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."
This is long overdue.
ReplyDeleteLove this.
ReplyDeleteGreat, but not enough
ReplyDelete