Heroes of The Homeless Crisis: How Mark Horvath of Invisible People is Helping To Support Some Of The Most Vulnerable People In Our Communities
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Homeless services treat the symptom, not the cause. We must address the affordable housing crisis, domestic violence, the foster care system, and more. We need housing and healthcare as human rights.
As a part of my series about “Heroes Of The Homeless Crisis” I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Horvath.
Mark Horvath developed Invisible People to give a face and voice to homelessness, something he knows all too well since he once lived among them. He regularly works on cause campaigns with major brands like Hanes, Ford, Pepsi, General Motors, and Ritz Crackers, and has consulted for the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles Police Department, Utah, the City of San Francisco, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, and more. In addition, Mark has served as a guest lecturer at educational institutions across the globe including Geneva Forum on Social Change, UCLA, USC, NYU, and Syracuse University. In 2018, The Nonprofit Times included Mark in their 2018 Power & Influence Top 50 nonprofit executives.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your personal background, and how you grew up?
Thank you for including me! Years ago, I had a great job in the television industry, making sure the world got “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy,” and other syndicated shows. Still, I ended up homeless on Hollywood Boulevard. With help, I rebuilt my life into a three-bedroom house, a 720 credit score, and a cushy marketing job. Then in 2008, when the economy crashed, I lost everything except my sobriety. At the time, I was close to crashing into homelessness again. It was a really dark time. With $45, a dinky laptop that could not edit video, and a $200 camcorder I bought before getting laid off, I started to empower homeless people to share their own stories. Today, Invisible People reaches millions of people every month through storytelling, news, and advocacy.
Is there a particular story or incident that inspired you to get involved in your work helping people who are homeless?
While I wasn’t a do-gooder growing up, I have always cared about people. That is not new. I also knew after experiencing homelessness myself how invisible homeless people are to the public and even service providers. At the start of the ’08 crash, before anyone was saying the R-word, I kept getting laid off as marketing budgets got slashed. One of my bosses had a coffee table book of photos of homeless people in his office. As I looked through the book, I thought to myself, “I could do this with video.” Soon after, my boss laid me off, and that’s how Invisible People started.
They say necessity breeds innovation. Well, when I lost my house to foreclosure, I also lost my video editing workstation. All I had was an old laptop that would not cut video. I am a television producer by trade, so for me, video has to have broll and graphics. I almost didn’t start Invisible People because I could not edit the videos. I thought, no one will watch this anyway, so I went out and interviewed a homeless person raw and unedited. That was the magic — authenticity has replaced production value. Last year, our YouTube channel had 137 million views, and we are soon to reach one million subscribers.
Homelessness has been a problem for a long time in the United States. But it seems that it has gotten a lot worse over the past five years, particularly in the large cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, and San Francisco. Can you explain to our readers what brought us to this place? Where did this crisis come from?
Homelessness has been a crisis for many years, and not just in major cities (though it may seem that way in proportion). In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan cut $15 billion of affordable housing funding that has never been replaced. Chronic homelessness didn’t even exist before 1982, and the “homeless industry” of large nonprofits and mega-shelters grew almost overnight. Over the past five years, we have seen housing prices skyrocket, while the federal minimum wage hasn’t increased in 12 years. At the moment, we have over six-million households at risk for homelessness when the eviction moratorium lifts. As for the increased visibility of homelessness, the CDC recommended that homeless people keep their tents up in response to COVID-19. This changed the previous criminalization of homeless people disassembling what little shelter they had each day. The tents up, coupled with the ongoing financial crisis, has made homelessness more apparent, but the numbers were increasing for decades.
For the benefit of our readers, can you describe the typical progression of how one starts as a healthy young person with a place to live, a job, an education, a family support system, a social support system, a community support system, to an individual who is sleeping on the ground at night? How does that progression occur?
Homelessness is as complicated as people. We just released our first scripted film, Mobile, that illustrates how life can snowball into homelessness. The film is about Lydia who lost her job and was evicted. She ended up living in her car and driving for rideshare to make a small income. And she is not alone: “mobile homelessness,” also called vehicle residency, has increased 200%. The typical progression is someone who loses their job and tries to couch surf for a while, but ends up living in their car. Fortunately for Lydia, she found a safe parking program that allowed her to park her car to sleep safely at night. If she had been without a car, she could have ended up in the shelter system or sleeping on the street.
A question that many people who are not familiar with the intricacies of this problem ask is, “Why don’t homeless people just move to a city that has cheaper housing?” How do you answer this question?
Which city are they referring to? Cities with less expensive housing have fewer job opportunities. It’s also not realistic for a homeless person with no income to relocate. And once they theoretically move, they are no longer connected to a support system. Your question is important because we need to fix the affordable housing crisis if we are ever going to solve homelessness.
If someone passes a homeless person on the street, what is the best way to help them?
The best way to help homeless people is advocating for more affordable housing. If you see a homeless person on the street, and feel safe approaching them, I recommend giving them a clean pair of socks. There is also nothing wrong with giving them money if you are moved to and, frankly, there are certain things only money can buy. One example: a homeless friend was sitting outside of a CVS with a cardboard sign asking for a toothbrush. Multiple people generously brought him food, placing it at his feet for all to see, but no one gave him the money for a much-needed toothbrush.
