The human displacement crisis in the U.S. has never been more severe. Heading into 2025, the Pallet team is more driven than ever to create positive, lasting change.
As we plan for the year ahead, the Pallet team is motivated to continue our mission to provide shelter for displaced populations. And with recent data showing escalating numbers of people impacted by this crisis, we’re aware that the need for safe, stable spaces is more critical now than ever.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 2024 Point-in-Time Count reported that 770,000 people across the U.S. experienced homelessness on a single night in January. Not only does this represent a troubling 18% rise in homelessness from the previous year’s statistics, but we know that the difficulties associated with collecting this data means this number is likely much higher in reality.
In addition to the historic numbers of people experiencing domestic homelessness, a swath of devastating climate-related events also contributed to an immense rise of people displaced by natural disasters across the country. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, from 1980 up to 2024, the average number of disasters per year causing $1 billion of damage or more was nine; 27 such events occurred last year. Hurricane Helene, which struck Florida’s Big Bend region back in September, caused $79.6 billion in damage and 219 recorded deaths alone.
Until every person has a place to call home, we will continue our fight in addressing the human displacement crisis. This scope of work is broad, but there are several specific strategies Pallet is implementing in 2025 on federal, state, and local levels.
Shifts in the Federal Administration
As President Trump takes office for a second term, changes in leadership and priorities for the country follow closely behind. Newly appointed officials and leaders will affect national strategies to address homelessness as well as disaster preparedness and response.
This means the Pallet Government Affairs team will be visiting DC in the next several weeks to meet with elected officials and their staff, ready to share Pallet’s vision, product offerings, and plans to effectively integrate our model into federal strategies.
We are looking forward to the official confirmations of the new heads of HUD and FEMA, which will allow us to align Pallet with the new direction of these crucial departments at the core of our work. Collaborating with these policymakers is key in establishing an environment that fosters positive change in people’s lives rather than implementing punitive, inequitable measures that do nothing but exacerbate this crisis.
Addressing Displacement in States and Counties
While the new federal administration will be influential in creating national policies, each U.S. state faces its unique challenges in providing appropriate shelter and housing for their displaced residents.
In our experience creating shelter sites across the country, we have learned that solving these issues requires tailored strategies that not only include shelter provision but also supportive services and many other considerations that meet the specific needs of impacted populations.
We utilized this expertise and insight to create a Five-Year Strategic Plan to End Homelessness for Savannah and Chatham County Interagency Council on Homelessness. The plan, formulated through meetings with key stakeholders and collecting relevant data, includes a comprehensive strategy to reach functional zero homelessness for the broader Savannah community. We will use this approach as a framework for designing effective, actionable, and thorough solutions to state and countywide displacement going forward.
On the front of climate-related events, this year we are placing a focus on demonstrating how non-congregate emergency shelter can play a pivotal role in strengthening resilience for disaster-prone states. We have already proven Pallet’s efficacy in responding to emergencies after building a shelter site for Floridians impacted by Hurricane Helene just days after the storm had passed. In the coming year, we are eager to expand this capacity for communities at risk of experiencing events like hurricanes, fires, and flooding—and increase access to rapidly deployable shelter when they need it most.
Making an Impact in Our Community
Pallet would be nothing without our people. Everything starts at our HQ in Washington State: before we can help displaced populations across the country, we are committed to providing stability and growth opportunities for our team members.
We created our Purpose-Led Workforce Model to advance this mission. A pivotal part of this model is Pallet’s Career Launch PAD (Program for Apprenticeship Development), which entails working on the manufacturing floor at HQ while participating in a paid pre-apprenticeship program focused on developing critical skills needed for a career in the trades.
We are looking forward to celebrating the graduation of our Career Launch PAD’s first cohort in 2025. After our team members complete the program, they will have the chance to pursue a rewarding career in the trades and become the skilled workforce of the future, creating more available space at Pallet for our next class in the process.
The displacement crisis in the U.S. has never been more dire. Through targeted efforts to address it on federal, state, and local levels, Pallet is driven to be part of the solution. Together, we have the chance to create lasting change in the coming year and ensure no one goes unsheltered.
By partnering with Housing Connector, we are helping our team members establish stability and independence.
At Pallet, our people are our purpose. Giving people a fair chance at stable employment and creating a supportive environment that fosters wellness and growth for all our team members is a crucial part of our mission.
A key part of this is ensuring that everyone on our team has all the tools and resources they need to succeed. In our work building shelter communities for displaced populations across North America, we know firsthand how having a safe, stable place to live is not only a basic human right—it is also the foundation for maintaining health, helping those with substance use disorder on their recovery journeys, and healing trauma.
That’s why we are proud to have become a Community Partner with Housing Connector, an organization that helps find housing for marginalized individuals and families. In our first year of the partnership, Housing Connector has been instrumental in finding housing for 4 Pallet team members by removing barriers and locating available properties.
Increasing Housing Attainability
Beyond the fact that there is an extreme shortage of affordable housing units nationwide, the scarce remaining options are often unattainable for applicants that have histories of incarceration, substance use, or bad credit. These widespread discriminatory practices can prevent vulnerable people from finding permanent housing, even if the applicant has proven progress in employment stability and/or sobriety.
