cause Two out of three ain't bad Now don't be sad Cause two out of three ain't bad You'll never find a gold on a sandy beach You'll never dream for oil on a city street I know you're looking for a ruby in a mountain of rocks But there ain't no cooped up hill Hiding at the bottom of a crackerjack box I can't lie I can't tell you that I'm something I'm not No matter how I try I'll never be able To give you something Something that I just haven't got Well there's only one girl that I will ever love And that was so many years ago And though I know I'll never get her out of my heart She never loved me back Ooh I know Well I remember how she left me on a stormy night Oh she kissed me and got out of our bed And though I pleaded and I begged her not to walk out that door She packed her bags and turned right away And she kept on telling me She kept on telling me She kept on telling me I want you I need you But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you Now don't be sad Don't be sad Cause two out of three ain't bad I want you I need you But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you Now don't be sad Don't be sad Cause two out of three ain't bad Now don't be sad Cause two out of three ain't bad Maybe we can talk all night But that ain't getting us nowhere I love you I remember waking in the morning To hear the sound of a rooster's crow Mama cooking in the kitchen And Arthur Godfrey on the radio Me and Dad were just like strangers We never did see eye to eye It came to blows one Sunday morning So I packed my bags and I said goodbye And when you leave that way you can never go back The train won't run on a torn up track Sometimes I wish I'd never owned, oh no Cause when you leave that way you can never go home Then I met a girl in Knoxville Always said our wedding day Left her standing at the altar With her baby on the way And when you leave that way you can never go back The train won't run on a torn up track Sometimes I wish I'd never owned, oh no Cause when you leave that way you can never go home Lord, I'd love to see my mom and daddy And what I'd give to hold that boy in my arms I'd get down on my knees and say I'm sorry If I could only go back one more time But I killed a man in Houston When he caught me with his wife And I told the preacher man to leave me alone When he came to me... When he came to me... When he came to me... When he came to me... When He Came To Me... 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. 이 영상은 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. All right, anybody got any questions? I do. I really just want to say I fully appreciate the peer-driven model. And it's something that we've done for a long time. And I think it's very effective. I'm curious, how are people getting to you? I know some of this answer, but are you getting referrals from other programs? How are people getting to you? Well, in the very beginning, it was literally treatment centers and jails. And then CBS Evening News happened. And now we're getting referrals from all over the country. We have literally had individuals from 49 states. We were waiting on Alaska. As soon as we get Alaska, then we've hit all 50 states. And three countries. So we're getting referrals from all over. Everyone in this room understands addiction is a major problem. It's a national problem. It's a worldwide problem. And it's not getting any better, right? So people, through the exposure that we've received through CBS and NBC and other things, a lot of people have heard about us. So we literally had to hire someone just to answer the phone. We were being inundated with phone calls. We have a waiting list right now of 140 people trying to get in to save their life. And that's the hardest part of my job every single day, is having to tell someone no because we don't have the space to bring them in or the capacity with staff and stuff like that to give them the help they need. So the problem is great. And it's not going anywhere. Sure. Oh, go ahead. Do you know your lead rate from the number of people who enter the program and leave? And how do you sustain it? Big Garrett here is his job, especially in the ED department. How do you engage the other employers who do this? Frank would probably be better to answer that. Frank, obviously, him and his three brothers, they own one of the more prominent horse farms in the world, TaylorMade Farm. And he is really the catalyst for that. So actually, when we started this, the motivation, my first motivation was to just get help because I was so short of help. We work about 150 people at TaylorMade. And we always had a lack of four, five, six, 10 grooms that we couldn't hire. And so that was my initial motivation. And I went to DVA Kitchen. And I talked to them about how they work people only in recovery. And so I talked my brothers into taking a chance and doing it. And it's just worked phenomenally. And literally, the first two years, TaylorMade hired every person that graduated the school because we had that many jobs available. And then over time, we got staffed and actually overstaffed. I think we're the only horse farm that has more help than they need. And then I didn't call anybody and tell them that I wanted to take our guys. They just started calling me and saying, hey, I see what you're doing and how they're doing. Can you send me some people? And so those calls just kept flowing in. And so I think now we're around 20 strategic partners, we call them, people that want to hire people and give them a chance. And it's really been fantastic. I think we just hired a director of a strategic partner, somebody that can liaison between the schools and the employers and make sure this thing goes smoothly. So I think there's way more jobs out there than we can produce in the horse industry and other industries. But we're really starting to pick up pace now. We're graduating almost a person a week. So it took us, we've graduated over 100 in the program now. And now we're on pace where we could graduate 50 this year. And I keep getting more people calling all the time. I would say