Welcome to Episode 4 of the Back to the Roots Podcast!
Alejandro flew to Austin, Texas, where Back to the Roots joined The Home Depot Foundation, Green Doors, and more than 400 volunteers to spend one day renovating Pecan Springs Commons, a housing community for formerly homeless veterans in northeast Austin.
Eight apartment buildings painted. New pergolas and outdoor gathering spaces built. Vegetable gardens planted. A playground refreshed. Rooms fully furnished, so veterans on the waitlist could move in the very next day.
In this episode, you'll hear from Christa Noland, Executive Director of Green Doors, on what actually causes homelessness and why their model, built entirely on respect and community, is different from anything else out there. You'll hear from Danny Watson of The Home Depot Foundation on why gardening is one of the most powerful tools for veterans in recovery. And you'll hear from Erin Izen on how The Home Depot has averaged five volunteer projects a day across the country for over 20 years and why that's no accident.
The Home Depot Foundation has invested more than $650 million in veteran causes since 2011. Back to the Roots supplied the soil for the gardens going into Pecan Springs Commons that day and will be supplying the seeds after. This is what partnership looks like in practice.
🔗 CONNECT WITH THE TEAM:
Erin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinizen
Danny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-watson-170563158
Christa: https:///www.linkedin.com/in/christa-noland-4204545
Green Doors: https://greendoors.org
The Home Depot Foundation: https://homedepotfoundation.org
🔗 CONNECT WITH US:
Back to the Roots: https://backtotheroots.com
Alejandro's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandrovelezramirez
Nikhil's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aroranikhil
[00:00:00] Alejandro Vélez: Hey, everybody, my name is Alejandro. I'm the co-founder, co-CEO of Back to the Roots, and we are here for another episode with none other than Krista Noland. And Krista, where are we right now, right this second?
[00:00:13] Christa Noland: We're at the Pecan Springs Commons community. It's one of the communities in our Green Doors portfolio.
It's in northeast Austin, uh, about a mile from the old airport location, which is now known as Mueller.
Alejandro Vélez: Hey, guys, this is Alejandro. And this is Nikhil. We're the co-founders of Back to the Roots. This podcast is for you if you are obsessed with entrepreneurship, if you care deeply about a purpose in your brand around sustainability, and if you wanna learn more about how to build a brand in the lawn and garden space from scratch.
We built this from zero dollars out of our fraternity kitchen at Berkeley to over $100 million of retail sales, and we want to bring on incredible entrepreneurs that can share their story.
Danny Watson: Join us. Let's grow together.
[00:01:00] Alejandro Vélez: Why does homelessness exist?
[00:01:02] Christa Noland: It’s a hard question. I think, um, there's a number of reasons. We believe at Green Doors, it's lack of opportunity or inability to deal with a stressful life situation.
So that could be mental illness, that could be a medical issue, that could be addiction, that could be loss of a child, a family member, or a spouse. We often see that stressful life situations begin a path of inability to maintain stability, and when that path starts, without immediate intervention or support, we see people end up in a spiral and a circle of homelessness that's really hard to get out of.
[00:01:53] Danny Watson: Today, we are upgrading one of our properties for the veterans. Well, there's like 60% veterans that live here. So some of the things we've tried to do for the veterans was create some outdoor spaces. These pergolas you see that's right behind me, there's gonna be outdoor seating that's gonna go underneath them, so they have places to gather and tell their story.
It's, we know that the whole social aspect is really important, so they're able to sit and talk to each other, tell their stories. We're also putting in a garden, 'cause we know that is like therapy. And quick story, one of the projects we did a couple years ago, just around the corner, and I want you to go by there to see it.
[00:02:28] Alejandro Vélez: Yeah.
[00:02:28] Danny Watson: Um, we've, we installed a garden there, and I was, I was told today that the veterans there have taken that garden in like it's their baby. So they care for it. They pick the vegetables. They just had like a big, uh, potluck from the vegetables that they grew in the garden. That's- So I know gardening is such an important part of all of our lives, but especially for people who are, who are learning to care for things, and just needing almost like a reason to be.
[00:02:58] Erin Izen: My name is Erin Izen. I have been with The Home Depot for 22 years. Um, I have been on the business side. I'm actually an engineer by education, and so I've always been on the business side, but my side hustle's always been what Home Depot does for the military, and I'll come back to that. I started in 2004. In 2005, I was at a Team Depot event just like this one in Atlanta.
[00:03:17] Alejandro Vélez: We're talking in 2005, you said.
[00:03:19] Erin Izen: Yeah, 2005, so 20 years.
[00:03:20] Alejandro Vélez: 20, 21 years ago.
[00:03:21] Erin Izen: 21 years ago. Um, October 3rd, actually, 20, uh, 2- 2005. Oh,
[00:03:25] Alejandro Vélez: The fact that The Home Depot has done this for that long.
[00:03:28] Erin Izen: We have been doing, um, Team Depot for well over 20 years.
Yeah. And we've done over 21,000 projects. We average five a day across the United States. So this is one of thousands that happen-
[00:03:40] Alejandro Vélez: You know that this is- ... all the time ... I, I obviously with SPARK Foods, I talk to a lot of retailers.
[00:03:45] Erin Izen: Yeah.
[00:03:46] Alejandro Vélez: There's some of them are great partners. Y'all are the only ones that do this.
[00:03:48] Erin Izen: Yes, this is unique to us. It's part of the fabric of our culture. It's part of who we've always been. Um, our founders, Bernie, Ken, and Arthur, are all very philanthropic. They instilled, well before they even had the means to do so, the importance of giving back. It's one of our eight core values. Um, and so doing all of this has always been a part of The Home Depot.
