Linda Barrack retires as Martha's Village CEO, Sam Hollenbeck ready to serve the community

The staff at Martha's Village and Kitchen, an Indio-based homeless services provider, has been busier than ever in recent months.

Employees provide housing and help those most in need get back on their feet at the nonprofit's flagship Indio location. In addition, the organization runs the Palm Springs Access Center near the airport, and the provider has been tapped to operate a navigation center planned for north Palm Springs. Not to mention Martha's Village will set up another cooling center during the summer months starting June 1 (a location is still to be determined).

On top of all the current operations, staff members have been navigating another task: a changing of the guard.

Linda Barrack, who was appointed president and CEO of Martha's Village in 2016, retired at the end of April, though she will stay on as an executive consultant through 2024. Former director of finance Sam Hollenbeck took over the position on April 26.

Even though there are many responsibilities to be juggled, Hollenbeck is up for the challenge and ready to find ways to better help the homeless population in the Coachella Valley.

Barrack and Hollenbeck recently sat down with The Desert Sun to discuss the provider's past accomplishments and how it plans to expand in the future.

Read more: 'It's so scary': More and more seniors are becoming homeless. Here's why.

More: California senator proposes $1,000 'basic income' checks for homeless high school seniors

Decades of experience

It's been a bit strange for Barrack to go from a 70-hour work week to 30 hours, but she's not complaining either.

Barrack has spent more than 30 years in the nonprofit sector and has worked with several California organizations including the Jewish Family Service of San Diego and the Episcopal Community Service of San Diego. Prior to her top leadership role at Martha's Village, she served as the director of operations and director of programs, according to the organization.

Over those three decades, her time in the Coachella Valley has shown her that each desert community has different needs for those experiencing homelessness or poverty. That led to Martha's Village expanding in a number of cities, one of Barrack's proudest accomplishments.

"When I arrived, we were not a small agency, but not nearly as big as we are now," Barrack said. "We never stepped out of our footprint, maybe that was our comfort zone, and sometimes you have to make yourself a little uncomfortable to serve those who need your service."

Satellite offices were set up in Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs and Mecca, which allowed staff members to better understand the needs of those communities.

Mecca surprised staff members, Barrack said. There were not many homeless individuals identified, but instead several people and families at risk of homelessness. The challenges that Mecca citizens faced — including needing higher-paying jobs or resources to pay utility bills — were different from some of Martha's Village's other clients, but it was still necessary to serve that community. Another aspect of the community is that, often, many generations live under the same roof, and that puts "even more burden" on people, Barrack said.

Martha's Village, through a grant from the Desert Healthcare District, intended to serve 75 people in the community, but ended up serving almost 500 in a year. The provider helped people apply for unemployment benefits, connected them to employment and medical services and assigned case managers to clients.

Seeing the situation in Palm Springs, though, was "heartbreaking," the former CEO said. The 2020 Riverside County Point-in-Time homeless count identified 189 unsheltered individuals in the city, the highest number compared to other Coachella Valley cities.

"We were down there and had funding and our funding stopped, but after seeing the people in Palm Springs, you could not leave them behind," Barrack said.

Riverside County, in partnership with Martha's Village, opened a 24-hour cooling shelter last July at the United Methodist Church of Palm Springs. The center operated through October and served more than 200 unduplicated clients, who had a spot to sleep at night, meals and access to case managers.

Around the same time, Martha's Village was tasked with providing services at the Palm Springs Access Center, located at 225 S. El Cielo Road. After a few weeks of delays, the center opened on Aug. 31. Wraparound services available include assistance with health, disability, food stamps, identification cards and social security; access to behavioral health services; and employment help.

Running multiple operations at the same time is no easy feat, but Barrack said she was always up for the challenge.

"I've always said this: We need to bring the homeless more than a bottle of water," she said. "We need to bring them the resources, we need to bring them the ability to shower, to eat, but still keep them safe and in the direction of changing their situation."

The City of Palm Springs and Riverside County are also embarking on a new venture to jointly fund the creation of a new facility that will provide temporary housing and various services for those experiencing homelessness. The facility will be constructed on a 3.64-acre site at 3589 McCarthy Road, in the city's Desert Highlands Gateway Estates neighborhood.

Martha's Village will operate the facility, and Barrack said the provider will be involved in the building and designing of the center, which she said was "exciting."

"We need to have certain sightlines to keep everybody safe. We need doors wide enough to bring a pallet through," she said. "We will have employment services there and how it connects to other areas within the building is very important."