What is the best way to respond if a homeless person asks for money for rent or gas?
If a homeless person asks for money, and you are moved to give, there is nothing wrong with that. It’s also important to consider how homeless people are treated everyday: people ignore them, taunt them, threaten them, and even spit on them. Oftentimes, the best gift you can give is your attention and a warm smile.
Can you describe to our readers how your work is making an impact battling this crisis?
No other campaign connects the public to homelessness in such a positive way that builds empathy and inspires individuals and organizations to make an impact. There are individual stories of people being housed by our work, and housing programs and feeding programs have started, but more importantly, millions of people have been educated on the true realities of homelessness and poverty. While hard to measure, the impact from that is vital for stakeholders to influence policy change to solve homelessness.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the homeless crisis, and the homeless community? Also how has it affected your ability to help people?
No one was prepared for this past year. At the beginning of the pandemic, advocates were concerned about COVID spreading rampantly in the community. In congregate shelters, often with 100 cots in a single room, COVID quickly became a crisis. Shelters suck! However, for the homeless population on the streets, there were generally fewer COVID infection rates than expected because homeless people live outside and generally do not travel interacting with others.
The pandemic created a significant problem for homeless people. The majority of homeless people rely on change from kind strangers on the street for their survival, but due to many people quarantining at home, foot traffic was significantly reduced. General access to food, water, and restrooms was greatly reduced or all-together eliminated. I know of one story of a homeless individual in Las Vegas who died of dehydration. There was also an understandable decrease in volunteerism.
Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?
As I travelled to different cities and built a social media presence, lots of people affected with homlessness started tweeting me. This inspired me to start an online peer support group we dubbed “online case management,” and the results have been terrific. Homeless people share meals and resources with each other, and just help each other get through the day.
Without sharing real names, can you share a story with our readers about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your work?
I’ll share one heartfelt story of a woman who posted in the forum. I could tell just from reading the post that she was scared — it was probably her first night homeless — and she shared that she had a medical disability. I tweeted a “Hail Mary” asking for help in the area and hoped the right person would read it. The director of street medicine (doctors who travel and give medical attention to homeless people) in the town asked me to connect them. As it turns out, the homeless woman was parked two blocks away from the doctor and was able to receive immediate care.
Can you share three things that the community and society can do to help you address the root of this crisis? Can you give some examples?
Most people blame homelessness on the homeless person. They believe they are lazy or addicted to drugs, that they want to be homeless, or that they made bad choices. If homelessness was a punishment for bad choices, we would all be homeless. The truth is, the leading cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. Then, there is lack of a living wage, racism, a broken foster care and criminal justice system, domestic violence, and other circumstances beyond a person’s control. Addiction and mental health are serious issues, but most addicts live in houses and will never end up homeless. Same with mental illness. In fact, 1.4 million children under 16 years old experience homelessness every year. That’s the homelessness you don’t see, but need to see.
The best things that individuals can do:
- Educate yourself.
- Get politically active.
- Support your local nonprofit. Invisible People is the only nonprofit that will encourage you to support your local nonprofit!
In a world filled with misinformation and propaganda, Invisible People works to make the truth louder.
If you had the power to influence legislation, which three laws would you like to see introduced that might help you in your work?
Homeless services treat the symptom, not the cause. We must address the affordable housing crisis, domestic violence, the foster care system, and more. We need housing and healthcare as human rights.
I know that this is not easy work. What keeps you going?
I genuinely love homeless people. I have traveled to over 300 cities connecting to thousands of homeless people. The work we do is needed, and no other organization is educating the public at a national level like we are. Invisible People now produces daily journalism on Apple News and Google News, mini documentaries, and now scripted films like Mobile. We’ll always share the first-person storytelling we are known for.
I’ll be vulnerable with you: I am 60 years old and lost everything in the 2008 crash. There is a very real possibility that I will end up homeless again, and I’m not alone. Boomers are hitting 65 at 10,000 people a day. Senior populations will double in the next five years, and like me, many lost their savings in the recession. Maybe I am trying to solve homelessness so I don’t end up back on the streets.
Do you have hope that one day this great social challenge can be solved completely?
We know how to end homelessness and have known for a long time, but I don’t see this happening in my lifetime due to the lack of political motivation (despite the fact that housing homeless people saves lives and taxpayer money). However, I am tremendously energized by millennials and Gen Z. Their advocacy, empathy, and volunteerism is on fire. Solving homelessness is the third-most important cause to young people.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
David Letterman — no explanation needed! But in the real world, I wish everyone would get vaccinated, so we can end this pandemic. One of my favorite things to do is take homeless people to a fancy restaurant, but because of COVID, I have not been able to do this for over a year. David Letterman is cool and all, but taking my homeless friends to lunch once this pandemic ends cannot happen soon enough. Now of course, Mr. Letterman is welcome to join us.
How can our readers follow you online?
Check out our YouTube channel, where it all began! You can also see our website for information on how to get involved.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much!
Heroes of The Homeless Crisis: How Mark Horvath of Invisible People is Helping To Support Some Of… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.