What does it actually take to move people out of homelessness—and keep them safe in the meantime? In this episode of The Pinnacle Pod, 2025 Pinnacle Prize winner Nick Allen breaks down the reality of street outreach work, from building trust through progressive engagement to coordinating wraparound services that save lives. Nick shares how data, consistency, and human connection are reshaping how the city responds to encampments, why housing alone isn’t enough, and what stands between Kansas City and functional zero homelessness. This conversation is a clear call to our community: the strategy exists—now it’s time to act.

Transcript

Tracy McFerrin:            

Welcome back to The Pinnacle Pod, the voice of The Pinnacle Prize, an annual prize recognizing people making a significant impact on Kansas City through bold, selfless actions. I am Tracy McFerrin your host today as we meet dynamic leaders who show us what’s possible when passion and mission meets perseverance. I am pleased to welcome 2025 Pinnacle Prize winner, Nick Allen.

Nick is rewriting the narrative on how Kansas City supports its unhoused neighbors. He leads a network of community organizations and spends five days a week in the field connecting with individuals experiencing houselessness, evaluating encampments, and providing critical support. As a young adult, Nick faced significant challenges that shaped his perspective and deepened his commitment to service. His early experiences navigating instability gave him firsthand insight into the barriers many Kansas Citians face. Today he is a champion for street outreach with his personal lived experiences and in education and public administration. He has a unique set of skills, knowledge, and passion for strategic outreach. In 2023, he joined the newly created office of Unhoused Solutions with the city of Kansas City, Missouri. Nick, welcome to the Pinnacle Pod.

Nick Allen:

Thanks for having me.

Tracy McFerrin:

Let’s dig right in. When most people think about providing solutions for houselessness, they think it may be understandably providing housing. Housing first. You take a different approach with progressive outreach. Could you tell us what is progressive outreach and how have you seen it be an effective strategy?

Nick Allen:

I think that would be referring to progressive engagement, and so I, I’ll admit, I’m a supporter of housing first, and housing is like my bread and butter. That’s what I lead to. But even to get to housing does take progressive engagement. It’s not just signing up for one thing. You know, people I’m working with are generally chronically homeless and have several barriers. So it’s not always just going through the housing authority. They may already have eviction from low-income housing. Sometimes you have to like really try a bunch of different things until they hit and, and when I first engage people, I tell them, this isn’t a simple thing. This is us seeing each other over time, and we’re gonna try different things till we get something that sticks. While I’m doing that, for example, I am working with someone right now on housing. We started a couple months ago seeing each other here and there, and now she’s steady an encampment that I’m, I’m focusing on. And that all started from the housing conversation, our connection, what we’re working on that. But she came to me as we’ve got to know each other through progressive engagement and said, Nick, is it hard to get off meth? And I was able to talk to my lived experience and, and talk like, I’ll, I’ll be honest, right? I had cravings, you know, a year after and, and it wasn’t just coming off. You have to have a support system. Yes, low income housing was a piece of this, but there’s all these other puzzle pieces that I told her, when you’re ready for that, I’m here to help you navigate through that. And so that’s what progressive engagement is, is ultimately being a support system and a guide to work through all these things that led you to your homelessness while you’re obviously trying to get to that housing goal.

Tracy McFerrin:

Well, thanks for that. Thanks for correcting. It’s not outreach, it’s engagement, which feels a little bit more hands on, progressive on and progressive engagement. And I read recently how the engagement is again and again and again, that’s kind of like getting its progression over time. Is that right?

Nick Allen:

Yeah, that’s correct.

Tracy McFerrin:

That’s wonderful. You are Kansas City Missouri’s first ever street outreach coordinator. What drew you to this role within the city infrastructure, and why did you dedicate yourself to this work?

Nick Allen:

So I do have a background in public administration. I went back to school a little later in life, and then after I graduated, I knew I wanted to help people, right? So I landed my first job at Save Inc. I just loved working with people experiencing homelessness. At that time, I was at a desk and was kind of behind the scenes on the voucher process, and they had a role for outreach, and it, it kind of, I was kind of drawn to that because I was definitely centered more towards the people and less towards the paperwork. And then I think I just naturally; I feel comfortable with the population I serve. I really feel like when I go to encampment, I said the other day, I was like, I said, the other, someone, someone new to Encampment was with me. I was like, do you feel the comradery <laugh>? Like, I love the community. Like I, I feel the community in encampment. So yeah, it’s kind of a dream job. I think that comes from the lived experience that draws me. And I also, like I mentioned the office thing, it’s not for me. I’m drawn to that community, that excitement and the everyday is different. And I also love problem solving, and I really get that chance in this, this role.

