When it comes to combating homelessness, Lawrence has a lot of eager organizations but is lacking a plan of attack, according to the city’s Task Force on Homeless Services.

“Right now, people have just stepped up and put a finger in the dike,” said Margene Swarts, manager of the city’s community development division.

The task force, which has been meeting since May 2003, says it may be time to build a new dam. The 19-member group is preparing to take public comment on its draft report, which recommends new strategies, including creation of a 24-hour homeless shelter and service center.

Current private service providers to the homeless said they agreed it was time for the public sector to do more.

“We need a unified, city-directed plan,” said Rich Forney, administrator of the Salvation Army in Lawrence, which operates a homeless shelter. “Positively that needs to happen. The city needs to become more involved.”

But task force members already are warning community members that the recommendations are large in scope and won’t be accomplished easily. Essentially, the report says to truly tackle homelessness, the community must provide more people, more money and more attention.

“For this to be successful, the community is going to have to get on board and acknowledge the problem,” said Swarts, a member of the task force. “It will take a commitment both in terms of finances and acceptance.”

New strategies

The report has six recommendations for improving how the city helps homeless residents. They are:

A blanket covers a person taking refuge from the elements on Thanksgiving Day in the South Park gazebo.

• More support for existing homeless service providers to establish a full-time 24-hour per-day homeless shelter. The shelter would include space for other service providers, such as the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center or various employment agencies.
• Funding for a new team of four case managers and one outreach specialist.
• Re-establishment of an inpatient mental health unit. Cost concerns and a shortage of psychiatrists led to the closure of the last vestiges of Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s mental health unit in April.
• Increase the number of transitional and permanent housing units for homeless people.

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• Improve the utilization of public and private employment services to provide more employment options to homeless people.
• Establish a new, permanent group that would oversee implementation of the community’s plan to address homelessness.

‘A new level’

Mayor Mike Rundle, chairman of the task force, said the recommendations were a good starting point. Despite the best efforts of several organizations, he said the community’s approach to dealing with homeless issues has been lacking.

“We’ve always been fortunate that private efforts have stepped up to take on responsibility with this issue,” Rundle said. “But we’re trying to take it to a new level now.”

He said the key ingredient missing from the community’s approach was a systematic attack.

“To a certain extent, there is kind of a revolving door cycle for the chronically homeless in our community,” Rundle said.

For example, he said that homeless residents suffering from mental illness may be under doctors’ orders to take medication. But left unsupervised they may not take the medication, get in trouble and be thrown in jail. While in jail, they’ll receive mental health treatment and get back on their medications.

“At that point, they’re fine again but they’ll get released from jail and they’ll go off their medication and fall back into their old problems,” Rundle said. “We need the support there to keep them from getting back into that situation.”

Swarts said a big problem was that there just weren’t enough professionals to deal with the estimated 200 people who are homeless in the city. She said that’s why the group was pursuing the addition of four new case workers to supplement case workers at existing agencies.

“The case managers are the people who are able to build that bond and help people help themselves,” Swarts said. “We haven’t had enough of that in this community.”

Money needed

The report doesn’t sugar-coat the financial aspects of addressing the problem.

“This plan will not be cheap,” the task force wrote in its draft report. “It will require some public financing and much public support.”

But task force members said they haven’t developed an estimate of how much money will be needed. Rundle said he wasn’t sure whether implementing the recommendations would require a tax increase. He said he was hopeful the city would be able to examine how much money it indirectly spends, such as through the police department, on dealing with homeless issues.

“I think if we spend some money up front, it is likely that we would save a lot of costs down the line,” Rundle said.

The task force is expected to begin discussing funding options after it conducts a series of from four to six public meetings. Dates for the meetings have not been set, but Rundle said they probably would begin in mid-January. Ultimately, the plan will be presented to city commissioners.