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| So far as I've been told, there were no hypothermia deaths during the recent area cold weather event... |
So I asked questions about what our plan was. I blogged about it too. And I spoke with folks intimately familiar with the homeless community as well as county staff at EOC.
Obviously--we are not Buffalo, New York, where they saw an immense blizzard and snowstorm that covered their city with up to four feet of snow and where three dozen + of their citizens perished due to that historic cold weather event. But we were going to be below freezing for multiple days in Escambia County-- so I was concerned. I wasn't alone in my concern(s).
The county did not open any of our facilities for cold weather shelters.
Nor did we pay any group or entity any tax dollars to shelter folks from the cold.
We had neither a contract nor an MOU/MOA with any entity to house citizens from the cold--but rather a verbal agreement with existing shelters (Waterfront Rescue Mission and REAP Lodge/Max Well Respite Center) to house those who needed sheltering from the storm as the temperatures dipped below 40 degrees.
Having now spoken to several individuals who were out and about during the cold weather event, I'm told that, with a few small exceptions (one couple was turned away as they had been previously banned. And they were subsequently housed at a hotel for three days at someone else's expense. A woman and her two children were turned away from one shelter the day prior to the cold weather event as the temperature had not dropped enough to trigger the sheltering protocols--but subsequently admitted to the shelter the next day when it was below 40 degrees) the plan worked as envisioned. So far as I've been told--no citizens have perished from hypothermia in this last cold snap.
According to an individual with intimate, firsthand knowledge; "We did outreach and drove around checking on homeless populations and offered rides. Most declined stating that they did not want to go to a shelter due to the need to look after their belongings that would have been left behind. At the Max Well Center we ended up housing 8 additional women and two children above the folks aready there, and at Waterfront [rescue mission] we never got to the capacity of 200 --we were at about 150 citizens throughout tht event."
I'm glad we had an action plan, and thankful that no citizens perished. I'm of the understanding that the protocol will be refined going forward to eliminate any snafus--but that also most who were a part of the entire evolution (on the ground, in the know) feel it went about as well as could be expected.
4 comments:
Thank you so much for publicly responding to my public records request so that everybody can easily see the information, Commissioner Bergosh. I'll provide that request here and then some follow-up thoughts on the County partnering with REAP and its subcontractors in the future.
Melissa Pino Tue, Dec 27, 2022 at 2:21 PM
To: Jeff Bergosh
Cc: Travis Tompkins , Michael Kimberl , Melissa Pino
cc: Travis Tompkins, Michael Kimberl
re: PRR for the contract and/or agreement between the County and REAP on the cold weather shelters
Dear Commissioner Bergosh,
Citizen advocates were so grateful to you for bringing to wider public attention the need for warming shelters for anyone, including homeless, to have a safe place to stay during the dangerous and record-breaking freezes we just experienced here. Thank you to you, Travis Tompkins, and everyone at the County who worked towards that goal.
When I saw, however, that the County was entrusting the process in part to REAP, my heart sank, as for good reasons I have zero confidence in that agency--as I have stated publicly and in email many times.
It wasn't surprising to me to hear that REAP once again failed on the levels of obligation, empathy, and ethics by turning away a couple in need. (Why Laura Kennedy is still in charge of a vulnerable population, when Vince Whibbs himself stated in a letter that she physically assaulted a volunteer, is beyond me.) Nor was it surprising that the PPD continued in its brazen hostility towards homeless advocates by trespassing Michael Kimberl off the property simply for being there to try to make sure the couple was housed for the night. (Which he did in fact do, off a private donation.)
Nor is the below admission of selectivity Laura Kennedy made on Ann Hill's public Facebook page today surprising, as the best that can be said for her is that she is at least candid about her cruelty, and prideful of her neglect, ineptitude, and capricious "procedure" and "policy" decisions:
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Ann Hill
5d ·
NO ROOM AT THE INN. I'm sorry to hear Michael Kimberl was cited for trespassing at the REAP Max-Well Respite Center while trying to find shelter for a homeless couple. I also heard that the REAP Center is releasing residents, including children, first thing in the morning during this freeze. I hope that isn't true. It's 24 degrees outside right now.
