How to get past the myths of homelessness and get to solutions | CivicCon

Jon DeCarmine said it wouldn't make much sense for a doctor to tell a patient, "As soon as you're not sick anymore, you can come to my office."

Likewise, he argues that people shouldn't be denied services if they show up to a homeless shelter with problems.

His organization, Grace Marketplace , is a low-barrier shelter and one-stop location for services aimed at ending homelessness in Gainesville and serves people regardless of whether they have income, or are struggling with substance abuse or mental health issues. Its housing-first approach recognizes that stable, permanent housing is the only solution to homelessness.

Since opening its doors in 2014, the shelter has housed almost 3,000 people, served more than 20,000 people, and served over 1 million meals, leading to a 40% decrease in the number of people living on the streets in Alachua County, according to the organization.

Explaining why he does his work in a 2017 Q&A , DeCarmine said, "Lives are on the line. The quicker we can get someone out of here and into a place of their own, the better off they’re going to be. And for those for whom it takes a little longer to help, we’re still able to provide a lot of what’s lacking in their lives, those things you need to thrive as a human being − safety, security, and a sense of belonging. There are so many things that are so easy to take for granted − a place to call your own, a shower when you need one, a hot cup of coffee when you want one, a place to put your stuff − that are out of reach for so many people. No one should have to live and die on the streets in Gainesville, or anywhere."

Along with serving as the executive director of the Grace Marketplace, DeCarmine consults in communities nationwide, crafting homelessness solutions that fit their unique needs, demographics and budgets. The city of Pensacola has contracted with DeCarmine to determine viable options that fit our community and realistic cost estimates.

In a CivicCon event Monday at the Wesley Abbey Building of First United Methodist Church in downtown Pensacola, DeCarmine will discuss his work at Grace, the myths around shelters and visible homelessness, and some realistic shelter solutions for Pensacola. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. (30 minutes earlier than traditional start time.)

Grace Marketplace was a solution a decade in the making

The idea for Grace started almost two decades ago, as people in the Alachua County area began looking at whether their existing network of services were adequate to address their growing population of unhoused people.

"I was a part of the team that wrote Project GRACE: The Gainesville/Alachua County 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, way back in 2005," DeCarmine said in the 2017 Q&A. "We had been looking at all of the different ways we tried to help homeless folks ... what was working, what could be improved, and what could be dropped altogether. We had a huge opportunity to shape the way we helped, as a community, back then."

The team ended up with a 57-page document that identified the root causes of homelessness – lack of affordable housing and living wages − and laid out detailed strategies and a multi-pronged approach to getting people off the streets and back into housing as quickly as possible, according to Grace. At the same time, the plan called for preventative services to keep at-risk individuals and families from becoming homeless.

"The No. 1 thing that came out of that plan was the need to bring all of the best services together in one location," DeCarmine said. "We actually thought we’d be able to get something like this open in about six months, maybe a year. It took nine years."

In 2005, Alachua County committed $250,000 annually to making the plan happen and the city of Gainesville proposed $210,000 in the coming year as match of private funds to the $1 million dollar budget for the homeless plan, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported .

With funding in hand, advocates began looking for a location to build the shelter in 2006 and promptly hit a major road block.

"While everyone in the county recognized the problem of homelessness – and applauded the work that GRACE would do to combat it – many citizens were uncomfortable with the idea of living close to the campus," according to Grace officials . "​The GRACE project moved forward, however, determined to prove that the stigma was unfounded and that, given just a little bit of help, people could quickly get back on their feet. For years, the city and county commissions considered sites, contracts, zoning, and permits. Finally, in 2011, there was a turning point when the Gainesville Correctional Institution was being considered for closing, and local officials suggested the site for GRACE."

Using the former corrections site, Grace came on line in 2014 as a one-stop campus where a marketplace of free services were available to help people end their homelessness. It started off with a limited number of services, but over time added dorms, a cafe, an education and training building and more.

More like this: Why haven't we solved homelessness? Because we've deemed too many "unworthy" of our help.

According to Grace, "Before, someone who needed a bus pass, a shelter bed, a doctor's appointment, and a meal had to go to four different agencies in four different parts of town to piece together the resources they needed. Today, they only need to show up to GRACE, where they can visit more than a dozen partner agencies and have access to programs that provide all of this and more, in one location."

Housing first and low barriers to entry

One if the core tenets of Grace is that when someone arrives at the shelter, the team focuses on finding them a home. Each "guest" is assigned a housing case manager to work with to find housing that best fits their needs.

According to the organization, homeless agencies have traditionally operated on a first come, first-served basis. Those best able to navigate a confusing social-service system, travel to appointments, understand the requirements to qualify for various available programs, and keep their documents in a safe place received the lion’s share of available assistance.

Those with the most pressing needs often got left behind.

DeCarmine told North Central Florida NPR and PBS station WUTF that the homeless assistance system in the community wasn't set up with people in crisis in mind.

"It was built around what money was available, what services were available, and it was really built kind of from the perspective of the people providing the services," he said.

In 2016, Grace began using a tool that took guests' individual needs and vulnerabilities into account and identified those who should be prioritized for housing and supportive interventions. Grace offers tiered services based on need, recognizing some individuals and families don't need intensive support and are likely to resolve homelessness on their own when provided limited assistance like resources to help with employment, affordable housing, and a facility where they can have a meal and a shower while they look for housing.

Meanwhile, other people receive long-term, permanent housing with ongoing access to services and case management to make sure they stay housed once they’re off the streets. According to Grace, this is the appropriate level of intervention for the people with the highest vulnerability – those whose physical, mental or substance-related health problems make them the most likely to die on the street if they were not helped immediately.

In terms of providing shelters for guests throughout the process, Grace believes in keeping barriers minimal.

Low-barrier shelters are built around the idea that programs should fit the needs of the people they serve, rather than trying to make the people served fit the needs of the program.

"Low-barrier" doesn't mean "no rules," according to DeCarmine. Instead, rules are designed to promote health and safety. In short, a good low-barrier shelter makes accommodations for the "4 Ps:" people, property, partners and pets. This best practice increases access to critical services, reduces time spent homeless, and ensures the most vulnerable members of our community have access to safe lodging while working with advocates to help them find someplace to call home.

"It’s easy for organizations to show off big numbers − 200,000 meals, or 100,000 nights of shelter, or 5,000 people served," DeCarmine said in his Q&A. "But those numbers don’t tell us anything about how good a job we’ve done actually ending homelessness for the people we serve. I can serve a million meals and still have a million people in the same position as they were before, only with a little more food in their bellies.

"That’s why we really dig into the number of people we’ve moved into permanent housing, how quickly we can get someone from homelessness into housing, and how good we are at actually keeping them in housing once they’re there. That’s what matters to us − and to people without a place to stay, not much matters more than getting out of that situation and into a place you can call home."

How to learn more at CivicCon

DeCarmine will be speaking at the Wesley Abbey Building of First United Methodist Church on Monday, May 13, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Wesley Abbey is the white building on the corner of Wright and Palafox.

His presentation will delve deeper into the work of Grace Marketplace, some of the common misconceptions about shelters and visible homelessness, and what a Pensacola-specific solution to homelessness might look like.

Registration for the event is available by searching "CivicCon" at eventbrite.com.

The presentation will also be livestreamed on the News Journal's Facebook page and at pnj.com.

CivicCon is a partnership with the News Journal to help empower citizens to better their communities through smart planning and civic conversation. More information about CivicCon, as well as stories and videos featuring previous speakers, is available at pnj.com/civiccon .

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: How to get past the myths of homelessness and get to solutions | CivicCon