just my guesstimation is probably we'll be up 30, 40 strategic partners soon. And I see, I'm getting lots of calls from other states wanting us to do, they see the success, they're wanting us to do it. But it's just a huge problem with addiction and homelessness and all these things. But it's also a huge opportunity because you have all this workforce that you need to develop. You have all these people that are broken. And need help. And if you can bring them through the funnel and help them get them sober, but sober and successful. And then you move them through the pipeline, they become contributing members of society. And they build up the workforce. And it really, it helps with every, not every, I would say most every problem with society. It helps reunite families. It helps develop workforce. It saves lives. It's just an amazing, the effect, the overall cumulative effect of what it does for all these problems in society is huge. But I will say that the reason I think stable works is there's so many things. The horse is very important. It's such a healing animal. And it does this, it's phenomenal. Like I took horses for granted because I was born in the barn. And I was exposed to a horse all my life. But when I see people come in now that are broken, anxious, depressed, suicidal, and you put them in a barn with a horse and start working for a few days, the light bulb just switches. And it's just something that's special between a horse and a human. I think God made a special relationship there. And a horse can do so much for a human that a lot of human can't do. There's something about the, they're empathetic. There's just this magic that happens when you get people exposed to thoroughbreds. And it's all across the gamut. Mental health, addiction, disabled kids. These horses are just fantastic what they can do for people. So I think it will work in a lot of industries, a lot of things. But the horse is a very, kind of our secret weapon. It's so healing and so good. But I don't know where this is going to go. It's growing like crazy. We've had amazing funding from the private sector. And we're getting some support from the government now. But it's really something that needs to go nationwide and worldwide. I did a little research. I was like 350 million people in the United States. And there's 50 million that are addicted to alcohol and drugs. So if you think about if you could start healing those people, get them sober, get them successful, get them contributing to society, the tentacles that go out through society, through having fathers in the homes, having mothers in the homes, having people healed, and having a purpose. I think one thing that's very important is I think that people, to have the work is so healing for people. It gives them purpose and it's good for their soul. And if you can get people working and feel like they have a purpose and feel like they're contributing, then their lives change. So I think that there's this huge opportunity to make a lot of great things happen, not here just in Lexington, but all over the world. This model, it just amazingly works. And Christian's done a fantastic job. He's like the perfect person to, I mean, his name is Christian Counselor. How'd he come up with that? You know, he's made for the job. But it's been a blessing. It's been amazing success. And, you know, I drive by and I see these homeless people and I see them on the corners and I like, man, you know, I just can't help but throw them five, 10 bucks. And I know a lot of those people, it's just enabling, maybe not helping them. But if we can figure out a way to get these people purposeful work, get them help with their mental issues and their addiction, you know, we can make a lot of really, we can make a really impact on Lexington and everywhere for that matter. Thank you very much for allowing us to speak to you. Yeah, thank you very much. Anybody else? One last question just so we can keep rolling, but go ahead. We're interested to know, how do you get the referrals? How do you get people into the program and where are they in their recovery or not in their recovery when you take them? So that's an important aspect. I'm glad you asked that question. We get people through our website. We have a pre-screen questionnaire. We have a phone number and a spot on our website, which is stablerecovery.net. We have a pre-screen questionnaire there because as I mentioned, we would love to help everyone, but if they're not willing to do the things to help themselves, then we're wasting time and money and that could be spent saving lives in other places. So that's the most important aspect of it. But yes, you have to have been sober for a minimum of 28 days before you come to us. And they accomplish that either through incarceration or through a residential treatment program. Thank you all very much. One last question. I'm sorry, I'm going to give a bogey here. It's hard to say. No, you're fine. Thank you. I do value this program. I think it sounds like you are serving a lot of people and that is wonderful for our community. And you mentioned your wait list. Our task here is to be serving Fayette County specifically. So do you know how many people are on your wait list that are local? From Fayette County, I would say at least 50% of that is going to be Lexington and Fayette. I mean, obviously, word spreads here faster than it does other places. And the majority of the people we serve are going to be either from Lexington or right around Lexington. East Kentucky, we get a lot of them. We have gotten people from all over the United States, but it's Kentuckians that need this help. I mean, unfortunately, we're dealing with generational poverty and generational addiction right here in this state. And so the majority of them are coming from right here locally. And then this is a residential program, so you have to take individuals. It wouldn't be something that would be able to serve like a family. It has to be. No couples or no, we're not equipped to do that. No, ma'am. Thank you. Again, I appreciate this work. And I think this is something we can look at as we're looking at a mix of things, where we're looking at our population and the people we need to serve. I think this, to me, seems, you know, we talk about low barrier versus high barrier places. And I think some people would be equipped to do this type of program. We have to look at the ratio that we would allocate to something like this versus the other parts of the population that we're talking about. Thank you. Great. Thank you all very much. Thank you so much. All right, we'll dive into subcommittee reports here. And we'll start with supportive services and prevention services. