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Thursday, August 27, 2020

Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisances: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)

A couple weeks ago, there were two separate articles ("SLC park has become 'nightmare' with dangerous crime, neighbors say" and "SLC businesses fed up with crime near homeless resource center," Fox13-TV) about the negative impacts on neighborhoods and commercial districts adjacent to new facilities serving Salt Lake County's homeless population.

There's a lot of break ins, assaults, and various other crimes.

It got me thinking.

Why not accompany "noxious uses" like homeless shelters with a "Community Safety Partnership" to provide extra safety and nuisance abatement services to the areas likely to be impacted by the placement?

This idea extends the discussion in the current series on creating more focused neighborhood stabilization initiatives.

-- "The need for a "national" neighborhood stabilization program comparable to the Main Street program for commercial districts: Part I (Overall)"
-- "To be successful, local neighborhood stabilization programs need a packaged set of robust remedies: Part 2"
-- "Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisance programs: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)"
-- "A case in Gloucester, Massachusetts as an illustration of the need for systematic neighborhood monitoring and stabilization initiatives: Part 4 (the Curcuru Family)"
-- "Local neighborhood stabilization programs: Part 5 | Adding energy conservation programs, with the PUSH Buffalo Green Development Zone as a model," 2021
 
Public safety versus policing.  In the post-George Floyd environment, there's been a lot of discussion about the difference between policing and public safety, calls to "defund the police," and renewed interest in alternative approaches, such as that discussed in the book by Alex Vitale, The End of Policing, where he makes the point that many social problems where we deploy police would be better addressed through alternatives to police officers.

And there has been attention brought to the CAHOOTS program in Eugene and Springfield, Oregon, which uses a team of social workers and other emergency personnel, but not police, as first responders originally to mental health-related issues ("'CAHOOTS': How Social Workers And Police Share Responsibilities In Eugene, Oregon," NPR) but which has been expanded to include:
"homelessness, intoxication, disorientation, substance abuse and ... dispute resolution. Non-emergency medical care, first aid, and transportation to services is also provided."
From "SLC park has become 'nightmare' with dangerous crime, neighbors say":
The community park was bustling... for all the wrong reasons, if you ask the people who live next to it.  "Lots of homelessness, lots of drug use, and lots of drug dealing," said Matt Engle, who can see the park from his home.

He and another neighbor explained they frequently see drug deals, and drug overdoses. They'll find needles next to human feces. The trash bins were overflowing on Wednesday, with more garbage littering the ground. ...

Part of the reason they think Jefferson Park has become a hot spot for criminal activity, is the location within the Ballpark area. It sits in between the two new homeless resource centers, which each opened within the last year.
The second SLC article is about similar and worse problems experienced by businesses located near one of the new homeless shelters, including assaults, drug use, prostitution, break ins, and outdoor defecation. 

WRT both situations, the city does have action teams that work with communities impacted by homeless shelters.  But the response or the way that the program is set up to work appears to be inadequate.

Salt Lake's homeless facilities used to be concentrated in the Rio Grande district Downtown, and they got out of hand in terms of drug dealing and violence.  In response, the city, county, State, and other stakeholders came together and created a program to relocate the facilities, to make them smaller and to not put them all in one place, not unlike how DC has distributed homeless family facilities around the city.

Like my criticisms of the DC response the program may have been built on some flawed decisions resulting from incorrect assessment of the issues.  They built three facilities, but reduced overall capacity, so that the problem of homeless people living on the street persists.  The facilities were full soon after they opened, before winter even set in, and Salt Lake City had to create an emergency shelter.

The plans reduced capacity on the assumption they could reduce homelessness with new service programs, but as I say the problem of homelessness is more like a river than a lake--the population isn't fixed and continually grows depending on social and economic conditions, just as a river isn't a still body of water, whereas lakes are more contained bodies of water.

In any case, creating substantive reduction in need on such a short time line was overly ambitious and likely to fail (which it did).

(Jeremy Harmon | The Salt Lake Tribune) Josh Valdez talks about his experience camping in Salt Lake City during the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020.

And while the deconcentration has removed most of the problems that had existed in the Rio Grande area, in some respects they've merely been displaced, both in other areas of downtown, which has a lot of homeless camping and congregating and to the areas around the new shelters.

