 All right, good afternoon everyone. We want to be respectful of everyone's time and I know we have some members still trickling in but I wanna go ahead and call the first task force for Renton and homelessness meeting to order. And Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Dr. Buzzels here. Mr. McDowell. President. Mr. Brennan. President. Chief Holbrook. President. Mr. Matt Kennell. Mr. Steve Cook. Mr. George Whitehead. President. Ms. Allison Farrell. Mr. John Wilkerson. Mr. Brett Clues. Judge Amy McCullough. Mr. Jean Burns. Tracy Dobbins. Kylie Sutton. Join us please. And Antonio Flores. Please join us. Dr. Buzzels, welcome and introductions. I think that that's really a testament to how diverse this group of advocates and service providers and neighborhood leaders and business owners are. And it also speaks to the complexities of working with and supporting those who are experiencing homelessness in our city. So as we are getting underway, we are very excited to have all of these different voices at the table to help us in developing solutions as a public health researcher and someone who has committed my career to ensuring that we find the root causes of problems. My goal is over the next six months that we do exactly that. Today will really be a day for us to set the foundation to understand the state of homelessness as well as provide you all with an overview of why this task force has been brought together. And then we'll hear from some of our city staff on the ways in which we have invested in homelessness services, other initiatives regarding mental health, public safety to help us really understand and get a preliminary picture of what homelessness looks like in Columbia, South Carolina. Then the most important part of the meeting will really be for all of us to have a discussion. So we're going to have an opportunity for us to break out into smaller groups. Although we won't have public comment today if you are willing and able to participate with your perspective, we ask that you join our breakouts and share your ideas on how we move forward to address this complex issue. And we will end with sharing some of the key themes and takeaways that came out of those discussions and my colleagues here will help us in closing out and really getting ready for the next couple of meetings over again the next six months. So with that, I would like to briefly have everybody here just introduce themselves and just make sure that you include your affiliation to help the public understand who we are and why we have come together today. So I'll start over here with George. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is George Whitehead and I'm with the department of probation for rolling pardon services affectionately known as Triple P and I'm so glad to be here this afternoon. Hello, my name is John Wilkinson. I'm serving as the president of the Elmwood Park Neighborhood Association and also representing the coalition of downtown neighborhoods. I'm Antonio Flores. I'm the market manager for Walmart in the Columbia area. So I'm happy to be here. Happy to join. Steve Cook, I'm the president of the Five Points Association and also in Saludas Restaurant in Five Points. Skip Holbrook, I have the privilege of being the police chief here in Columbia. Good afternoon, Wilburne and district three representative. My name is Matthew Brock. I'm an associate probate judge here in Richland County sitting here for my good boss, Judge Amy McCulloch. I'm Allison Farrell. I'm the executive director of Columbia Area Mental Health Center. We serve and provide mental health services to over 6,000 residents each year in Richland County. I'm Brett Cluse. I'm a psychology professor at the University of South Carolina and I do research on homelessness. Thank you. I'm Matt Kennel. I'm the president of the city center partnership and we manage and promote the Main Street District in Columbia. Tracy Dawkins on the research. Great again and we are very privileged to be staffed by none other than our city manager Ms. Teresa Wilson who will be here and her team has been here every step of the way as we embark on this endeavor to address this public health issue. So before we begin and we have a lot of information to share with you all I wanted to provide a little bit of context to why this task force was created. That was one of the major questions I got both from the members as well as the public. So this task force was established at the request of the mayor on February 15th, 2022. Based on our research there were previous city initiatives including a commission in 2006 although there is no historical information at this time available pertaining to it. But what that does show is that this is something that people have been passionate about and cared deeply about for quite some time. This task force was really created in response to something we've actually seen across the country. As a result of the pandemic we have seen those experiencing homelessness that rate increase whether it's Columbia, Raleigh, DC, Portland you name it. This is a trend that my colleagues across the country are seeing. And the reasons are what we want to dig into to help ensure that we're again addressing the root cause of the problem. Columbia has been known to be a very compassionate city. We have several services here available to those who are experiencing homelessness and that's something that we pride ourselves in. However, we have also seen that there is an increase in the presence of those experiencing homelessness in various neighborhoods, our entertainment districts and all across the city. And so tackling that issue in a way that is compassionate but again addresses the multifaceted issue of homelessness is something that this task force will be dedicated to over the next six months. This is a temporary task force with the goal being that we will be releasing a report with concrete strategies that we can then implement with our partners both in the short term and the long term. Another way that I really like to think about this task force is that this task force is to address the balance that's needed between a compassionate, humane approach to addressing homelessness but also some of the public safety concerns that have arisen in response to an increase in crime. And you'll hear a little bit about that from Chief later today. So as a data person and as a researcher, of course I have to throw some data at you which I know Rev loves. But according to the 2022 South Carolina homelessness report, Richland County actually has a second highest rate of homelessness in South Carolina. And with that, unfortunately, there has also been an increase in criminal activity and drug related offenses. And as someone again who comes from a public health background, I wanna be clear in that homelessness and crime, there isn't a direct correlation but we do know that there's certainly an indirect correlation that stems from things like poverty, drug addiction, substance misuse. And that's really where we start to see that people are experiencing homelessness and there seems to be a need to balance both of those issues. And particularly for us in Columbia, the increase of homelessness has really occurred within our downtown neighborhoods, entertainment districts and areas of high traffic including Harbison and the Garner's