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. First, we want to start off by just thanking our subcommittee for the work that they're doing. And Charlie and Humphreys, can you hear me now? Just want to thank our committee for the hard work that they're doing. We have quite a bit of work that we've done in a short period of time. So we'll get right to it. So we decided that we wanted to host a community roundtable to have some dialogue centered around agency services and resources that they provided, what population they serve, firsthand barriers and obstacles, service gaps, and what is working for them and what is not working for them. So our guests we had for our roundtable was representative from Bluegrass New Beginnings, Community Action, Aubrey Youth, St. James Place, Street Outreach Hope Center, the Davis Workforce Center, McKinney-Fayette County Public Schools, McKinney-Vento. And I've started a parent advisory team for some of my families that have experienced displacement. And so we had a representative there for that. And so we dove right into our discussion. They led our discussion with our panel. And so it's listed from page 14 to 21, so you all can find more detailed information. But to summarize it, our Community Action Supportive Housing Program, it was a rapid housing supported 15 families, emergency housing serves 20 to 25 households yearly with the winter bed expansion of 48. Critical navigation gaps, no dedicated housing navigated assistance, our families are limited to their housing accessibility or resilience to inefficiency to a referral system. So we was looking at how our agencies are doing referrals. And so it was quite an interesting discussion. So with our youth and transitional housing, Aubrey Youth operates 21 shelter beds. 60% to 70% of our homeless youth has disabilities or lack resources of housing transition. So that means that from the age of 18 to 24, those students are experiencing, our young people are experiencing those. Funding shortfalls impact services. And so we talked about, and we all know that funding is a big gap in trying to provide services. But it's limited funding for case management. And case management was one of the things that we talked about in depth was that that was a serious gap of you may have case management. You may not have case management. But we realized that case management is one of the things that helps with stability and helps our families with sustainability, is what I'm trying to say. Also, they expressed that there's a high caseload. So an agency may only have one case manager. And so that caseload is, they may have 70 people on their caseload. So how do you manage, try to manage to help your families with, or your individuals with homelessness with that? Systematic barriers, affordable housing shortage. We know that affordable housing, housing in itself across the country is a barrier. Urgent needs for coordination. Centralizing services. We talked about having a central hub where you get one stop, one shop. You could not have to go, well, I got to go on this end of town for this. And then I got to travel on the other end for that service. And so how do we have a hub where people could kind of come to one centralized place and be able to get some support, and even case management? One of the things that St. James shared with us was that they had hired a case, a social worker, and that they had had great success with having a social worker, which was something that they had not had. So in having that case manager, they had less evictions. So that was because you have someone that is working directly, having direct impact with their families. So then you can also find more in-depth into our packet with the information. David, is there anything I missed? I'll talk to you. No, I think you captured it all. And I think across the agencies, the issue of case management was something that came up over and over again. And not just, we talked about the high caseload. So if you have 70 people or whatever, you're giving them resources. You're not really doing case management. You're more of a referral source. So we talked about the importance of kind of end-to-end case management, helping them, taking them to appointments, being with them side-by-side during the application processes, during the search for housing, providing that intensive support, versus just giving someone resources. And as Charlie said, he doesn't like to hear people say, you know, make a phone call or whatever, when we're not really giving them anything, if we're just giving them a number to call. So I think we talked about the importance of that. But also with St. James, what you see is that that need for case management doesn't end when they're housed. They've seen a great benefit to maintaining housing that has come from case management on that end, too. So all the way from Hope Center at the shelter through permanent housing at St. James Place, like all of those things would benefit from more intensive case management and just more case management with smaller caseloads. You know, a lot of our homeless population end up, they lack a lot of the resources. We're not going to go to all these places if we need assistance. We're going to go online and do all of this stuff electronically and make phone calls. If they have someone to be with them and aid them, it can make the process a lot easier. We can also advocate for them. We can connect them with things that they