We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brent Burmaster a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brent, appreciate you joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

I received my Engineering degree in Computer Science in the late 1970’s. I went to work at the largest tech company at that time, IBM right after college. I started out as a programmer writing machine language code on mainframe communication. I then become a product planner and then a project team leader of the most successful IBM PC software called the Assistant Series. I went from the labs to the field working with customers directly. I helped small / medium companies with their business software. This is when I became familiar with accounting systems. and learned what was important to their business – whether it was receivables, inventory control, manufacturing systems,… This later helped me at Soul’s Harbor homeless shelter to turn around their business from losing $10,000+ a month to making a profit of $7,000+ per month. The other aspect that I learned at IBM was employee morale. I used those same “morale booster” with monthly resident recognition, annual talent show, monthly birthday celebration and pool tournament.

Brent, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I spent 30 years in corporate America. Rising through the ranks in the technology sector. In 2009, I was given a great opportunity to retire with three pensions. I was only 52 years old at that time and really too early to do nothing. I hired a job coach who asked me what job would I really enjoy? On top of my list was running a non-profit. We tailored one of my resumes to target that new opportunity. I was hired in 2009 to run Soul’s Harbor Homeless Shelter in southeast Dallas. Besides the financial issues that I mentioned before, there were no recovery programs at Soul’s Harbor. Our shelter was for homeless men with substance abuse issues. Alcohol and Drug dependencies is the number one reason for homelessness. 60% of homeless population is because of substance abuse issues. Most shelters tackle this issue with either 12 step programs (AA or NA) or religious classes or a combination of both. In 2011, I attended a treatment center seminar and saw that most of the expensive treatment centers used a holistic approach to recovery. I created “The Harbor Program” and modeled it after the treatment centers. We have in-house therapist, Cognitive classes which we call “Owner of the Brain”, 12 steps (CA, AA and NA), financial management, anger management, relationship classes, CrossFit, Yoga, Bible Study, Work Therapy with job skill training, and Nurturing Father Class. When we started offering these classes free to our homeless men, we were flooded with many new residents. We have been at full capacity for the last 10 years with a 2 to 6 week waiting list.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In 2009 when I took over Soul’s Harbor, we were losing over $11,000 a month and we had no substance abuse recovery program. We were supported solely by our 4 thrift stores. Immediately, through my experience in the tech field, I focused on cutting cost. There was an array of cost issues at Soul’s Harbor. An example of this was that we had 15+ contracts with cell phone providers. I streamlined the cell phone provider to a single source which helped us save significant cost. I knew that it would take some time to turn this around at Soul’s Harbor. But after each quarter, I would look back and see what was working and what wasn’t. Another example was that we were buying used box trucks with +100,000 miles on them. The maintenance costs were eating us alive. Working with the Board President, Dennis O’Hagan, we determine that it was cheaper to purchase brand new box trucks with extended warranty than buying old used box truck. Another cost factor was renting out thrift stores. In 2009, we only owned 1 of our thrift stores and paying rent on 3 of them. Today, we own all 4 thrift stores with one of the stores worth over $1,500,000. After 15 years, we are making $7,000 a month.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I was the only employee at Soul’s Harbor for a very long time. Today, we have 3 employees including myself. When I look at morale, I am looking at the morale of the 70+ homeless residents at Soul’s Harbor. To keep the morale high, I had “Resident of the Month” award which gave the best resident $20 and his name of a plaque. I presented this in front of all the other residents at the Town Hall meeting. In the fall, we had a billiards (pool) tournament where the winner receives $40 and his name on the pool tournament plaque. In fact, the 4 top winners receive monetary prizes. In the spring, we hold our resident talent show. This is a lot of fun since you get some great acts and a few “not so good” acts. However, all the residents have fun. The top 3 winners receive money, and the top winner gets his name on the Talent Show plaque. During Christmas time. I take all the men to the movies and treat them to popcorn, candy and drink. Last year 2023, everyone saw “Iron Claw”. The homeless guys see Soul’s Harbor as a brotherhood.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.soulsharbordallas.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/souls.harbor.9
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2605795/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SoulsHarborBigD
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@davetour07

Image Credits

David Plummer, local resident