Opportunities on homelessness

Sarasota Herald Tribune [Sarasota, Fla] 03 Feb 2013: A.18.

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How could recalcitrant people be enticed, or required, to obtain such care? - Are facilities that offer
treatment with the support of public funds adequately and efficiently providing services? - Can service
providers become more collaborative with public and private financial support, combined with training?
- How can previous community-based efforts to tackle homelessness be revived and used to shape the
current debate? - What additional facilities and services are necessary, and would be most effective, in
the city of Sarasota and countywide?

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Sarasota city and county can make progress together

Homelessness is Subject A -- literally and figuratively -- on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting between
the Sarasota city and county commissions.
Four items are on tap, and all are important. Yet none is more vital than the need for continuing
discussions about the potential for collaboration and problem-solving.
City Manager Tom Barwin has recently met with a work group -- including private-sector and
government leaders -- to discuss how Sarasota can tackle the personal and public problems associated
with chronically homeless people congregating on streets, in parks and on business properties.
Among the early outcomes of the work-group sessions, according to city-county documents, is
Barwin's plan to seek money from a local foundation in order to hire one full-time and two part-time
caseworkers.
Those workers would help not only chronically homeless people but the police officers who regularly
encounter them. This is an excellent idea: People who are homeless frequently require help navigating
the social-service "system" or need guidance in order to accept services and treatment; police officers
could use the assistance from social-services experts, so they can focus on policing and protecting the
public.
A timely opportunity

Here is a timely opportunity for philanthropists to partner with local government to test the value of
funding caseworkers, with the hope of improving the lives of individuals, giving police the tools they
need to effectively deal with homeless people and benefiting city neighborhoods and business districts.
We hope funding for this project comes to fruition. (In a similar example of private-sector assistance
in public issues, the Gulf Coast Community Foundation recently funded, to its credit, caseworkers
hired by the YMCA to aid homeless schoolchildren in Sarasota County.)
A positive response by the County Commission to the city of Sarasota's initiatives would be welcome.
Homelessness, in its many forms, is a problem countywide. The quality of cities is a huge factor in the
quality of the county; furthermore, city residents pay county taxes.
Sarasota County has, in fact, funded treatment and housing. But other opportunities might also come
to light as a result of open discussions between city and county governments, extending to the private
sector.
For instance, since many chronically homeless people are arrested and incarcerated would it make
sense to seek private dollars to help local governments hire caseworkers who could be assigned to the
county jail? In light of the costs of arrests, incarcerations and courts, efforts to keep homeless people
out of jail and off the streets could be cost-effective.
Other questions
Other questions to examine:
- How could mental-health and substance-abuse services be made more accessible? How could
recalcitrant people be enticed, or required, to obtain such care?
- Are facilities that offer treatment with the support of public funds adequately and efficiently
providing services?
- Can service providers become more collaborative with public and private financial support, combined
with training?
- How can previous community-based efforts to tackle homelessness be revived and used to shape the
current debate?
- What additional facilities and services are necessary, and would be most effective, in the city of
Sarasota and countywide?

One of the challenges facing the city and county commissioners is to ask and answer these questions
in an order that results in a long-term strategy -- while also producing the demonstrable, short-term
gains necessary to boost public and private confidence in the community's ability to make progress.
Performing that balancing act is easier said than done, and the community's failure to gain momentum
is frustrating. But there will be no progress without persistence, collaboration and commitments to act.
Word count: 601
Copyright Halifax Media Group Feb 3, 2013

Indexing (details)
Cite
Subject
Homeless people;
Cities;
Counties
Location
Sarasota County Florida
Title
Opportunities on homelessness
Publication title
Sarasota Herald Tribune
First page
A.18
Publication year
2013
Publication date
Feb 3, 2013
Year
2013
Section
A
Publisher
Halifax Media Group
Place of publication

Sarasota, Fla.
Country of publication
United States
Publication subject
General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type
Newspapers
Language of publication
English
Document type
News
ProQuest document ID
1283948482
Document URL
http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/1283948482?accountid=13631
Copyright
Copyright Halifax Media Group Feb 3, 2013
Last updated
2013-02-06
Database
ProQuest Newsstand