Learn to PIVOT in a crisis

Habitat for Humanity (Salt Lake) like many other businesses closed operations in mid-March. Financially this created a stream of out-flow of our cash reserves with little coming in. The ReStore provides significant operational support and was now closed. We also cancelled our annual fundraiser and could not recover costs. We donated the food to local area non-profits. This too was a financial hit.

We have been able to shelter while providing payroll to our 18 employees and their families, but it has been difficult. We have been able to secure grants and donations to keep the organization afloat.

"But then our course took a bit of a turn. Something we did not anticipate."

On March 18th a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit the Salt Lake Valley. It was a few days later when we learned the plight of 46 mobile home owners who were without a home to return to when the earthquake shook their mobile homes off their piers and to the ground in West Valley City.  

Mobile homes have never been part of our mission, but we have a core tenant, “everyone deserves decent place to live.” We got involved, and through a partnership with Salt Lake County, West Valley City, and another non-profit, Kenyon Consulting, we went into action to get people who were sleeping in their cars in the parking space next to their trailer back into their homes. The virus complicated everything. Many could not move in with others due to the COVID risk.

All 46 mobile homes have been restored. They have been lifted onto piers that are more earthquake resistant.

Utah made the correct decision to release low-risk inmates due to the virus. We received a call asking if our ReStore could provide furniture for them, something as simple as a couch to sleep on. We did much better and provided them with modest kitchen furniture and a place to sleep like a pull-out couch. This is also not the mission of Habitat but our employees sprang into action to fill the need.

We are a home builder and we use products that are also PPE materials for the healthcare industry. Our staff combed the warehouse for materials the hospitals were in desperate need of and on April 8th we delivered the following to local area hospitals:

- 11,000 Latex and Nitrile gloves

- 200 pairs of safety glasses

- 200 n95 face masks

"The two employees accepting the donation indicated they had both, on separate occasions worked on one of our Habitat for Humanity build sites as volunteers. Sometimes "the good" goes in circles."

We have several box trucks used for picking up donations for the ReStore. All were sitting idle due to the lock-down until we received a call that donated food distribution to the needed destinations was a problem. The increase in food donations was taxing the process. Again, feeding the hungry is not our mission, but once again, our staff saw a problem that needed to be solved and pressed into action to solve it. Our trucks assist in the feeding of 400 – 500 people in Salt Lake County almost daily. This has been on-going for several weeks, with our trucks taking food to where people are suffering in this crisis and need help.

We have a new word at Salt Lake Valley Habitat for Humanity……. It is “PIVOT.”

When there is important problems to be solved, pivot and solve them, even if it is not in your core mission to do so. You may find it provides big returns for your organization. Maybe not monetarily, but our staff has the need to help others woven into their fabric. Most can make more income somewhere else, but the “helping of others” is also something they need. It is why they are here and it is why I am so lucky to work with such people. It was the fact that we were still relevant and reducing the suffering of others that has helped them through this quarantine.

"We all need to PIVOT in this crisis."

We will not return to the same status quo. The future will be changed, hopefully for the better. Do not look through the wrong end of the telescope, "doing what we always did" needs a new field of vision, and discovery of a new destination of where we are going with our organizations.

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Here is the rest of the story. I have been working with FEMA to determine if our work helping others in the aftermath of the earthquake could be reimbursed. I found out the answer is no. The reason is grounded in the fact that Habitat urgently went into action to help these families without a home. The earthquake has yet to be fully declared with the state. We were denied because we have already solved the problem.

"It did not make sense to leave families sleeping in their cars."

We did the right thing. There are no regrets. These families are back in their homes and Salt Lake Valley Habitat for Humanity, and the wonderful associates I work with can be proud that even though we had to pivot from our mission, the core tenant, “that everyone deserves a decent place to live,” was an over-riding promise that we kept.