A local transitional home for people returning from jail or prison now funds its own operating costs through a kettle corn business.
Danny Howe started the Earnest House LLC in 2016, and with more than one location, he's housed hundreds of people transitioning out of incarceration over the years. But more than just housing, the Earnest House offers clients employment and job skills, with Howe helping job seekers find training and get certified.
Until recently, Howe did this as a workforce development specialist with Pima County One-Stop. But Howe is now the full-time director of Earnest House, now that Heavy Kettle Popcorn has taken off in recent months.
Howe started the business with clients making and selling artisan kettle corn at local events. In the early days, they'd set up a pop-up tent and kettle and get to work. But soon enough, Heavy Kettle upgraded to a trailer which Howe recently had "wrapped" with Heavy Kettle's logo and branding. It includes the story of the business and how its profits are used.
While working for Heavy Kettle, clients earn a salary and are also able to look for full-time employment.
Last month, Howe and the Earnest House were honored by the Southern Arizona Better Business Bureau for their ethical business practices in the 2022 BBB Torch Awards. While Howe said he felt blessed by the honor, he's got his eye on expansion for both Heavy Kettle and Earnest House, which is proving difficult given the current housing market. Both of Earnest House's locations are full, and without another site, Howe is limited in his ability to expand
Connecting with the community
Howe grew up in Tucson in an addiction-stricken home. By the time he was 18, he'd dropped out of school and began experimenting with drugs. One night, he fired a gun out of the window of a friend's car to scare people in another vehicle. No one was injured, but Howe faced nearly 70 years in prison. He served four years after taking a plea agreement. Howe earned his GED and took parenting and other classes while in custody.
He was released in 2006 and reconnected shortly after with his former girlfriend. The pair have been married for 13 years and Howe is now a father of three.
Howe spent some time after his release working for Old Pueblo Community Services, a provider of transitional living programs for people who have been incarcerated, served in the military or struggle with substance abuse or homelessness. He learned what worked, and didn't, and eventually opened his own halfway house.
The Earnest House is a for-profit business, which makes grant funding hard to come by, but Howe says he has made it work. The Earnest House has a waitlist for its two locations. At the house on Tucson's south side, there's a separate residence for women and men, with each room housing only two clients. In other halfway house settings, three and four people to a room are common, as are bunk beds. Howe wanted to ensure Earnest House didn't feel institutional, which he said means giving people space and treating them with dignity.
"The thing about us not being a nonprofit is I don't have to make politicians happy, I just have to make my clients happy," Howe said. "We treat them like people at the end of the day."
A bright, green lawn connects the two houses, with bicycles, a grill and weight set on-site for residents to use as their own. The group moved into the current location during COVID-19, after the influx of people released from jail.
Residents can work at Heavy Kettle or find jobs elsewhere. But the demand for workers at Heavy Kettle is running high these days, with Howe putting together a second crew to handle overlapping events. On April 9, Heavy Kettle was at the SAHBA Spring Home & Patio Show, Rillito Park Racetrack and Second Saturdays in downtown Tucson.
Heavy Kettle is overseen by John Lowther and Jennifer Yehling, who also work as property managers for The Earnest House.
"Not only is the product great, but so is being out there at events," Lowther said. "You get to meet such a vast variety of people and get to go out and be a part of it."
After the gem and mineral show earlier this year, Heavy Kettle started shipping their product at the request of out-of-town customers. That's taken the business to a whole other level, Howe says.
"Now we're able to employ people on a daily basis," Howe said. "We didn't think that would be an option. But now we're national."
Lowther is excited that the product has become so popular, saying that people follow the business to find their favorite flavors.
"It's good to know not only that you're providing something people enjoy but it's a blast doing it the same time," Lowther said "It's good soul food."
Lowther and Yehling have had fun coming up with new recipes outside of the standard salty and sweet kettle corn, including watermelon Tajín, jalapeño white cheddar and the newest flavor, "Jenny Confetti," made from a blend of brightly-colored sugars.
Yehling said working at Heavy Kettle has helped her gain confidence to get back out into the community following her incarceration, something Lowther said many people struggle with.
"A lot of people are nervous, because when they were living a certain life they weren't in that community and now they aren't sure how to conduct themselves," Lowther said.
It's small things that build encouragement in people and it's a process that takes time, Lowther said. That's part of the reason that Earnest House doesn't cap its clients' stays.
"It definitely helps pass it along to other clients. I can tell them that I had so much social anxiety I didn't want to go to Circle K, but now I'm going to all these own places and I've got my own Jenny Confetti," Yehling said. "I have my own setbacks that I'm working on, but I can't keep just living in a shell"
Yehling and Lowther have been with the Earnest House for three years and with Heavy Kettle since its early stages. They've loved to see both businesses grow and thrive, even amidst a pandemic.
Jennifer Yehling, assistant property manager at the Earnest House, gets change for a customer while working in the Heavy Kettle Popcorn truck at the Fourth Avenue Street Fair on April 1.
Building capacity for the future
With Heavy Kettle booming earlier this year, the Earnest House was poised to purchase a third property, but when the housing market took off, the price became untenable.
There's currently a waitlist of people trying to get into Earnest House, with the six beds reserved for the county's jail population review committee often being the only beds available. The committee works to assess inmates’ status and identify safe and effective release conditions. The other 24 beds split between the two properties are occupied for the foreseeable future, which Howe sees as a good and bad thing.
"We're trying to help people, and if you have to get on a waitlist, we're not helping your current need," said Howe, who's also a member of the local Second Chance Coalition, a group that helps former inmates reintegrate into society.
The Earnest House would love to buy its own property, but Howe said he's open to renting at a reasonable cost.
Until then, the Earnest House is at capacity and Heavy Kettle's growth is also limited.
When he first started out, Howe thought about pitching an idea to Shark Tank, but there wasn't really a product to mass-scale. Then the kettle corn business came around. Now, he's dreaming big.
"If they want to buy in on it, Mark Cuban owns the Mavericks, so there could be an option to have us at some of the basketball stadiums," Howe said. "Even if it doesn't get taken by anyone, it would be cool to at least go in front of everybody and tell them what we're doing. That's the goal, to see where we can put our clients and get out there."
