MediaUpdate

​By Cleveland Tinker 
  
Goal is to avoid putting people in jail when treatment is a better option

Local efforts to address mental illness issues in the criminal justice system will be the focus of discussion at a town hall meeting next week.

The May 16 town hall meeting will feature officials from Stepping Up Alachua County, part of a national initiative to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jails.

The meeting is set for 8:30-10 a.m. in the Hall of Heroes at Gainesville Police Department, 545 NW Eighth Ave.

“This is a community that has a very long history of moving people from the criminal justice system to treatment,” said Maggie Labarta, president and CEO of Meridian Behavioral Healthcare.

Labarta said Stepping Up Alachua County and the partnerships it has formed with the law enforcement and mental health communities show “just how much we are committed” to this issue.

“The town hall meeting will be a great place for people to learn about just how far we’ve come and about how far we still have to go,” Labarta said.

Government and other agencies and organizations in Alachua County are doing a variety of things to address how the Alachua County Jail and law enforcement officials deal with the mentally ill, said Stuart Wegener, diversion resource coordinator for Alachua County Court Services.

For instance, 70% of the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office staff has received 40 hours of crisis intervention and mental health first-aid training. And teams made up of Gainesville Police Department officers and mental health clinicians from Meridian Behavioral Healthcare have been created, Wegener said.

Both are pre-arrest diversion programs that aim to defuse troublesome situations to keep people from going to jail and to guide them to resources.

Also, the development Alachua County’s Drug Court in 1994, Mental Health Court in 2002 and Veterans Treatment Court in 2013 are other programs county officials have at their disposal to help people with mental illness get needed help.

In 2005, local officials formed the Mental Illness Work Group to develop a comprehensive plan for addressing the needs of the mentally ill who come in contact with the criminal justice system, and the increasing impact they have on the jail, courts and treatment system.

In 2007, the county applied for and received a three-year, $1.2 million Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Reinvestment Grant from the Florida Department of Children and Families that was matched with $1.2 million from the county. The grant programs began in 2008 with the creation of the Forensic Diversion Team that provides services that include assessment, case management and treatment.

There were 155 clients involved with services offered by the Forensic Diversion Team at the end of 2018, and data provided by Wegener show that 19.5%, or 30 of 155 clients, received outreach and case management while in jail, 5.5%, or eight of 155, received competency restoration services in jail and 75%, or 117 of 155, received case management services in the community, with 46%, or 72 of 155, receiving treatment services through group and individual sessions.

Data in a recent successful grant application for another three-year, $1.5 million grant from DCF shows the number of inmates experiencing a serious mental health crisis while in jail decreased between 2014 and 2018, from 309 to 205.

Wegener said Alachua and Bradford counties will provide slightly more funds to match the recent grant awarded by DCF.

“Collaboration is necessary, in part, because of the multiple number of agencies which touch a person as they go through the criminal justice system,” Wegener said. “Communication is a high priority, essential even. There are scarce public funds and we aim to maximize our use of them and obtain help for the greatest number of people who need it.”

That help includes finding people with mental health issues somewhere to stay when they are released from jail and the case management services they need to stay out of jail, Wegener said.

Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell said much is being done to address the issue locally, but a lot more still needs to be done, especially on the housing front.

“One of the main areas we need to do better with is transition assistance, making sure they have someone to live with when they get out of the system,” Darnell said. “They need to have someone serve as a mentor to guide them to the resources and services they need to be successful in the community. People with mental illness need mentors they can count on.”

​Providing support for Grace Marketplace, and other efforts to connect people who are homeless with needed services and get them into housing, is a far better investment than continuing to sink money into Dignity Village.

Cheer: Alachua County and city of Gainesville commissioners, for finally approving a plan to close the Dignity Village tent encampment.

A consultant’s report issued nearly three years ago identified health and safety hazards in Dignity Village, calling it “a catastrophe” that was “putting lives at risk and consuming considerable resources in a way that is not ending homelessness.” Yet commissioners delayed taking action, even after officials at the neighboring Grace Marketplace one-stop homeless center proposed a plan to help the people living in the encampment move into housing.

On Monday, commissioners unanimously agreed to that very plan. New people will no longer be allowed to move into Dignity Village starting Oct. 1, with the site being closed Jan. 1. Commissioners also agreed to negotiate a five-year contract with Grace.

​By Sarah Nelson 
  
Developers at Celebration Pointe have offered their location to house the proposed Alachua County event center.

The shopping area is the newest addition to the list of locations the Gainesville and Alachua County commissions are looking at as possible hosts for the multi-purpose center.