In part this is abetted by how the pandemic has led to the closure of public facilities like libraries ("Have Salt Lake City homeless encampments gotten out of control again?" and "Business, public building closures leave Salt Lake City’s homeless with few places to use restrooms," Salt Lake Tribune).

Social service programs and resident opposition to their placement.  Over the decades there's been tons of media coverage of homeless shelters ("Homeless shelter opponents are using this environmental law in bid to block new housing," Los Angeles Times) and drug rehabilitation clinics ("Many residents oppose proposed Monument methadone clinic," Colorado Springs Gazette) as nuisances, among others.

Residents complain about the deleterious impacts on their neighborhoods, because of misbehavior and criminal activity by some of the clients of these facilities.

From "‘Not-in-my-backyard’ arguments ramp up against proposed Center for Health & Housing," Springfield State Journal-Register.  Photo: Ted Schurter.

The response to opposition is attempts at  shaming, that the residents are nimbys and unwilling to bear some of the burden associated with dealing with social problems ("Is Shame The Antidote To NIMBYism In The Washington Region?," WAMU/NPR).

The reality is that not all nimbyism is the same.

Even if most don't, some uses do generate extranormal negative effects. And typically, programs aren't set up to deal with these known and likely effects. Which generates even more nimbyism going forward.

Usually plans to address the known spillover nuisances from potentially noxious uses aren't required.  In the vein of "public safety" vs. policing, I think the problem is both simpler and more complicated.  The issue isn't an unwillingness of residents to bear the burden (although some will remain opposed in any instance), but simultaneously mitigating the potential for problems that arise with the placement of such uses.

It should be no different from taverns, nightclubs (Best Safety Practices for Nightlife Establishments, City of West Hollywood; "Nightclub and Bar Security: Bouncers, Doormen and Security Guards | You Are Security! " LPT Security Consultants), gas stations ("Creating a Safer Gas Station for Your Customers and Employees, Ovation Insurance) and convenience stores ("Are You Doing Enough to Secure Your Stores?," Convenience Store News) creating security plans, knowing that these types of uses (and others) are known to have a higher propensity for criminal activity.

-- Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, Arizona State University
-- "Tampa Bay Times investigation on the cost of emergency services associated with Walmart stores," 2016

My experience living around the corner from the Peirce Shelter in DC: itinerant service vs. structure and management.  The descriptions by SLC residents and business owners reminded me of my DC experience, when I lived on the same block as a big emergency shelter in the H Street neighborhood.  Emergency shelters provide a bed at night and breakfast, but then they kick people out during the day.  With nowhere to go, no place to store their belongings, etc., people tend to loiter, and often conduct and handle their life business out in the street, and there are crimes associated with  daytime activities.

The shelter was a scourge on the neighborhood, contributing to poor quality of life.  Just like in the Rio Grande area of Salt Lake City.

BUT THEN, it was converted from an emergency shelter to a facility as part of a three-phase system of addiction care and rehabilitation.  Instead of kicking people out every day, they stayed in, working on their program requirements.

Basically, the served population went from unmanaged to managed, and this had a massive positive impact on quality of life in the neighborhood at large.  Except for occasional ambulances at the shelter, and weekend car washes held there to raise funds for the clients, you wouldn't have known that they were there.

My lesson from this is that the problem with shelters is lack of management and throwing people out onto the streets during the day.

Plus not providing any programs and services aiming at interdicting and addressing the problems that come up during the day in the surrounding neighborhood as a result of putting people out early in the morning.

A "community safety partnership" approach to mitigating problems from homeless shelters and related uses.  As standard practice, why not accompany "noxious uses" like homeless shelters with a "Community Safety Partnership" to provide extra safety and nuisance abatement services to the areas likely to be impacted by the placement?  This idea extends the discussion in the two previous pieces on creating more focused neighborhood stabilization initiatives.


Community safety partnership =
police + neighborhood support workers + mental health personnel + social workers + other services


31.Before.WTPM.WDC.21September2019BID maintenance worker/ambassador, Downtown DC BID.