Ferry area. Initial reports suggest that the city of Columbia has at least 14 providers assisting populations facing homelessness in Richland and Lexington County. Now one of the things that we have noticed in our preliminary work is that we may not have a real grasp of what the scope of services, the number of services and the types of providers that are available in South Carolina. We also know that these organizations and providers have a wide range of criteria, eligibility and populations that they serve. And so we wanted to share with you all that simultaneously as we are meeting and we are doing this work over the next six months, we have commissioned a study with Tracy and his group Inspire Real Change to really understand the state of homelessness in Columbia including the ability for us to catalog the various services available to those experiencing homelessness, identify gaps that may exist, as well as get a real understanding on some of the issues that people experiencing homelessness are facing in a trauma informed care approach which is certainly something that the organization specializes in. So with that, I'll stop there and we'll ask if my colleagues Councilman Brennan or Councilman McDowell have any thoughts before we move to the next part of our presentation. Thank you. Chairman Bussells, thank you for organizing all these wonderful caring individuals with the wonderful backgrounds. I think you hit the nail on the head. We're here to figure out the reasons for the root cause of homelessness in our wonderful city, our neighborhoods, our hospitality districts and to really understand what are some practical, not solutions, but maybe approaches so it's a really help the individuals as best as we can. We are a capital city. We are a destination for many people and we wanna be a caring destination. So with that, I thank you for organizing this wonderful task force. Chairman Bussells, thank you so much for your energy and for your ability to bring all of these providers together. I think it's interesting to note while we have all of our providers here, there he is and I think Dr. Bussells will, she've heard this from me before. Is it about the data or is it about human lives? Is it about human lives? Can we together take the data and turn it into actual resources that's going to get at the very not prevention because the homeless are all gonna be with us forever. I think I've heard and read that somewhere before that the homeless will always be with us. How do we take what we're doing here today which I think is a very practical, doable approach to not just talking about the data but what about the lives? How do we take that and turn it into a critical balance that's not going to solve the problem but at least gives us resolutional kinds of things that will help our brothers and sisters in a triage kind of way. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. So members of the committee will now move into a series of brief presentations. There's gonna be an opportunity for you all to ask questions at that time. Please feel free to unmute after our staff and our speakers have given their presentation to share your thoughts or feedback or ask any questions. If we do not have the answer for you today I promise we will get that to you in the next couple of days. I know this is a very passionate group of individuals that want to see change and so that is my promise to you. Oftentimes people look to the city to make an immediate change through a policy initiative and so I'd like to invite our city attorney, Ms. Teresa Knox up to provide us a little bit of history on what policy efforts have looked like in the city of Columbia around the prevention of homelessness. Teresa, I'll pass it over to you. So from our ordinances, we're not so focused on the prevention of homelessness but the four ordinances that I'll talk about there are ordinances that most cities have and I'm gonna tell you how we got there and it was ordinance on begging, prohibited acts in city facilities, unlawful urination and defecation and urban camping. Every major city is gonna have an ordinance of that type. Now over the years, I guess I've been here eight years, everyone's always wanting us to look at these ordinances or toughen these ordinances up and I'm gonna tell you why the ordinances that we have meet squarely within the law now and why we have to be careful. So our federal courts and the US Supreme Court have looked at these issues because they deal with constitutional rights. They deal mainly with the Eighth Amendment right and the First Amendment right and whether it realize it or not, the Eighth Amendment right deals with cruel and unusual punishment. Courts have held that finding or arresting the homeless for sleeping outdoors amounts to a Eighth Amendment violation. Now there are caveats to that. There's safety issues, there's time and place issues but the main thing you look at if they don't have another place to go then it's the Eighth Amendment violation. Our version of another place to go may not be illegally recognized another place to go. If it's church related and they're not church related, it's not a valid place to go. If it's not a place that is open pretty much 24-7, it's not another place to go. So but our ordinance is the way they're written and the way we fall squarely. The other amendments, the First Amendment has to do with asking for food. It's recognized as a First Amendment right, the speech to do that. There's caveats to that. You can't be aggressive begging. You might be a time, space, safety, maybe after dusk or dark you can't do it but we have to be careful. You can't create buffer zones. Cities have tried to create buffer zones and said, well you just can't do it in this downtown area. No, that won't hold up. So you have to look at all it. What we have on the books now we're constitutionally okay. What we're asking the community to do is we look at things, if you do look at these things is to work with our office to make sure that we stay that way. And so our office is gonna be available to this community as much as you need us to work us through. And just let us know if you have any questions. A quick question on like a pan-animal part of it. You said asking for food protected under the First Amendment. Asking for money, other things like that. I mean it's all the same bucket. It's all the same. Any other questions? All right, thank you Ms. Knox. So in addition to, and prior to this first task force to give you a little bit of more context there's been several conversations that have already begun. One of course to understand the state of homelessness in Columbia, including the services that are provided, how many beds are available, what types of populations are served, you name it. We are collecting the data but we are also trying to understand the human experience. And so we have been connecting with and interacting with people across our city that are either engaged in homelessness or experiencing homelessness themselves to really understand the different facets of the problem. And so one of the common themes that consistently comes up as I alluded to earlier in the discussion is balancing this need of addressing the root cause of homelessness, whether it's mental health, addiction and then sometimes the consequences of that, right. And that is where