Tracy McFerrin:

When you mentioned vouchers, the processing vouchers, that’s housing vouchers, that’s what you were doing before?

Nick Allen:

Yea, that’s correct. Okay. Basically, the HUD paperwork for a housing first voucher, which is a voucher aimed at people experiencing.

Tracy McFerrin:

Yeah. So you traded the paperwork for the camaraderie.

Nick Allen:

Yeah.

Tracy McFerrin:

That’s great. That’s great. You manage a network of more than 30 independent organizations that focus on addressing root causes of homelessness, like severe mental health issues, addiction, and systemic barriers. What are some ways that these organizations are working together to provide wraparound services in the field?

Nick Allen:

Yeah, so I lead a group called core, and that is a group that’s through the COC. So it has people that do type two outreach. Type two outreach is generally in some way, the outreach is trying to end that person’s homelessness. And then Type one outreach is, that’s your goods, your survival pieces like that both have their pros, cons, type one is keeping people alive, type two are trying to help people exit. So Core is a group of organizations that are involved with our continuum of care, and it’s basically their outreach workers. And I am in leadership of Core. And so Core itself has several components. And I’ll just kind of go into how I used my role at the city and kind of connect those two. So when I came to the city, I, I worked for a nonprofit beforehand. I, I kind of got recruited to the city as an outreach worker at, at Crosslines. And so we never knew if someone was gonna decommission, sweep any of those pieces. We weren’t like communicating, there was no communication within the city. And also the city has all these residents has eyes on every piece of the, the land, basically the territory. And they can utilize 3 1 1 and report an encampment, a person, and all those pieces. Well, we weren’t getting that data, really, the outreach workers.  There was no coordination or knowing what the city viewed as a priority or any of those pieces. So that’s one of the aspects I bring into leading core. I’m able to know, first of all, I have everyone sign up, but how many hours a week? Where do you serve? And I use that in correlation with all the encampments that I’ve tracked out. So I want to make sure that every encampment is getting equitable coverage. Now I assess every encampment, and one of the pieces of that assessment is I get to know the people and I know one things they might be struggling with, or do they have health needs or mental health needs. And upon that assessment, I try to cover that in our meeting with Core. You know, I communicate that to the other nonprofits that have that zone, Hey, there’s this need, this encampment. So they’re able to get out there. And it’s also like when I’m progressively engaging with someone, I had another guy today go to a drop in center in Independence and ask for my number. And he called me and said, Nick, I’m finally ready. I’m ready for that Suboxone. So we’re gonna, you know, try to get next step, trying to get away from Fentanyl. Now I’m able to call in that other community partner for this case. It was University Health, right? And they’re working in the background right now, getting that from me. So, and they also have a connection to ’em. So, we’re just seeing what the person’s needs are. And through that progressive engagement, just covering that person with, with supports,

Tracy McFerrin:

I am struck by how high touch this work is. And I’m wondering about how you establish trust. I mean, for someone that you’ve met on the streets to call you and say, Hey, I’m ready. I’m ready to take the next step. How do you get there?

Nick Allen:

It’s all that progressive engagement. And, and then another piece is they’re getting to know you as a person. And, and everything I do, I am fully transparent, you know, what’s possible, what’s not possible, I’m reliable. That’s, you know, and, and the person gets to know that over time. And then it’s also like I’m introducing myself as someone, as a government entity, right. But as you get to know me, I <laugh> may not embody what you think that is. And so, like, just getting to know me as a person, an example of this, and I say this all the time.

Yesterday, I went to an encampment, met a guy for the first time, and I was like, yeah, I might just start stopping by. You’ll see me around and I’m like, Hey, I tell people all the time, if you don’t want me to come that day, you just say F off politely, and I’ll, I’ll just keep coming back and, you know, just let me know. And, and, and sometimes it is f off, but they keep seeing my face, but it’s very polite

Tracy McFerrin:

And you keep coming.

Nick Allen:

Yeah. <laugh> very polite. I start being a fixture of their life. And finally it’s like, all right man, <laugh>.

