Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :








Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Project Re-Connect is Helping People

People are upset about the "homeless" situation in Pensacola.

Folks are camping in the woods, starting fires, doing drugs, panhandling, and engaging in antisocial activities that most find unsightly.

So folks want action.

The county has enacted an effective ordinance to prevent folks from creating distractions on the roadways and on road medians and islands in the county.  It was a well-written ordinance that allowed for sheriff's deputies to enforce it.  So the city duplicated it and enacted it there, too.  Word for word.

Now the county is giving homeless individuals one-way tickets out of our area.

It is called project reconnect.  

And it is working, and it is cost effective.  

We find folks who are homeless but who have families and/or support systems elsewhere, in their hometowns, or other places.  Once we confirm they have such support--we pay their one-way ticket back.  We have earmarked $30,000.00 for this program and have assisted DOZENS in getting back home.  And we have not even spent one third of the allocation in doing this.

Recently, commissioners were given this update from staff on this important initiative:

"So far, this program has relocated 38 homeless individuals to various location throughout the United States back to Family, Friends, and Supportive Housing.  We have spent $9,470.33 for those individuals out of the original $30,000 that the County allocated. In 2017 a study was completed and the average cost of long-term homelessness in Central Florida was $36,000 per year per person that was spent on inpatient hospitalizations, emergency room fees, incarceration and other systems associated with homelessness.  This means we have saved Escambia County taxpayers $1,368,000.00 a year by locating the 38 individuals back to other communities where they have a support system."

 Attached is the report and the “Real Change Project Reconnect Guidance” with additional information online at https://myescambia.com/american-rescue-plan/real-change.

See more, detailed information in the below graph:





3 comments:

Alice Hurst Neal said...

This is long overdue.

Anonymous said...

Love this.

Anonymous said...

Great, but not enough