Heroes Of The Homeless Crisis: How Tamiru Mammo Of Bloomberg Associates Is Helping To Support Some Of The Most Vulnerable People In Our Communities

As a part of our series about “Heroes Of The Homeless Crisis”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tamiru Mammo, Social Services Project Lead at Bloomberg Associates.

Tamiru Mammo joined Bloomberg Associates in March 2014. Drawing on more than a decade of experience working for New York City government, Tamiru is committed to helping cities tackle the many social and economic factors that affect the health of their most vulnerable residents. Currently, Tamiru helps clients address a broad array of issues such as street homelessness, disparities among boys and young men of color, and tobacco control.

Prior to joining Bloomberg Associates, Tamiru was Chief of Staff to the President at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the largest municipal healthcare organization in the country serving 1.4 million people every year. Before that, he served as a Senior Health Policy Advisor to the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, working on issues including the health impacts of the World Trade Center disaster and teen pregnancy prevention. He also served as a Public Health Advisor for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) where he consulted on immigrant health issues and coordinated the Interagency Task Force on Language Access.

Tamiru earned a Master of Public Health from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and a Master of Health Science from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your personal background, and how you grew up?

Absolutely. I’ve always had an interest in public health and knew that I would end up in a capacity that allowed me to help protect the health of communities and society at large. I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and came to New York City 25 years ago to attend graduate school for public health. I worked as a health advisor for Linda Gibbs, NYC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (in the administration of Mayor Mike Bloomberg) and then I served as chief of staff to the president at NYC Health and Hospitals — the city’s municipal hospital system. For the last ten years, I have been working as a managing consultant in the social services practice at Bloomberg Associates, which is a pro-bono consulting service to mayors around the world.

Is there a particular story or incident that inspired you to get involved in your work helping people who are homeless?

There wasn’t a particular story or incident that inspired me to get involved in this work, but rather an increased understanding of how homelessness was impacting communities everywhere — and an inner discovery of my desire to want to help.

I do think of homelessness as a public health issue, which is my area of expertise. People experiencing homelessness, especially those living unsheltered, may be living with acute or chronic medical conditions, living with mental health issues and substance use disorder without adequate behavioral health care, are exposed to harsh weather, suffer from malnutrition, at higher risk for violent victimization and have overall poor health outcomes compared to people who are housed.

While working with Bloomberg Associates’ social services practice, I was exposed to all the wonderful work that they do in partnership with cities in the U.S. and across the globe. I quickly learned how significant the issue of homelessness was as many cities often asked for support from our social services team to help address it. Being a part of that team led me directly into that specific area of focus and I was able to see the actual need for support.

Homelessness has been a problem for a long time in the United States. But it seems that it has gotten a lot worse over the past five years, particularly in the large cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and San Francisco. Can you explain to our readers what brought us to this place? Where did this crisis come from?

Poverty is among the major risk factors for homelessness, along with factors like mental illness issues, substance use, leaving foster care and social /family exclusion. Unfortunately, economic factors like lack of affordable housing, low wages, unemployment and rising costs of living due to inflation are only making these staggering numbers worse.

Many of these problems are systemic and impact people who are already struggling, pushing some over the edge. Often, cities are left to develop solutions on their own without much control of circumstances that impact unsheltered populations — such as a city’s structural challenges and lack of capacity for public housing to response to the need.

A question that many people who are not familiar with the intricacies of this problem ask is, “Why don’t homeless people just move to a city that has cheaper housing?” How do you answer this question?

There are several potential causes for homelessness, as previously described. What drives homelessness is a combination of complex factors — more than simply experiencing high housing costs. For example, there’s a generational aspect of poverty and homelessness. Being homeless previously can make one more likely to be homeless in the future.

Secondly, it is important to consider the question — “why should people have to move in order to be housed?” It is unrealistic and inhumane to expect someone to move away from a place where they grew up, have memories and where they feel safe and comfortable — it’s their home. On top of that, moving away from what you know could make a person feel even more vulnerable. It also might be surprising that varying sizes of cities (not only large cities) are experiencing housing crises. So, places where housing may be more affordable could still mean fewer work opportunities and fewer community resources, such as lack of adequate public transportation or primary care access.

