Minutes from the August 16, 2017 meeting

Treasure Coast Homeless Council - Louise Hubbard

Chairman Matthews asked Ms. Hubbard to speak about what kind of funds are being put into the city of Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County.

Ms. Hubbard provided a hand out showing funding for Fort Pierce.  Ms. Hubbard said the data provided shows that between $300,000 and $400,000 annually comes directly to the City of Fort Pierce residents through the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council.

Ms. Hubbard explained that the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council pays for shelter plus care and fair market rental housing in Fort Pierce, for people who are Fort Pierce residents or are picked up in Fort Pierce, who are subsequently chronically homeless. She also stated New Horizons does ride-a longs and provides monthly gratis pro bono services to the clients that are Fort Pierce residents, who have been picked up off the street, who are severely mentally ill, severely disabled and chronically homeless. Ms. Hubbard stated the agency also does rapid-rehousing, which is for an individual they find, who is not suitable for shelter plus care because they don't have a long term disability. Ms. Hubbard explained that the homeless are allowed to stay in fair market housing until the landlord throws them out.

Ms. Hubbard explained the Salvation Army jail diversion program location, where volunteers would do outreach to the homeless, was turned down by the City Commission.

Ms. Hubbard explained the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council is funded annually and the point and time count for homeless is done with a standard survey by actually interviewing the homeless in the streets, woods and parks.

Graceway Village - Cathie Mouring, Executive Director

Cathie Mouring, Executive Director of Graceway Village, explained they have different numbers, a difference experience and a different focus on the homeless.  Ms. Mouring stated Graceway Village has been independent since January 2016 and currently runs Hope's Closet for Children, clothing boutique for children in crisis, and Matthew's Cafe, a Sunday night food kitchen, which served 10,000 meals this year. She said they are just starting the capital campaign to build a transitional living facility for homeless families and on November 3, 2017 they are having a town hall meeting to share more details on the community issue. 

Ms. Mouring stated there were 708 registered homeless children in 2016 in the St. Lucie County Public schools and 944  registered homeless children in June 2017.  She went on to say that this is a conservative number because most parents will not register there child as homeless because they are afraid the children will be taken from them. 

Ms. Mouring explained that a transitional facility works the homeless very hard because the whole point is to grow them to self sufficiency and a healthy family unit.  She stated it is a much longer process and a narrower window because not everyone is vetted for the program. Ms. Mouring said the program is 18 - 24 months and houses 20 families and 12 rooms are reserved for St. Lucie County.

Ms. Hubbard, from the Treasure Coast Homeless Council, answered the question on how it is determined that a child is homeless.  She explained the categories of homeless and she stated that the parent has to indicate they are currently in domicile: Category 1 homeless is sharing a residence with another and Category 2 homeless is literally homeless, living on the street or in a camp setting.

Salvation Army - Clyde Preston, Regional Resource Development Director

Clyde Preston provided the back drop on the Salvation Army.  He explained that the Salvation Army has focused on homeless since day one and they shelter over 30 million people a year throughout the United States. Mr. Preston went on to say the Salvation Army does wrap around case management counseling, where people follow the homeless person through the system, even when they get into stable housing, by encouraging them to make a life for themselves. 

Mr. Preston stated the government has taken away funding for transitional housing and they are moving to rapid re-housing.  Mr. Preston stated the data shows that if you can get a homeless person into their own apartment or home, support them enough that they don't have to go back into the woods in two days, they start to begin to catch on to that rebuilding of hope, dignity and purpose.  Mr. Preston said the Salvation Army loves everybody without discrimination, whether it is one chance, ten chances or a million chances, as long as you are alive the Salvation Army is going to love you and help you. 

Mr. Preston said the Salvation Army was approached to be the lead agency for the jail diversion program because they were the registered agency to receive funds.  Mr. Preston was able to reinforce to the City of Fort Pierce Commissioners that the Salvation Army jail diversion program is not a walk in shelter and that individuals have to be brought in through one of three agencies: law enforcement, veterans or the American Legion. 

