Unveiling Humanity through Compassion, Hope and a Costume

Join host Paul Ward in this heartfelt episode as he welcomes Jann Huling, the dedicated Chief Operating Officer of Project Understanding, a non-profit organization committed to making a difference in the lives of homeless individuals and families.. In this 15-minute conversation, discover the inspiring mission of Project Understanding and learn about the evolving face of homelessness. Jann shares the origin story of Project Understanding, detailing how many people are served and the specific days and times dedicated to making a positive impact. The conversation delves into the primary reasons individuals find themselves homeless, including poignant stories and Jann’s personal experiences, such as dressing up as a homeless person to experience firsthand how society treats those without a home.

Listeners are encouraged to explore ways they can contribute to Project Understanding’s mission as they go beyond merely providing food to homeless individuals. The episode concludes with a heartwarming success story and sharing the organization’s additional goal of reuniting families. Join Paul Ward and Jann Huling in this insightful and compassionate conversation, shedding light on the faces of homelessness and the transformative work being done by Project Understanding.

Watch the full episode on Paul’s YouTube Channel

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What you’ll learn during this episode:
0:00 Welcome to the show and introduction of Jann Huling of Project Understanding
0:49 What does Project Understanding do?
1:22 The “Face” of homelessness has changed
2:27 Find out when and where Project Understanding started
3:00 How many people are served by Project Understanding and days and times they serve
4:15 The primary reasons that individuals become homeless
5:12 A story about a Doctor that became homeless
6:06 Jann dresses up as a homeless person to see how the homeless are treated by others
7:49 The shame associated with homelessness
8:07 Another story, this time when Jann was in costume and encountered a woman that she knew
8:55 Most people ignore the homeless and Jann’s take on why this is
10:08 The importance of knowing the names of the homeless
10:45 When did Jann develop her passion for the homeless
12:27 The statistics for the growing number of homeless individuals in California
13:14 Find out what happens if a homeless individual is arrested or hospitalized and released in Ventura County
13:56 The solution is to fix the mental health crisis
14:45 How can you help Project Understanding?
15:50 Project Understanding will help homeless individuals beyond just supplying them with food
16:16 A short success story
17:23 Reuniting families is another goal of Project Understanding
18:50 Contact information for Project Understanding
18:55 Special Thank You to our sponsor: Opus Escrow

Related Episodes:
Fighting Food Insecurity in Southern California with Andrea Howry of Food Forward
The Upside of Downs at Mulberry Lane in Somis, CA
Many Mansions: Interview with Rick Schroeder

Contact Project Understanding:
Office and Pantry Location:
2734 Johnson Drive, Suite E
Ventura, CA 93003

Learn more and to DONATE by visiting:
www.projectunderstanding.org

Contact Paul Ward:
805-479-5004
paul@homeandranchteam.com

Have ideas for future episodes? We’d love to answer your questions – leave a comment! For any home buying or home selling needs in the Ventura County area of California, please reach out to Paul@HomeAndRanchTeam.com or visit www.HomeAndRanchTeam.com

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A special THANK YOU to our sponsor, OPUS ESCROW! Farm Talk with Paul Ward would not be possible without the support of our sponsor Opus Escrow. Supporting our sponsor ensures Farm Talk can provide listeners with the best possible episodes.

Paul Ward (00:00):

<Silence> Hey everyone, it’s Paul Ward here, and welcome to another 15 minutes. I’m very excited. Today we’ve got a special guest, Jann Huling, with Project Understanding. Jann, welcome to the show.

Jann Huling (00:14):

Thank you so much for having me, Paul.

Paul Ward (00:17):

Absolutely. And your official title is your the Chief Operating Officer, is that correct?

Jann Huling (00:21):

Yes, sir.

Paul Ward (00:23):

<Laugh>. Cool. And how long have you been with Project Understanding and what and what did they do?

Jann Huling (00:28):

Well, I was with Project Understanding as a board member. I, I had six years. My, my terms, you have two, three year terms if you’re elected to come back. My last term was president and and we went through a lot of changes. A lot of changes. What we do is we feed anyone that’s hungry. We don’t actually serve food at, at our area, but we supply food to subsidize your food for one week, so you can come through our pantry line once a week and, and get food. We also have homeless to home and homeless prevention. We find it better for our community if we can keep people in their homes opposed to getting ’em off the streets out when they’re already out there. It’s a little bit different. And then we also have tutoring sites. ’cause Education is the number one importance.