Tracy McFerrin:

Oh, that is great. I want, I would just wanna touch on a couple of things that you said for our audience about trust. You said transparency. Reliability, you’re showing up and authenticity. I love that.

Nick Allen:

There you go. Authenticity. Thanks for defining that for me.

Tracy McFerrin:

And part of what you’ve helped create is a safety grading system for the encampments around the city. When you step into an encampment, how do you determine its safety and what next steps need to be taken?

Nick Allen:

Yeah, that’s a great question and I kind of want to touch on why we had to create that as well. When our division or our office was created, first it was with Josh Hinges and then he hired myself and Amber Holmes on. There was no encampment process. It could be whoever complained the most. Was it someone of privilege or a business owner complaining over a person in one or two? Well, you, in a neighborhood like likened, I don’t know if you know the lichens neighborhood, it’s in northeast kind of off Independence Avenue. Right? Okay. Very diverse. There is definitely some extreme poverty and, and things that come along with that. And so what you would have is like literally a house with a family, maybe immigrant family, working hard, you would see them coming to the car to load up their kid for school and next door, five feet away, you have an encampment that has the byproducts that come with like addiction and, and a lot of times things of these encampments, like sex trafficking in that area. All these pieces. And so it’s like, where do we focus our efforts and our time? And so that’s why the assessment was created. Now, some other cities have done this and have encampment processes like this. And we, we started off by meeting the greats, talking to Houston, other, other cities that have been successful in this. And then we kind of just tailored the assessment to works in Kansas City. So it’s a hundred point assessment. It is not where I can just walk an encampment and see it and fill out the assessment. I have to get to know the individuals within that encampment. I’m, like I said, looking for signs of sex trafficking. That’s, that’s a score on there. Um, what does substance use look like at the encampment? Is it, is it lighter substance use? Am I seeing signs of like papers and glass pipe, or is it needles on the ground?

Nick Allen:

Those are ranked different in this, it also does populations mm-hmm <affirmative>. Are there women there, are there people that are L-G-B-T-Q-I-A? All these pieces kind of rank untreated mental health treated mental health seniors. And so I gather all the info and it gives me a score. And so the score has been so accurate that of the past eight encampments that have scored a critical score, which is 80 and above, it has predicted death within two weeks every time. Wow. That, that’s, wow. So you may be wondering what we do with this information. First of all, we got funding to create an app with ARC GIS tailored to our assessment. So with our assessment, I can look at a map now with this app and see every camp in the city and what their score is. And so there’s several ways I can use this. Let’s say I know I only have one outreach worker in the south.

Nick Allen:

I can look and I know where I have people dedicated to where if we have to zone in on, you know, the camps that have the most need, I have that information. So our highest scoring encampments, we do a clearance and closure with support, a 30 day process where we just saturate them with services. So I, I kind of want to go into how complex a clearance enclosure and support is. I have to come in and tell them, Hey, this camp is being closed on this day and we are gonna work together and try to, to get somewhere before that point. Now there’s been times, for example, I believe it was my August closure and support, I went in, I saw a woman there that I’ve known from other encampments, and she’s like, oh my gosh, Nick, awesome. I was like, I’m gonna be focusing on this encampment, let’s work together.

Nick Allen:

She said, no, I, I really want to, but I have to talk to the leader. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So there’s, there’s complex dynamics of every encampment. And so you have to be very targeted to do something like a clearance enclosure and support. And in this case, the leader, uh, had signs that he was trafficking mm-hmm <affirmative>. And that’s why he had a power dynamic. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. I asked her, can you talk to him? You know me, let him know what’s going on. I will come back Monday, it was a Friday, I come back Monday, I’m like, Hey, did you talk to him? Am I able to talk to? And she said, he’s not really filling it. And, and I said, what’s he doing at three today, <laugh>? She went in, she comes out, she says he’s free. And I said, can I take him out to tacos? She comes out and says it’s a date <laugh>. So I took him out to tacos, my favorite spot on St. John. And we talked for a good two hours and we really got to know each other. And the result of it was we came out with an agreement, a respect of each other. He gave me permission to give services to the people in the encampment and including him. Now, he took some rapport building and I, I will mention on that encampment, we had 80% placement on 80% placement. We aren’t just moving them down the street to the next lot. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. We are getting these high scoring encampments and surrounding this, those people in that encampment that are having the behaviors, making it high and, and treat that while helping them exit homelessness and not causing that issue in that neighborhood. So that’s why we prefer clearance en closure and support over any type of move of an individual. The city practices three, that’s, we decommission en closure and support, but our department’s recommended way is a clearance en closure and support. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. The gentleman that was the leadership of that particular encampment, it took rapport building several months, but he is now very close to housing. We’ve been working together, we’re like weeks away. He’s cut his fentanyl addiction. So he’s no longer doing survival behaviors in the neighborhood to feed that addiction. So <laugh>, EE, even the people that may be in power that’s in a negative way, we need to wrap around them as well.

