b'John is the director of strategic initiatives at Everett Gospel Mission in Everett, Washington. He first joined EGM in 2006 as the director of development. In 2011 he made the move into direct services as the director of EGM mens shelter and day center, where he gained frontline insight into the challenges faced by those experiencing homelessness. In 2016, he moved into the new role of director of strategic initiatives. John can be reached at jhull@egmission.org.I love the fact that we have these little cubby holes where you can charge your phone with the USB ports and the electric outlet. Another guest shared, I like the fact that we can do a little reading before we go to sleep. And I can actually be comfortable in bed. Its long enough for my legs to comfort-ably lay down and sleep. We have licensed a manufacturer to make these beds for us, and maybe other shelters will consider using them. If we never made a dollar on this, wed be okay with that, if we could just get more beds like this in more shelters. We want to change the way that shelters provide beds to individuals. Its not a for-profit venture; its a change venture. The beds size does reduce the number of beds we can fit by a little bit; however, were not serving fewer peo-ple. We have fewer beds, but we have 100 percent occupancy because every-one can get up and down the beds, and we have 100 percent occupancy of peo-ple who feel safer in a more dignified, private space so they can rest more. Its always fun to tell individuals coming into the shelter for the first time, This is here because this commu-nity loves you, and youre worth it to us. And so part of the story of the bed is being able to reiterate that message that we knew we could do better; being able to do better with a different kind of service and different kind of bed that says youre worth it to us to do better than we did yesterday. \x03 JULY/AUGUST 2021 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG 39'