public safety comes into play. And so I'd like to hand it over to Chief Holbrook to give us a little bit of an overview of how we've been balancing these two issues to develop a practical response to some of the concerns that we have seen since the rise of homelessness in our city. Thank you, Dr. Bussells. Thank you for allowing us to be part of this important task force. First and foremost, our expectation, what our citizens expect from our police department is professionalism, constitutional policing, policing with empathy and respect. And that is the standard that we expect. First and foremost, no matter what. We're in a very challenging time being in the Southern city, mild climates. We have seen a consistent, and I'm speaking from perspective of the police department, consistent growth of our homeless population over the last five and six years in particular. Just to give some context, we estimate a little over a thousand individual homeless persons in our city at any given time. And we base this off our criteria where we interact, whether it's taking an incident report where somebody's listed as a victim, a complainant, a suspect where they're saying that they don't have a permanent address or they've been obviously a victim of a crime. And we've seen that, again, continuing to increase. We also see different faces. We have officers, especially in our downtown corridor or on Elmwood corridor that work very closely, interact with our homeless populations on a daily basis. And although we see the numbers stay the same, we see different faces. And the challenge that presents to us is, just as any citizen, you'd like to have that personal relationship or you get used to seeing the same police officer and having that interaction. And it seems like we have a challenge where it's more difficult for us to develop a rapport and get services directed to get that person directed to appropriate services. And I'll talk about that in a minute. But to give you an idea of time and effort, so last year we made 366 arrests. And I would argue that arrests are failures in this situation. Most of these individuals are in some type of distress. Whether it's mental health related, substance abuse or both. And most services are Monday through Friday during business hours. And I'm making a general statement there. And I know we have experts more versed in service providing in this arena than I'm sure we'll expand on that. But more often than is needed and more often than we would care, law enforcement is directed to solve that problem. And it's either a health and safety issue where we would help facilitate somebody getting to some type of medical care or mental health evaluation or jail oftentimes. And we know that that number one, they're not gonna stay there very long and that's not the best place for them. And those are our options. Of this 366 arrests, they were what we would consider quality of life arrests. But we also see a significant crime on what we would call the homeless population victimizing one another. We see drug abuse, drug sales, alcohol, fueled negative engagements, sexual assaults and other violent crimes is pretty significant. Our officers over this past winter made 172 inclement weather transports. And that involved 535 people. So what we've had to do to help keep officers freed up to answer calls for services, we actually use a transport van. And there's inclement weather transportation that's provided by service providers. This is after hours. This is when we encounter somebody on that cold night or that rainy night or snowy night. We don't turn our back on that. We get them to shelter. Every morning we do what we call property checks and zone watches. Every morning whether it's in our entertainment districts, our business district, our residential areas that surround our central business area, we do over 60 property checks every morning and throughout the night. And what I mean by that is these come from residents, businesses, pass or bias calling that they make an observation. They see somebody that might be sleeping on a porch, urinating, defecating, do another criminal acts that calls us to have to respond. So instead of waiting on that call for service now, we check that every single day. And again, if oftentimes it's moving somebody on, it's if we can direct them to services and then if there is a violation of the law, then they may go to jail. And again, that's, you know, we don't feel like that's the appropriate answer for that. We have, with the help of council, we have stood up a, what we refer to as a pathways unit. That is a mental health clinician embedded with a police officer that is trained in mental health recognition. They not only are working within the homeless community, but anybody that's in mental crisis, they respond. They try to get services directed, get that person directed to appropriate services. And we've seen tremendous success with that in a very short period of time. We're very excited about adding four additional clinicians. And again, putting these folks in, you know, in what we would call our hotspots, our areas, downtown, forest drive, Garner's Ferry and Harveston. Urban camping is an issue that we deal with especially right now. We just had an unfortunate situation yesterday. We sent officers to an encampment that was discovered and there was a person deceased in that encampment. We have a protocol we follow when we find encampments or move encampments. We do notifications. We put services into the encampments before we, you know, clean them up. We get people directed to transitional housing if possible. We get them directed to services, but we get people ample notice and we'll help, you know, help moving them along. So we try to be as compassionate and understanding as possible. Parks are an area of focus for us. And I think that is, you know, an area that I'm anxious to hear some suggestions from this task force on how we strike that balance. But, you know, what I hope that we have is takeaways and action items is how we transition law enforcement from being the tool for solving our homeless problem. And we're able to, you know, focus our time and efforts on life safety issues. So I wanna open that up to discussion a little bit. I think with most of the folks on this task force, this is a common theme that I've heard around wanting to address mental health and that component, wanting to address some of the drug addiction that comes sometimes with mental health. And would love to hear from some of our experts looking at you, Allison, to talk a little bit more about what you've seen that's worked. What are some things that you would recommend? Yeah, sure. So, you know, I think when we think about mental health and we think about our unsheltered populations, a lot of times we tend to jump to conclusions or we automatically assume that there's a mental health issue going on, which is why I think it's so important for us to put these clinicians on the streets. It's important to embed them with law enforcement like we're doing with Chief Holbrook, you know, for us to really be able to not wait on them at the clinic. I talked earlier about the number, you know, for 6,000 residents in Richland County that we serve. Those are people that primarily come to us. Those are not people that we're sending an RV out to in mass numbers. You