Paul Ward (01:20):

. And, and the, and the face of homelessness has changed. Is that correct? It’s not your typical, you know, I, I don’t wanna say bum or hobo, but yeah. The face of homelessness is, has changed.

Jann Huling (01:33):

Yes, it is. It’s changed a lot. It’s families. mothers with children, fathers with children. And the, a lot of the problem is, is that there’s not very many shelters that families can go into. . So instead of separating their family, they’re all gonna be together in the car, wherever they have to be. ’cause They don’t want to, they, they don’t wanna separate themselves from their family. You know, there is a, a certain areas that will allow you to have a parent and a child, but the child has to be under 13. So there’s a lot of iffy things there. So the family would prefer to be on ho homeless on the streets.

Paul Ward (02:14):

Wow. And so with Project Understanding, you’re, you’re providing food, you’re pri providing education. you’re a, a nonprofit, right? Kind of.

Jann Huling (02:27):

Yes. We’re a 5 0 1, 3 C since 1977. We actually started in a garage on the avenue making sack lunches for people that were hungry, the homeless that were hungry

Paul Ward (02:36):

In In Ventura?

Jann Huling (02:37):

In Ventura. Yes. I’m sorry.

Paul Ward (02:39):

So, one, one person just said, Hey, there’s a problem here. I’m gonna make

Jann Huling (02:44):

Lunches

Paul Ward (02:44):

And Yeah. And feed homeless people. And, and the word got out. And they would shout, we grew the garage and, and get a, get a lunch.

Jann Huling (02:54):

Yep. We grew and grew and grew and grew.

Paul Ward (02:56):

Wow. And how many people are you serving now?

Jann Huling (03:00):

Well, it is crazy. Under five years ago, we were serving about 2 50, 300 people a month in our pantry. Wow. So last month we served a little over 5,000.

Paul Ward (03:15):

Well, that’s incredible. That’s a big, that’s a big jump from going from a garage, just serving a few people to

Jann Huling (03:20):

Yes, yes.

Paul Ward (03:20):

5,000.

Jann Huling (03:21):

Yeah. It’s crazy. We we serve Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from nine nine to 12, and we are packed from nine to 12.

Paul Ward (03:31):

Wow. And and it also shows you just how acute the problem is and how much it’s grown.

Jann Huling (03:38):

Right. It has, it has. And people always, always, always judge a person by their vehicle or whatever. . But you have to understand that maybe that’s all they have. Right. They may have a beautiful car, but that is all they have. They, they don’t have rent to live anywhere. And with the rental prices here in Ventura County, it’s difficult not to have 400 people in your home to afford the rent.

Paul Ward (04:03):

Right, right. So they’re, they’re pack they’re packing ’em in to pay, make that, make that payment.

Jann Huling (04:07):

Exactly. Exactly.

Paul Ward (04:09):

And I mean, you’ve been, you’ve been involved in this, in this cause for many years. What, what is the, what are the primary reasons why people become homeless?

Jann Huling (04:19):

Well, there’s a, a lot of reasons. You know domestic violence. We just had a woman come out here from Iowa with her three kids to escape domestic violence. And she lived in her car, and then she lived in a shelter. . And she just got her first apartment. It could, it could be drugs. . It could be alcohol, it could be any of those. And that’s common. But a lot of times it’s and mental illness. , you’re not mentally ill your first night on the street. A lot of ’em, some of them might, might be, but it’s an acquired mental illness. So you have, it’s a right to survivorship. . So you develop this mental illness to protect yourself and those around. And loss of a job. loss of financing, proper, you know, banking.

Paul Ward (05:11):

You mentioned before a doctor who you even found end up on the street.

Jann Huling (05:17):

Yeah. He his story is, is quite touching. This is an amazing man. He was a doctor, and he said I was the best doctor ever, Dan. I was so good and so in love with his wife. And they had homes and they had rental property. She got ill and they didn’t have the proper coverage to take care of her. So he started selling off his property in order to take, take care for his wife who was dying. And he lost everything.

