The economy is finally starting to shift once more. In the past 40 days our population has soared by more than 100 clients. We have been busy for the last two weeks, scrambling to find beds and to open up some areas of our housing units that were previously closed. It has been a long dry spell for us and it feels good to be heading back to our former population levels.
 
A reality of this business is that no matter whether you have 10 people or 1000 people, the mortgages and the maintenance continue. Someone asked me to what we attribute our sudden population increase. I wish I knew. We've been doing a lot of advertising and telephone outreach across the country. We have also changed some policies to help clients feel more at home. One of these changes is to allow incoming clients to use cell phones from the day they arrive. Previously we had restricted phone use for newcomers. But, after someone pointed out they needed a cell phone to help them find employment we changed the policy and it seems to have a good effect. One of the realities of being in the recovery field is that there are so many variables that come into play.
 
The big factor for us is always population, which is rarely stable. Right after 9/11 when the economy went into a tailspin, our population went down radically. It took us a year or more to recover financially. Eventually we did and things went very well for us until the beginning of 2008. Since then it has been a real struggle to pay bills and keep things functioning.
 
So it is with a sense of relief that we start December and the Christmas season. We are setting up seven Christmas tree lots, our labor group is busy, and we are scrambling to provide services to the newcomers. However, no one is complaining. This is what we have been praying for and now it's finally coming to us.
 
I try to always look at the blessings that come from adversity. And we've had a number of them since the first of 2008. We've cut our staff by approximately 35 people. We sold 22 vehicles. We cut expenses in virtually every area. Its created for us the idea that we can always cut expenses if we just make an effort.
 
Our cost-cutting has shown up in several areas. We've been able to cut 13% from our utilities by installing weatherstripping and more efficient thermostats. We cut printing and copying costs in the corporate office by $500 a month by installing a digital faxing program that allows us to send and receive faxes without using paper or toner.