Through their Zillow-powered platform, Housing Connector displays a list of eligible units in the area available through their Property Partners. From there, applicants are provided a letter of support that can be submitted to the property manager. Once approved, residents have access to an ecosystem of support including legal resources, conflict resolution, financial assistance, and two years of personal case management to establish housing stability.
Pallet Peer Support
As we hire new members onto our team to build their futures, we conduct screenings to assess our employees’ satisfaction with their housing status among various other wellness evaluations. This process helped establish our partnership with Housing Connector.
Sarah, our Customer Service Lead, serves as an essential onsite consultant for Pallet team members who want to access supportive services. When she moved into her current apartment, she personally used Housing Connector for an added layer of financial security and peace of mind.
This positive experience motivated her to pursue Housing Connector as a Pallet resource that employees could access if they were struggling to secure or maintain housing. She says this support can be crucial for people who are struggling to get approved for traditional housing based on their background or experience.
“Typically they vouch for our people, meaning those people who have criminal backgrounds, bad credit, evictions, debt, and who normally can't get approved,” she says. “Without that letter of support, most of them probably wouldn’t even be able to get into an apartment. It’s like a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket.”
She also says the benefits that come with signing up for Housing Connector are advantageous for vulnerable people who aren’t used to living on their own and are taking on a new, unfamiliar responsibility.
“[Housing Connector] offers mediation services between you and the landlord, or if you're getting treated unfairly, they can reach out on your behalf,” she says. “If you're struggling to pay your rent, you can have them help you to reach out and communicate. And then after you're there for three months, say there's an emergency and your car breaks down and you have to spend all your money on that—they offer up to three months of emergency rental funds to help you, because the goal is to stablish some stability.”
We are proud of our team members who have accessed the services provided by Housing Connector, and couldn’t be happier to see them get their own set of keys and build a stable future for themselves.
The combination of fair chance hiring and sponsorship in a pre-apprenticeship training program equips our team members to grow, advance their careers, and become the skilled workforce of the future.
From the very beginning of Pallet, we have placed our team members at the core of our mission to give people a fair chance at employment. We strongly believe that people are defined by their potential, not their past.
The majority of our staff have lived experience of homelessness, incarceration, recovery from substance use disorder, or involvement in the criminal legal system. Their insight is crucial in continually refining our products to best meet the needs of communities who have experienced the trauma of displacement in times of crisis.
With our Purpose-Led Workforce Model, we are taking the next step in helping our team grow and advance their careers.
What is Pallet’s Purpose-Led Workforce Model?
Our model is built on two major pillars: fair chance hiring and Pallet’s Career Launch PAD (Program for Apprenticeship Development).
While some organizations are classified as second chance employers, we define our hiring practices as fair chance—as many people aren’t given a first chance to begin with. We offer the opportunity for people to work and grow at Pallet HQ as manufacturing specialists, regardless of criminal record, incarceration, or former job experience. This part of our model is crucial: even though it’s been confirmed that the vast majority of formerly incarcerated people want to work, roughly 60% of those released from prison remain unemployed, struggling to find workplaces that ensure job security and upward mobility.
The second key piece of our model is Pallet’s Career Launch PAD. This program entails enrollment in an offsite 9-month pre-apprenticeship training course focusing on developing essential skills needed for a career in the trades, while simultaneously building on-the-job experience manufacturing shelters in our production facility. This structure means employees are guaranteed full-time pay for attending classes one day per week and working in Pallet’s production facility the other four. Upon graduating from the program, our team will be equipped to pursue apprenticeships in a variety of skilled trades disciplines.
Pallet’s Career Launch PAD would not be possible without our collaboration with the Construction Industry Training Council of Washington (CITC) and grants provided by Workforce Snohomish. We are proud and grateful to work alongside these organizations who are equally invested in creating the next wave of skilled trades workers.
Why is This So Important?
By creating this program with growth in mind, we are offering a completely unique opportunity for our staff: steady, fair compensation alongside tactical educational courses that will guide their future. Upon graduation from the pre-apprenticeship program, our team members will move beyond Pallet to build their careers, making space for a new incoming class to participate.
In many ways, our Purpose-Led Workforce Model mirrors our mission to provide emergency shelter for those who have experienced the trauma of displacement. Similar to how our shelters provide Pallet village residents the time and space needed to transition to permanent housing, this program offers our employees stability and a supportive environment so they can start their career journey.
“Over the past few years, we have worked hard to develop programs and create support tailored to the unique needs of our employees,” says Tracy Matthews, Pallet’s VP of Human Resources. “This new model builds upon the old one by continuing to stabilize and support our team members with lived experience, while adding the educational component of Pallet’s Career Launch PAD. This program offers a pathway to other opportunities, enabling us to launch 25+ people per year into apprenticeship programs and extend employment opportunities to more impacted and marginalized individuals.”
To get a more in-depth look at Pallet’s Career Launch PAD, follow the progress of four of the program’s participants: Gregory, Christa, Jeff, and Tonya.
You can learn about each team member’s background, experience, and how they will use their training to launch their careers and build a brighter future.