Money going to advocates as city tackles homeless issue

When Scott Erwin and Jennifer Geist approached the Huntsville City Council at a recent meeting to get approval for funds to expand a local homeless advocate center, the sell wasn’t a hard one.

Asked about one recent horrific incident at a local camp, where many of the residents live in tents or simply in the elements with whatever cover they have, Geist didn’t mince words.

“I sometimes don’t want to describe the deplorable conditions,’’ said Geist, executive director of First Stop, which partnered with the city in the early 2000s to help address the plight of the homeless and try to help them achieve permanent housing and self-reliance. “We had that happen where one of our “clients”, as we call them, had woken up to a rat that was chewing on the side of her face.’’

One of the organization’s field Outreach Team responded to a call for help. One team member was also a licensed EMT.

“He was able to help with that wound,’’ Geist said. “But, we know of another individual that either has had an amputation, or is expected to, from a spider bite that didn’t get treatment in time so I think we all are in agreement that the conditions are very poor.

“Nobody should be living that way and we come at it from the perspective of we’re going to do everything we can to help those individuals be able to live in some other healthier, safer way and have a better quality of life.’’

As it stands, however, questions have arisen regarding the homeless community as it rises with the city’s current population boom.

With some of the camps being closed – two have been shut down and a large one on the northside of Derrick Street is designated for disbandment by the end of the month – perhaps the lingering question is this: what will the City do with the street-dwelling population?

Erwin, the City’s Community Development Director, said plans are and have been in place for the city to deal with the increasing homeless numbers.

He has said 11 other camps around the city won’t be closed as advocacy groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and Alabama Arise monitor such situations to get proper responses to why under the threat of legal action, according to recent reports.

Discussions regarding a plan to deal with the homeless, he said, have been ongoing.

“That’s what we’ve been doing the last couple of years,’’ he said. “Providing the services and getting partner organizations is key – it can’t just be a city government office. So there are 15 or 20 different organizations in Huntsville.

“Our strategy and our plan through policy is we’re supporting and funding these organizations that deliver these services, then holding them accountable (with monthly reports).’’

After a year-and-a-half of seeking an environmental assessment response from the Department of Economic and Community Affairs (DECA), Erwin and his team were able to ask the City Council to release funds initially earmarked for COVID-19 relief. Along with federal funds, additional money was requested for allocation to expand First Stop’s facility to help centralize where individual cases can be assessed for meals, medical treatment and meeting with other agencies like Wellstone and Huntsville Hospital.

Erwin told the council his hope was for the city to be “a model’’ for others to deal with the homeless population. The request was approved with no dissent.

“By investing in facilities like First Stop and investing in other organizations – we realize that case management and having a standard of how case management is delivered we do that by providing our resource of funding and our federal resources and we make sure case management is identified, trained and delivered properly,’’ Erwin later told the Business Journal. 

“We get monthly reports from those organizations and entities of what has occurred – how many (people) have been placed in permanent housing, how many have been placed in shelters, how many have gotten their benefits. So looking at the data and being deliberate in how we’ve allocated our funding, that’s what we mean by doing it the right way and being a model for other communities.’’

As Erwin said, “Invest wisely and expect results.’’

“First Stop off is one of our strong partners in our plan to help and provide services to the unsheltered population,’’ Erwin said. “What we’re doing now is trying to give them something on the physical building side.’’

Among other agencies involved include Catholic Center of Concern, Community Action Partnership, Family Services Center, Harris Home for Children, and the North Alabama Coalition for the Homeless.

The Salvation Army and Downtown Rescue Mission offer shelter. Those stay crowded, but Erwin said there are available beds the city and partners offer to those who haven’t been banned for prior offenses.

“We have nightly available space,’’ he said. “Given any available night right now there are 100 beds in Huntsville for those who want to get off the street.’’

Rules, however, are in place such as “no cell phones’’ that some people don’t want to follow.

But, Erwin stresses, “there are available resources out there’’ and adds Huntsville is tip of the spear for leading Continuation of Care for Madison, Morgan and Limestone counties.

Part of the city’s strategy in dealing with the homeless involves:

• Funding for field and office case work, such as First Stop does, to identify needs such as mental or physical health and also for shelter facilities
• Helping “clients’’ find ways to self-sufficiency, either through an agency or reconnecting with family
• Helping facilities link “clients’’ to proper agencies to receive the aid they might qualify for
• Managing the existing camps as much as possible through funding outside agencies

The latter is not always easy. The so-called North Derrick Street Camp that is designated to be shut down has been plagued by drugs and violence, including stabbings and an arrest related to a murder.

But closing camps is not the end-all conclusion. And according to Erwin, while those involved try to track “clients’’ it’s not easy to say where those who are displaced from one site end up. 

“There are a lot of answers,’’ Erwin said. “There’s all the way to disappearing and moving on to another cities to getting permanent housing to reconciling with family members to, likely being in other camps.’’

While it’s not his area of concern, Erwin did offer a take on the economic impact of a growing homeless population.

Cover image provided by First Stop.