Besides how business improvement districts have cleaning programs and "ambassadors" to monitor public space and some even have social workers on staff to deal with homeless issues, other models to draw upon are the Los Angeles Community Safety Partnership ("After Years Of Violence, L.A.'s Watts Sees Crime Subside," NPR and "What Does It Take to Stop Crips and Bloods From Killing Each Other," New York Times), the "neighborhood warden" approach in England and Wales (Neighbourhood wardens: the activity pattern in one English city and Neighbourhood wardens: a review of international experience, LSE), and the CAHOOTS program, which is non-police-based crisis response for non-emergency calls.

From "Meet the neighbourhood wardens who are the 'eyes and ears' of Gedling's streets," Nottinghamshire Post. Photo by Joseph Raymor.

In The End of Policing's chapter on dealing with homelessness, Professor Vitale discusses the need for drop in centers alongside emergency shelter, with caseworkers, mental health services, counseling, practical amenities like mail drops, health care, food, and clothing.  

These types of services need to be part of a Community Safety Partnership program.  I know that some of these kinds of services are being provided as part of the new homeless service model in Salt Lake County, but I don't know about the depth or breadth of the program.

The programs mentioned are Bread & Jams in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which sadly is defunct  because of changes in homeless policy for services and redirection of funds ("Pantry’s Closure Will Leave Void in Harvard Square Daytime Homeless Services," Harvard Crimson), and Mission Neighborhood Resource Center in San Francisco.  B&J provided help with housing and job search, benefits advocacy, health care and policy advocacy.  MNRC provides showers, services, and outreach teams that work without police.


(In this piece, "One potential solution to the problem of "finding work" for homeless adults," I suggest creating supported job programs for homeless adults.)

Jared Arvanitas, manager for the Downtown Alliance's ambassador program, checks to see if Emil Miller and his dog, Tehya, need anything outside City Creek Center in Salt Lake City.  Photo: Streets Plus.
The goal of the Downtown Ambassador Program is to create an even more welcoming and safe city center for residents and visitors, as well as providing additional outreach efforts for people experiencing homelessness, said Steve Hillard, president of Streets Plus, a national company that specializes in providing ambassador services in several major cities. 

 "We hire licensed social service workers to serve as ambassadors, so on the street, we engage those in need, we do case management, refer them to appropriate services and talk to them every day," he said. 

"It's a very 'down to earth' networking (approach) to build relationships with (people in need) so that when the time comes and they're ready to make a move to get a meal, get clothing or get a job, in-patient services or housing, we're there to facilitate that process." 

Hillard said the program is geared toward "inclusivity" where people in the community feel a part of trying to make the downtown area welcoming to everyone. He noted that in Chicago, the program drew thousands of referrals and helped get 57 people off the streets and into a better living environments in its first year of operation. 

"We're talking jobs, in-patient services, treatment, housing and thousands of referrals for food, clothing and medical services," Hillard said. "We expect that we can do the same thing here in Salt Lake."
Neighborhood wardens are an initiative created by the Blair Government in the UK.  Basically, along the lines of the two previous posts on creating focused neighborhood improvement and stabilization initiatives in weak market neighborhoods, but in response to conditions created by conversion to private management of large housing estates in English cities.

Neighborhood wardens are what we might call quality of life managers, assigned to cover a particular area or "patch."  They address low level nuisances (litter, dumping, graffiti, etc.) and certain matters of "anti-social behavior").  "Their duties vary, but can include patrolling, cleaning and maintaining public areas, organising youth programmes, and liaising with police."
Top objectives of neighborhood warden schemes in the UK
In a paper on the program, the authors define four approaches, including "patrollers" and "neighborhood support workers."  Wardens don't have police powers, they usually wear uniforms, and in some situations, they are authorized to write tickets and fine notices for certain types of infractions.

32.ConnecticutAvenue.NW.WDC.10November2013
Bike-based ambassador/patroller in DC's Golden Triangle BID.

Los Angeles Community Safety Partnership. Spurred by the Advancement Project advocacy organization (The LAPD Community Safety Partnership: an experiment in policing, USC masters thesis), in 2011, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and the police department implemented a community-engaged policing strategy in four public housing communities in the Watts neighborhood: Nickerson Gardens; Imperial Courts; Jordan Downs; and Ramona Gardens.

