BRATTLEBORO-Caz Clark has a reputation in town.
Karli Schrade, who runs Groundworks Collaborative's street outreach program for people experiencing homelessness, describes him as "one of our best collaborators."
Knowles Wentworth, social worker and police liaison with Health Care and Rehabilitation Services (HCRS), called Clark "a unique community partner."
As his wife, Lisa, held a cardboard sign saying "Homeless. Anything Helps," Scott, who was standing on the Whetstone path across from the Brattleboro Food Co-op, said that Clark "has helped us get food and drinks."
"Caz is so nice," said one shopper in the Co-op parking lot. "Almost too nice," she added.
Clark is the manager of safety and outreach at the Brattleboro Food Co-op. In a recent interview, he explained why the co-op is involved in homelessness outreach.
He arrived in Brattleboro four years ago when a friend recommended the town as a good place to be during Covid. His first job at the Co-op four years ago was in maintenance, which included store security.
When he saw how much shoplifting was going on, he started talking to people about their situations and learned about the sometimes intertwined issues of homelessness, mental health crises, and addiction.
Clark had been traveling and doing handyman work, most recently in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. He had no experience with social work, or with people experiencing homelessness and other health crises.
"I saw some mental issues being treated like theft issues," Clark said. "And I said, 'We need to understand what's going on here.' So I pitched the idea of a separate security department to focus on it."
Addressing hunger and desperation
A big part of Clark's job involves outreach to those in need of help and to the service providers in town who offer it.
He learned that people on the street were hungry and desperate. He bought a few meals for people with his own money but quickly learned that the need was greater than what he could meet.
So the Coop started offering pizza slices each day. Twelve people get a meal, though up to 18 people come each day. Clark also set up a big water cooler on a table on the Whetstone path.
Clark learned that theft can be reduced through mutual respect, understanding, and what he calls "firm compassion."
He established a weekly restorative justice program at the Co-op where people who shoplift can work to make amends.
"He helped me get back into the Co-op after I was kicked out for stealing," said Scott, who spoke to The Commons from the Whetstone Path.
Homelessness is about more than housing
Clark's time on the job has taught him that homelessness isn't just about getting housing. It's also about what he calls "the small things people need to change their lives" - identification, a source of income, "an email address so that somebody can contact you."
Clark learned that it's hard to keep your possessions when you don't have a home. It's easy for critical paperwork, like identification, to get stolen or lost.
So he started helping people fill out the paperwork necessary to get an ID. He keeps copies of IDs for those he's helped.
He says the Bennington branch of the state Department of Motor Vehicles is very efficient, but it's an hour away and he cites the lack of good transportation options there as a barrier to people getting IDs. He envisions a community van service that would transport people there to get IDs.
Recognizing that people on the street need Wi-Fi to make phone calls, the Co-op extended its open wireless internet network to the Whetstone path. Now Clark wants to solve the problem of where to charge a phone if you live on the street.
Clark learned that a core group of service providers, members of the faith community, and town staff - the Homelessness Strategy Team - meets regularly to network and discuss solutions to local issues associated with homelessness. He joined the group and works with a small team to make homeless encampments more habitable by getting rid of trash.
Clark learned that when people living on the street came into the Co-op to get a free cup of coffee and hand warmers on a cold January morning, they "had literally just survived the night."
"That's the way we've got to look at this - that a lot of these people are just trying to survive day to day," he said.
'I'm keeping my eye on her'
Clark - a bartender for 14 years, "so I guess that's where I got my social skills," he said - has learned how to deal with a variety of people.
"Every person out there is going through something different," he said.
Clark interrupts the interview and immediately applied those skills with a young woman who was crying and yelling as she walked across the parking lot.
"I'm keeping my eye on her," he said as he texted HCRS's Wentworth for assistance.
Still yelling, the woman left the Whetstone path and approached cars stopped at the red light at the Co-op entrance. She entered the intersection, crossing against a red light, then turned and walked up South Main Street in the middle of the street.
Clark calmly followed her. They talked quietly at the top of the hill, then he walked with her back to the Whetstone path.
"She said her things were stolen. She wants a marker and some cardboard," he said.
He cut up a small cardboard box he got from the Co-op and gave it, and a Sharpie, to the woman, who had calmed down.
A man approached.
"Hey, Caz, can I grab a couple of turnovers?" he asked.
Clark asked him to come back in 20 minutes.
'This is our environment'
Clark described the man asking for turnovers as a success story.
"I've known him since I've been here," he said. The man was able to get some "under the table" work and has worked hard to keep the job. Eventually, he got an apartment.
"He's making slow and steady progress," said Clark. "Getting one person out of this situation, even if it's just one person a year, is the goal."
"We're in the hub of downtown," Clark said as 18-wheelers roared up South Main Street. A group of young children played in the sprinkler on the Brattleboro Museum lawn. Shoppers entered and exited the Co-op. People mingled on the Whetstone path.
"The Co-op property butts up against a lot of public property," Clark said. "This is our environment, and it's up to us how we can affect our surroundings. We should react positively."
"I see the potential for this town to be a nice, strong community," Clark said. "And I see the potential to help find solutions that can positively change people's lives. Pushing, shoving, making people's worlds smaller, and just hoping that [homelessness] doesn't exist anymore isn't gonna work for us."
Clark smiled.
"The Co-op gave me the capability to do this and the backing to do it, and I'm very appreciative of that," he said. "I'm able to keep growing with this job. I don't really have a ceiling for where I plan on going with this."
Wentworth noted that Clark's interest in people's lives and concern for their well-being led him to re-envision his job.
"It's truly uplifting to see this empathy-in-action response to people," said Wentworth in an email.
"Sure, the world may need more healers who become social workers, therapists, and other providers," he wrote, "but we also need more Caz Clarks who simply become themselves."
This Special Focus item by Ellen Pratt was written for The Commons.