NSAG-Meeting_2023-07-13_Homelessness_Norfolk-CSB

Marla Robinson and Cindy Katz from the Norfolk Homeless Services spoke to the Norfolk Safety Group about homelessness in the city. They mentioned that the department is currently understaffed but working to hire more outreach workers. They also discussed the city's 100-bed shelter and the additional 40 temporary beds available during winter weather warnings. They addressed questions about panhandling, stating that it is not illegal unless it causes obstruction or diversion. They also explained that most panhandlers are not homeless, but some are and they try to connect them with resources. They discussed where people experiencing homelessness can stay and the challenges they face, such as mental health issues and substance abuse. They emphasized their role in outreach and providing resources to help individuals move to a better place. They mentioned the street sheets they provide, which list available resources in the city. They also talked about the shelter's waitlist and the definiti Now I would like to introduce Marla Robinson, the Programs Manager for the Homeless Services, and Cindy Katz, Lead Outreach Specialist. They'll be speaking to the Norfolk Safety Group about homelessness in Norfolk. Thank you for speaking with us today. You may begin. Thank you. Hi, good evening. Thank you for having us. What I would like to do is just give a brief overview of what we do with our department. I am leaving more time for questions and answers because I think that's the best way for you to get the information that you're looking for. So I'll start out with we are with the City of Norfolk, Norfolk Community Services Board. That's the department we work under. We are the Housing and Homeless Department for the city. We actually have a team right now of three outreach workers. We should have five. We're in the process of hiring. So if anybody would like to apply, please go to cityofnorfolk.org. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Our advocates, we love our advocates. Yes, thank you so much. So we are working, as you can see, with not a full team. Our team is on the streets daily. As you can see, Cindy has been out most of the day. She's got her outreach shirt on, spends a lot of time all over the City of Norfolk. And we cover every corner in the city. We are in the process of working right now with Park Rangers to clear up some areas. We also work with VDOT. We work with any of the city agencies that would go out and spot people who are experiencing homelessness and work with them to try to make sure that we can connect them with resources. And if they're in spots that they shouldn't be in, making sure that we can get them to a safer spot. Currently, we do run a 100-bed shelter. That is the city shelter at Tidewater Drive, 1050 Tidewater Drive. It used to be the Ninova Hotel. It's right beside the Burger King. It is now the shelter for the City of Norfolk. We have 100 beds currently. In the winter, when the city calls the weather warning, then we also are able to take an additional 40 individuals just for that temporary shelter. So we provide a space on the floor with a map, much like the NIST program used to do in the City of Norfolk. If you have any questions? Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, I can't believe I can't read you all of it. So, people a lot of times don't understand where people are allowed. First of all, being homeless is not illegal. Start with that. We did not know. Partly, probably, where can they be? Can they panhandle? Those kind of questions. Probably didn't tell them. But I can definitely cover that. Can you talk about that? What is where can they panhandle? Legally, by the federal law, what can be done, what cannot be done. Yes, ma'am. So, Officer Dreer can definitely back me up on any information I'm giving about panhandling. Panhandling is legal. The only time that someone can be cited for panhandling is if they're an obstruction to what is going on or if they're creating a diversion that causes something that needs to be addressed, like if somebody's coming up and knocking on a car, harassing the drivers, that kind of thing. But to be a panhandler, that is not illegal. You can't panhandle. That was provided by the level of person in the crisis. So, that is not the city of Norfolk. That is not the city of Virginia. That is a federal law that we cannot do something out of that space. So, I know you don't like it, but that is what happens. And also, the numbers on the signs. The numbers on the signs. No, that's the one that comes to our office. So, the number, if you see the signs around the city of Norfolk that says, you know, please don't support panhandlers. There are other agencies that can provide them. That comes to our office. Cindy and I are in that room, and we spend sometimes up to two hours per day just listening to people calling in and reporting where panhandlers are and asking us to come out and do something about it. We have covered every phone call that we have received on that phone line. I will tell you that 95% of the individuals are not homeless. Most of these individuals do have a household to go to, and they're using panhandling as a means of making additional money to make things easier. Now, that is not to say that some of them are not homeless. They are. I would say 95% of those, we know who they are. We speak to them routinely. They know where the resources are, but they choose to panhandle in order to supplement an income or to have an income if they don't already have some type of disability. What about the people who may be a burden to them right now? I mean, I was out having a beer at a place where he sat down with his phone and I was sitting in a corner playing Ragnarok on the 28th, which is evil not to be, but all the white people who are watching that are supposed to be on the safe list. If you have a sign that says homeless, you're not really homeless. So how would you suggest that they should be? Well, I don't know. That's why I asked. I don't have the answer for it other than fight them for a citation. The answer is we can put it up. We don't get a lot of money. The answer is no, but there's a really literal one that we do. With those kinds that say, please don't give them money, you wouldn't be surprised at the number of phone calls that we receive that says, how dare you tell me how to live my life. So we get it either way. What we will do is we will respond to the calls that come out, that come to the line, and we will go out to see if that individual is homeless. If they are, we will definitely make that connection to resources for them if they're receptive to that. And if they're not, then we encourage them to maybe try to see if they can supplement their income in other ways. But it is their right. If my wife wouldn't shoot me and I wouldn't pay for her welfare, I wouldn't take a picture and post it on Facebook. It would be saying, don't go in there. These are dangerous people. They're not in need. Don't get into a charitable organization that doesn't do that. And some of those days, there's a presentation and then questions that you have to be asked. And then one time, they're like, no, I'm not a charity. OK. Well, the questions are