Barrack said she gives kudos to the city and said it will "really be the first time that they'll have, once completed, a full-time, year-round" center available for people to seek services and shelter, especially during the summer months.

But the center has received its share of objections from local residents. That's nothing new, Barrack said, as similar sentiment has "gone on for years" with several of the provider's previous projects.

Related: Palm Springs homeless navigation center: Here's what we know so far

Read more: Palm Springs city manager defends homeless plan: 'I could get the boot if this ... blows up'

"I know communities when they're in the moment of this they don't think that we understand, but truly, we do," Barrack said. "But I have to say that Martha's is always a good neighbor, and they're always there. If it's a 24-hour operation, you can pick up the phone and Martha's will answer on the other end. If there's a problem, they're speaking directly to an employee."

In her new role as executive consultant at Martha's Village, she said a big part will consist of capacity building and helping teach staff what expectations are.

Though she still plans to remain busy and involved in the community, Barrack is looking forward to spending time with her five children, 15 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. There's even a fishing trip in New Mexico in her future.

But even as she moves away from the 70-hour work week, Barrack's hope is that people in the community can work together to find a solution for homelessness.

"I'm forever telling my staff, 'I know you're going to come in here with your problems, and it may not be working whatever it is we're doing in your estimation ... but try to come in with a piece of a solution,'" Barrack said. "You don't need to have all of it, but you need to bring that forward too."

A new CEO for a new season

Hollenbeck said that his first full week as CEO has been "fun so far."

"Every day is different here, and that's the nice thing," he added.

Hollenbeck grew up in the Los Angeles area. He is an inactive certified public accountant and has worked in the media field in Oregon and Colorado for the past 20 years.

He did not have previous experience working with a homeless services provider until 2017 when he joined the Martha's Village staff as the director of finance on a temporary assignment. The debits and credits "are pretty much the same" when it comes to accounting jobs, but it was the people who made a difference. At Martha's Village, he met people with good hearts.

"They have their daily struggles in their own personal lives, but even in the administrative area, Linda has always encouraged people to 'get out of your desk, walk around and see what we do and who we're serving,'" he said. "We take for granted a lot of things, but if you get in the wrong situation and you don't have the right support group through family or friends, it could go wrong pretty quick."

After his temporary assignment ended, Hollenbeck moved to Colorado for work. One day, he received a call from Barrack, and his first thought, he said, was, "What the heck did I do?"

The unexpected phone call then came with an even more unexpected message: Barrack was thinking about retiring and wanted to see if Hollenbeck was interested in the position.

"We know that I'm not Linda, nobody's Linda," Hollenbeck said, "but with her around to help teach me, learn the things I don't know and rely on the great team I have for the things that I need, she convinced me it would be something I could do."

Barrack said: "There is a CEO for every season, and what Sam brings to the able, I see is what is needed for this season."

With plenty of projects already in motion, Hollenbeck plans to get up to speed with each one and utilize the various resources available around him, including board and staff members' knowledge.

An additional expansion will come through Martha's Village's Child Development Center. The center is licensed by the state and funded by First 5 Riverside County (which promotes and enhances the health and early development of young children) and the Riverside County Office of Education. Free or low-cost child care options are available to families in need that are in crisis, and children ages 5 and under are accepted.

The current capacity is around 50 to 55 children, and Martha's Village hopes to double the size. Construction is anticipated, though few details are available. Hollenbeck said they will start working with an architect soon to discuss plans.

New staff members will also need to be hired, which Hollenbeck said will likely be "one of the challenges" as other businesses across the area and country are struggling to find employees.

When asked how he plans to address people's concerns regarding homeless people, Hollenbeck said "we'll figure out what the right approach is."

"With the Access Center, there were concerns there. You get people who say, 'Yeah I want to help the homeless, but can you do it over there?'" he said. "(At the Indio location), you drive down the street and you don't see a lot of people hanging out, and this is some place where we actually provide community services."

"The biggest thing we can point to is our track record and say, 'We can tell you this, we can tell you that, but we can show you even better,'" he added.

Whatever tasks and challenges the future will bring, Hollenbeck said he is focused on staying flexible, adapting and helping the community in a number of ways.

"The thing that most people who walk in here do is try to make a difference," he said. "Our goal is to end the cycle of homelessness and poverty, but realistically we know that it's probably not going to happen, at least not in the near future, so our goal is to decrease it as much as we possibly can."

Ema Sasic covers health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Linda Barrack retires as Martha's Village CEO, Sam Hollenbeck ready to serve the community