Tracy McFerrin:

Right, right, right. That’s an important point. And you mentioned with that process you had an 80% placement. And I just wanna say placement means they’re in a home and they’re surrounded with service.

Nick Allen:

Yes.

Tracy McFerrin:

Permanent Housing. This sounds like this is fascinating work and it also sounds kind of dangerous for you not to mention the people who are out on the streets. So let’s talk about safety. Each year we have periods of extreme cold in the winter and extreme heat in the summer that pose significant threats to unhoused people. How does your outreach team work together to get safety and shelter messages out to the community ahead of extreme weather?

Nick Allen:

I would say a lot of people utilize our cold weather shelters. The city’s cold weather shelter system. There are several hundred beds. Before there was no low barrier beds basically. But in the winter you get hundreds of low barrier shelter beds. Now, low barrier means you come as you are, there’s no drug test, you don’t have to attend a service. We see a lot of people go inside in times like extreme cold. Right. But the people that are less likely to go into extreme cold is those that are chronically homeless. Now, those are the people at encampments. Those aren’t always the people that are doorway sleeping or transient or couch surfing. It’s people that are in encampments, been outside a year longer, that’s chronically homeless. That’s the hardest it is to get into shelter. Now that’s another progressive engagement piece, right? I know on extreme cold day, I use our map and we kind of coordinate with the other outreach workers and go in our zone.

And the zone I take, I take usually like kind of downtown area to northeast and east side. I know those individuals very well from progressive engagement. Now I will go to your tent and it’s very cold. And because we built this relationship, I’m now able to speak in your life and be like, Hey man, like I, I really don’t want you losing a limb and speak into that. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And that’s where I think outreach workers are very beneficial. The people that are seeing the same person over and over again. And, and I’m not gonna say bully someone to get outta the cold and not lose a limb. <laugh>, I have told people I’ll be, I’ll be pissed if you die <laugh>. But they listen to me, I could speak into that and they’ll go in and we’ll get transportation and all of those pieces on heat, extreme cold, any of those, we are gonna like start doing that messaging. I’m always looking at the forecast. I know what the forecast looks at two weeks out and that’s just a normal conversation I have with people. Kind of an intro into everything.

Tracy McFerrin:

Talk about the weather.

Nick Allen:

In the weather because then, you know. Yeah. Do you think they’re, if they have a phone, their phone’s charged? No, the, that’s an instant thing that I can give that we can mm-hmm <affirmative>. Start talking about the weather and planning around that.

Tracy McFerrin:

You know, listening to you and hearing the many layers and complexities that go into your work. And I’m thinking about how sometimes in the public at large and sometimes with even the people you’re working with, it’s kind of a, it can be a thankless job. What motivates you and keeps you invested in this work?

Nick Allen:

Of course, the pieces that I talked about, like community, I love the job itself. I think every week, like man, I can’t believe I get to do this for a living. And that’s also not what feeds me is the pat on the backs. It’s not what gives me gratification always. But I gotta say, winning this award <laugh>, it did really touch me, first of all, thank you, the Pinnacle Prize. But like my clients, I had two clients reach out on LinkedIn, <laugh>, they had blank LinkedIn’s had somehow found this online, created LinkedIn. To comment on the post about The Pinnacle Prize, how’s me and my whole camp and all <laugh>. And so that was really special just knowing those clients, that relationship I built and that they care about me too. Yes. And you know, some of ’em sent me whole messages like, you changed my life and, and that, you know, seeing someone be successful is what keeps me going.