know, we send the RV out and we might touch 20 people in a day. We might send clinicians out with law enforcement and touch 30 people in a day. So I think we really have to look at where our resources best applied. What can we do to partner in ways that we know are effective? The pathway units clearly has demonstrated effectiveness. I've seen that myself at the clinic when they've come to help us out there and then their reports from the street. So I think we have to keep that in mind and move forward. Some of our business owners and those that represent our different neighborhoods would love to hear your perspective on what you'd like to see, given that right now the burden has fallen on law enforcement to help us in solving this issue. I'd like to say that I think one thing that's very positive is this task force because it's clearly not a problem we can ignore. Like Councilman McDowell said, you know, these folks will always be with us. We need to keep dealing with it. You know, the coordination of feedings is certainly an issue. I'm sure we'll discuss that later. And not just the feedings, but the cleanup after the feedings, which has a major impact on our business districts. And also the other comment that was made is about we can't not do anything because just as the Chief said, people die. I mean, in the 20 years that I've been here, I think every year in the Main Street District we lose a couple of people that simply die on the streets in Columbia. And that's just not something I think we can tolerate as a community. So I think the main thing is not to ignore it. And the last thing I'd like to say is the parks and open space that's been mentioned is increasingly important. As more and more people live in the area, our business districts are becoming residential districts. In the Main Street District alone, in the next 18 months, we're gonna double the residential population. So it's hard to separate business districts from residential districts because they're moving toward being the same, just higher density residential. And so I think the issues in neighborhoods are the issues in our business districts and vice versa. So I think with those things in mind, I think we can have some positive results and just compliment you for doing this. I'll mention something that you spoke about which is essentially the Columbia Police Department having to act as a triage for the homeless. And our sort of dealing with any kind of problems or issues we have in our neighborhood, our instructions to our merchants is call CPD. And everybody knows that that's not a great use of resources. But that's the only option we're given. And we've had an incident where this gentleman, a couple of years ago, or about a year ago now, Eddie, everybody knew him. Everybody knew that this man was dying on the street. Yet every morning he walked over to Starbucks and was given, he had more cups of coffee than anybody in this room's ever had and was able to eat every day, but every night he wandered over the park and slept in unhumane conditions. And what I kept trying to reiterate is it's not compassionate to allow people to live in that circumstance. And I just think it's unfortunate that right now the only resource we have as business owners, business districts, is to tie up CPD with something that you don't have really good solutions for. And that's, unfortunately, that's what we're having to tell people. Call 9-1-1 and that's not what 9-1-1 should be for. I know there is a challenge with our parks and I wanna address this to you, Chief Hallbrook. Because people care, there are a lot of organizations that feed them in the park and they bring clothes and they wanna, and what would you say to a lot of these nonprofits that are continuing because their hearts are for this population, but sometimes it's a challenge because they're getting their food, they're getting their clothes, they can time everything that's coming there, but there's no coordination of services from these nonprofits. Is that a challenge or a barrier for you? Are you directing after me? Oh, everyone, anyone. Resounding yes. I think that providers will even tell you and I've had the opportunity to connect with providers like Homeless No More, Mercy, that say that often times, I mean generally it's just sometimes easier to work in silos, that's any field. But I think a big challenge is also the housing that's available. I mean, one might be downtown, one might be on two-notch, one might be up by Farrow Road where we are now. Like, there's no, there was not a lot of coordination of services, which is what led us to commissioning the study in the first place because I don't think that while everybody's heart is in the right place, we don't have a good understanding of the services being provided. Are there duplication of services? Are their populations completely not being served because this funding structure only allows children to be served from this or this funding structure only allows women to be served, right? So I think the coordination of nonprofits and other groups is absolutely vital to ensuring that CPD can do their job. But also that again, going back to this theme of our conversation I think is that we deal with this problem in a compassionate way in a way that makes sense for everyone in our community. Just, may I say a word? I'm sorry, Gordon. Sure, I was just gonna add, similar to what Steve and Matt shared about the business and maybe the hybrid districts in our residential neighborhoods, we often hear from neighbors who see someone who appears to be experiencing homelessness or something of concern and there's often a reluctance to call 911. So we hear that from neighbors all the time. I saw this, but I didn't wanna call it in. I think our CRT officers have helped fill that gap and we've got a good relationship with them, which serves as an avenue where people can reach out. But it seems that if there was some, perhaps a number that people could call that wasn't 911, wasn't the police non-emergency number to say, hey, there's somebody here that needs help and they can reach out that way. That might help with some of the things we're seeing in the neighborhood. Dr. Bussells, if I might. One of the things that I would hope the task force touches upon, and I think Missy Kaufman is going to share some of the things the city has done in the past, but to these specific questions right here, who do I call and if I wanna feed in the park which we do not encourage, what are my alternatives to be compassionate and to have a mission and wanna serve. So when I get those calls as far as where do I feed? Because there are multiple places that are providing those resources. I refer people to the United Way of the Midlands, who is the city's designated homeless services coordinator on record right now. Missy's going to talk about some of these contracts that we've had for some time and that the city is funding and I think part of this effort is probably hopefully gonna lead to are those efforts working? Do they need to be tweaked? Are the services that are within those contracts being adequately provided? I mean, I'm not saying they're not. I don't know have we evolved into something else, but they are in place. I just don't want that to get lost as the conversation is going on. I think this is about also the immediate concerns and needs