Milton leads blunt questioning on homelessness issues

(This is the second part of a two part article on the Branson Board of Alderman’s study session on homelessness and panhandling issues.)

“We started in 2008 and had no idea the extend of the problems because for the most part it’s been pretty much hidden until panhandling came to Branson and it became much more noticeable,” Bryan Stallings of Elevate Branson told the Board of Aldermen.

“In my opinion, we’ve had the perfect storm here since the mid-90s. We had low and seasonal wages for years, very much service-industry jobs, no public transportation, and a lack of affordable housing.”

He said before COVID-19, Elevate was asking businesses to raise their pay to a living wage of just over $11. He said after COVID-19, the living wage is now just over $15.

He addressed the lack of affordable housing in the Branson city limits, but said it’s connected to transportation.

“One of the challenges as we all know is affordable housing, and as a developer, coming in and building affordable housing doesn’t make any sense,” Stallings said. “As a city, maybe it means waiving some impact fees or permit processes. Public/private partnerships like we’re doing with Elevate Community. I just think we need to think out of the box.”

He noted because of the lack of public transportation, affordable housing even five miles outside of Branson isn’t feasible for those who really need it.

Stallings said money can’t solve everything, noting a recent study said 1 in 5 Americans is receiving some kind of government assistance, such as food stamps, SSI, or SSDI.

“They’ve spent trillions of dollars on poverty since the 1950 and it hasn’t changed much,” Stallings said.

He said removing barriers which can keep someone in poverty, such as helping them get necessary legal documents, giving them a place to shower and prepare for a job, clean clothing for work and job interviews, and learn work skills, it can equip men and women “to climb the economic ladder.”

He also said a huge barrier is access to physical and mental health services.

“It’s really difficult for someone who is low-income to navigate federal systems,” Stallings said.

He said relationships, getting “in the trenches and side-by-side with them to teach them skills they may never have learned.” He said the 1970s showed “a downfall of the family” with fathers who disappeared from kid’s lives and with working moms, many latch-key kids did not learn skills like how to find a job.

Stallings addressed the panhandling problems in the city.

“Unless we cut off the money flow to panhandling, it will never go away,” Stallings said. “We’ve got to cut off the money flow. Give-and-go items like food and clothing does not work because it robs people of their self-worth and dignity, resulting in more dependency and in many cases a sense of entitlement.”

Stallings said in reality a situation like this is not the world economy.

He told the story of a woman who came into Elevate asking for toiletry items, and when told she had to work for them, she said she didn’t want to work for it and left.

Stallings said in the past most solutions were reactive, and a proactive “planning and prevent” plan is necessary.

“Branson is at a tipping point,” Stallings said. “If you see more and more individuals on the corners tourists may not want to come. If tourists don’t want to come, we’ll see more people in our community struggling. It could result in a struggle for our community.”

Marietta Hagan of CoxHealth, who is the chair of the Ozarks Wellness Network and is Substance Use Initiative Project Coordinator, addressed substance use issues.

“We’re never going to make headway on prevention of substance use issues if we don’t address social determinants like health drive people to substances to self-medicate or cope,” Hagan said.

She said those who experience homelessness with substance abuse issues “often experience situations which significantly complicate” their lives.

“If someone is in crisis, if someone is desperately seeking housing, it’s much more difficult if they have a felony on their record,” Hagan said. 

Mayor Larry Milton brought up a number of questions and issues to the speakers.

He suggested the city put up large signs in areas frequented by panhandlers who don’t want help getting off the streets, asking citizens to not give to the panhandlers directly, but give to local charitable groups to help the homeless.

“If the panhandlers stopped receiving the number of contributions they received, they could move on,” Milton said. “This would be the goal.”

Milton asked what would happen if he went to the streets and talked to the panhandlers directly about their needs. 

Lela Cook of Burrell Behavioral Health told the Mayor he would likely receive a variety of responses, from people genuinely wanting help to others who just want to get money from panhandling.

