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| VOLUME 1 ISSUE 5 - APRIL 2012 |
Street
Stories
By
Warren Elly
For
the 15 years he’s patrolled Hillsborough County with a Sheriff’s star and a
gun, Deputy Steve Donaldson had always dealt with the Homeless like every other
bay area cop; he’d arrested the same folks, over and over on misdemeanor
charges that had them released in hours.
Revolving
door justice, Donaldson says, solves nothing. “They just end up back on the
street again, and it starts all over. It’s the never-ending cycle we’d become
so used to. Well, after 15 years I finally realized there’s got to be another
way to address the Homeless issue”.
Everything
changed for the veteran Deputy after the bad economy had put a panhandler on just
about every corner of every major intersection in his Town ‘N Country Patrol
District. In June of 2010, Donaldson’s Master Sergeant passed on his new assignment
– find new ways to deal with the Homeless. The veteran Deputy knew what was
needed but he really didn’t’ know how to do it.
Donaldson’s
idea, to get the Homeless a roof over their heads, sign them up for assistance,
and them get jobs was named the ‘Homeless Initiative’, with a simple objective;
“If can we help these people get off the streets, then we won’t have to deal
with the problem”.
From
the start, Deputy Donaldson had no script, no detailed plan. Instead he hit the
streets and started listening, working to earn trust in the scattered, but well
wired Homeless community in his Town ‘N Country Patrol District. It took some convincing before folks would
believe he’d help them get off the streets and not just keep arresting them. “It’s
like starting up a business; you plant seeds and see what will grow”. It was a new and radical idea for the
Sheriff’s Office, going from handcuffs to a hand up, but never a hand out. “They’ll
have to bring something to the table, because nobody gets something for nothing
in my book”, says Donaldson.
“When
we first started we relied exclusively on public resources. It was a fairly
simple idea; we’d pick people up see if they wanted assistance, giving them two
choices. One I can help you get off the street, or two when you violate the law
by camping or panhandling, we will arrest you repeatedly or we can help you and
get you off the street”.
It
didn’t take long for Donaldson to prove he meant what he said, and word spread.
“Once they realized we were offering legitimate help, they would say, I see
where this is going to go, and they began to accept the offer of help”.
The
first strategy was to take the Homeless who wanted help to the Hillsborough
Mental Health Center where they were assisted with housing, a resource that
quickly ran out. “The alternative was to find our own resources, to cultivate
our own type of jobs program our own type of housing initiatives and that kind
of thing”.
At a
Saturday morning men’s church breakfast, Donaldson met a man who owned several
homes that had fallen into disrepair. Because of the housing downturn, he
couldn’t afford to fix them up. Thieves were breaking in, stealing air
conditioning units and otherwise trashing the properties. Maybe, the owner asked
the deputy, the homeless could use one of his houses.
Suddenly
Donaldson had a solution for two problems; how to secure vacant homes targeted
by vandals, and how to get his Homeless clients off the streets.
At
the core of the idea is what many experts see as the only true first step to
eliminating Homelessness; a strategy often talked about, but rarely enacted
called ‘Housing First’. “In order to
rehabilitate, you need shelter. A lot of problems go away when people get a
roof over their heads and some sort of supportive structure”.
Using
grant money and private donations from Home Depot among others, Donaldson paired
Homeless people with construction skills or just a willingness to work hard
with willing homeowners. Next thing he knew, the first home rehab project was
coming together.
Three
men got a roof over their heads, so long as they were willing to work for it,
and deputies would have one less vacant home to worry about in Town ‘N Country.
Donaldson, keeping a close eye on the men, worked with the homeowner to let
them live in the house for free in exchange for their labor. After six months of
work on the house, they’d need to be searching for jobs and eventually start
paying an affordable rent, like $50 a week.
One
of the men, 45 year old Albert Swinger, told the Tampa Bay Times he’d been
having trouble getting a job because would be employers would not look beyond
his criminal past. Convicted of drug and property crimes, Swinger says “they
think I’m still who I used to be”. Now, thanks to the joy of having a home, he
and the others have the chance to prove they could support themselves and get
off the streets.
One
of the key ingredients, Donaldson says, is to exploit what he calls the virtues
of the uniform; he calls it ‘Street Engagement’. “A lot of miracles happen when
it’s a uniformed patrol officer that does it. Because it’s what you least
expect, it gets a lot of attention because typically law enforcement usually
makes arrests, enforces the laws. We don’t normally solve problems like this.
When they see officers solving problems from the ground up, everyone snaps
their head at attention and everybody hears about it”.
Some
proof came in early March when fellow deputies brought Donaldson into a
shoplifting call. The 20-year-old woman in handcuffs had been homeless for 2
months after family issues got her kicked out of her parents’ home. Instead of
going to jail, Donaldson took her home, where he mediated a settlement between the
young woman and her parents that lead to her being welcomed back into the
family. “Everybody needs a spokesperson everybody needs an intermediary if you
need help. A street strategist. That’s what we do as well. I show up in uniform
and I’m with a homeless person, I’m trying to help, then their case is much
more legitimate now, its more likely that they will get the help… for sure”.
Deputy
Steven Donaldson’s supervisors and fellow patrol deputies, even citizens, he says,
have seen a remarkable transformation in Town ‘N Country. The panhandlers are
gone. No more signs flying.
Among
Deputy Donaldson’s other successes, Robert Rashford; now living in one of the
rehab homes and paying the homeowner rent. Rashford became one of the first to get a job,
hired, the Sheriff’s office says, as an on-site Sales Representative with
Mobile Auto Glass and Repair, the program’s first private sector employment
partner.
Street
Engagement is an idea that’s spreading. Deputy Donaldson says he’s very
encouraged and excited to be working with TPD Officer Dan MacDonald, the City’s
newly assigned Homeless Liaison for Tampa Police.
He’s
also hoping the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Homeless Initiative and Street
Engagement approach becomes a national solution to the Homelessness that’s
still growing.
Deputy Steven Donaldson
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
District III
Office: (813) 247-0330
Email: sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us
Facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs
