After 20 storied years with Goodwill Northern Michigan, Ryan Hannon is taking on a new challenge in the work to end homelessness: a leadership role at Central United Methodist Church Outreach. Following the retirement of the amazing Jane Lippert, Ryan will be heading up Central Outreach’s critical hub of services for people without housing in the Traverse City area.

Congratulations to Ryan on this great next step in his career fighting homelessness! We’re grateful for all Ryan has done to advance the mission of Goodwill, and thankful that we’ll get to continue working closely with Ryan every day in our shared work of ending homelessness.

RYAN'S HISTORY AT GOODWILL 

Many of us at Goodwill know Ryan as a colleague in housing and homeless services and the main office, or as the face of the work of ending homelessness. Ryan started with Goodwill in 2004 working with vulnerable people at the Whiting Hotel, and he has since filled many roles in the homeless response system.

For much of his long Goodwill career, Ryan led our Street Outreach team, working directly with people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. InvisiblePeopleTV followed Ryan for a day in 2017 when the Safe Harbor homeless shelter was being built, capturing Traverse City’s faith-based community working together with Goodwill, NMSH, and NMCAA to help people living without housing. Watching the video seven years later, it's amazing to see how far we have come in our capacity and approach, walking alongside our many partners in homeless response and the Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness.

Through many upheavals, changes, and even a worldwide pandemic, Ryan has persevered in the work of ending homelessness, always with his eye on dignity, love, collaboration, housing, and providing real, tangible solutions to people experiencing homelessness. He has been “Good Trouble,” walking ahead, always advocating for the next step in the work of ending homelessness in a dignified and strategic way.

Today we are closer than ever before to our vision of a community where everyone has a safe and secure place to live. Ryan’s unique gift for connecting with people around his passion for ending homelessness has been instrumental in this forward movement of our collaborative work to end homelessness with dignity, focused on the only solution to homelessness: housing.

RYAN'S WORK TO END HOMELESSNESS 

When you go places with Ryan in Traverse City, you realize that Ryan knows everyone, and everyone knows Ryan. The leaders of our community, the media, and our partners throughout the homeless response system have Ryan on speed dial. He goes above and beyond to answer their questions and troubleshoot their problems while ensuring that people experiencing homelessness are treated with dignity and respect. Ryan has used his extensive network throughout his time at Goodwill in the work of ending homelessness, whether he was doing direct outreach on the streets, training others to do outreach, or raising money and public support for our campaign to end chronic homelessness and add more units of housing with supports.

Ryan has a gift for speaking in person and on camera about homelessness, and much of his work at Goodwill has involved engaging the community around ending homelessness. Through hundreds of media appearances, through his own @TweetOutreach and our Facebook and Instagram channels, through the annual NMC Walk for Health and Housing and the Silent Walk for National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, and through multiple speeches to groups of all sizes and types, including at our recent Gather for Gratitude event, Ryan helps people understand the terrible suffering of homelessness, and the way we can — and do — end it.

Ryan’s outstanding work at Goodwill has brought local, national, and even international attention to the work of ending homelessness and to our organization. The housing-focused TC Street Medicine Collaborative Ryan helped build through our Street Outreach program has received national and international awards and acclaim. Ryan received the Sara Hardy Humanitarian Award in 2021 from the Traverse City Human Rights Commission for his passionate advocacy on behalf of people experiencing homelessness. He has spoken at conferences on homelessness from Michigan to London to Hawaii. He has helped West Virginia, rural Kentucky, West Palm Beach FL, and the state of Connecticut with their homeless response systems. Closer to home he has trained staff at the Traverse Area District Library, Bay Area Transportation Authority, Traverse Area Recreational Trails, and other local organizations on responding to homelessness at work. Ryan's leadership in Goodwill’s housing and homeless services has been deeply impactful both inside and outside our organization. 

RYAN'S NEW ROLE AT CENTRAL OUTREACH 

At Central, Ryan will be stepping into the big shoes of Jane Lippert, another trusted and beloved leader in the homeless response community, after she retires on June 20. Here’s Ryan and Jane talking about the work of Central Outreach in creating space for our Street Outreach team to engage with clients, along with space for state social workers, medical, dental, and addiction treatment workers, personal hygiene providers, and others who offer support to people experiencing homelessness. Ryan is excited to bring additional housing-focused education and strategy to Central Outreach as he leads this strong and important program into the future.  

We are grateful for everything Ryan has done, and will do, to end homelessness. Goodwill was fortunate to have Ryan on the team for two decades. Now we look forward to having an excellent partner in the pivotal role of leading Central Outreach and in our continuing campaign to end chronic homelessness. 

Thank you Ryan, congratulations, and we look forward to continuing the fight to end homelessness with you!