MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: ANTHONY HARO

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I'm Anthony Haro and I'm the Executive Director for Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless (BRACH, formerly known as TJACH). We aim to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. In order to accomplish that, our work is focused on collaborating with communities and service providers to help individuals and families achieve housing stability, financial health, and improved quality of life.  We don't provide services directly to clients but work to support direct service providers in the community like The Haven, Region Ten, PACEM, Families in Crisis, On Our Own, SHE Shelter, Virginia Supportive Housing, and Salvation Army. I support through grant writing, providing funding directly for projects, organizational development, and policy development to support coordination of homeless services across the community. 

What do you love most about the work?

I believe it's everyone's birthright to experience peace and contentment in their lives, and as elusive as that journey may be on its own, without the stability of a safe place to call home it can be that much more difficult. I love that I help people find that foundation in their lives. 

How did you arrive at this point in your work? What’s your backstory?

After I graduated from UVa in 2009, I was interviewing in Chinese for IT sales jobs and while I loved the prospect of using Chinese and Japanese (which I had studied at UVa) my heart was just not in it for sales. On a whim, I quit my temp job I had at the time and moved to live with my girlfriend in Charleston, SC. I had no job and barely any money, but I did have some clarity on the simple fact that I wanted to be a part of some kind of service to the community. I ended up finding a job on Craigslist (sketchy, I know) as a database manager for a homeless shelter in Charleston, and the rest was history. I loved being a part of something greater, and while I had no previous history with homeless services, I quickly realized how impactful the stability of housing is in people's lives. I saw incredible transformations in people, things I once thought impossible I now knew were possible. I've been working in homeless services administration since that first job in Charleston in 2010.

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally &/or personally along the way? 

Working in homeless services you are confronted often with the reality that you cannot make people change. You can provide the opportunity and support for change, but you can never control another person's thoughts or behavior. Really understanding this has helped me both professionally and personally, as it allowed me (or forced me) to create more healthy boundaries with work in general, with expectations of other people, and with expectations of myself. 

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

Professionally, I've been working quite a lot lately on the Premier Circle project which is currently a 90-unit emergency shelter program operated by our partner PACEM, but will shift to be the site of a future 80-unit permanent supportive housing development, creating 80 safe and permanent homes for formerly chronically homeless individuals. It's been an incredible project to be a part of, and one that has and will continue to significantly shift the homeless service landscape in our community for the better. 

In my personal life, I've been working a lot with my friend and creative collaborator, Gabe Gavin, on our music project called Bhakti Boyz. Songwriting is an incredibly fun, fulfilling, and therapeutic outlet for me and something I'm endlessly grateful to have in my life. 

What values drive your work each day?

Be the change you want to see in the world. Truth is one, paths are many. Be good, do good. Serve, love, meditate, realize!

Anything we missed that you might care to share (closing thoughts)?

Housing ends homelessness! Simple as that.