that can make a difference. And so if some contracts that may have been on the books have now, we've now evolved in a way that those need to be addressed differently. The scope of those things that they've been asked to do, then I hope that would also be factored into the equation. And I think Missy will touch on some of that. Dr. Bussells. May I? Sir, I want to, oh, I'm sorry. Sir, I want to get back to your question. You raised, and I forget your name. George Whitehead. Well, George, let me ask you this. You said something a few minutes ago, I think, that sort of allowed my intent eyes to go up. And that is, I think you raised a question about feeding in parks. And I think the city manager just alluded to the whole notion that it's not a liable. I mean, it's a public park, of course it is. Particularly Finley Park. I think the records and the data will show that there has been a decrease in the number of persons feeding there. Not only was that the issue, as you know, we've fenced off Finley Park because we've already looked at the possibility but we've invested $1.5 million in architectural design to make this a family-centered place. There are several portions of Finley Park that we've sort of fenced off. The entire park itself. And of course the area right in the park, the pavilion. We did that primarily because after feeding, folk would not leave nor take additional foods and clothing that was left in the pavilion. And our park ranges had a difficult time cleaning up that space. I must say to you assuredly that a part of that has changed tremendously. Our ACM Henry Simons and his team, of course, has done a good job in making sure that park ranges are there. More folk are using the park now for recreational purposes. So I think you're right and I think what you're getting at is how do we make some arrangements, some agreement for persons who want to do that? There have to be some strict criteria with that. But I wanted, I didn't want to sit back in my chair and not at least say a word to you about that because that's on the men. Sooner or later we're going to close off the whole park. The unsheltered population in Finlay Park has decreased some. But again, you can't prevent some, it's almost like fire ants. You put some on fire ants, you don't kill them, you just, they just move to another place. And that's our dilemma right now, is that we don't want to kill anybody but our homeless population, unsheltered population, our brothers and sisters are moving from one place to the other. So I wanted to make sure that they could come. Yes sir, thank you. Thank you. Any other comments, Allison? Yeah, I just want to make one other comment. I was thinking about the communication piece down there that equally as important for citizens to be able to communicate back to us as a task force as to what suggestions there might be or to communicate to law enforcement what the needs are. I think it's equally as important for us to look at how are we communicating to the citizens that we're talking about tonight? How are we communicating to that crowd? What resources are available and how are we connecting you to those versus just calling 911? I think there's a missing piece there and I think there's opportunity. It's not necessarily, and we'll figure this out as we go along, are there resources missing but also is there a communication piece that they can receive and then do something with so that it's not just an automatic call to law enforcement. Well, I'd say it's more than a sense. 366 arrests would indicate to me that there is a nefarious activity of foot with persons that are not identifying as having a permanent address. Those of those three 66 people that would not identify as having a permanent address. That would be, I mean really the gamut, quality of life. I mean it could be something as simple as open container, urination, public urination, obstructing traffic, it could be sexual assault, physical assault, weapons offenses. It's a stranger to any of these issues and it is something that I, in my work and in my community partnership work are trying to consistently improve. But I can say in my experience that increasing hurdle and making access or even making very strict hard to follow rules as a prerequisite or a requirement for services and for engagement does not make this easier. And I think that in my experience of working with populations experiencing homelessness and experiencing mental health crises and experiencing addiction issues, it's, and then also the service provider community, it's not a willpower issue. We have a number of people who are here and ready to do work, it's not for us being an example, but also our community, the willpower is there. But I've spent months before trying to get an ID, trying to get a Social Security card, trying to get a driver's license, trying to track down a high school and a homeless visit so that someone can get a job, getting someone a food for a voucher, but not having all three of the documents at the same time, having someone who's engaging in two different services, but those two services have one piece missing that prevents that, that doesn't put the whole piece of the puzzle together. And so it just seems like we focus on the humanity. Well, thank you for that. We had a lot of eye contact, so I thought, well, that won't be directed at me. This is the good angle. No, I get it. So, I don't know if any of my characterizations were disrespectful. I look to maybe learn how to better communicate that. Your response is very consistent with the response that would be directed towards law enforcement. This is exactly why we don't need to be in this business. You know, we're asked to solve a very difficult problem, and you know, I am very data driven. You know, I don't, the numbers that I provided are real, but I would also say they represent a small percent of the issue. And a lot of the folks that would fall into that small percent are also the ones that intersect with you in the business that you're in. And really it's everybody else where I think we have an opportunity to change a life. Some of our frequent fliers have been, I think there is absolutely the path forward with that population is mental health services. But you know, we are thrust in the middle of all this, whether it's, but it all centers around violations of law. And you know, we should just be, that should just be a very small segment of the discussion, but I suspect we will come back to the police department and what we're doing or not doing throughout this, throughout these meetings. And you know, I just, you know, what I say, a lot of, it seems like all societies will get redirected back to us. And oftentimes with, you know, people are just fired up at law enforcement for what we do or don't do. And you know, we're human too, and I just think it's important that that's why I started out by saying our expectation and the standard we hold ourselves to as professionalism, constitutional policing, compassion and empathy. And it does all come back to that. But again, when we're put on the front line to figure the problem out in that moment in time, you know, it's just, it's complicated. Can I ask you to use a mic? There are people on Zoom that are listening and they can't hear you when you're speaking. So we can, I was just saying, I was intrigued, I was