The Watts neighborhood has the greatest concentration of public housing in the city and each development had been marked by deep-rooted gang problems, drug sales, and rampant crime.

The point of the CSP was to try something different from brute force policing--which had been the agency's primary method before--focusing on rebuilding the relationship of the police department with the community, because ultimately the safest communities police themselves.

Repositioning the relationship between the community and the police department and their role in public safety comes in part through youth participation on the football and track teams and how this reconstructs relationships between police officers, children, and their families.

While the CSP doesn't focus on arresting people, police officers will do so depending on the circumstances. In the three years previous to the launch of CSP, there were an average of 23 murders per year in the designated area. 

For two years after the program started, there were no murders. In the third year, there were two murders, but the perpetrators were quickly apprehended within days due in large part to information provided by the community.

Earlier this year the program was expanded2019 Program Assessment ("LAPD community policing program has prevented crime and made residents feel safer, study finds," Los Angeles Times).

Create Community Safety Partnerships/Neighborhood Stabilization Program for areas with homeless shelters, drug rehabilitation clinics, and other potentially noxious but legal and necessary uses.

Community safety partnership =
police + neighborhood support workers + mental health personnel + social workers + other services


Places where homeless shelters and similar kinds of uses are situated, like the Ballpark District and other areas in Salt Lake County, should be accompanied by the creation and operation of focused and ongoing neighborhood stabilization initiatives that are a combination carrot and stick, to foster order maintenance, to reduce problems typically associated with such facilities.

The inclusion of policing can be a necessary element, when serious crimes (assault, break ins, etc.) are part of the mix.  As Megan McArdle writes in a recent column ("Videos of Portland protesters show a complicated relationship with police and policing"):
“At some point,” says Peter Moskos of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, “society needs to accept that there is an element of repression — social control — in policing. At some point there are people who need to be policed.”
From "Judge rejects challenge to Venice homeless shelter," Los Angeles Times.  Photo: Mel Melcon.

(And yes, overconcentration of service facilities in particular areas can be a legitimate issue.)

Appointed and elected officials need to recognize that some concerns expressed by opponents to shelters and similar kinds of uses can be legitimate.

The point shouldn't be to shut down and shame people when they raise such issues.  It should be to address them.  Community Safety Partnerships are the way to respond proactively.

Salt Lake City as a great candidate for launching an Elm Street neighborhood stabilization initiative.  Note that based on other reporting ("Four homicides in one year have Ballpark neighbors calling for action" and "New study shows Glendale and Rose Park hit hardest by COVID-19," Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City would probably be a good candidate for adoption of the "Elm Street" neighborhood stabilization model I outlined in the first two parts of this article series.  For deployment in multiple neighborhoods.

Conclusion: Create a Community Safety Partnership for Salt Lake City's Ballpark District. And the Ballpark neighborhood ought to be a top priority for the creation of a Community Safety Partnership type program.

30 comments:

  1. https://nypost.com/2020/08/30/legal-aids-obscene-racism-charge-against-the-upper-west-side/

    https://nypost.com/2020/06/27/san-franciscos-failed-experiment-of-homeless-hotels-is-a-cautionary-tale/

    reminds me too of this story

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-housed-the-homeless-in-upscale-apartments-it-hasnt-gone-as-planned/2019/04/16/60c8ab9c-5648-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mental Health Court Docket, Fairfax County, VA

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-one-virginia-courtroom-a-judge-tries-to-stop-a-revolving-door/2020/10/12/0fdd8f38-0cac-11eb-8074-0e943a91bf08_story.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Salt Lake Tribune: Salt Lake City's Downtown Ambassador Program extends to North Temple.
    https://sltrib.com/news/2021/04/07/salt-lake-citys-downtown/

    ReplyDelete
  4. The New Yorker: Bridging the Divide Between the Police and the Policed.
    https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/bridging-the-divide-between-the-police-and-the-policed

    ReplyDelete
  5. North Orange County Public Safety Task Force

    http://www.nocpublicsafety.com/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Continued problems in the Ballpark area:

    https://kutv.com/news/local/residents-discuss-growing-concerns-with-violent-crime-in-salt-lakes-ballpark-neighborhood

    In a similar area in Salt Lake City, the Downtown Alliance (a business improvement district) has extended their Downtown Ambassadors program (the equivalent of street presence and physical maintenance) to West Temple Street because of similar needs.

    https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/04/07/salt-lake-citys-downtown/

    5/22/2021

    ReplyDelete
  7. A couple journal articles that seem worth tracking down.

