Episode 184 – What if Your Project was Fighting Homelessness?
The podcast by project managers for project managers. Amy King is a champion for the homeless! Hear how she boldly addresses the need for safe, rapidly deployable, living shelters, to deliver the dignity of private space for the homeless. This is a complex project which integrates social services to provide a healing community environment in each village, and also seeks to debunk adverse public perception towards homelessness.
Table of Contents
02:28 … Meet Amy04:00 … The Homeless Problem05:11 … Homelessness Data06:41 … Designing the Shelters09:27 … Looking at a Pallet Home10:47 … The Prototyping Phase13:29 … Pitching the Project14:59 … The First Client16:35 … Talk to People with Lived Experience17:32 … Impact Stories19:38 … Returning Home21:15 … COVID as a Catalyst22:43 … The Impact of a Pallet Village25:30 … Forming a Team27:33 … Kevin and Kyle28:53 … Overcoming Obstacles33:01 … Requests from Cities33:30 … Overseas Market34:55 … The Goal to End Homelessness37:39 … “What I Wish I Had Known”40:55 … Where to Next for Pallet?42:32 … Access to Housing for the Homeless43:43 … Intrinsic Motivation for the Project45:36 … Find Out More46:06 … Closing
AMY KING: So housing, there’s this really popular American narrative which is homelessness is a housing problem. I 100% disagree with that. ... A house, four walls and a roof, do not solve a person’s homelessness crisis. Giving them keys to an apartment does not solve their homelessness. You have to address the root cause issue. That person will end up homeless again.
WENDY GROUNDS: You’re listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. My name is Wendy Grounds. With me in the studio are Bill Yates and our sound guy Danny Brewer. We are so excited you’re joining us today. We have an incredible project story.
Our guest is Amy King, and she is the founder and CEO of Pallet. This is a public benefit corporation working to end unsheltered homelessness and give fair chance employment opportunities to people of all backgrounds. Pallet has deployed more than a hundred villages across 85 U.S. cities. Amy also co-founded Weld Seattle, which is a nonprofit that equips systems-impacted individuals with housing, employment, and other resources conducive to reintegration back into society. And her passion is just incredible. I think you’re really going to enjoy her story.
BILL YATES: Yeah, when you take a husband and a wife – and Amy has a background in psychology. She is a psychologist by education. Her husband is a master builder engineer. When you take those two and combine them and take the passion they have, you end up with something amazing like Pallet.
Just getting back to it, Pallet offers short-term shelter, community rooms, and private stall bathrooms. A large interim housing community can be set up in a matter of days with minimal tools using this Pallet system. Each Pallet structure is versatile. Units can be used for a variety of purposes from sheltering evacuees to building command-and-support centers or for temporary housing for recovery workers. Their motto is “No one should go unsheltered when shelter can be built in a day.”
WENDY GROUNDS: And they’ve done so much more than just build shelters. When you hear Amy talk, what started as a small project, it grew, and it became more and more, and they got involved in the community. They got involved in the lives of the people who were living in these shelters.
BILL YATES: And as we’ll hear from Amy, many of those that have experienced homelessness are now vibrant workers and contributors to Pallet.
WENDY GROUNDS: Hi, Amy. Welcome to Manage This.
AMY KING: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Meet Amy
WENDY GROUNDS: We are really looking forward to getting into this topic and to hearing about the incredible work that you’re doing. But won’t you first tell us a little bit about your background, your career,
Table of Contents
02:28 … Meet Amy04:00 … The Homeless Problem05:11 … Homelessness Data06:41 … Designing the Shelters09:27 … Looking at a Pallet Home10:47 … The Prototyping Phase13:29 … Pitching the Project14:59 … The First Client16:35 … Talk to People with Lived Experience17:32 … Impact Stories19:38 … Returning Home21:15 … COVID as a Catalyst22:43 … The Impact of a Pallet Village25:30 … Forming a Team27:33 … Kevin and Kyle28:53 … Overcoming Obstacles33:01 … Requests from Cities33:30 … Overseas Market34:55 … The Goal to End Homelessness37:39 … “What I Wish I Had Known”40:55 … Where to Next for Pallet?42:32 … Access to Housing for the Homeless43:43 … Intrinsic Motivation for the Project45:36 … Find Out More46:06 … Closing
AMY KING: So housing, there’s this really popular American narrative which is homelessness is a housing problem. I 100% disagree with that. ... A house, four walls and a roof, do not solve a person’s homelessness crisis. Giving them keys to an apartment does not solve their homelessness. You have to address the root cause issue. That person will end up homeless again.
WENDY GROUNDS: You’re listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. My name is Wendy Grounds. With me in the studio are Bill Yates and our sound guy Danny Brewer. We are so excited you’re joining us today. We have an incredible project story.
Our guest is Amy King, and she is the founder and CEO of Pallet. This is a public benefit corporation working to end unsheltered homelessness and give fair chance employment opportunities to people of all backgrounds. Pallet has deployed more than a hundred villages across 85 U.S. cities. Amy also co-founded Weld Seattle, which is a nonprofit that equips systems-impacted individuals with housing, employment, and other resources conducive to reintegration back into society. And her passion is just incredible. I think you’re really going to enjoy her story.
BILL YATES: Yeah, when you take a husband and a wife – and Amy has a background in psychology. She is a psychologist by education. Her husband is a master builder engineer. When you take those two and combine them and take the passion they have, you end up with something amazing like Pallet.
Just getting back to it, Pallet offers short-term shelter, community rooms, and private stall bathrooms. A large interim housing community can be set up in a matter of days with minimal tools using this Pallet system. Each Pallet structure is versatile. Units can be used for a variety of purposes from sheltering evacuees to building command-and-support centers or for temporary housing for recovery workers. Their motto is “No one should go unsheltered when shelter can be built in a day.”
WENDY GROUNDS: And they’ve done so much more than just build shelters. When you hear Amy talk, what started as a small project, it grew, and it became more and more, and they got involved in the community. They got involved in the lives of the people who were living in these shelters.
BILL YATES: And as we’ll hear from Amy, many of those that have experienced homelessness are now vibrant workers and contributors to Pallet.
WENDY GROUNDS: Hi, Amy. Welcome to Manage This.
AMY KING: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Meet Amy
WENDY GROUNDS: We are really looking forward to getting into this topic and to hearing about the incredible work that you’re doing. But won’t you first tell us a little bit about your background, your career,
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