caught, I guess, by the number of 366 because one of the things that I do in my spare time is I look at the bond dockets every day and I see who's been arrested. And so I keep track of that data also and the numbers are very similar. But I also keep track of which of those individuals are being re-arrested who have competency concerns. And so it's not something that can be fixed by a law enforcement. So this was in no way a blaming situation. This was just an observation. So it's a complex issue that is both individual and systemic. And I just, my only point was to encourage us all to be intentional in separating that when we were talking about humans to be very intentional about the human aspect and we're talking about systemics, then we can be a little bit more broad and vague and general. But that was my only kind of thought and reaction. And I know, I actually don't know if you know this, but I do get calls from CPD officers who say I don't want to arrest this person, can you come engage them? There was someone in my office today that we got housed last week because officer Holmes gave us a call. So like that does happen. And I know that y'all don't want it to be a problem that's an arrest or nothing. And that's why we're here, right? So it was not pointed at any one person more of a philosophy. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Cali, before you leave the mic, slow, just walk slow. We'll be here. Something very important that you mentioned just a few minutes ago. As you know, that's my lean, of course, and that's the human experience side. But you raised an interesting point just a moment ago. Are they called homeless folk? Are they called unsheltered? Or do you call them brothers and sisters who happen to be in a position where they are up against the wall? I think clarity and understanding of where we are in terms of this, I don't want to say crisis, this situation, believe it or not, all of us are just a step from being in a crisis. And it's just not in my vocabulary right now. And I use it sometimes. But it's brothers and sisters who are in crisis. And I think in order to do something that is treatable and resolutional, something that is going to affect, now I know what chief, chief, that's what chief does. Chief, he does that. But for as for me and my house, your brothers and sisters, and I think that holistic approach has to be crisis. So I appreciate you raising that. I noted that you use that terminology and I'll share that the judges love it when I call my clients humans because defendant or inmate or incarcerated person, I don't like that terminology because we are all humans at the end of the day. So I agree. Thank you. Thank you very much. I just throw in, I think everybody here is here for a reason and we care about this issue and we are here for a compassionate reason. I don't understand the obsession with language. You know, if I'm a driver, when I get in a car and drive home, I'm a driver and so I'm not experiencing driving. I understand it's certainly, you don't wanna label folks in a derogatory way but homelessness is not a virus. It's not gonna strike me on the way home. It is usually a series of steps, some beyond the people's control, which is something that obviously we wanna address. But there, I just don't understand kind of the obsession with using the terminology experiencing versus homelessness. Maybe that's part of my ignorance if that's the case. But again, I think it's more, it's distracting from the primary issue, which is address how to alleviate some of the concerns or problems that those human beings are having, for sure. But I don't know that it's really super helpful to fight back and forth about what we call individuals and everybody's trying to help. So and I think that my colleagues and I on council will agree that this very real, I think tension is what we hear all the time where we have constituents come to us and say, this person stole money from our giving plate as we were worshiping at our church or this person came and harassed my family member, this person is having a mental health crisis, do something about it. And then, when we wanna have some of these discussions, it gets hard, right? It's a hard conversation. People are at different journeys in terms of understanding the complexities of the issue in removing their biases when talking about the issue. And so know that these are very real things that we have talked about and we are committed to attempting to address. And I think that this task force is certainly the first step towards a multitude of activities that will need to happen. But at the end of the day, what we consistently hear, right? Our seats are, they are the publics. And something we've consistently heard across districts and across the city is that this is an issue that constituents across Columbia have raised with us. And oftentimes, they are not talking about the 80 or 90% and that is a made up statistic of folks that are already engaged in some way in services. They're often talking about those that may be resistant for whatever reason because there's lots of reasons why. Or there are those that the system just hasn't done a good job of serving. And so that's really what I'd like for us to continue to keep in mind as we continue our discussions. So I think this is a nice segue into moving into the commitment the city has made in the past and has continued to make around addressing homelessness. And I'd invite Missy Kaufman to give us an overview of that and we will continue our discussions. Good afternoon and thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity and time to be here today. If we could advance the slides up if I have the slide. There we go. Some pretty small font up there. So hopefully folks can see this. Thank you, Dr. Bussells. As is mentioned, what we're talking about today are some of the funding commitments that the city has made specifically, both from our general fund dollars as well as from, we'll touch on a little bit about the funding that we received from HUD through our CDBG dollars. The city's, I'm sorry. For the public, HUD is Housing and Urban Development and CDBG is Community Block Development Grant. These are federal funds. Right, I was gonna mention that. But yes, thank you very much. So the city's general fund, of course, is our general budget. And what's provided up here, the city typically has, we have contracts for four different, four different homeless services contracts. And the contracts vary with three different providers or three different services. And one with United Way, which is for the operation of the city's inclement weather center. The inclement weather center has been funded this way since 2014 and has been open in the current manner since 2014. We have had various iterations of that service over the years, leading up to when the city first started opening the shelter on a regular basis. Prior to the city operating the shelter, it was a completely voluntary led service that was provided when certain weather conditions were met. That is true today. It is operated now under certain weather conditions from November 1st through March the 31st. It is, we have contracted with United Way. They are the primary for the contract and then they utilize different service providers for the actual delivery of services. Excuse me, so transitions provides the actual operations of the inclement weather center, staffing it with the staff at the shelter. The shelter is located near the city's water plant on Laurel Street. And it's operated, there's two different facilities. One facility for men and one facility for women. Transportation is provided to the shelter. There's also meals provided at night and in the morning for the guest. The services for food are provided by the Salvation Army and there's also contract for security services and transportation services. That's by far the largest part of the city's funding. The city allocates about a million dollars a year in funding from our general fund, four homeless services. And really these services are related to emergency services and sheltering services. Another contract we have with United Way is a much smaller portion is for a homeless services coordination. That also came about through a solicitation RFP request for proposals back from 2014 that resulted in the need for bringing together some additional resources to coordinate some of these services that we're discussing today. Part of what their services are, it does evolve throughout the year. Let me get back to United Way for the Inclimate Weather Center as well. The Inclimate Weather Center, while that contract is for the Inclimate Weather Center, it's only open from November the 1st, there is year-round staff that is also paid for, so we do also fund a case manager for that work that is an outreach provider. So they do go out on outreach calls with the police department and some other service providers as well. So that is, even though the center is only open for a certain period of time, it is a year-round contract. The homeless coordinator, the focus of the homeless coordinator has varied since the beginning of the 2014 period through now, but still focuses on prior to COVID. It was primarily coordination of the mill share coordination. That came about again as from a committee of mill share providers who are trying to help manage what's referred to as pop-up feeders and redirect them to a centralized service so that they can provide those services in a clean, safe, sanitary, trackable way. It is successful in terms of redirecting folks who have very generous hearts and have a need and desire to help those who are less fortunate make sure that there's meals available. But it doesn't stop everyone there, certainly still folks who decide to provide that service on their own, where they want, when they want. Again, part of what these services do is when they are encountering someone feeding, then they can provide them the information about how to redirect them toward a more coordinated service to the mill share committee and possibly partner with some of the other agencies. It is sometimes successful, sometimes maybe not, depending upon the individuals who are providing the services. I know there's a conversation a minute ago about communication, too. That's probably a big topic here in the sense of making what's known available and then being able to redirect those folks that had those good intentions. They also help with us, help coordinate the repeat offender or the folks who are frequently provided or are engaged with the police department that are often re-engaged in finding, I think it was mentioned, to five points of re-engagement of the same person over and over, the hard to treat or hard to be able to access resources. They do help coordinate with those services and provide some outreach assistance with the police department in those instances. And they also help, this funding also helps go towards the HMIS, which is the homeless management information system. That's a nationwide management system. United Way is a single point of contact for, I know the Midlands may be the state of South Carolina, and so that helps to support that reporting as well, which obviously contributes as well to the point in time count that's done every January across the country. The next contract that we provide is with USC, Supportive Housing, and that is support of the Housing First model. That's a national model for chronically homeless persons in Supportive Housing. It's a national model. Our contract specifically funds the support of services of that contract. The Housing Authority actually provides for the housing component of that program. So our services are, of course, the city's funding is a partial funding of that service. And finally, we support the Midlands Housing Alliance for, which is Transitions, and that came about many years ago from City Council when Transitions was open. It's primarily paid for the security services provided at Transitions. Any questions about the city's general fund allocations? All right, the next slide. The homeless services from HUD, which as Dr. Bussells has mentioned, is the US Housing and Urban Development allocations from the Community Development Block Grant, which is an entitlement grant that the city receives along with several other cities across the country, across the state and across the country to address a number of specific areas of interest to HUD. And with our Community Development Block Grant in the current fiscal year, Homeless No More is in receipt of $40,000. Homeless No More operates both family shelter, St. Lawrence Place, Oak Place, and Myrtle. So they provide end-to-end homeless services for families from emergency shelter all the way through transitional and permanent housing. Mental Illness Recovery Center, Mercy, which I think we have a representation, providing services there as well. We have a history, if we can go to the next slide, of providing those services as well through our Community Development Block Grant as well. This is a summary of some of those services over the past several years. Again, Mercy has been for Mental Illness Recovery, Supportive Housing for Youth, Homeless No More is then Homeless Families. Again, the funding here is more of the housing of families and youth programs that are experiencing homelessness, maybe not necessarily the emergency shelter type that we're talking about maybe now. In addition to what you have on the slide here today, City also receives from Housing and Urban Development funds for our home program, which is also a national HUD program that is attributed to assistance with affordable housing and housing services, so it's more for prevention of homelessness, and then also our Housing Hopway, which is housing of persons with AIDS. It is also utilized for helping to prevent homelessness as well for a specific, obviously, population. Thank you. You're welcome. So one thing I would like to note is that recently City Council did allocate some of our HUD American Rescue Plan dollars towards non-congregate housing, as that was recognized as a need from our homeless service providers that there is not enough non-congregate housing in the city, and so we are looking forward to continuing to work with them and make this investment to help continue to provide housing for those experiencing homelessness. And I think it's important to highlight that, again, this is just one piece of the puzzle, right? Housing, access to opportunities, access to healthy food. There are a lot of different channels that go into addressing homelessness, and it is very helpful to see that we have continued to invest, and one of the gaps that I've