The homeless camps in Rochester may be fewer and farther in between than before the city passed a ban on such activity in public spaces. But the time and money spent by the Rochester Police Department in dealing with homeless individuals continues to increase to the budgetary breaking point. The urgency came through loud and clear in the Post Bulletin account of the latest update for the Rochester City Council.
Estimates point to the potential for spending $1.5 million in Rochester police wages this year in response to calls related to people experiencing homelessness.
“If this keeps going up, I am going to lose capacity,” Rochester Police Chief Jim Franklin told the Rochester City Council on Monday, pointing to roughly $1.2 million spent last year. “We are already losing capacity.”
It’s gotten to the point where Franklin has begun scaling back some previously planned activities of the force’s community action team in an effort to keep costs under control.
“The community-action team has multiple, multiple jobs other than dealing with homelessness in the community,” he said of the officers that work between 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
Additionally, he said patrol officers have been walking through city skyways at roughly 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. daily, but the patrols are likely to be reduced in upcoming months.
“As we get into springtime and calls for service increase and get a little bit busier, that’s not a sustainable thing that we will be able to do,” he said.
A deeper look into the data on homeless responses indicates a core group of individuals accounts for a disproportionate number of police calls and hours. At the same time, many appear to have little confidence in the system attempting to provide assistance.
[Sgt. Greg] Jeardeau said 861 calls documented in January involved approximately 200 people experiencing homelessness, but 223 of the calls involved just 10 people.
While the responding officers’ first step is to help connect people to programs and shelter options, Jeardeau said the limited number of people are more resistant to accepting help.
Other city and county officials held out hope for a collaborative program now in the works that’s intended to take the pressure off police and help homeless individuals make the move to permanent housing.
[Olmsted Co. Housing Director Dave Dunn] aid the challenge points to the need for individualized approaches that will be part of the Any Path Home effort unfolding through collaboration between the city, county and local nonprofits helping individuals experiencing homelessness.
The goal of the program is to find individual pathways to housing and follow the efforts with needed support by identifying the unique need of each person in an effort to build trust.
But unless and until that happens, Rochester police will continue to be on the front lines of a homeless problem that may be less visible but remains as much of a challenge as ever.