Brad Lewis, at Home with the Lord 
Citygate Network Director of Communications Brad Lewis, 61, passed from death unto life this past Sunday morning. As we reported in the last issue of Street Smart, Brad had been battling cancer for quite some time. In recent weeks it had spread unexpectedly and rapidly, forcing him to opt for home hospice care. His wife, Esther, said he told her, “I’m ready when God is.” Brad served his Savior well with a storied career in the area of communications, and his contributions to Citygate Network over the past decade were numerous. A celebration of life party will be held for Brad in Colorado Springs this coming Saturday.

Ripple Effect to be held in Columbus, Ohio, in February
Citygate Network’s performance acceleration program for mission and ministry boards will be continuing next year, with the first cohort to launch February 20–21 with a two-day workshop in the Columbus, Ohio, area. Member organizations in the Buckeye State, and in states nearby, are encouraged to consider participating in this program that has revitalized so many organizations over the past four years. The program works with board members and CEOs, concentrating on the importance of policy governance. A mentor/coach will work with each participating organization over a nine-month period. Hold the dates and watch Street Smart for more information in the weeks ahead.

Complete the Compensation Survey to Access the Report for Free
Every two years we conduct a survey to gather data about each member ministry's employee compensation and benefits. The data is analyzed and cross-tabbed to produce an approximately 30-page comprehensive report covering all common positions for rescue missions and kindred ministries, broken down by budget size and location. The veracity of the report is greatly improved when we get at least a third of our members to report their confidential data. We’re close, but we still need a few more of you to jump in this year and complete the survey to keep the reliability factor as high as possible. Rest assured that figures reported cannot be traced to the contributing organization. We need the information by this Friday. Once again, Citygate Network will make the report available at no charge (a $119 value) to those members that complete the survey. Here is the link to the survey.

New Overtime Rule Takes Effect January 1
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule that will take effect January 1, 2020. It makes 1.3 million more American workers eligible for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Tax-exempt organizations are not excluded and should begin planning for this change now. Even if an organization isn’t covered by the FLSA, employees may be covered as individuals and thus eligible for overtime. Here are the key changes:

• The “standard salary level” threshold for white-collar, exempt employees will increase from $455 ($23,600 per year) to $684 per week ($35,568 per year).  
• Employers can use nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments (including commissions) if paid at least annually to meet up to 10 percent of the standard salary level.
• The salary threshold for highly compensated employees will increase from $100,000 per year to $107,432 per year, and applies to non-executive, administrative, or professional employees (i.e., white collar employees) who earn at least $684 per week and whose primary duties involve performing office or non-manual work, and include at least one of the duties of an EAP employee (e.g., directing the work of two or more employees).

Talk to your CPA to see what your obligation and liability might be.

Looking Down the Street...

• The Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (St. Michael, Barbados) is celebrating the grand opening of their new facility for men, women, and children. With this new building, they will now provide social and medical services, counseling, education, legal aid, advocacy, employment preparation and placement, food, clothing, showers, life-coping skills, and shelter.
  
  
• Better Business Bureau Northwest selected Boise Rescue Mission Ministries (Boise, Idaho) from 65 applicants as the 2019 Torch Award for Ethics Charity Winner. This recognition honors organizations that demonstrate exceptional commitment to building trust and integrity with their communities.
  
  
• Chris Croswhite, executive director of the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake (Salt Lake City, Utah), announced their merger with Ogden Rescue Mission, located about 40 miles north. The Ogden facility will keep its name and continue to serve the Ogden Valley and surrounding area, while the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake will continue to serve the Salt Lake Valley.
  
  
• The Jimmie Hale Mission (Birmingham, Alabama) will commemorate its 75th anniversary with a celebration luncheon later this month. Citygate Network Vice President Justin Boles will speak at the event.
  
  
• After 13½ years of excellent service, Rodney Gaskins has announced his resignation from the Fairbanks Rescue Mission (Fairbanks, Alaska), effective October 25, 2019. Austin Wagner has been appointed interim director.
  