may not know about. So just the importance of case management, I think, is worth underscoring again and again. I think the follow through up with that, and then with St. James, one of the things that I also took out of it was relationships. We know that building that relationship with your client, they learn to trust you. And so then they're going to always be there and always ask for your guidance. And the follow through was also another area with that case management. That it's not just something that I just give you a piece of paper that's a list of numbers. You know, I might can't read it. You know, I might can't, you know, like I might not have a phone to even make phone calls. So that case management, that human touch, the relationship, that part is so important, and it makes such a big impact. So thank you all. Any other questions for this committee? It's an interesting thing when you're talking about relationships, but this made me kind of echo a little bit what Christian was saying as well, is when you're kind of gearing people up to get a job and things. You know, there then is a community and a partnership piece, and whether that's a case manager from the beginning or it's kind of like when you mentioned DV8, understanding the needs of the folks that you might be hiring, like just some simple changes by employers or apartment managers might make all the difference in the world if we just kind of can understand the community we're serving. So thank you both for that. And to add to that, too, from the McKinney-Ventos standpoint from our homeless, our displaced families, is that when we partnered with Catholic Action Center for giving kids a home and our Hands Up for Housing, that the case management piece for our families was, and the feedback that we got from them was that they had someone there to help them with finding a job or job training, holding them accountable for making sure that they got to their appointments, making sure that they had transportation to and from their jobs or their appointments. They also, many of my families actually expressed that they had to do the budgeting class and that they had never even done a budgeting class. And so that was one tool that has been able to help some of our families with sustainability with their housing. Great. Thank you. Anyone else? Good. So our next committee is Funding and Partnership. And Zach, you've got the floor. Yeah, thank you. I think our last discussion was a continuation of our discussion before that and just really information gathering, working with Jeff and Charlie to continue to better understand the current local funding and federal funding landscape for homelessness prevention intervention, and understanding the challenges they have with those things, and what funding is available and is not available, and what those various sources of funding are actually being used for today. So we kind of just continue to gather information. And I think we will continue to do that, although we're getting a pretty good understanding of what Charlie and Jeff's offices have available. I think for us to move to making any sort of recommendations, we have to continue to hear with the will of the other subcommittees and the committee here. The task force here at large is before we can start to see how the larger recommendations here may fit into the current funding landscape that we have. So we did have some discussion about the affordable housing program and how the city may be able to incentivize permanent supportive housing through those funds. I think we're going to invite Rick McQuadey to a future meeting to continue that discussion with him and maybe bring some recommendations on that specifically. But again, I think we just need to continue to flesh out what other subcommittees and the task force as a whole is moving to do before we can come with any sort of recommendation. Council Member Sheehan or anyone else on this committee want to add anything? Great, thank you. It's hard to know how to fund if you don't know what you're funding, right, which I guess is the pleasure of this group. Does anybody else have any questions for the funding and partnership committee? All right, thank you so much. Do you want to do next? OK, next we're going to talk about peer cities and shelter models. Council Member Morton, he's passing up the time. That's fine. We co-chair, it's good. So we met virtually on February the 4th, and we had the National Rescue Mission model tell us about theirs. They have two campuses. They have one that houses men. They have one that houses women and children. They have 800 overnight guests nightly, and they are the sole emergency shelter of Middle Tennessee. They have between 130 and 138 staff. They have 24-hour, seven-day-a-week services. They have an emergency shelter. They have a life recovery program. They provide mental health as well as regular medical there. They have wraparound services. Their shelter is centrally located. Their budget is $15 million a year, and it is all privately funded. They do not take any government money at all to run that shelter, which we were amazed at. We knew the financial folks would love that. The presentation that they did, the slideshow that they gave us, I made some copies and have them up here if anybody wants to look at those. Their contact information is in there as well. The only thing I did not bring down is their disciplinary procedures, like if they have an unruly client, how that works. I'm happy to share that with anybody if they want me to email it out to them, and we're happy to answer any questions. All right, any questions here? Yes, the Volunteers of America from Louisville are the next committee that is presenting on March the 4th. In your research, did you find that anything was scalable down to us here in Lexington from what you saw there? I don't know. It's so great there that if we had $15 million to spend every year, it's perfect. But yes. Especially when it's private. Correct, when it didn't cost the government a dime. And yeah, we found some things there that we could do