    Creating safe spaces: designing day shelters for people experiencing homelessness
    James C. Petrovich, Erin Roark Murphy, Brooke R. Koch
    Published 2017
    Sociology, Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless

    The making of a resource center for homeless people in San Francisco's Mission District: a community collaboration.
    L. Wenger, J. Leadbetter, A. Kral
    Published 2007
    Sociology, Medicine, (Journal of) Health & social work

    ReplyDelete
  8. Treatment centers nuisance issue in Boston.

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/20/metro/how-should-boston-fix-methadone-mile

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Greyhound Bus Station in Columbus, Ohio is being sued by the City to declare it a public nuisance, because of the number of police calls. Since 1/2020, there have been 1200+ calls for service.

    https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2021/06/17/columbus-takes-legal-action-against-crime-plagued-greyhound-bus-station/7730457002/

    But it, like the beach and boardwalk incidents in Ocean City, is an indicator of needing extranormal treatment and service, jointly with Greyhound and the police department.

    They need a focused "community safety partnership" too.

    6/17/2021

    ReplyDelete
  10. KUTV 2News: SLC police spend hundreds of hours a week on homeless-related calls, public records show.

    https://kutv.com/news/local/slc-police-spend-hundreds-of-hours-a-week-on-homeless-related-calls-public-records-show

    ReplyDelete
  11. A candidate for Mayor of Boston sort of suggests something similar for the problem around Massachusetts Avenue and Cass Street there.

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/10/metro/situation-mass-cass-has-only-gotten-worse-heres-what-top-mayoral-candidates-say-theyd-do-fix-it/?p1=Article_Feed_ContentQuery

    ReplyDelete
  12. https://news.yahoo.com/build-trust-racine-police-moved-153655041.html

    Racine’s community policing model, pioneered in the 1990s, isn’t a fast fix – it takes time, commitment, and investment.

    ReplyDelete
  13. A column on the problems of Mass and Cass in Boston.

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/20/business/you-can-have-empathy-ignore-situation-lawlessness-its-not-solution-businesses-near-mass-cass-scene-pay-steep-price

    ReplyDelete
  14. "Place based initiative in Essex."

    Fox Baltimore: Baltimore County Police reveal hidden trend behind crime surge in the county.
    https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/how-to-stem-rising-crime-in-baltimore-county

    ReplyDelete
  15. Pittsburgh is opening "community hubs" in communities with a high degree of homelessness, to provide services with the aim of getting people off the street.

    It seems like a good idea, but the execution makes me wonder, as the facilities will be open 8:30am to 4:30pm Monday through Friday. Not in the evenings nor on weekends.

    Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Allegheny Health Network, Pittsburgh open Downtown community outreach hub for medical, housing help.

    https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2021/11/23/Allegheny-Health-Network-Pittsburgh-open-Downtown-Community-Outreach-hub-for-medical-housing-help/stories/202111230121

    ReplyDelete
  16. In Pittsburgh, the Allegheny Health Network has created a health clinic designed to serve people who had been jailed (mental health issues etc.), as a way to keep them out of jail.

    "Rare medical clinic aims to keep repeat offenders out of jail"

    https://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2021/11/28/former-county-inmates-healthcare-Allegheny-Health-Network-s-RivER-Clinic-addiction-mental-health-Allegheny-County-Jail/stories/202111230087

    The facility is “meeting peoples’ basic needs in ways that we were not previously able to,” said Laura Williams, Allegheny County Jail’s chief deputy warden of healthcare. “And we’ve seen individuals continue care and not come back into incarceration.”

    Launched in June, jail administrators say the program is starting to address one of the major causes of people getting arrested over and over: medical issues — mostly addiction and mental health.

    Since its opening, the clinic has reached out to 160 former inmates through September after they were identified by the jail as needing healthcare because of addiction, chronic illnesses, or they were met on the street outside the facility as they were released.