  
• After a national search, Frank Williams has been named the new CEO at Bridgeport Rescue Mission (Bridgeport, Connecticut). He will begin his new role on October 25 after serving as the mission’s interim director during the search process.

Nonprofit Grows from Saving 20,000 to 1.2 Million Meals a Year
Google’s and Facebook’s algorithms have nothing on the ones running in the mind of Hunger at Home Executive Director Ewell Sterner, who daily manages to keep a delicate balance between venues with surplus food and the agencies who feed Silicon Valley’s hungry. It’s a Herculean task, and Sterner tries to do it without wasting a single bite. The Mercury News published an article about this creative entrepreneur who founded a nonprofit because, while working at a hotel, he saw such an abundance of food waste juxtaposed against the large number of individuals experiencing homelessness and food insecurity. That first year, Hunger at Home redistributed an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 meals. This year they are saving approximately 1.2 million meals from two dozen corporate partners and distributing them among more than a dozen nonprofits in the Silicon Valley. They have even expanded services to distribute surplus toiletries, bedding, and other non-food items to nonprofits, and have just started Hunger at Home Connect—to connect job-seeking nonprofit clients with corporate partners who need temporary help.

Consider: Are there outlets you could collaborate with in your community to put good, unused food in the stomachs of hungry and homeless people?


West Coast Neighborhoods Create Their Own Barriers
Recently, several West Coast city neighborhoods have taken matters into their own hands to deter homeless people from camping out on their streets. A number of Fox News articles have described neighbors working together to purchase barriers such as large planters or boulders and placing them along their sidewalks to minimize the amount of room available for tents and squatters. The state has implemented similar landscaping choices throughout cities plagued by homeless encampments. However, recently the city of San Francisco removed about two dozen small boulders from a residential side street after a group of neighbors had pooled their money together to have them installed in order to intercede in the city's ongoing crisis. City officials told the San Francisco Examiner that the boulders posed a safety concern and were getting pushed into the street. They promised the city would work with residents to come up with a more permanent solution using either larger boulders or a landscape plan. However, the battle rages on as San Francisco’s Coalition on Homelessness complained that all anti-homeless design and hostile architecture should be removed throughout the city. 

Judge Rules Planned Supervised Injection Site Does Not Violate Federal Drug Laws
NPR reports that a U.S. district judge ruled that a Philadelphia nonprofit's plan to open the first U.S. site where people can use illegal opioids under medical supervision does not violate federal drug laws. Justice Department lawyers had launched a legal challenge to block the facility. The nonprofit, Safehouse, claims their site will reduce drug use, not facilitate it. They allow people to bring in their own drugs and use them in a medical facility to help combat fatal overdoses. The ruling represents the first legal decision about whether supervised injection sites are legally permissible under U.S. law without violating the Controlled Substances Act. Prosecutors contend that the plan violates a provision of the Act stating that it is illegal to own a property where drugs are being used. Backers of safe injection sites argue that the law is outdated and not written to prevent the opening of a medical facility aimed at saving lives. The case is far from over; it’s merely the first step in a much longer legal process. Most studies show that supervised injection sites can drive down fatal overdoses, restrict the spread of infectious diseases, and move more people into treatment. Sites exist in Canada and Europe, but none have received legal permission to open in the U.S.

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Justice Department Criticizes the DEA Regarding the Opioid Crisis
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) authorized large increases in the production of painkillers, even as the number of opioid-related deaths in the United States soared, according to a harsh review by the Inspector General at the Justice Department. The New York Times published an article detailing the accusations made against the DEA, including being “slow to respond” to the opioid crisis, contributing to the opioid overdose deaths of more than 300,000 Americans since 2000. According to the review, the rate of opioid overdose deaths in the United States grew, on average, by eight percent per year from 1999 through 2013, and by 71 percent per year from 2013 through 2017, while the DEA continued authorizing manufacturers to produce substantially larger amounts of opioids. The DEA, an arm of the Justice Department, is the federal agency that most directly oversees access to opioids, regulating production quotas and investigating illegal diversion. For example, the agency increased production quotas for oxycodone production by about 400 percent from 2002 to 2013, despite evidence that opioids were being overprescribed and misused. The inspector general’s review comes at a critical moment in federal opioid litigation as a consolidation of nearly 2,300 cases nationwide seek reparations for the epidemic.