Paul Ward (05:42):

Wow.

Jann Huling (05:42):

Everything, she passed away and he was living on the streets.

Paul Ward (05:46):

That’s, that’s, that’s incredible. It’s

Jann Huling (05:48):

Sad. I mean, it’s just not, it’s just not the hobo the bum. Right. It is. People like you and me. Look at the Thomas fire. . Anyone that doesn’t live in their home for whatever reasons, a fire, a flood, or whatever’s considered homeless.

Paul Ward (06:03):

. And you, you did an interesting thing, or periodically in the past, you have actually yourself dressed up like a homeless person to see, you know, and, and you’re out in the street to see how they’re, how they’re treated. What, what made you wanna do that? And what, what did you find out? Well, because

Jann Huling (06:23):

I work with the homeless every day. . I want to, I, I can’t be an effective personally is how I am. I can’t be effective in my position unless I know what they have to deal with. So I have dressed up as homeless waited outside big events in the bushes. , I was homeless downtown Ventura. And every single person walked by me except for these three boys skateboarding. And, you know, everybody walked by and just kind of looked at me, didn’t say anything. And then the, the one boy comes up to me and he goes, I have some cans. Would you like some cans? So I tried to tell him at that point that I really wasn’t homeless, and I appreciated that. But <laugh>, he, he thought I was just crazy. Right.

Paul Ward (07:09):

So

Jann Huling (07:09):

I took the cans and Yeah. And then I’ve done it. I did outside the Ventura Chamber breakfast at Pierpont Inn one time in the bushes. . And my, my words for this is, I am not hopeless. I’m homeless. And that radiates with me. So seeing out there, seeing how people react to you, whether they speak to you, whether they talk to you, I did it also in Camarillo, in a park one time. Just see how people would, and I just, in order for me to effectively know what they’re dealing with. Right. And it is just, I had to do it.

Paul Ward (07:48):

Right. There’s probably a lot of, I don’t wanna say shame, but, but Oh yeah. You know, just kind of, you know, eyes that kind of turn away. Right. People kind of wanna ignore the problem, ignore, ignore the homeless person, you know, wish they weren’t there. Yeah.

Jann Huling (08:05):

I had a a woman from in Camarillo that, that knew me. And I was trying, I wouldn’t make eye contact with her, you know? And plus, I mean, I literally am homeless. I mean, I look homeless, you know, I’ve got my shopping cart, I got everything. Right. So she kept saying, are you hungry? And I’m like, I wouldn’t speak. ’cause I didn’t want her to know my name, you know, recognize who I was. I’m like, Mm-H

Paul Ward (08:28):

Right. Jann, is that you? Jann? Is

Jann Huling (08:30):

That you <laugh>. So but she went and got me food and brought it out to me. I was like, oh. Mm-H

Paul Ward (08:38):

<Affirmative>.

Jann Huling (08:38):

And then she,

Paul Ward (08:39):

But she still, but you were still incognito at that point. Oh, totally.

Jann Huling (08:41):

The whole time. But she just, she felt it was important that I get some food. Right. And so she went and got food.

Paul Ward (08:47):

So it’s probably one person out of

Jann Huling (08:50):

One out of a hundred <laugh>, one outta

Paul Ward (08:51):

A hundred. That’s helpful. Yeah.

Jann Huling (08:53):

Yeah. Exactly.

Paul Ward (08:53):

99% just kind of ignore, ignore,

Jann Huling (08:56):

Ignore. You know, and it’s not that they ignore because they’re being rude. People don’t know how to act.

Paul Ward (09:05):

Right.

Jann Huling (09:06):

You know, and unfortunately, some homeless are agitated and aggressive. Right.

Jann Huling (09:13):

You know, and it’s, it’s just, it’s sad. But we even have one homeless, well, we have a lot of homeless obviously, here, but I always try to keep an eye on where they’re at. You know, in the event something’s going on. I, I know who’s there and what they need. And, and I was looking for one homeless one, one time we hadn’t been in the pantry, so I asked another homeless person. I said, Hey do you know where Jesse’s at? And he said, no. I said, I go, I haven’t been able to find him. You know, I know he’s down by the, in the harbor area sleeping. He goes, well, you know where I’m at. I moved to, I’m the fifth tree up.