    Of those 160 inmates, the clinic staff was able to convince 85 to show up to reserve their doctor’s appointments at the facility located on Federal Street on the North Side. Since so many former inmates don’t have cell phones or stable homes and in some cases, are homeless, experts say they’re encouraged by the clinic’s ability to pull in more than half the inmates they’ve contacted in just a few months.

    ReplyDelete
  17. WRT the point that most communities have inadequate capacity, this article from the Daytona News Journal is interesting, about the debate at a shelter with the aim of getting people off the street, for only taking referrals, not walk ins, because "we'd need to triple the capacity of the current shelter, we only have three caseworkers, etc."

    https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2022/01/14/daytona-beachs-homeless-shelter-will-only-accept-referred-clients/6523129001/

    ReplyDelete
  18. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/our-citys-not-dead-yet-pcc-opening-highlights-promise-of-and-challenges-to-downtown-seattles-recovery

    "‘Our city’s not dead yet’: PCC opening highlights promise of, and challenges to, downtown Seattle’s recovery"

    1/20/2022

    Interesting discussion within this article about crime and homelessness issues in the Seattle core, how the grocery is a positive sign, but at the same time need to deal with the other issues.

    From the article:

    More broadly, addressing safety concerns is key to persuading downtown employers to reopen offices and bring back the workers that are so vital to many restaurants, retailers and other businesses there. ...

    In October, Weyerhaeuser delayed plans to bring workers back to its Pioneer Square headquarters reportedly due to employees’ concerns about neighborhood safety.

    “Employers are telling us that the No. 1 condition for them to return employees to their offices is action by the city on safety and homelessness,” Scholes said Wednesday.

    Officials with the city and with the new Regional Homelessness Authority have said they are working to improve conditions downtown. But the challenges are substantial. Recent pushes to clear encampments and relocate people experiencing homelessness have run into a lack of adequate housing and chronic shortages of staffing at social services organizations.

    There have also been disagreements between city officials and the homelessness authority over whether to focus the city’s limited homelessness resources on downtown.

    And where the city has had some success in moving people out of tent encampments, there isn’t always a coordinated effort to “to hold that progress” by helping reestablish businesses in those cleared areas, Lewis said.

    “Without that,” the council member said, “over time [encampments and other illegal street activity] come back into the space.”

    ReplyDelete
  19. How did Fremont’s homeless navigation center do in its first year?
    Fremont said center has 66% success rate at housing people who were previously homeless

    https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/02/01/fremonts-homeless-navigation-center-housed-31-people-first-year/

    ReplyDelete
  20. Letter to the editor, East Bay Times, 2/3/22

    Does state have will
    to solve homelessness?
    The definition of homeless is lack of a permanent home.

    “Housing First” is based on the concept that a homeless individual’s or family’s first and primary need is to obtain stable housing, and that other issues that may affect the household can and should be addressed once housing is obtained.

    According to most credible sources, the homeless population in California is about 160,000. The average rent for an apartment in California is $1,566 per month

    If all unhoused individuals rented an apartment, the cost would be about $3 billion annually, about 1% of California’s $286.4 billion budget.

    Here in the world’s fifth-largest economy, we could eliminate homelessness using 1% of the state budget. I think most people would support this, but does the Legislature have the political will to make it happen?

    Tom Butt
    Mayor, City of Richmond

    ReplyDelete
  21. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/a-cafe-where-no-one-is-homeless-one-solution-to-youth-on-the-streets/

    "A cafe where no one is homeless: one solution to youth on Seattle streets"

    12/11/2017

    “This cup of coffee is my right to sit down,” Ramey said. He taps the glass tabletop, pointing to a note under it: “This seating is for Café Allegro customers only.”

    Ramey stays most nights across the alley at ROOTS Young Adult Shelter. They turn the lights on at 7 a.m. By 8 a.m., Ramey is usually in a coffee shop.

    Homeless youth like Brad Ramey are often kicked out of cafes in the cold winter months when it’s not easy to be outside. Yet in the U District, many youth don’t choose to take shelter or access services.