Other possibilities include the Cabot/Koppers Superfund site off North Main Street, two sites north of Waldo Road and the Martin Luther King Jr. Multipurpose Center on Northeast Eighth Avenue.

The center is expected to hold 3,000 people and include an indoor track, eight basketball courts and 1,000 parking spots.

A final budget has not been established.

Jonathan Paul, chairman of the development district and Celebration Pointe planner, told county commissioners Tuesday that the retail hub is the perfect place to hold the 92,000-square-foot event center.

“We designed the entire project to hold big events,” he said, pointing out the proximity to I-75 and the dozens of hotels and restaurants within a two-mile radius.

Commissioners agreed to consider Celebration Pointe, depending on how well it fares in a consulting report.

The other sites were analyzed by Utah consulting firm Victus Advisors, with the results released in November. Though Cabot/Koppers scored the highest, none of the locations were deemed as favorable to host the center.

The report began after the county decided that the original intended site, a property near the Leveda Brown Environmental Park Transfer Station, was unsuitable because of wetlands.

Also discussed Tuesday, the tax collector and Visit Gainesville are wanting Airbnb owners to start collecting the Tourist Development Tax.

Alachua County has 596 short-term vacation rentals, such as Airbnbs. About 95 percent of them are not collecting the 5 percent tax meant to be paid by visitors.

Both Visit Gainesville and the Tax Collector’s Office are wanting hosts to begin sending funds raised from the tax to the county before the start of football season.

By August, the two organizations will launch a campaign for hosts to register to collect the tourist taxes and will send letters to each host not in compliance with information about how to set up an account. For those who refuse, a follow-up letter will be sent, and eventually will be visited by tax-collection officials.

​By Andrew Caplan

The closure is part of a larger transition plan that focuses on finding people housing and moving people into Grace Marketplace.

Homeless people that eye Dignity Village as a safe haven with access to free food and health services will soon need to find somewhere else to go. But, for some, their trip may not be too far.

Alachua County and Gainesville commissioners unanimously agreed Monday to begin closing down Dignity Village, a homeless encampment that has steadily grown over the years in northeast Gainesville.

The closure, however, is part of a larger transition plan that focuses on finding people housing and moving people into Grace Marketplace, a homeless shelter separated from the encampment by a mere chain link fence.

Grace Marketplace serves about 115 homeless people daily and provides bedding, showers, food and health services. The crowd of tents lining the shelter’s fence is referred to as Dignity Village and holds another 200 people who use Grace’s services, too.

The city and county are responsible for those inside the fence of Grace and fund the shelter’s operation, though it’s run by the Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry (ACCHH). Officials, however, have struggled over the years to maintain Dignity Village, which has continued to grow in size.

The shelter serves about 40% of the county’s homeless population and the complex is much larger than other local organizations that do similar work. It costs about $3 million to operate annually, more than half of which comes from the Gainesville and Alachua County governments. An estimated $1 million comes from in-kind donations throughout the year.

The plan approved Monday will stop new people from setting up camp at Dignity Village effective Oct. 1. People there will be given a 90-day notice of the change and most will be moved into Grace’s fence where they will receive assistance to move into apartments. Some will be given bus tickets to go live with their friends and family.

Commissioners hope to officially close down Dignity Village by Jan. 1, 2020.

“There’s no way to control access to the property as it exists right now,” said Jon DeCarmine, executive director of Grace. “It is a 10-acre parcel around the Grace campus. So as people are coming and going, and even if somebody might take down a tent and move out tonight, there might be somebody there tomorrow.”

To start the plan, city and county government will need to cough up some additional funds, at least initially, but expect to save more than $340,000 over five years compared to the status quo.

Commissioners also eyed the possibility of purchasing two buildings that would essentially serve as a government-run apartment complex for homeless people. The Gainesville Housing Authority also would provide some funding and help people get vouchers to cover some of the living costs.

Commissioners looked at three potential sites that would provide between 80 to 100 rooms for homeless people, but would not say where the sites were in fear of sparking public backlash and concern.

Some commissioners suggested one property, coined “Site 1,” as a favorite. That property would bring a price tag of $3.7 million. The site would be furnished with a “motel room set-up” with a bed, dresser and desk but not a TV. The site had bus route access and nearby grocery stores, schools and medical facilities.

County Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler suggested that the county consider selling its administration building — something already being considered — and repurposing it for public housing.

“We need to think ahead and creatively at the same time, she said.

The city also agreed to negotiate a five-year contract with ACCHH, while the county agreed to incrementally increase its funding over three years. The organizations have typically handled negotiations on a annual basis, which brought challenges for the coalition in terms of fundraising, budgeting and future planning.

The latest homeless count showed there were 773 homeless people countywide, most of whom are unsheltered.

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