here. The main piece that we liked was the wraparound services on each campus. And they have programs there that after you get through their program, they employ you. And she even told us that one gentleman left with, he had saved $50,000 and put a down payment down on his own house when he left from there. So it goes back to the whole jobs thing that Stable Recovery was talking about, is employing them and giving them some savings for when they leave. Fantastic. Other questions? They have their own, like the people who do their medical and their mental health part there, they all volunteer, so they're not paying any of those folks out of pocket either. And they're like actual medical staff and actual licensed therapists. My experience was, we have more corporations and lots of times bigger faith communities. And it's easier to raise money. It doesn't have to be any corporation. A lot of those parties provide some great money here. And like, locally, because they have more corporations. So when you see somebody raising $50,000 and $80,000, I can't believe it. I know there are a lot of good fund developers here and nonprofits and possible women. Also, to add to that, I struggle with access about the fact that there's all these great ways to help people pull themselves up. But then I struggle with ones who don't pull themselves up. And at that point, this particular committee is about the ones that kind of already exist and always need our help and are in danger, particularly in danger, during this inclement weather. The people that Jamie and folks in their jailhouse are. I do wonder about that as we're thinking about how they're one of the problems in services. Is their focus need to be on the ones that it's construed? The government isn't one of those who don't have that ability. And I appreciate the fact that Unstable Recovery can come in and take some of these people and help them to manage those parties as well as other problems. Yes, ma'am? Just a quick housekeeping reminder from the LexTV folks. If we can just make an effort to use our microphones and make sure that we're close enough that everybody can hear for both the recording and the broadcast. I was surprised by the number per night. Do you all have an idea of what Lexington houses a night? Because I mean, we're 200 Salvation Armies, 200 Jenny. I mean, I feel like we are, their point in time count says in 2025 they had 3,270 people. That's a lot less than 800. Like, where are those other people staying? So locally here, we have 925 persons in our 25 point in time count. The majority of those being sheltered either in emergency shelter or transitional housing. We are going to come very, very close to seeing that kind of a number each year on a given night. And obviously, as this recent weather shows us, at times that could be an extra 200 or so persons. And we only presently have around 500 year round beds. And then we're relying a lot of beds that are seasonal or overflow. Your shelter, for example, would report an official year round number of closer to about 150 beds, even though I know just over the last couple of weeks at some points you were sheltering 230 persons because there's a significant number of overflow. I think we're not comparable size to Nashville. And the fact that we almost have as many shelter beds as they do is a little scary. Because I wonder what their unhoused population is like. And we also have to remember, they say that they were the only emergency shelter in Middle Tennessee. So it's bigger than just the city of Nashville itself. I personally would be very curious how other gaps are met. Because I can't imagine that they are able to serve everyone that's represented in their point in time count. The other thing I'd like to ask, Amy, or Tyler, did you all find out how they built these? We're talking about a $15 million a year budget. But what was the capital expense? Because I think that's where our guys are getting their gray hairs over there, trying to figure the capital expense as well as operating. I do not know their capital expense, Ms. Jenny. But we can email her back, Joy back, and see what that was. And I can email it to you. It'd be just kind of interesting, I think, because we're not just coming up with the perfect plan, because we all could do that. I mean, my goodness. We could bells and whistles and whatever. We've got to come up with capital costs and also operating costs. So where will that continued operating cost come from? And also, where is that operator going to come from? I know that's the other thing we all. So it is interesting. And yes, as working as a faith-based organization for 27 years, and just as the example, this past two weeks, we needed 135,000, and they came. That doesn't mean we could do it every two weeks. Lord, no. But I've got to say, whether we've got the big employers or the not, it's the people in this community who can make the difference, as long as we've got stable finances, which goes back to the city, what they're giving. We've got to look at all the partners that feed into making the system work. So that's all I've got to say. But I'd like to know about their capital costs. Yeah, we'll ask her. Councilman Brown. I really don't have a question, and this may not be helpful. But I think Janice brings up a good point. And I was going to ask Commissioner Lanter, we're having a lot of good conversations about a lot of good resources. But the point that she made is we're coming up with a plan, and we're going to come up with some good recommendations. But the most vulnerable, and the most in need, and the most consistent folks we have to deal with need help. So how should we continue to think about all this information that we're digesting and not lose sight of the goal or the prize, so to speak? That's a big question. Well, I said it might not be helpful. But when she said that, I was thinking about all the things we heard at our committee meeting, which was good information. But a lot of that led to sustainability. And it's going to take funding and people. But we have some emergent needs