If someone passes a homeless person on the street, what is the best way to help them?

There is no “one size fits all” answer for this, but in many cases, giving cash, food or a blanket can actually prolong someone’s stay on the street, if the community has the resources to provide shelter.

If someone is interested in getting involved, a good place to start is by volunteering, donating to, or supporting a non-profit/charity organization that aims to help people move off the street and into housing.

What is the best way to respond if a homeless person asks for money for rent or gas?

At the end of the day, we are all human beings with a desire — and right — for respect and dignity. Making eye contact or greeting people as you walk by is a social norm, and ignoring a prompt from someone who is living unsheltered can sometimes feel dehumanizing to them. A nice way to respond is to acknowledge them when they talk to you or ask you for money, even if you decide you would rather not give it to them.

Can you describe to our readers how your work is making an impact battling this crisis?

Bloomberg Associates partners with cities around the world to advise mayors and their staff on how to make their communities stronger, safer and healthier places to live, by elevating current initiatives in place or working with administrations to design new, innovative programs that ignite change and make an impact on residents. Recently celebrating our 10th anniversary, Bloomberg Associates has proudly unlocked the potential of major cities across the world, supporting in areas like arts & culture, modernization/digitization, transportation, sustainability, and homelessness, among so much more.

At Bloomberg Associates, we have dedicated teams that focus on cities’ specific needs, delivering custom solutions and trackable progress to positively transform communities and address global challenges that are affecting them at scale. A primary focus for us throughout our 10 years has been working with cities to address the homelessness crisis, for instance. Notable work in this sector has been in collaboration with Newark, NJ & London, UK — where we have seen our work make a significant impact on the homelessness population and community at large.

In December 2023, Newark launched Newark Hope Village — a 90-day program that uses converted containers as shelters for residents who are at-risk or without proper housing. Hope Village consists of seven containers that house up to 24 displaced individuals at one time, offering a sleeping space, beds, a private shower room, a heater and storage spaces. The first village of its kind in the City of Newark, Bloomberg Associates worked closely with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to bring his vision of this establishment to life and to refine the model so that it can be replicated in other cities around the world. Hope Village has made an immediate impact in the City of Newark by getting people off the street, with future plans to evolve the model to offer permanent housing solutions for Newark’s homeless. Additionally, BA helped the city to develop a strategic plan to end chronic homelessness, including many who are unsheltered. Within the first year of the plan, Newark unsheltered homelessness dropped by 57%.

In London, we worked with Mayor Sadiq Khan to launch London’s first Rough Sleeping Charter, a public commitment for Londoners to gather together to end rough sleeping — or, homelessness — in London. There are an estimated 858 people sleeping rough on any single night in London. With support from Bloomberg Associates, the City of London’s Life Off The Streets Coalition developed and launched the London Charter to End Rough Sleeping campaign as an effort to tackle homelessness in London and ultimately end rough sleeping for everyone. Posters were strategically placed throughout the city raising awareness of rough sleeping in London and asking people to sign a charter to signal to those in power — who make decisions about policy and funding — that this is an important issue that we need to tackle and keep tackling until no-one needs to sleep rough. Since Mayor Khan was elected in 2016, more than 16,000 rough sleepers have been helped off the streets through initiatives like this. Finally, Mayor Khan was reelected in spring 2024, and one of his campaign promises is to end rough sleeping by 2030.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the homeless crisis and the homeless community? Also how has it affected your ability to help people?

There were good and bad impacts. During the start of the crisis, cities enhanced homeless prevention efforts by halting evictions and providing rental, legal and income assistance. Some cities broke down bureaucratic barriers and received so much support and resources, they probably surprised themselves bringing in so many. A new crisis like COVID magnified the ongoing crisis of homelessness and generally led to more support in the short-term. For example, cities had to create safe isolation spaces for vulnerable or sick people and vacant hotels were rented out — at low rates too. Some of those hotels were converted to permanent housing.

At the same time, there were restrictions around social distancing and reduced shelter capacities early in the pandemic. Further, proper reporting of the homeless population was halted, leaving inaccurate data and numbers, in addition to certain homeless communities not being counted in statewide reporting.