closed. Sorry. No, no, sorry. Right, right, right. So let's see. We were talking about, so the panhandlers is one of the things that we were talking about. The other thing, what did you say? About where people can stay. Where they can stay. So if there is a spot that is not deemed a city spot, that is not someone's backyard, people are going to try to stay in any spot that they can stay, in an empty doorway, in some office building, in a, it just depends, where people can stay depends on what signs are posted a lot of times and if it's city property. So we respond to any call that we get to go out, first of all, to see where it's at, to see who the property belongs to. A lot of times, we'll get calls from business owners that say we have individuals staying on our property. We always encourage individuals or business owners to have a no trespassing sign because if there's not a no trespassing sign there, it makes it very difficult for it to be enforced. Am I incorrect, customers? So we definitely, when we get these calls from business owners, we tell them, if you don't want people trespassing, then you have to have that posted so actually they can stay in. Now, what we will do as outreach workers is we will go out, we will explain to the individuals, this is not a place really that you need to be staying and we want to try to connect you to some other location. I will say that our shelter stays pretty much at capacity but individuals have to understand that there are people who do not have the ability to stay in a shelter setting. A lot of our individuals who are homeless experience mental health issues and they have a very hard time being in an environment where there are a lot of people closely together and a lot of different things going on. So that's a challenge that we have with individuals who have that mental health issue going on. Or substance, yes. And that's another thing with our shelter. We are a low barrier shelter, so that means that if someone comes to our shelter and wants to come in for day service and they are under the influence, as long as they don't have it on their person and they're not bringing it in with them, we do allow them to come in. We do try to provide a safe space for that individual. If they do bring any substance in at all, then they will be exited and will not be allowed to come back for X amount of time depending on what the nature of the event was. So we try to accommodate those individuals who are having these experiences and try to bring them in, provide them a safe space, and then get them connected, which is a lot of what Cindy does. So I'll let her go ahead and tell a little bit about that connection. Oh, so let me talk a little bit about outreach. And let me first say that as outreach, if somebody's hand-handling, if somebody's sweeping in your doorway or sweeping down the street at the park, I'm not an enforcer, so I can't remove that person or make that person leave. My job is to try to connect with that person to build rapport and to provide them with resources of places that are available in the community that they can go, that they can get food, that they can shower, that they may be able to get connected, to work towards some housing. Their first step is going to be to call the Housing Prices Hotline. And that's kind of the procedure that the city has taken. The Housing Prices Hotline is the main connection. And then from there, we can connect them. I can help them connect to Medicaid, to mental health care, substance abuse care, inpatient treatment, medical care, and help them get the resources that they need to work towards a housing space. But, you know, the goal is to connect with them. And certainly if they're in a neighborhood, in a business doorway, something like that, I explain to them, we've had a report. I never name who reported or what person or company or business, but we've had a report, and that's why I'm out here. And I want to provide you with these resources and see what I can do to come alongside and help you move to a better place. And I'm going to go ahead and give you that file so that you can see what the resources are. So you will see on these, we call these the street sheets. So any time we go out and meet with an individual, we give them this sheet. This shows all the resources that are available in the city of Norfolk. Places that you can get food, places that you can seek shelter, places that you can wash clothes. You can get legal help. There's a lot of resources on that sheet. So we're trying to be good stewards of the environment and use up our 2022 pamphlets before we print the new ones. I can tell you that there's only been one major change on that pamphlet. It's that the LGBT Life Center has changed locations, but the phone number is still the same. So most of the time, individuals are going to make that phone call anyway. So that's the only major change right now, which is why we're trying to use up these before we order new ones and spend money. I think the city also has some small little cards or information about the centers, which is our shelter. So there's information on that card on how someone can access the shelter. I will tell you what will happen is we are trying to make sure that it's new people, new people who are experiencing homelessness, not people who have been in the shelter and have to leave for some reason. If you have to leave, then you're going to take a little break before you can come back to the shelter because probably the reason you left was a reason that you needed to take a little break anyway. So we provide that break for them. Then they can come back around and get on the wait list again. So we ask people when they come and fill out that wait list form for a bed at the shelter that they come in and attend our day services. This is how we can verify that they are truly homeless. We have a lot of people that sort of bounce back and forth from, I can stay with family for a while and then not, and stay with family for a while and then not, which we call that partial self-resolve. So we want to make sure that the shelter stays available for those people who are truly in the most need, who are staying outside and have nowhere else to go. So that's why we have our day service program, and that's why we pull our people from there so we can make sure that we're verifying that they're truly homeless. Probably one of the things that we should have started with was the definition of homelessness. We are a city agency, but our programs are HUD funded, and so we utilize HUD's definition of homelessness, which is somebody that is staying in a place not meant for habitation or somebody that is staying in a shelter. If they're staying in somebody's house or they're with different tonight and different tomorrow night, that's not considered homeless. If they're living in a situation but they don't want to be there, that's not considered homeless. So those are the individuals that we do work with, those that are in shelters or those that are actually on the street, on the beach, in the woods, in an abandoned car or abandoned building. So those are the often considered places not meant for habitation. Thanks, and I'll start the questioning for now. Sure. Okay, so I'm going to stop the recording. Thank you.