Meet Tammy Chan

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tammy Chan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tammy, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I believe art can change the world and make it a better place. I believe art, in all its forms, can move hearts and change minds, including changing unfortunate narratives, such as the idea that all people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness are lazy drug addicts who want to steal your things. That’s not true and art can help change that narrative.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Most of my professional career has been spent as an art director. I served as the Public Art Manager for the City of Grand Prairie for many years until my retirement in 2019.

As the Public Art Manager, I had the opportunity to facilitate artworks by others. The project I am most proud of from my time with the City of Grand Prairie was when we got a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to train 10 ex-offenders in the skill of commercial thinset tile installation. Their graduation project was the installation of a 233 ft-long, recycled-glass tile mosaic mural along I-30 in Grand Prairie just east of Belt Line.

That project epitomizes my belief that art can change narratives.

To complete the project we partnered with other arts organizations and artists to train the ex-offenders to create art. The artists and organizations were willing to try to train the participants, but they also had some uncertainties and some preconceived ideas about ex-offenders. On the other hand, the ex-offenders, who I prefer to call “participants” also had preconceived ideas about the community members. Both sides were a bit afraid of the other.

Part of the project included a chance for the two groups to meet and get to know each other. When we asked the 10 participants if any of them had ever been to a museum, only one raised her hand. We asked which museum and she said “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.” It became clear that none of them had every had any real exposure to art.

The training we provided including trips to both the Kimbell Art Museum and Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth. Those trips were hosted by the Association of Grand Prairie Visual Artists. They went with us.

By the end of the project, after the large tile mural had been installed, everyone was so pleased to know each other and kept asking when we could do another project together. It was a remarkable experience and definitely changed narratives and lives. I can’t wait to try something like that again.

We got a second NEA grant to create a mini-documentary film about that project. I invite the readers to watch it via this YouTube link… https://youtu.be/X-kJ8lG4nEU?si=VLgV7SwUIyoR67Wu

Or, you can search “Grand Prairie City Hearts” in the YouTube search bar.

Personally speaking, I consider myself to be an environmental artist. I try to incorporate environmental education or environmentally-friendly materials in my art.

I want the world to know that I intend to work with other partners to provide opportunities for our neighbors who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness to participate in art-based programs that include visual arts, performing arts and literary arts. I believe they will surprise everyone with their creativity.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
So you have an art background, but your title is Executive Director and Street Outreach Case Manager. How did that come to be and how is your art background playing a part in your current role?

While working with the participants on the tile mural project, and through other projects, I learned that many were homeless and there was no program in Grand Prairie designed to help them exit homelessness.

There’s no shelter in Grand Prairie and no day resource center and no one seemed to realize there were homeless in the city.

I started researching how to help people exit homelessness and I learned that there is actually a regionally-based system set up for that in other communities. Grand Prairie just wasn’t participating.

Long story short, I felt led to retire early and use all my skills, including my art-based skills to start a nonprofit to address homelessness in Grand Prairie just as it was being addressed in other communities.

I met with a lot of resistance at first. The homeless were so hidden and I had to work to find them. As I found them, and as the numbers of homeless were counted in the annual Point In Time Count, which is a national effort to count the homeless on a single night each January, the numbers counted surprised city officials. I even had some tell me they thought my starting an outreach to help the homeless was attracting the homeless to Grand Prairie.

That wasn’t true, but the fact that there were so many homeless hiding – and suffering while they were hiding – surprised the community.

That’s when I realized I needed the community to see for themselves. I began inviting community members to come out with me to deliver meals to the camps and spots where the homeless were struggling and hiding.

I found that every time someone when out with me, their hearts were filled with compassion and they wanted to help more.

I also found that many, who have preconceived notions about homelessness, do not want a homeless shelter in Grand Prairie and they want to homeless to go to the other cities where there are services are.

The problem with that is, the other cities — Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington — are already overwhelmed with their own homeless. I was told by the leader of a homeless services agency in Dallas that they wished every city would address their own homelessness and stop sending people to Dallas.

That made sense to me, especially considering the shelters elsewhere were/are perpetually full.

I don’t think there would ever be enough community support to build a shelter in Grand Prairie. I think, also, if we built one, more people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness would migrate to Grand Prairie to see if we had space or if it was better or whatever. I don’t think that’s best for the Grand Prairie community and the fellow leaders of our organization agree.

