Phoenix native, Shannon is the first woman CEO for the Arizona nonprofit, St. Vincent De Paul, in its 76-year history, assumed leadership on Oct. 1, 2022, and is the first Rob & Melani Walton Endowed CEO. Shannon steps into the role after nearly 20 years of dedication to SVdP's mission, which offers hope to those who need services and those who want to serve their community by helping SVdP feed, clothe, house, and heal. Shannon most recently served as associate CEO. Learn more at https://www.stvincentdepaul.net/
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Okay, so if I asked you to name the top three or four problems that we have in the Valley
00:07 of the Sun in Metro Phoenix, I would imagine that homelessness would be among them, probably
00:13 the heat.
00:14 But imagine what the heat is when it comes to levels of problem living for the homeless.
00:22 And our guest is someone who deals with that virtually on a daily basis, CEO of St. Vincent
00:28 DePaul's Society.
00:30 And I thank you not only for being here, Shannon Clancy, I thank you for this wonderful Irish
00:35 name of yours, but I also thank you for all the work that you do with St. Vincent DePaul.
00:40 It's remarkable.
00:41 No, thank you for having me.
00:42 We couldn't do what we do without the whole community.
00:44 Well, the whole community, of course, is now not concerned really, but curious, I think,
00:51 about what's happening in what is called "the zone."
00:55 And if you're watching this broadcast from somewhere outside of Phoenix proper, the zone
01:00 is an area right in the middle of downtown, and it had how many homeless people there?
01:06 Well, it's had anywhere between 800 and 1,000 people outside the human centers.
01:11 It's a small town.
01:12 It is.
01:13 And I don't know that necessarily 1,000 people can be well taken care of.
01:18 So the city is changing the zone.
01:22 When is that supposed to be finished?
01:23 Well, I think they're just chipping away at it a little at a time, because as they're
01:28 -- what we're saying, enhanced cleanups, as they're doing that block by block, we're offering
01:34 people the opportunity to come inside and access services and a place to live.
01:39 And that's really what we need a lot more of in our community, not just in that neighborhood,
01:45 in that area, but really all across the valley and throughout our state, truly.
01:51 But come inside where?
01:53 To come inside to shelters or to other programs where people can access services.
01:58 So really, when people ask -- and they do a lot -- why do we have such an increase in
02:03 homelessness here in the valley, it's really because of our tight housing market.
02:08 So though my heart is with them, I don't know homeless people.
02:14 I know people who have been homeless in the past, but I don't know the folks down in the
02:20 zone.
02:21 Tell me, and how did they get there?
02:23 Well, I think there are anyone in our community, you know, someone's brother or sister or mother
02:28 or father.
02:29 But really, the way they got there is as many different reasons as we -- that things have
02:34 happened in their lives and made it hard.
02:37 But the reason why we have an increase in homelessness in our community is because of
02:42 the rapidly rising housing costs that are displacing people.
02:47 We don't have cheap apartments for people to live in anymore.
02:50 And so that's displacing people all the way down until you have people who have nowhere
02:56 else to go.
02:57 And they are on the streets of our city, across the valley, and in rural areas, too, across
03:03 our state.
03:04 But Shannon, we used to be able to say, well, you're homeless in this neighborhood, so go
03:09 to that shelter.
03:10 And then you folks over here go to this shelter.
03:12 No, all of the shelters, including yours, are filled.
03:15 So where do they go now?
03:17 Well, and that's -- as we go, we have to create more shelter space.
03:22 We're going to have to do a better job as a community preventing homelessness.
03:26 We did that during the pandemic.
03:28 We had a lot of resources coming from the federal government into our community in order
03:32 to keep people in their homes.
03:34 We're going to have to do that.
03:35 We don't have enough shelter space.
03:36 You're right.
03:37 We can prevent homelessness.
03:39 We can do better and get some different shelters and places open.
03:43 Some cities are doing more with hotels and trying to use those.
03:46 But we definitely need to scale our response, because we have a significant issue.
03:52 And then we will have to build more housing.
03:55 And that's what we need in our community.
03:56 One of the most fulfilling times of my life, the times that I spent just visiting St. Vincent
04:06 de Paul and finding out about the services, not just a matter of helping out by providing
04:13 food for people several times a day with the meals that you serve, but some of the other
04:18 services, the medical services that you provide.
04:21 Tell everybody.
04:22 Well, St. Vincent de Paul, we feed, clothe, house, and heal.
04:25 So you're right.
04:26 We have broad-based services to step in and help people in their moment of need, not usually
04:31 forever, but just to help them get over the bump.
04:34 That's a medical and dental clinic for the uninsured.
04:37 That's dining rooms, delivering food boxes to families to keep them in their homes and
04:42 help pay their rents.
04:44 There's all kinds of services.
04:45 And we love to have visitors come and see what we do.
04:48 So we invite any of your viewers who want to come.
04:52 Or come and volunteer with us, because that's a wonderful way to help in our community,
04:57 address some of the issues that we see, but also feel really good about what we can do
05:01 for one another.
05:02 You know, the memory that I have that really jumps out at me is the one that was most unexpected.
05:08 I walked into the office area of St. Vincent de Paul and saw a whole bunch of mailboxes.
05:13 I said, "This is for the staff?"
05:16 And they said, "No, no.
05:17 This is for our patrons, the homeless people."
05:21 I never thought about them needing mailboxes.
05:23 You need a place to get your mail.
05:25 You need an I.D.
05:26 You know, you need to have a place to take a shower.
05:29 You need a place to use the restroom.
05:31 You need food to eat.
05:32 Those are the things that people on the street are focusing on every day as they try to survive.
05:38 And so you're right.
05:39 We need to prevent homelessness.
05:41 We need more shelter beds for people.
05:44 And then we need more housing.
05:45 You need checks.
05:46 Well, we always need support.
05:47 Everybody in your business needs checks.
05:48 But you also mentioned a couple of minutes ago that you need volunteers all the time.
05:53 How do our folks, our Channel 7 regulars, volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul?
05:59 We would love them, especially in the summer, because our volunteer count is low.
06:04 So they can go to our website at stvincendepaul.net and explore all kinds of ways to get involved,
06:10 from volunteering with us in our programs to doing a drive, collecting food or other
06:15 items, or make a financial donation.
06:18 We're all in this together, and it's going to take all of us to support people who are
06:22 out there in need.
06:23 We're grateful for the whole community.
06:25 We're all in this together.
06:26 That's not a bad thought, too, as we close out this conversation for this time with Shannon
06:33 Clancy, CEO of St. Vincent de Paul Society.
06:36 And when you volunteer, and I know you will, and when you visit in some capacity, I think
06:41 you're going to be surprised at just how familiar all those folks look, because they're just
06:47 us.
06:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]