With life coming back to normal, there are still many vulnerable populations that still see the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic, many affecting the homeless population. The long-term impacts have yet to be fully realized. We have already seen some adverse impacts, as the local eviction moratoria are lifted and the nationally funding support is cut back.

Without sharing real names, can you share a story with our readers about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your work?

There are so many, but there is one individual that sticks out in my mind. We hired a video crew to conduct interviews of rough sleepers on the streets of London. One of the “cases” was a non-UK national rough sleeper from Syria who needed help getting his application for housing assistance sorted. He had been on the street for more than a year and was hopeless. When we saw the video, we contacted our partners in London and they sent outreach staff to assist this man and got him into temporary accommodation and services. This hopeless man who once felt unseen was finally assisted.

Can you share three things that the community and society can do to help you address the root of this crisis? Can you give some examples?

Three things that community members and society can do to address the homelessness crisis are:

1. Educate yourself and others. Invest your time to learn about how homelessness is impacting your city, as well as what your mayor’s administration is putting into place to address the issues. And share that knowledge with your neighbors and colleagues.
2. Engage and support. After understanding challenges, community needs and learning about local strategies, find ways to uplift these initiatives in your community. Staying invested and engaged as a member of your community is one of the most productive ways to create change. These housing and services resources are needed, but while community members may support these ideas generally, they can sometimes oppose having these resources developed in their immediate neighborhood. Community support for shelters or affordable housing is crucial.
3. Give your time and energy. Find ways to volunteer, donate goods, or funds to organizations doing this important work in your community. The more local, the better.

If you had the power to influence legislation, which three laws would you like to see introduced that might help you in your work?

1. Children experiencing homelessness and their families, should be fast-tracked to permanent housing. We know that the longer a child’s life is disrupted by homelessness, the greater risk they are at for adverse outcomes in their life. This is unacceptable in our society, and while we generally do well at getting families into shelter, we can do better at getting them into stable, long-term housing.
2. Incentivize more affordable housing from property developers.
3. Ideally, cities could leverage their existing properties and/or buildings to build more permanent affordable housing. Regional and national governments should prioritize public funding for these purposes rather than paying for temporary solutions to address homelessness.

I know that this is not easy work. What keeps you going?

I am inspired by the good work of others, the collective work of cities and individuals. I learn so much from the different cities with which I have worked.

Do you have hope that one day this great social challenge can be solved completely?

It is complex, and there are no quick fixes, but I do have hope because cities have shown that real progress can be made. We have seen this in many cities, despite differences in health, housing and social service systems in cities. We have also seen this in cities like London, mentioned above, where more than 16,000 rough sleepers have been helped off the streets through different initiatives, such as the London Charter to End Rough Sleeping. Additionally, Newark has made significant impact in reducing unsheltered homelessness. There are multiple models to effectively address this challenge that cities can replicate.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why.

1. Tell your supervisor what specific areas you are interested in learning about. Ask for more work, collaboration and more responsibilities related to that interest. Sometimes young people can wait for an interesting project to come to them. Go out and find it.
2. You can try out different fields of work — you don’t have to stick to one career track. It is okay to explore career opportunities in different sectors to see what inspires you. And your job interests can change over time. I feel young people can put undue pressure on themselves to find their professional role in society and be successful immediately. It is great if you can find your career immediately, but it is also okay if it takes time.
3. Who you work for matters almost as much as anything. Find an organization that inspires you and work for a manager who challenges you, teaches you, serves as a role model and helps you grow professionally.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I am not sure it is a movement, but if I could influence government and society, I would encourage investment in quality early childhood education for everyone, regardless of income. The more diverse access is to all levels of socioeconomic status, the more that the community will demand higher quality services. And the life course and societal outcomes would be immense.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Treat people the way you want to be treated.” I believe that what you give out to the world comes back to you. Treat a stranger as if you know them.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

Liverpool Football Club and Egypt national player Mohamed Salah, who in addition to being a world class forward, I admire for the humanitarian work that he does in his native homeland, Egypt.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can find me on LinkedIn or you can visit the Bloomberg Associates website to learn more about my department’s work, specifically, with cities to address the homelessness crisis.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much!