    The Seattle Times’ Project Homeless is funded by BECU, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Campion Foundation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Raikes Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Seattle Mariners, Starbucks and the University of Washington. The Seattle Times maintains editorial control over Project Homeless content.
    · Find out more about Project Homeless
    Only 66 percent of emergency shelter beds for youth and young adults were occupied from October 2016 to October 2017, according to data from All Home, the coordinating agency for homeless services in King County. In contrast, 86 percent of shelter beds for single adults are full on any given night.*

    So staff and students at the University of Washington, alongside social workers in the U District, are experimenting with a new front door for homeless youth — a new kind of cafe.

    The advocates call their effort The Doorway Project, and they envision a place where patrons come in from the cold and pay what they can — even if that means nothing — for food and coffee. Then they can talk with social workers in a setting where they don’t feel like objects of pity. ...

    The UW’s Doorway Project is inspired by a cafe in Auckland, New Zealand. A Methodist church there had run a soup kitchen since 1885, but in the early 2000s, leadership realized it was doing little good.

    “Our soup kitchen hosted people for a few minutes at a time — people just gobbled down their meal and disappeared,” said the Rev. John MacDonald.

    In 2010, the church opened Merge Café, giving homeless people (“streeties” in Kiwi) a place to sit down, enjoy a meal and eat next to workers from the corporate office or real-estate company next door. Today, the cafe serves 3,500 meals a week.

    It’s been so successful that MacDonald believes soup kitchens should be shut down. “I have no doubt about that,” he said. “The quicker you can push people through your soup kitchen and get them on the street again the better. We’ve flipped that model.”

    The organizers of the Doorway Project in Seattle hope to take that central idea and apply it to the issue of stigma.

    https://www.lifewise.org.nz/our-services/enterprises/merge-cafe/

    ReplyDelete
  22. Still an issue.

    "Ballpark residents inundated by crime feel unsafe, unheard by Salt Lake City leaders"

    https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/05/10/ballpark-residents/

    ReplyDelete
  23. Downtown Salt Lake business owners frustrated with issues surrounding homelessness.

    https://kutv.com/news/local/downtown-salt-lake-business-owners-frustrated-with-issues-surrounding-homelessness

    6/9/2022

    ReplyDelete
  24. https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2022/06/14/pittsburgh-stop-the-violence-grant-fund-2022-application-gainey-programs-grants/stories/202206140084

    "Applications open for STOP the Violence grants"

    The funds will be granted to organizations that are “taking proactive steps with individuals who exhibit one or more risk factors for violent behavior, supporting those individuals to overcome the risk factors, avoid violence, and lead healthy and productive lives,” the city said.

    The goal is to include community organizations in the efforts to reduce violence in the city, according to the mayor’s administration.

    Applications can range from $15,000 to more than $90,000.

    “It’s time to address violence as a public health crisis that is treatable and preventable,” Mr. Gainey said in a statement. “We know that no single organization can effectively eliminate violence on its own, which is why my administration is focused on community partnerships. The STOP the Violence Community Investment Fund will allow us to support community organizations who are committed to a bold vision of ending violence and making Pittsburgh safe for everyone.”

    Some of the eligible programs include things like mentoring for youth or adults, family-strengthening activities, parent and guardian support, mental health counseling and programs that help support traumatized individuals, the city said.

    ReplyDelete
  25. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-program-helps-homeless-people-and-neighborhoods-at-the-same-time

    "Seattle program helps homeless people and neighborhoods at the same time"

    8/31/2022

    the Seattle Conservation Corps, a program that provides homeless people with wages, training and wraparound services for an entire year. ...

    The Parks Department manages the program, which seems tailor-made for Seattle today, where skyrocketing housing costs have spawned a street camping crisis, exacerbated by inadequate care for people struggling with mental health challenges, trauma and drugs. The Corps caters to a particularly marginalized group of people experiencing homelessness: those recovering from addiction or recently released from incarceration.

    Participants get help with housing, health care and education, all while being paid and building skills. They start out at the minimum wage of $17.27 an hour, can earn more and leave for jobs at the city and with construction unions. The Corps normally serves about 50 participants at a time.

    The program’s annual budget is currently $4.25 million, and the actual cost is much lower: 75% of the money comes from city departments that pay the Corps for work they would otherwise be paying someone else to do.