Paul Ward (09:51):

The fifth tree up in the harbor area or whatever.

Jann Huling (09:55):

So he said that whenever I needed him for anything, that’s where he was at. And that makes me feel good. ’cause They know I honestly care. . That’s it. You know? And everybody that works here, caress,

Paul Ward (10:08):

You know their name, you know their names,

Jann Huling (10:09):

We know their names. And the key here is that a lot of people, when they see homeless , they don’t, they don’t look in their eyes. They look away. Right. So when I meet them, I look in their eyes and I tell them what my name is. So in the event that you’re out shopping at Vons . And you’re homeless and you see me, I want you to know my name. I want you to say, Hey, Jann, because I’m the type of person that runs up and hugs you. And everybody looks at me all weird because I’ve got somebody with a sleeping bag. And, and I hug them. You know, sometimes that’s all they need for the day.

Paul Ward (10:43):

Now did you develop this caring for the homeless at a, at a young age? I mean, when did you, when did you develop this passion?

Jann Huling (10:51):

Well, you know, we, when I was growing up, we really didn’t, I didn’t know much about homeless. My grandfather owned he owned a business in, which is now Montecito at the time, I don’t think it was called Montecito. And he would always get he would make food for the homeless. And they weren’t homeless at that time. They were hobos. . And he one of the hobos whittled him a picture of Santa Barbara and a piece of wood and gave it to him and thanked him for that. . But I mean, yeah, I was a hobo for Halloween many times. That’s about all my extent was. And then one, one Christmas, I remember some man outside of Ralph’s saying, I’m homeless and I’m hungry. And it was dressed okay. So I went and got a Christmas dinner for him and brought it out to him. And it just kind of snowballed from that. , you know, and my poor son, he gets drug into these things, you know, from a young age.

Paul Ward (11:53):

Right.

Jann Huling (11:54):

It’s just, I’m, I’m very careful. , I don’t, you know, go up to every single person I see. Sure. But I have a, a good sense of who’s gonna hurt me and who’s not, and Right. And I brought breakfast burritos down to that down to the river bottom. Brought breakfast burritos down there for them and just, just stuff to make them feel like they matter.

Paul Ward (12:21):

Sure. And how, how much has this problem grown? Do you know, statistics for California and Oh,

Jann Huling (12:28):

It has, it has absolutely snowballed. They’re saying right now, I mean, this is 2023, we had a little over 2200 homeless in Ventura County. And I think it’s much more than that. When you’re out doing the homeless count, you’re missing some people.

Paul Ward (12:52):

Right.

Jann Huling (12:53):

You know, you’re missing some people, maybe, you know, they’re, they’re in, in a abandoned building or, you know, you’re in the river bottom and you’re trying to catch all of ’em. Some of ’em aren’t there. So I think the statistics are much higher than that. . And it has gotten worse through Covid. People have lost their jobs. Right. You know, and here’s the, the key here is that when you’re in Ventura County and you get arrested , you go to Ventura County Jail. , you’re released from Ventura County Jail and you’re in Ventura. It’s beautiful place to be if you’re gonna be homeless.

Paul Ward (13:26):

You know? So even if you were arrested in a different city and you were taken to Ventura.

Jann Huling (13:31):

Yeah. I’m sorry. Yeah.

Paul Ward (13:32):

You’re released in Ventura, but you don’t have any way to get back to where your no belongings are.

Jann Huling (13:37):

No, you don’t. And it’s a perfect area. Same thing as if you are admitted into the hospital, you go to Ventura County Medical Center and you’re released . You know, and it’s, it’s a tough, it’s a tough world out there. Mm-H

Paul Ward (13:52):

<Affirmative>. And the only solution is, is, you know, fixing the mental health crisis and providing that

Jann Huling (14:00):

Is the number one issue right now. Fixing the mental health crisis. And, and people won’t go into, into a, a, a home, you know, a winter’s shelter or anything if they have dogs or kids.

Paul Ward (14:14):

H

Jann Huling (14:15):

So they’re out on the streets in these type of elements like we’re having today. And it’s difficult, it’s difficult for them. Right. And we need to fix the mental health, and we need to have some type of shelters where the entire families can go. Mm-H

Paul Ward (14:30):

<Affirmative>. And you might have a, you might have a family that lives in somebody else’s garage. I mean, that’s not Yeah.