that. Yeah, I think Jenny said we could design a Cadillac or bells and whistles. But we all know we don't have the resources for that. There's so many ways you can take a bite at this apple. And there's never a completely wrong or completely right answer to that. For example, on the one extreme, you could just build a shelter. You build a shelter. You put 300 beds in it. And you say it's going to serve x, y, z population that you have a gap for, and they're not currently being served, the people Jenny put in the hotels, for example. The other extreme is more diversion oriented. So Hope Center has a finite number of beds. Call it 150. Any new program or new initiative or resource you invest in the people already in those beds that get them out and into housing, that's the equivalent of creating a bed. So a diverted bed is the same as a created bed. So you could go multiple directions. I think the answer, like most things, lies somewhere in the middle. Not all one, not all the other, because it's a very diverse and population with a lot of different needs. But you raise a good question. And I understand it's probably easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of information and the number of options you have. I would stay focused on who's not getting served now, because we have limited resources. So we need to work on what's that gap, and how are we not able to meet it now? Versus if we're looking at a program, the question we need to make sure we evaluate is, are there adequate types of that particular resource in Lexington already or not? If there is, maybe we look at other things. If there's not, maybe that's something we need to invest in. Is that helpful? I don't know. That is. That's helpful to know. James, I'd like to add the fact of exactly what you're saying, Charlie. You know, what are we going to do with our 85-year-olds that are out there living in their cars? They're not going to be able to be helped by workforce. That's a huge piece, what these folks brought forth today. So I think we've got to look at the segments. And those of us in the street business know those segments. We know those that are unreachable. We know those that we've had, in our case, we have some people been with us for 27 years, and we're their family. But we do have to look at these different segments, whether it be families with children, whether it be people who can achieve. But our disabled and elderly and severely mentally ill are never going to be in the workforce. So how are we going to wrap our arms around that? We've been trying for 27 years. Let's come up with something. You're right, Jenny. And the fact is that the hardest people to deal with are going to be those people where employment isn't the answer. It's not as simple as providing some basic support. There's that other category of people that you can make some headway on pretty quickly, people that don't have those issues. But I think the amount of money and time and energy that we are all spending, the majority of those clients are going to be the people who do have those serious mental illness, who have very serious medical issues that have a hard time living independently or without considerable support. So I think when we're talking about, it's the extremes that end up being the most problematic. And that's what we've seen this winter. We've seen people with lots of health issues, people who are older. As Jenny said, the growing number of the 65 and older, 70-year-old population, it's not decreasing. And it's not even just the age. It's the health issues that are coming with being homeless at that age. So we are dealing with the extremities. And I think that is the challenging part, because that group is harder to find a solution for, just while we're all here. I think an interesting piece around that, too, though, is creatively, there's got to be a way, like listening to Stable Recovery or talking about families with children. So many times to begin to enter into the process, you have to come from shelter, right? And it's a really step backwards sometimes for a family with kids to have to come to shelter, leave everything behind because they can't afford the rent that they're in, just say. Or you have somebody who maybe has the ability to do more, be productive, and to move forward. And they have other opportunities so that we can create the shelter spaces for those or other kind of community settings, for those that really are going to struggle because of age. And I don't know that an older person needs to be in a community congregate shelter, but something different. But I've always found to a degree that people have had to go almost a step back to get into the system. And I've loved the conversation, Jeff and I have had it around diversion. Can we do something differently to not have you leave everything behind, come in with a garbage bag of clothes, and start all over? That's hard. Shelter living is hard. So anyways, I love that conversation, Jeff. I was just going to add something that we've discussed in the supportive services and prevention subcommittee. And it also aligns with the three main types of homelessness that we kind of talk about within our system. We're going to have those people that are really experiencing homelessness that is more situational, a relationship that broke down, a job loss, a medical emergency. We're going to have those people who are more episodically homelessness. It's something that they're more than once going to experience housing instability in their life. And oftentimes, those are tied to more systemic factors. Oftentimes, that's persons who are on a more fixed income, families with children. And then we're going to have the people who are the really difficult to serve, those that we know realistically are not likely to quickly transition to employment and self-sufficiency, are more chronically homeless individuals. And so I think any kind of mix of solutions that we put forward really needs to consider all three of those categories. You don't want a family to have to lose everything and start over and take a step