Laura Kennedy
In collaboration with waterfront mission, Reap Maxwell Center made sure that women , women with children and men with children safety and well being were our first priority. We ensured that everyone who stayed the night was fed breakfast and a complimentary taxi was provided back to the warming station at Waterfront Mission.
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**Could I please be provided with any contract and/or agreement between the County and REAP or any agent and/or subcontractor of REAP that stipulates what services they agreed to provide per sheltering during the freezes?
I agree with Ann--the Bay Center really should have been open, not just for the unhoused but for *any* scenario in which people needed a warm place to shelter. It's my understanding that the Red Cross is stretched beyond their capability right now. If this is correct, then unfortunately it would seem the County needs to start developing their own emergency protocols for standing up emergency centers. Sadly, as any citizen advocate can tell you, none of the current agencies can be relied upon to service the extent of need we currently have in our community. Even more sad, it will probably get worse in the coming year, between FPL raising their rates again and everything that will result from the home insurance debacle.
Thank you again for everyone at the County who cared enough about our vulnerable populations to try to impact this--I have no doubt it saved lives.
Best wishes,
Mel
(con.) I'd really like to underline that I have no doubt that a commissioner's pressure to get a system hammered down in the nick of time provided Mr. Tompkins with the leadership support he needed to cobble together a group effort that saved lives and spared a lot of suffering.
But it seems a strange kind of celebration when it included the Maxwell Center's manager, Laura Kennedy, calling the PPD to have Michael Kimberl trespassed off the property because she refused to allow a couple entry completely renegade from the no-barrier process that seems to have been everyone else's understanding. We'll never know whether there were more people denied entry, of course; she nor anyone at REAP has been held accountable as to why the doors were locked with nobody there to answer them, and the phone number pasted to the door a dead letter; and nobody is questioning why on God's green earth they removed people in the morning to head to the Waterfront Mission to begin with.
Again, THANK YOU FOR THE LIVES SAVED! I don't want that part of the message to get lost. But it isn't surprising to me that there was no contract, given how on-the-fly everything was done. And in addition, no contract, no liability and no accountability, right? It's just a bunch of well-meaning folks coming together to do what they can AND MAKE THE CHOICES THEY SEE FIT.
Waterfront Mission is not funded by federal tax dollars, because they can't be, as they don't qualify...their non-emergency operations force people to testify and attend service in order to obtain a bed. (It is their every right to do this, and they make no bones about it--that's why it's called a "Mission.")
REAP is still under audit, employs as a manager of the Maxwell Center a woman that Vince Whibbs admitted in writing assaulted a volunteer, and employs as another manager Kevin Eason, who had a warrant out for assault last fall along with a deputy report that he physically assaulted a previously homeless woman in the REAP system, trying to keep her from getting out of his car while pulling her braids hard enough to bloody her scalp. Gee, she eventually dropped the charges. All good!
The BCC hasn't even funded REAP in any capacity that I'm aware of. Why on earth would the County entrust private agencies that it has no official partnerships with--no contracts, no monies exchanges--to do a handshake deal in an emergency?
YEAH! for the fact that *something* was put together at the last minute to make sure that there was somewhere to go. Hopefully this scenario provided some lessons on how to do things and some on how not to. Because it seems that local governments can count on the Red Cross less and less (although I have zero idea if the Red Cross was actually asked for assistance), the County is going to have to fill the need with *professional*, compliant, and well-regulated and overseen centers. There were homeless that stated they would have gone to the Bay Center (many in that population have had bad experiences at Maxwell or are uncomfortable with the proselytizing at Waterfront--and that is understandable). There was also a huge problem with pets not being allowed. Allowed in a hurricane, but not a days-long deep freeze? If the Bay Center was too big/expensive per the perceived need (of course, how would we know, without opening it), then surely there are other County-owned properties that could have provided shelter with better advertising much farther in advance.
Sorry to be a party pooper, because I really am very grateful that there was anything put in place at all--sadly, that's a *huge* improvement in and of itself. But any system that relies on Michael Kimberl's network of volunteers and private donors to handle the people that an agency like REAP can choose to reject isn't quite up to where we need to be with a caring and competent plan in the future.
No Deaths reported in the county from Hypothermia is the outcome I prayed for, and thankfully it is the outcome we realized. Perfection in the process? Not by a longshot but we will definitely improve it going forward and thankfully we won't be having to use this sort of protocol all that frequently, hopefully.
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