Kicking Out the Homeless in Downtown Columbia, South Carolina

[Bill Hoff]

I will get the numbers I mentioned yesterday, but there's A LOT of misinformation being posted (numbers, what current policies are, etc).

I encourage everyone to attend the monthly ESCH meetings, meet with Chief Ayoub & Cook, and participate in Jax 2025 if they wish to be fully informed with factual information about this complicated issue.

[Bill Hoff]

Here's the number I mentioned I would get. In 2012, of the 73 individuals deemed 'chronic' misdemeanor offenders in Downtown, 43 of the chronic offenders were homeless. Chronic offenders made up 40% of all Downtown misdemeanors. Per JSO.

The chronic offender is the category of individual which the Sheriff advocated building a special release center for on the edge of town, as discharging them directly back into the same environment is not beneficial.

[strider]

I will get the numbers I mentioned yesterday, but there's A LOT of misinformation being posted (numbers, what current policies are, etc).

I encourage everyone to attend the monthly ESCH meetings, meet with Chief Ayoub & Cook, and participate in Jax 2025 if they wish to be fully informed with factual information about this complicated issue.

Frankly Bill, as I have most often seen misinformation put out by you and SPAR Council, I tend to believe the information put out by Jaybird and some others is indeed factual.  Better than most, I know exactly how information can be manipulated to serve one purpose or an opposite one. I know what side of things you seem to be on and find it difficult to trust in what you say.  I put out factual information based on real experience.  What do you have? A number put out by the sheriff's office advocating a relocation camp for the homeless.   Are these the "staggering " numbers someone else talked about? Also, what about the issue of others sending their homeless here?  Got numbers for them as well?

[JayBird]

^ I believe you are talking about two separate things, or at least I am. Though ESCH is a great service, and Miss Dawn has made huge strides since taking over and achieved a lot, they primarily concentrate on the "next-step" after the shelters. Those that have a job or someone ofsupporting themselves at least partially and are ready to move on from a transitional environment. They also focus on the grant/education side, which is needed, but they don't deal with the direct care services provided to those on the street which this thread applies to and which Columbia and other cities are trying to resolve.

Also, there is a difference between arrests and incidents. The incidents in Sector A (you cannot have fair discussion if you include all of Zone 1) far outnumber the arrests. This is anywhere in the city though. However, it is disproportionally for the homeless DT by far. I believe the incidents relating to homeless is somewhere around 70% of all incidents reported in Sector A. But there is a reason for that, Everytime a situation/altercation/snafu/disturbance occurs every shelter has the policy to contact JSO because first and foremost is the safety of the employees/volunteers/other residents. This is a directive at EVERY shelter in Jax. (I have copies of each shelters operating procedures if you'd like to look.) So that does draw a disproportionate amount of JSO's resources for their patrol.  But the actual commission of crimes in the areas of these shelters is not disproportionate as some may believe, which I tried to relate with those quick stats that were obtained last night (which I will also provide all contacts for so you could verify) and what that same Chief presented back in July, so I think the devil here is in the details.

Keep in mind that when creating reports such as Jax2025, ESCH, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and even CRM are required to do, each has its own intended mission. They are not lying in their facts, but they do need to skew those facts to fit their objective. The competition for resources is just too stiff to not do so. When I first started writing for grants, I was educated with the adage of "think of it as painting a picture, you aren't painting the whole forest, you are just painting those trees which will attract the wildlife you seek."

[Edit:Heck I even skewed the numbers here by not including anyone arrested where charges were dropped the next morning because if the court of law didn't see fit to follow through why should I adjudge them guilty and artificially inflate numbers to create a problem that doesn't exist?]

As for the policies mentioned being wrong, I would question whomever presented such information to you as not only do I know them by heart (I aided in writing some of them) but those specific policies about admittance are very true as I spend time filling in at the night watch for Sulzbacher and Trinity on some weekends. So if someone is misrepresenting how the city shelters are operated, that should probably be brought to the attention of whichever agency was doing the research

[Bill Hoff]

I'll PM you one example.