We recently connected with Etho Pugh and have shared our conversation below.

Etho, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Before starting my business I was employed by Dallas County as the Jail Population Coordinator. In that role my focus was to ensure that all individuals that were arrested and housed in the Dallas County jail did not get hung up in the system and that they were moved through the system as quickly as possible. What I started to notice was the frequency of homeless individuals that kept cycling in and out of jail. That prompted my “why” and started me to investigate the why. What I found was that these individuals lacked stable housing with wrap around services. After further investigation I found that supportive housing was more economical than incarceration. In February of 2019, there were341 (321 unduplicated homeless people booked into the Dallas county jail with an average length of stay for 37 days. Dallas County spent $ 572,880 (539,280 on unduplicated individuals. In February of 2019 of the 341 homeless people in jail $ 33,600 was spent on high utilizers ( repeat homeless offenders) . If the 321 unduplicated homeless people that were in jail was placed in supportive housing, the cost would have been $341, 544.00 a savings of $186, 336.00. for the same time period. Supportive housing cost is only two-thirds of the cost of incarcerating homeless individuals .

Etho, 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?

The Ark of Hope is a comprehensive Supportive Housing Program committed to extending quality and affordable living services to those who need housing assistance while receiving treatment in the community. Founded in August of 2010 to serve an abandon population in our community. The Ark of Hope major emphasis is to provide housing for formerly incarcerated individuals who have a dual diagnoses or a co -occurring disorder of mental illness and substance abuse. Homelessness is a direct correlation to recidivism. Yearly approximately 700,000 individuals return home from state prisons in the United States. In addition 9 million are released from county jails. Over 10% of those coming in and out of prison and jails are homeless in the month proceeding and following their incarceration. Homelessness is not just a public safety issue but a public health and community issue. Quality supportive housing is the key to ending this problem. This is where the Ark of Hope excels in providing not only housing, but an array of wrap around services. The ark of hope collaborates with other existing community agencies to provide wrap around services such as transportation, food, treatment services, and medication management. What sets us apart from other housing programs is the services we provide such as 3 m3eals per day, transportation, medication management, and support groups.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There have many obstacles along the way with starting and maintaining the business from start up costs, licensing, zoning restrictions and landlords not making repairs on leased property. Covid was a tough time for us as we lost several residence due to the disease it self as we were not aware of residence being released in our care that tested positive and we were not aware they were positive. We had to stop onboarding residents which affected our bottom line and the ability to maintain our staff. The City of Dallas has enacted a ordinance around boarding homes and or transitional homes which limits the type of residents we can house and the number per property. We have successfully navigated covid and all of our homes have been licensed by the City and we are in full compliance with ordinance. I myself have experienced some tough personal losses due to death during the course of maintaining the business such as a spouse, my mother, and some real tough financial struggles. Keeping my faith and knowing that this is what God called me to do really keeps me grounded and persevering on. I was blessed with a great friend who helped me through a lot of the dark times and we were married last may after dating for four years.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The organization is at the cross roads of making a pivotal decision as we speak. Three years ago we purchased (3 ) acres of land with the hope of building a community to house and support our residents. The goal was to move the residents from six existing properties to one community that would provide housing, counseling, mental health and medical treatment and employment training. The current zoning for the property is single family and we are attempting to have the zoning changed to multifamily and it has been met with opposition from members of the community. We are in the process of having the property replatted and possible build 11 three to four bedroom homes to be sold to the general public. We will then take those funds and purchase some property with the appropriate zoning to build the community we envision.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aohdallas.org
• Facebook: Ark of Hope
• Linkedin: etho pugh

Image Credits

Chandrell Stephens and Janice Nelson