Miracle Messages

 We have set forth our most innovative project yet: The Good Neighbor Initiative, a community mobilizing, cost-effective, tremendously scalable approach to tackling homelessness in the Bay Area and beyond. 

The Good Neighbor Initiative will commence by focusing on the ~8,000 neighbors experiencing homelessness in San Francisco, achieving three core objectives by the end of 2021: 

Connect 5% of the city’s homeless population with trained volunteers for weekly phone calls and text messages, facilitating ~400 life-changing relationships at a time of rampant isolation. (MIRACLE FRIENDS) 

Reconnect 1% of the city’s homeless population with their loved ones, resulting in at least 64 positive outcomes from 80 reunions, including at least 12 individuals getting into stable housing. (MIRACLE MESSAGES)

3. Provide direct cash stipends to 0.5% of the city’s homeless population, offering $500/month for six months to ~40 unhoused neighbors, to be used for life-sustaining and -advancing needs. (MIRACLE MONEY)

These targets are ambitious but achievable and could be replicated in cities throughout the region, state, and country. Collectively, they would provide a pathway for people experiencing homelessness to rebuild their social support systems, address negative stereotypes through relationships and storytelling, and empower people everywhere to get involved.

According to our founder and CEO, Kevin Adler, When he dies, he would like a simple epitaph: “he never learned the word ‘stranger,’ and tried to live accordingly.” Kevin's guiding belief in life is that every person is invaluable and interconnected, even if society often forgets it. I genuinely try to imagine each person I meet as an extension of my family.

Since then, Kevin has trusted the tug of his heart to lead the work of my hands. My reverence for all beings has turned into a commitment to serve and be in a relationship with people at the margins. 

As a social entrepreneur driven by human-centered storytelling, Kevin has spent thousands of hours with people isolated by homelessness, at-risk youth, and other groups.

Miracle Messages has grown from a nascent side project to an award-winning nonprofit organization and growing movement, with hundreds of exceptionally committed volunteers and five full-time employees. 

Kevin believes that it is time for entrepreneurial, results-minded public servants, who can offer audacious policy visions, build transformative coalitions, appeal to “the better angels of our nature,” and get things done. Kevin envisions sharing his entrepreneurial spirit and heart in the political realm.

Miracle Messages was initially created to serve as a nonprofit reunion service for our neighbors experiencing homelessness to reconnect with their loved ones, and with us as their neighbors. 

We offer a humane way to help end homelessness: reconnect families, shatter stigmas, and empower local residents to get involved. 

We have expanded our services to address the overwhelming need to address the relational poverty experienced By those experiencing homelessness, and the lack of agency and voice they have in the organizations designed to serve their needs. 

 Miracle Friends is a first-of-its-kind phone-based buddy system for people isolated by homelessness. Miracle Friends has matched 130+ unhoused neighbors with trained volunteers for weekly phone calls and texts, in partnership with 20+ service providers.

Miracle Money is a direct cash transfer program for people experiencing homelessness. Beginning in January 2021, an initial pilot of 15 unhoused participants in Miracle Friends will receive $500/month for six months.

No one should go through homelessness alone.Miracle Messages' core mission is to end "relational poverty" on the streets, and in the process, inspire people to embrace their unhoused neighbors not as problems to be solved, but as people to be valued and loved.

The expansion of Miracle Money and Miracle Friends will contribute to reducing homelessness in San Francisco by providing much-needed funds to our unhoused neighbors, in conjunction with the nurturing relationships and guiding support needed to use those funds effectively. This includes emotional, social, and practical support to assist with using the money effectively.

Our early experiences in administering Miracle Money have underscored the importance of practical support. We have observed that considerable digital access and systems navigation support is required to help a recipient use their funds effectively. Examples include opening a bank account, coordinating payments with housing providers, and searching for housing online.

By pairing direct cash transfers with caring relationships, hands-on support, and individualized problem solving, we believe we can make a meaningful difference in reducing homelessness while pioneering a humane, cost-effective model that can be widely replicated.

What makes our work unique is the radically disruptive idea that the core element missing from addressing the homeless crisis is the lack of humanity built into the bureaucratic systems and infrastructures created to support those experiencing homelessness. We contend that these connections are an essential ingredient to eliminating homelessness and relational poverty.

Miracle Messages was approached by the City of San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to create a version of Miracle Friends that could serve the unhoused individuals who had been moved into SIP hotels. 

 We built the infrastructure to accommodate this request. We recruited over 100 volunteers, created a data management system, and a mentoring system to support the volunteers. 

The success of this model was highlighted by the San Francisco Chronicle in June 2020 and documented in qualitative surveys we administered, the findings of which we published as a white paper in November 2020, which confirmed the sizable impact Miracle Friends was having on participants’ health and wellbeing.

Almost by definition, a lack of funds keeps people in a cycle of poverty and poses a significant barrier to stable housing. The current prescriptive model employed by large service providers is not tailored to an individual’s needs.

But giving vulnerable people money directly requires trust, communication, accountability, and lots of hands-on support. The Miracle Money program makes it possible to offer direct cash transfers in an environment where communication and trust already exist, where access to information is coupled with deep love and respect.