Thus, we have opted for a “streets to housing” modality where we document their unsheltered homeless experience to the specifications required by the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) so our neighbors might qualify for regionally-based housing programs for the homeless through what’s called the Coordinated Entry (CE) System. The CE system is hosted by a group of partners with a lead agency called a Continuum of Care (COC).

Grand Prairie is in four counties; thus, we are in multiple COCs. That has been very challenging.

The way it works is, as a street outreach program we document our clients’ unsheltered homelessness to HUD specifications and enter it into the COC’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).

Those entries, called “current living situations” accumulate and can eventually qualify a homeless person for housing assistance. It can take as long as three years before a housing match is offered. This system is different from the Housing Choice Voucher System (formerly known as the Section 8 program).

Because it takes so long for the housing to happen, we have developed other services that we offer to give our clients, hope and to facilitate their exit from homelessness.

We help with critical documents, such as IDs, birth certificates and Social Security cards. We also provide a mailing address. We help them get access to mental healthcare, medical healthcare and prescriptions. We help them apply for Social Security disability if they’re eligible and most are.

In fact, most of our clients are disabled, and that’s where the heartbreaking part comes in. Their disabilities range from developmental, including intellectual disabilities, and physical and mental disabilities. They are all suffering and are stuck outside because they can’t work and pay for housing, They need help. We try to help them.

We also partner with churches to operate cooling and warming stations in the absence of a shelter.

Our long-term goal is to build an art- and agricultural-centered tiny home village, much like Mobile Loaves and Fishes’ highly successful Community First Village in Austin.

While the Grand Prairie community doesn’t have any millionaires or large private employers, such as Dell in Austin, who could sponsor such a thing, we have an out-of-the-box idea for an edgy and attractive fundraiser — a street art festival on shipping containers. We would bring in some extra shipping containers that have been modified to serve as housing as examples of one time of tiny home. We hope to build an Artist’s or Maker’s village where others of varying income can live and work on their art.

In the meantime, we have already launched our agricultural efforts, including a project called “Milkweed Farms in Grand Prairie.” We grow six species of Milkweed that are native to our area and sell them. That is a triple win. The buyer gets a beautiful drought tolerant plant; Monarch butterflies get more places to lay their eggs on the only host plants that can host their caterpillars, and our participating clients can earn income from the sale of their plants. Yes, we are growing “weed” – Milkweed, that is!

We have also launched our art-based training, which includes making small tile mosaics such as Christmas ornaments. We receive a micro-grant from Triumph Industries for the supplies that project.

We are looking for a new place to host our classes, and we will invite the community to take the classes with our clients. We believe that will continue our efforts to change narratives about homelessness as they work on these art projects together.

Interestingly, one of our mosaic tools is an Italian tile cutter called a “Montolit P5 Tile Cutter.” Our first class had eight students of various ages and experiences. One of our has intellectual disabilities and can’t read or write. We weren’t sure how well he would do, yet he could use that tile cutter better than anyone else in the class! Even within our own efforts, our own narratives are being changed through art-based experiences.

For more information about the Grand Prairie Homeless Outreach Organization and our art-based initiatives, please contact Tammy Chan at 214-212-7958 or by e-mail at tchan@gphoo.org.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I believe the Lord called me to use all of my knowledge and skills, including my art and horticulture experience, to help people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the Grand Prairie area.

Recognition for any success from our program efforts must go to the Lord. He is always working behind the scenes even in the hardest of circumstances and there are a lot of hard things that happen in the realm of homelessness. There are lots of situations that are so painful to see and so confusing. I constantly have to pray for guidance. He gives me lots of ideas.

Beyond that, we have some amazing community members (mostly from Grand Prairie) who work hard and donate resources sacrificially to help our brave neighbors who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/179PjBENMU/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Other: We were launched as a 501(C3) on 9-6-2019.

To date, using the COC’s Coordinated Entry program and with our partners’ help we have seen 96 of our clients move into apartments.

One of the most important programs we offer is our meal delivery program. We deliver seven meals a week to the 100 clients whose unsheltered homelessness we are documenting for housing. We actually have about 120 active clients. We just don’t see them all every meal delivery day.

Our meal delivery program offer us the opportunity to develop relationships with our neighbors and earn their trust.

I am very grateful to all the volunteers who cook and pack meals and help deliver the meals.

If anyone is interested in volunteering with us, please text us at 214-212-7958 to learn more.

Thank you!

Image Credits
1st Photo by Susan Robertson

All other photos by Tammy Chan