Tracy McFerrin:

Yeah. That’s gotta be gratifying. That’s a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing that. Wow, that’s a great story. To go into the weekend with <laugh>. <laugh>, what is your hope for the future of Kansas City’s efforts to support the unhoused population, the community that you have talked about so well here today?

Nick Allen:

Yeah, I mean hopes, I think everyone’s hope, I know this sounds generic, but to, to reach functional zero. Functional zero means we are a system that is caught up. Now, you may see a little bit of people outside, they just got out, but they will be housed within 30 days. They will be in a place in 30 days. And we do not have that, you know, we’re mm-hmm. We’re close to, I believe what a thousand people unsheltered homelessness that are point in time count and point in time count doesn’t catch everyone. Right. So we’re far away from that. But there are places like Milwaukee that’s a similar sized city that has 50 people on their unsheltered counts. So it is possible, and my hope would be to obtain that as investment <laugh>. And I think that’s anyone that works in nonprofit services. Right? Right. We recently, I had someone come from another city that is successful mm-hmm <affirmative>.

And shown them the ropes and they said, you’re doing this opposite than what we’re doing. It said we had investment and then we had to figure it out and write the procedures and, and have the plan and the strategy. And they said, you have the strategy but no investment. And so on my team, I am the only one in the field full time. And that’s, that’s not rare. There, there are some great people doing some great outreach, but the reality is a lot of the ones that have funding, like I have some outreach workers I can call right now. If I find that youth in the 18 to 24 range, I have outreach workers if they want some kind of treatment like substance use treatment, most of the outreach is a specific population and there are very few full-time people doing type two outreach that are out full-time every day that serve everyone.

And every population. So investment on that side, on my, on the clearance and closure and support process, it is built out in stages. We are in the beginning stage because there, there isn’t investment in it. Right. Right now we’re going through current systems that are already overloaded for that housing piece. We’re going through coordinated entry through the continuum of care. Other cities that do this, they have money funded to these processes. For example, someone may come into the encampment, no, there’s 14 people there. And in that 30 day process they say, we already have a place for you and have the unit. And so there’s many goals that I would love to achieve and I think they, we have the plans. I think it just comes to putting an investment.

Tracy McFerrin:

I’m so glad that you have brought that to the attention to the audience. I’m glad that the Pinnacle Prize can help you get that message out. ’cause what I heard is functional zero for homelessness. It works. People are doing it. There’s a strategy and you need investment. Yeah. That’s great. So, and let’s make it plain for our listeners. Investment means you need money. The system that is working that can work, that has the greatest potential, needs more funding. Yes.

Nick Allen:

Right. Especially now in a time where the main way I’m getting people out on encampments is housing first. I’m not gonna get into, there are some failures on housing first. Not all programs have as much support than they should. Right. But for the most part, I like the idea of housing first. Right now at a federal level, they want to go away from housing first. So there was recently a nofo that’s a notice of funding. There was recently a notice of funding from HUD that was talking about cutting 70% of our housing first budget. And that would’ve led to people going outside that, that those dollars are already putting in apartments. Right. And so there is some legal things that happen and that is kind of been, I stalled for the time being, but it looks like that’s still the route federally. So now more than ever, we need investment at the local level.

Tracy McFerrin:

Okay. So Nick, how can listeners connect with you, follow your work, and learn more about how they can directly get involved, invest in this system?

Nick Allen:

I would say LinkedIn, <laugh> and I’ll say before the Pinnacle Prize, I did not even have a picture on LinkedIn <laugh>. But I am trying to, and I’ve had people reach out on there and it’s been awesome. People have came to me and said, Hey, I, I wanna learn more about this. And I’ve been happy to do so. Nicholas Allen on LinkedIn, got a nice pro pick on there, contact me that way.

Tracy McFerrin:

Thank you so much, Nick. Congratulations again on becoming a Pinnacle Prize awardee. And thanks for your candor in this conversation and for the work you do. We really appreciate it.

The Pinnacle Prize believes in the power of one person to spark collective change. To continue to listen, learn and be inspired by other change makers in our community. Sign up for our newsletter at pinnacleprizekc.org and follow us on LinkedIn and follow Nick too.

Hosted By Tracy McFerrin

Tracy L. McFerrin is a principal of Credo Philanthropy Advisors, LLP, former vice president for a family foundation, and an attorney. She advises foundations and individual donors on strategic charitable giving, governance, and navigating grantee/grantor dynamics.