Report Breaks Down Nonprofits Use of Social Media
According to a Forbes article, the newly released Global NGO Tech Report polled 5,721 NGOs from 160 countries worldwide and found that nine in 10 nonprofits around the world regularly use social media to engage their supporters and donors. The report offers a comprehensive region-by-region breakdown, with statistics for usage of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and WhatsApp. Ninety-four percent of respondents agreed that social media is an effective tool for online brand awareness. Nearly all (99 percent) nonprofits in the U.S. and Canada are shown to have a Facebook page, with 56 percent using Instagram, 64 percent on Twitter, and 37 percent leveraging LinkedIn. Facebook is generally the preferred channel for nonprofits worldwide, but interestingly, just over half of the organizations polled (56 percent) responded that they do not have a written social media strategy, including only 40 percent who do in the U.S. and Canada. The survey also contained questions about web and email communications, revealing that 97 percent of respondents in the U.S. and Canada have a website, with 85 percent of them accepting donations through their site. 

Consider: Does your organization regularly and intentionally take advantage of social media?

 
Business Insider Releases List of Most Miserable Cities in America
A recent Business Insider report, identified the 50 most miserable cities in the U.S., with half of them located in just three states. Ten of the 50 are in California, nine in New Jersey, and six in Florida. Using census data from 1,000 cities, the report took into consideration a range of factors, including population change (because if people are leaving it's usually for a good reason), the percentage of people working, median household incomes, the percentage of people without healthcare, median commute times, and the number of people living in poverty. Often, these cities have been devastated by natural disasters. They've had to deal with blight and high crime rates. Economies have struggled after industry has collapsed. These cities also tend to have high rates of addiction. What the most miserable cities had in common, according to the outlet, were few opportunities, devastation from natural disasters, high crime and addiction rates, and often many abandoned houses.

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Breakfast Cook, Seattle's Union Gospel Mission, Seattle, WA 

Care Support Specialist, Light of Life Ministries, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA 

Controller, Good News Rescue Mission, Redding, CA

Development and Database Coordinator, Union Gospel Mission, Dallas, TX 

Development Director, Open Door Mission, Glens Falls, NY 

Development Director, Home of Grace, Vancleave, MS 

Development Manager, Bread of Life Mission, Seattle, WA 

Director of Development, Jubilee Ministries, Inc., Lebanon, PA

Director of Development, City Mission of Schenectady, Schenectady, NY 

Director of Marketing and Communications, St. Matthew's House, Naples, FL

Director of Residential Ministries, Water Street Mission, Lancaster, PA

Donor Relations Director, Seattle's Union Gospel Mission, Seattle, WA

Executive Director, Campus of Hope, Conroe, TX 

Grant Writer, Phoenix Rescue Mission, Phoenix, AZ 

Guest Services Supervisor, Seattle's Union Gospel Mission, Seattle, WA

Major Gifts Director, Union Gospel Mission, Dallas, TX 

Major Gifts Officer, Union Rescue Mission, Wichita, KS

Men's Case Manager, Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission, Shreveport, LA 

Program Administrator - Bridge Street Mission, Bridge Street Mission, Inc., Wausau, WI 

Residential Coordinator_Cornerstone Manor Facility, Buffalo City Mission, Buffalo, NY 

Search and Rescue Specialist, Seattle's Union Gospel Mission, Seattle, WA 

Senior Human Resources Generalist, Seattle's Union Gospel Mission, Seattle, WA

Shelter Supervisor, Open Door Mission, Glens Falls, NY 

Social Ent. Bus. Coor. & Exec. Assist. to COO, John 3:16 Mission, Tulsa, OK

Social Work/Clinical Manager, Denver Rescue Mission, Denver, CO

Vice President of Development, Career Cross Training, Colorado Springs, CO 

Vocational Training Manager, Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission, Shreveport, LA 

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