backward. For them, but also for us, as providers and supports to them, it's a very poor use of resources for us to not intervene and pay a few dollars towards rent when we're going to actually, in the long run, spend far more as a community to place them in shelter and to provide them with other costly emergency services. So that diversion component has to be there. At the same time, we've got to figure out those people that Jenny is going to have to put in a hotel in the winter because there's no possibility of them being able to maintain self-sufficiency on their own. We've got to consider all three of those kind of categories or types of homelessness in developing these solutions. We look at the cost associated with, it costs $1,000 to pay your month of rent. We don't have a lot of data that would show us the cost of living in a shelter for that amount of time. And I think we know that the shelter cost is expensive being not even just like the cost of the shelter, but like the economic cost of having this person live in the shelter, not being in the workforce, dealing with all of the other factors that come along with it, the health issues that get tied to chronic homelessness. And I think there is a significant cost that we never really quantify, and to be honest, I have no idea how to do that. I don't want to take that on. But so, yeah, we have to find a way to keep people out of the system to the extent that we can. But our system is so focused on chronic homelessness and addressing people that are chronic, we barely have the resources to get to those other people. If everyone's OK, I'm going to thank you so much for that because I think that's sort of the meat of all this conversation. But I don't want to leave the community engagement folks without any time to talk. So Councilperson Ellinger and Jenny, if you would like to talk about your committee with community engagement. Thank you. We met on January 8th at 930 by Zoom. And the main focus was we discussed the following proposed questions for the listening groups. We came up with basically six general questions that would help start the conversation. Do you feel that additional shelter and services are needed for those experiencing homelessness in our community? Do you have concerns about the needed expansion? Do you have ideas for solutions to the issues of homelessness in our community? Any thoughts you would like to share? When the task force offers its findings, will you be willing to share your thoughts on those via another meeting or email? And then the last one, if it was put in your backyard, what would you like it to look at? Aesthetically, safety, and we're trying to draft that one. The birthday girl is going to give us some feedback on that one. So we decided we're going to try to have our meetings about an hour. And we have our first one that's actually going to be tomorrow. And we invite all of you all to come tomorrow. It's going to be the Street Voice Council. It's at noon tomorrow at the Lyric Theater. And then our next one, Todd Johnson is setting up with the business leaders. And that's going to be the week of February 23rd. We have the faith community. It's going to be in March, at the beginning of March. I've got one with the neighborhood and the providers at the end of March. And then we have one in April with public safety. So we're trying to have the basic questions that we can start the conversation and then go from there. And Jenny, if you'd like to. And then we also, here is going to be the end of this is our subcommittees when we're going to be meeting on that. Just to be prepared for the next one. And each one, we're going to have a moderator that's going to be leading that discussion. And Jenny and Greg will be leading that discussion tomorrow. And I think it's important to you all understand this is our listening session. We want to hear what they have to say. We want them to know that we're going to take back what they're interested in to this full task force so that you're getting that input. And then at the end, before we, you know, we're not saying we've got the conclusions here. But when the task force does have its conclusions, we want to take it back to these folks before it's actually finalized. So we're not going to give them info. We're simply listening. And like Chuck said, these are the questions. But like tomorrow with our first one with the folks from the Street Boys Council, we're not asking them what they think about having one in their neighborhood because they don't have a neighborhood. But if a homeless shelter were to open, what measures or guidelines would you want in place to ensure you feel safe and comfortable? So we're going to get their input to give to the different groups. But we'll see. It'll be interesting. And then at the end, we'll have a wrap up one that will just invite the general public. And then we'll bring back, as Jenny said, back to the full committee what their responses were. So as she said, this is a listening opportunity to get feedback so we can bring it back to the full committee. Great, thank you. Any questions for community engagement? Recognizing one. Quick question for that committee. Council Member Eldridge, what is your plan? Is it to collect the information and share it all together at the end, or to distribute kind of after each one? And the only reason I ask is it may be helpful for some of the committees to start as quickly as we can receiving some of that feedback so that they can. Just like after we have every meeting, we'll be taking notes. And we'll have a summary and send that out. And then we'll take that at the end and kind of do a wrap up one. But yes, after every one, we'll have a summary of what happened in that meeting. And we'll make sure all of the task force members have that so that you can use it for your conversations with committees and such? Yes, sir. And the other thing is, that's our meeting every month. So we'll be giving that, you know. But we are doing the summaries. And we're going to have, like tomorrow, we're hoping to have it on the cloud or