Mr. Preston explained Fort Pierce Housing Authority offered a shelter for the jail diversion program and they are ready to start.  He said they have thirty different partner collaborations set up.  Mr. Preston said once the homeless are identified they are given a choice.  If they fall off the wagon and come back we will take them back 10 times because one of those times they are going to get to know us and they are finally going to say, let me go to the next step, which is continuum care.

Mr. Preston explained, Bill Turney, Philanthropist, has a passion for veterans and he wanted to build a house for the veterans on his property but it was not allowed so he gifted the first $250,000 as a matching fund for the jail diversion shelter.  Mr. Preston stated they are waiting on final approval and he needs additional funding, because the Salvation Army requires him to have a sustainable budget in place so the program doesn't start and stop and fall apart.  Mr. Preston explained the Salvation Army is a jail diversion/veterans intervention shelter, housing 24 people at a time, starting with single men on a voluntary basis, brought in by police or other agencies they work with, to be housed for approximately 30 days or longer.

Mr. Preston explained that law enforcement put together an intake form, to be used for interviewing, wherever the people are confronted. He said that once they fill out the form they are told that they are eligible to not to have to be arrested, and then they are asked if they would like to go to the shelter.  Mr. Preston stated they will take them if they are high on drugs and alcohol because they have a detox set up when they come in.  He said they cannot be a hard criminal or it cannot be a major crime that was committed, only a misdemeanor or nuisance charge. Mr. Preston said this keeps a safe population and breaks the repetitive cycle of arrest, jail, get out.

Mr. Turney, Philanthropist, stated the facility in Fort Pierce is named "Adam's Place" and it is named for his son who is a recovering drug and alcohol abuser.  Mr. Turney said his son had to hit bottom before he ever managed to start back up hill and that occurred over and over again. 

Mr. Preston said he is looking for a token donation from the city of Ft. Pierce for the shelter they can be built upon.

In the Image of Christ - Hazel Hoylman

Hazel Hoylman, Founder and Director of In the Image of Christ, stated they have been housing the chronic homeless off and on for the last 8 years.  She said it started with Emergency Management asking her for a weather shelter. Ms. Hoylman said she would get in her car with one of her workers and try to find homeless people when it was cold outside to bring them into the shelter.  She said she did not realize that by 4 PM or 5 PM the homeless had already found a place to go because they needed to be safe. Ms. Hoylman stated she realized that most people do not want to be homeless, whatever choices they have made in life, have gotten them consequences and some of them don't know how to come back out again. Ms. Hoylman explained for the past 4-5 years she has a shelter on Friday, Saturday and Sunday where the homeless come in at 5 PM, have a hot meal and a shower and at 7 AM the next morning they go back out again. She went on to say that they do not get brought in when they are sloppy drunk because it is a liability and they have had the Fort Police department, the Sheriff's department and the Port St. Lucie police department bring people to her shelter.

Ms. Hoylman explained for the past 4 years, In the Image of Christ, has been running the Hands Up program.  She stated the space is big enough to house 9 families out of necessity.  Ms. Hoylman said they are not partnering with other agencies and community services may call her to house a family up to 90 days. She said they connect the families with  Mustard Seed, New Horizon, Help Me Grow Program and other agencies.  Ms. Holyman said they also house veterans.  Ms. Holyman said the weather shelter is to relieve what is going on downtown.  Ms. Hoylman said this is all done without any funding and they are looking at hiring 2 staff members but funding is needed to continue the service to help the homeless people.  She also said it is hard enough to get the homeless in the door but if you say the wrong thing they are walking out the door again. Ms. Hoylman said In the Image of Christ has two locations: 707 N. 7th Street and a building on Avenue G and they have an agreement with Andrea at the Fort Pierce Housing Authority for emergency housing.