Jann Huling (14:35):

And they’re basically homeless,

Paul Ward (14:36):

Move over your head, but you’re still homeless. Yes.

Jann Huling (14:38):

Right. Exactly. You don’t have anything that’s yours.

Paul Ward (14:42):

Right.

Jann Huling (14:43):

It’s tough.

Paul Ward (14:44):

How can folks help Project Understanding Jen?

Jann Huling (14:48):

Well, you know, you always can come here and volunteer anytime Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays from nine to one is when we actually hand out the food. , we have tutoring sites that need teachers. And those are the sort of things, right. That you can help in giving back. You can also give back by making donations. Sure. on, on our website, www.projectunderstanding.org. And you can help us that way. ’cause We we’re like all nonprofits right now are struggling. We’re not having the donations that are coming in due to Covid, due to whatever, or they’re not coming in like they used to. . And so those sort of things can help. We’re also, what we’re doing right now is we’re putting together a golf tournament. It’ll be May 6th and a hundred percent of those proceeds go to Project Understanding. Nice.

Jann Huling (15:42):

We can continue to feed, we can continue to house, we can change you to educate. We we will help the homeless or help anybody that’s looking to maybe build up their resume more. , we’ll help ’em look for jobs. Oh, wow. We’ll help you find housing if you’re on some type of list. We’ll get you going on that. We’ll help you with all of those things as well. So it’s not just, here’s your food. Bye-Bye. You’re homeless. Bye-Bye. No, we’re gonna help you, we’re gonna hold your hand through the whole thing if you want it.

Paul Ward (16:13):

So you must have some, some good success stories too about folks that you’ve helped that were homeless, that, you know, helped them find a job and

Jann Huling (16:20):

Oh, we have

Paul Ward (16:21):

Some no longer homeless.

Jann Huling (16:22):

Yeah, exactly. We had one guy that came in here and, and him and his wife were both not working. They were homeless. And the key with that is that when you go fill an application to get a job ,

Jann Huling (16:37):

You’re homeless, what’s your address? . And a lot of people don’t have the Obama phones. So what we will do is we’ll have you put our address as the address for, for the job. So both the couple were able to get a job at Taco Bell, which is pretty cool. Yeah. And it was a foot in the door and they got in the door, you know, we got them some clean clothes, got them going on their interviews. We got them haircuts. just to make everything perfect for them. And so they were able to get a job there and it was just what they needed to get off of the streets.

Paul Ward (17:12):

Nice. And it gives ’em some, I mean, the job gives somebody dignity as well. Oh,

Jann Huling (17:17):

Absolutely. It certainly does. And, and they were pretty darn proud of it. Wonderful. We’ve also reunited families with their children. A lot of times the children have been taken away. So we’ve been part of reuniting the, the parents with the children. We’ve also reunited a lot of family members with the homeless. So we’ve got them buses.

Paul Ward (17:39):

It must be pretty special when they get to see their child for the first time in many months or years, or

Jann Huling (17:45):

Right, right. It’s the best. It truly is the best. We’ll work with anybody. We don’t care what your background is. The only thing we don’t want is we don’t accept child abuse or someone that possibly has murdered somebody that,

Paul Ward (18:05):

That makes perfect sense,

Jann Huling (18:07):

<Laugh>. But you know, a lot of times they have to work off hours for community service. So we’ll help them work off those hours in the pantry and the tutoring sites. So we do a lot more than feed and house. It’s a whole, it snowballs. it would be nice if it was just one thing. Right,

Paul Ward (18:24):

Right. Well, you’ve got a lot, a lot of different pieces going on.

Jann Huling (18:29):

Yeah. Different avenues as well. Yeah. Perfect.

Paul Ward (18:31):

Well, Jann, thank you so much for being our guest, and Thank you putting the word. And of course, we’ll share this and throw it out there in the universe and you know, see what, see what folks say. But, but thank you so much for, for your expertise and I’ll Thank you. Thank

Jann Huling (18:45):

You, Paul. All righty. Thank you so much. Bye-Bye.

Paul Ward (18:48):

Talk. Okay. bye-Bye.