Police Chief Jeff Matthews gave the mayor three examples of times he had the one-on-one experiences the mayor is seeking. The first time, a guy’s girlfriend took off in their car and he needed a bus ticket back to Texas, which the Chief worked with a local charity to obtain. A young lady who heard through the homeless network “Branson was a cool place to go.” She was drawing photos while asking for money. Then there were two men who went out to raise enough money for rent and food, and then would go home like it was a job.

Milton brought up the “revolving door” of the legal system, where if someone is arrested for trespassing, they’re taken to jail but then released “within ten to twenty minutes.” He asked if the people released were then dropped off in Hollister if it would dissuade them from coming back to Branson, or panhandling in the first place.

“I would say no,” Matthews replied. “They’re going to make their way back here and my officers can tell you stories over and over again. We go where we’re comfortable, and they go to the corner where they know they can make money over and over again.”

“When we can convince our residents and tourists not to drop a dollar in somebody’s pocket, when we give to appropriate resources, then we can help.”

Matthews noted signs like the Mayor wanted are all over the city, but Alderman Clay Cooper said the signs need to be bigger so people can notice them.

The Mayor brought up a program from Ann McDowell which Elevate Branson was involved in called “Have a Heart, Give Smart” and provided what the mayor called “excellent ideas” for collaboration to help giving and charities in Branson.

The mayor brought up CORE, Communities of Recovery Experience, and noted they do some good things, but he’s repeatedly heard the success rate for those court-mandated to the program is around 15%.

“The 85% who don’t complete the program end up on our street corners and our homeless camps,” Milton said. “Has there been any dialog about CORE to understand what their program is, and if we can reach out with an olive branch to mitigate those who fall out of the system and end up in our city?”

Hagan said CORE isn’t one of her main partners, so she couldn’t talk about the success rate, but substance abuse disorders is a difficult “brain disease” and many people struggle with it. She said programs like CORE often have strong rules aimed to help those who stay with the program.

She said many of the people in the residence are from our area, and when they relapse, we as a community need a way to not say “ok, you’re out of luck.” She said there’s no facility in the area like a respite home to get detox. 

“It’s a barrier we as a community need to look at,” Hagan said. “We need to look at it so they don’t end up living in a tent.”

Milton said Branson is a small community, and the resources for those programs aren’t affordable for the city. He said as a city leader, he’s looking at how to address the issue for the city.

“As long as we have vehicles which continue to bring in our eventual problems,” Milton said. “Until we can put a finger in the dam, this is going to be a never-ending story.”

Chief Matthews said probation and parole has no ability to ship back anyone who fails out of a drug rehab or living facility, and the city has no legal authority to regulate those kinds of houses. He said the city needs to speak with their state elected officials to see if the legislature can empower probation and parole to send people back to home jurisdictions, or allow the city or county to regulate those homes.

He said many of the CORE style homes are in the county, not the city, and Branson could do nothing about them.

Matthews confirmed people from all over Missouri are sent to Branson for rehab.

“We can address our problems, our panhandlers, our homeless,” Milton said. “But we surely don’t have the capacity to handle people brought in from all over the state of Missouri. 

“We could have the best programs in the world but if people keep getting shipped in to community, we keep getting upside down.”

Milton then asked the fire chief about CORE houses in the city which he heard house a high amount of residents.

Fire Chief Ted Martin said there is no maximum amount of people who can live in a residential building under the International Fire Code the city adopted, but he would like to see the aldermen consider action in the future to limit the number.

Stallings said at the end of the meeting making plans as a community is good, but until the funding is in place and people are willing to put in the work, nothing is going to change.

“People have lots of compassion,” Stallings said. “But let’s start putting it in action. Let’s just try something.”

The mayor ended the meeting by saying he was “very appreciative” of the measures in place to help in the city today, and led a round of applause for all the groups and individuals working to help the homeless in Branson.