Bernie was a veteran, so giving back to veterans has always been a part of The Home Depot.
[00:04:15] Alejandro Vélez: You're saying right now there's 33,000 that- There's
[00:04:17] Danny Watson: 33,000 that
[00:04:18] Alejandro Vélez: We make hungry each night ... you guys get to serve. And is it 33,000 of just veteran homeless, or- Yes.
[00:04:22] Erin Izen: Veteran. Veteran, yeah.
[00:04:23] Alejandro Vélez: 33,000 veterans
[00:04:23] Erin Izen: specifically.
[00:04:24] Danny Watson: And I do feel like we've made an impact on that number.
[00:04:26] Erin Izen: 60%.
[00:04:26] Danny Watson: Like- Yeah ...
[00:04:27] Erin Izen: like
[00:04:27] Danny Watson: us, it's how long have we-
[00:04:29] Erin Izen: 70,000 people made an impact. 70,000. We, well, there's 33,000 left, and we've touched 70,000 faces. So we've made an im- impact, but the sad thing is, you're not gonna get to zero. That's a hard thing to talk about. It is. And you, you don't say people choose homelessness. It's not that they're choosing it, it's just, there's so many other factors that come with veterans homeless. It's not just the badges. There's a lot of other health. The support services, the mental health, all of that that comes with it. So it's, I- So the recurring a- and addiction and all of that, it, it's very difficult.
[00:05:00] Danny Watson: We visit a lot of nonprofits when we came to this area to do a project, and when I came here, Christa was like, "Danny, this is, this is what we need." So when I saw the property, I saw the need. Um, the bu- some of the building, buildings needed to be painted. They needed gardens. The gardens needed refreshing.
They needed outdoor spaces. The, the, um, the playground for the kids needed some love, so we're doing all that today. Um, and the ins- she had a bunch of rooms. Some of the rooms she had available needed to be updated with, like, furniture, fresh paint. So we're setting all those rooms up so that- Awesome ... new veterans that's waiting right now to move in, like, after today, can move in.
[00:05:45] Christa Noland: And so they start their first day, and we bring them into the community. We bring them to our food pantry, and we start introducing them to residents. And we're really different, as you can tell, kind of by a lot of low-income housing is very government-run. It is very s- structured, especially veterans housing.
And the Vietnam veterans were one of the groups that we've always served, that they didn't fit that model at all. They came home to not liking the VA and not being accepted well by their country. And so as they started aging, they wouldn't, they didn't wanna be in veteran housing 'cause they thought that meant I had to be in a VA nursing home or I had to be in something like that.
So what I found, our model's 100% different in that it's respect-based. It's community-based. It is, we know everybody's name. This isn't like public housing, "Oh, you're 205." No, we know your story.
[00:06:43] Alejandro Vélez: All 263 you know by name.
[00:06:45] Christa Noland: Absolutely. I know their stories. I know that one has-
[00:06:48] Alejandro Vélez: So let me go back. So they start, they join Mm-hmm. They come their first day. You... Do they, do they get greeted with...
[00:06:58] Christa Noland: Do- They get greeted with a key ...
[00:07:00] Alejandro Vélez: A key tto an apartment.
[00:07:01] Christa Noland: Because most of them are not coming from a home.
[00:07:04] Alejandro Vélez: Okay.
[00:07:05] Christa Noland: So we get them a key. We take them to our food pantry. We get them food. Okay, now we've got a roof over your head.
Now we've got food for you. Our veterans, every house comes fully furnished. I'll take you through one in a minute. And- Yes ... so they have a couch, they have a bed, they have a bedside table, they have a closet, and they have all of the basic necessities in their kitchen. So we take them to their house. We help them-
[00:07:29] Alejandro Vélez: Are there many folks in the apartment, or is it just one per apartment?
[00:07:32] Christa Noland: One per apartment.
[00:07:33] Alejandro Vélez: Oh.
[00:07:34] Christa Noland: And we take them to their home and we say, "This is your refrigerator. These are your cabinets. Let's be-",,
[00:07:38] Alejandro Vélez: And how much do they pay per month?
[00:07:40] Christa Noland: It depends. Um, some of our people pay zero, and our maximum is $1,000 a month if they're fully employed and have a good income coming in.
[00:07:48] Alejandro Vélez: Okay. And is the idea to get them to paying?
[00:07:51] Christa Noland: Oh, yes. Self-sufficiency, self-reliance. Independence is the goal. However, there's always some too that got disenfranchised and have been on the streets so long that they're elderly or they're disabled in a way that they're not gonna be able to go back to paying income by employment
[00:08:14] Erin Izen: You gotta start at the beginning. The Home Depot Foundation is actually a public charity. It is a 501[c][3] public charity. We are not a corporate foundation, which makes us a little bit unique. And because of that, um, w- our vendor partners, like yourself- Yeah ... and like the hardware team that's here, can donate to the foundation, and then, um, you support our causes alongside us.
And so it becomes a partnership, not just for within the Home Depot, but for with our vendor base and with all of the people that we work with on a daily basis, uh, on the business side can also participate in this philanthropy.
[00:08:46] Danny Watson: We're getting a lot done. The veterans are excited. The people who live here, they've been seeing the progress taking place.
Been here for about a week, getting everything set up with my team. I have amazing team. 365 Connect out of, uh, San Diego, they're helping me manage this one. They've been incredible partners. We have just had some, uh, great vendors who have donated stuff, like yourself. Mm-hmm. You gave us soil for the gardens.
I know you're gonna supply seeds after we leave. Right. So we couldn't do it without all of our vendors' support, like yourself. We're super excited.