whatever. I don't know. It's going to be recorded. But it'll be in a method that we can send to you all and you can watch after the fact. All right, any other questions? All right, seeing none, we are nearing. We're at the end of our agenda. Just to recap real quick, heard a lot of great information this afternoon. Just some notes that I recognize is 83% have completed you all's program, is still employed, I believe that's what you mentioned. Fantastic. Also heard the need for central services, wraparound, wraparound services, case management, some of the themes. I heard $15 million of private money. I did hear that loud and clear. Wraparound services, to me, means community. The one thing I want to make sure that Co-Chair Fleeton and myself want to make sure that we all understand and we stay focused on the fact that homelessness has a lot of different faces, a lot of different faces. It can be the individual that has had life issues along the way from drugs or growing up in a household with limited resources and it became homelessness. It could be a single woman raising a child on her own, working two jobs, could still be a homeless person. Just trying to make it, right? So as a committee, the challenge is us just to remember that we're here to give a holistic, comprehensive plan to our mayor, to our city that works the move, the needle for all those folks that fit into that 900, whatever percentage they may be in, whether that's they're right there and they just need some guidance. It could be they simply never put a budget together and they're spending too much money. It could be that simple, right? So let's, I heard shelter a whole lot today, which is extremely important because of the trauma we just went through with the weather. A lot of people across this country went through that same trauma and we're coming out of it, I believe, as a better community because we'll learn from that. But again, let's keep our minds open to the possibilities of what we really can stand up and it's going to be for everybody and not just a segment of who we deem to be homeless. So with that, one last thing is we want to give T.C. a moment to stand up some information she's going to share with us as an announcement. Mike's not on, I'm sorry. We are scheduled to do our poverty assimilation on March the 4th from two to four. It will be held at the Consolidated Andrews Center. We have, Fayette County Public Schools has a offsite there. So we will be doing that and it's called Which Way to Go. So it's rethinking the reality of poverty in our community. And so I do have, there is a registration for you to please register. We have as many as 60 spots. So if you have anyone in your organization that would like to participate, I have some information there that you can pick up, they can go on. But we're trying to ask everyone to please try to go ahead and register by the 20th, February the 20th, so that we're able to organize it. I have participated in this experience at least three or four times. It is so worth it because you don't understand how our families and how individuals actually have to navigate experiencing poverty, which poverty and homelessness goes along hand in hand. So I'm hoping to see as many of you all there. There is one hour that you will actually assimilate. And then there is an hour of debriefing. And the debriefing part is just really very fruitful. So it's worth your time of participating. So thank you. All right. Yes, we will send you the, we'll go ahead and have Tiffany send out the information for the registration. You can also grab the QR code or the link to sign up. And I think it's even open. So once we kind of know by the 20th how many people have signed up, there's a few staff people that I would like to go that's not part of this. So I think some of the school board is participating perhaps. So there might be room for some additional folks. My director said our department doesn't have an option. They have to go. They have to go. We give you options to do that. All right, well, you all, thank you so much. I think, do I need a motion to adjourn? So moved. Thank you, TC. Thank you all so much. Thank you so much, Stable Recovery, for being our guests today. All right, have a good night. See you all, then. We're going to get married. OK. See you, then. See you. Let's all go down to Doomer's Walker. We'll get a slow burger, fries, and a bottle of ski. Bring it on out to my baby and me. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. He takes all his orders down one at a time. Don't need a pad, he's got a photogenic mind. Ain't no like the young folks hanging around. He's quick to let you know we got a law in this town. You ought to see him grin when Honey walks through the door. He's quick to let you know we got a law in this town. You ought to see him grin when Honey walks through the door. The Marlboro Kings are ready for more. Let's all go down to Thoomis Walker. Let's all go down to Thoomis Walker. We'll get a Slawburger, fries, and a bottle of skeet. Here it comes. Let's go down to Thoomis Walker. It's hard to be told, but practically everything leaves me totally cold. The only exception I know is the case when I'm out on a quiet spree, fighting vainly the old ennui. And I suddenly turn and see your fabulous face. I get no kick from champagne. Beer alcohol doesn't thrill me at all. So tell me, why should it be true that I get a kick out of you? Some, they may go for cocaine. I'm sure that if I took even one sniff, it would bore me terrifically, too. Yet I get a kick out of you. I get a kick every time I see you. I get a kick every time I see you standing there before me. I get a kick, though it's clear to see, you obviously do not adore me. I get no kick in a plane. Flying too high with some gal in the skies, my idea of nothing to do. Yet I get a kick when you give me a boot. I get a kick out of you. I get a kick out of you. You've got faith and you believe in what you're living for. You can stand your ground when the devil's at your door, Lord. And a little hope can help you when the road is getting rough.