    ReplyDelete
  26. https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/10/04/low-threshold-day-spaces-will-open-in-roxbury-back-bay-part-of-bostons-effort-to-address-mass-and-cass/

    "Low-threshold day spaces will open in Roxbury, Back Bay, part of Boston’s effort to address Mass. and Cass"

    Two new low-threshold day spaces will open in Boston, aimed at providing access to harm reduction services, food, water, and bathrooms to unsheltered individuals struggling with addiction or mental health issues in the city.

    The move is part of the City of Boston’s ongoing efforts to address the scores of people drawn to the area of Mass. and Cass, which has emerged as the region’s epicenter of the addiction, homelessness, and mental health crises.

    ReplyDelete
  27. https://kutv.com/news/local/businesses-near-gail-miller-homeless-center-salt-lake-city-claim-parking-lot-used-as-a-toilet-homelessness

    ReplyDelete
  28. Adopt a Block program in SF. Each blok gets $100,000 in start up funds, from private sources including foundations.

    https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/adopt-a-block-project-18287703.php

    S.F.’s most troubled streets are getting transformed. Here’s how

    8/17/2023

    The wall bordering the Phoenix Hotel parking lot on San Francisco’s Larkin Street is a dismal sight: graffitied concrete topped by a rusty chain link fence. Throughout the day and night, people crouch on the concrete ledge while they sell or use drugs and stash contraband inside the chain link, said Isabel Manchester, managing partner of the Phoenix Hotel and attached Chambers restaurant.

    Now, the wall is undergoing a transformation, brought about by a new project called Adopt-A-Block, which is an initiative of another new project, the nonprofit Civic Joy Fund. ...

    Adopt-A-Block resembles programs to adopt schools and highways. Each of the five blocks adopted in the pilot program gets a $100,000 grant thanks to money donated by several local companies and groups: Gap Foundation, Levi Strauss & Co., tech entrepreneur Jack Dorsey’s #startsmall initiative and Visa. Local residents, business owners and community groups decide how to allocate the money.

    Some of the blocks are paired with a corporate or civic group (for Larkin Street it is Levi’s) that agrees to have its members or employees patronize local businesses and do volunteer work there, such as cleanups. ...

    Civic Joy Fund, which started this spring with and a vision of “investing in spaces, projects and people to build joyful civic engagement,” has four other initiatives in swing: hiring artists to create public murals; paying musicians to perform on commercial streets; monthly volunteer gatherings for tasks such as planting trees and removing graffiti; and weekly neighborhood cleanups followed by communal meals. ...

    Adopt-A-Block isn’t the only initiative seeking to revitalize San Francisco neighborhoods with cash infusions. Avenue Greenlight, a nonprofit with $3.7 million backing from San Francisco tech billionaire Chris Larsen, is giving $5,000 to $50,000 grants to merchant associations, community groups and nonprofits to pay for events such as concerts and toy drives, and upgrades such as lighting and public art.

    https://www.civicspacefoundation.org/

    https://www.avenuegreenlightsf.org/

    ReplyDelete
  29. The community hub created by Allegheny Health in Downtown Pittsburgh is minimally open.

    https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2023/09/07/smithfield-shelter-homeless-unhoused-downtown/stories/202309070042

    Editorial: Saving Smithfield
    Allegheny County needs a comprehensive plan to address homelessness


    Meanwhile, the Allegheny Health Network Community Outreach Hub beneath Mellon Square was busy serving unhoused people. Unfortunately, the facility — part of the Reaching Out On The Streets (ROOTS) collaboration with the city’s Office of Community Health and Safety — is only open for three hours per day on weekdays, and two hours on Saturdays.

    As the Editorial Board has reported, the city allocated $10 million in federal COVID relief funds to expand this program, and has reported the funds as spent. But not a dime has actually gone to ROOTS, leaving the Smithfield facility understaffed — and $10 million missing.

    A return pass after the AHN hub had closed revealed the human cost of sidelining this project: Several unhoused people sat or stood, in a kind of vigil, outside the doors.

    ReplyDelete
  30. https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/07/24/slc-businesses-near-homeless/

    ‘They are hurting’: SLC businesses near homeless shelters say they need financial support for persistent property crime
    Some have been dropped by insurers and are increasingly paying for repairs out of pocket.

    ReplyDelete