seen that Missy alluded to is that sometimes the services provided only can help a specific population, and perhaps that is keeping us from being able to work with those that may be resistant to services or may not be eligible for services, and perhaps that's where some of the continued challenges with working with those experiencing homelessness may also be arising. So that's just an observation there, but I wanna open it up and see if anybody has any questions or any comments. I also would be remissed if not to acknowledge that we have a homeless expert, someone that I looked up to when pursuing my PhD here at the table, and would love to hear from Dr. Kluis as well about some of his thoughts. That sounds like an invitation, I can't refuse, yes. I've been in Columbia since 2003, and there've been a number of initiatives the city has taken in leadership at different times. The last speaker talked about 2014 task force there was a commission in 2006, there was a blueprint and homelessness, and I very much appreciate the interest in thinking broadly about what we can do to reduce the number of people who are homeless to prevent individuals from having homelessness. I think it is an issue that we'll have for a long time, but prevention focus considers other options thinking about housing, and what I've noted in looking at research around the country is that communities that are coordinated have better outcomes, and so the interests, the efforts of the police department, the public defender, and finding out the public defender's office, you actually partnered with and prevented the episode of homelessness, or you ended someone's homelessness. There's information about what's happening here in Columbia that we only know part of, so this task force can make that more available and have information available for neighbors and neighborhood associations to share for business owners. We have been primarily talking about unsheltered homeless, people that find themselves in that situation, and their needs are different than others. There was a community advocate that taught me a long time ago that homelessness is the most cruel game of musical chairs you can imagine, that the affordability of housing issue will guarantee that someone will become homeless, and rents are going up. We see it, I saw it in the state paper earlier this week about rents going up, that means more people will be homeless, more people will be at risk of being homeless. The musical chairs part of it is who becomes homeless, that's people that have some disadvantage and can't get to the chair fast enough. It's a mental health problem or substance abuse problem, but it might be domestic violence, it might be a fire in an apartment complex. Those that we see more often and think are homeless tend to have some disabilities making it more visible, they stand out. But they may only be about 10 or 15% of the population people are homeless in the community. Those numbers are fairly robust in many communities that I've seen. So I think if we can be more coordinated, if we can find a balance in doing that, we'll be more compassionate, we'll balance with public safety and human dignity. And there are some research studies that suggest it's more expensive to be on the street and be using public defender system or police or whatnot. About $38,000 compared to $30,000 in New York City. There's similar data in Philadelphia. And I think Charlotte actually with their housing first program in Charlotte. I did note that the city's funding is of a million dollars roughly has been generous. It sounds like the need has increased. And so to hear about the recovery act funding addressing that, but I hope that we will be able to think about this as a six month commitment but not end at that point that the coordination effort needs to continue. And that was a big part of the commission as I understand in 2006 that the vision of commission that did not continue after 2006. Absolutely, Dr. Cluz. I think this is something that we will continue to have a commitment. But the reality is is that we need both short term and long term solutions. And those short term solutions are hard to figure out. And that's why we're all here together to hopefully be able to identify some of them. And so if it means that after releasing some of our short term strategies that this is something that we would like to continue. You know, I'm very open to that. I think the mayor would be as well. But I think it's important to recognize that right now we are experiencing a crisis. Many, many health conditions, social conditions have been exacerbated by COVID. And it really elucidating how our systems are not serving people well, but also, you know, resulting in some unintended consequences that none of us could have anticipated. And so I think that's a great segue into really thinking about, and this is something I'll open up to the group. And I know, Tracy, you'd like to share some updates as well. What can we do or what would you like to see South Carolina do, right? This is not just Columbia. There's an urban myth out there. And I'd like to hear if there's some validity down the road as we commission this study. That cities across South Carolina are sending folks here to Columbia because we are the only area that provides services. And if you look at the scope of services, many of our providers are serving Midlands. They're serving all of the Midlands. They're serving up to Rock Hill. And so I think it's also important for us to recognize that while the city is the leader in convening and bringing people together, this is something that we need our partners and other governments as well as the state house to help us in solving as well. I'm sorry, could I have one other thing I had forgotten about the urgency? So eviction moratoriums are ending. South Carolina is already the state that has the highest eviction rate in the country. 2016 data in earlier, I think it's gonna get much worse this summer than it is even now. That was like a perfect segue. Amazing. What I wanted to do, I just wanted to share some information that we had. We did a research project last year in Columbia and I wanted just to give you some data because I really think it's gonna kind of capture some of the bigger points that we were discussing here. And we worked with 30 individuals that were currently experiencing homelessness because as an organization, we feel that in order to truly understand it, we have to get down to that level to really work with people and to establish rapport and then we can do quality assessments with these individuals and that's what we did with 30 people. So I just wanna give you some of the data. We had 29 of the 30 participants of our research project identified some form of healthcare issue, concern, whether it's physical behavioral health or addiction. We rolled addiction within the health side of it. So we had 97% of the individuals we worked with had those identified needs. 22 of the 29 participants identified emotional trauma related concerns which equates to 76% of the participants. So both of those numbers are really, really high and we really found that there was a lot of needs that were currently not being addressed. When we started the actual project itself, we were really focusing on recidivism because working with this population in Columbia since 2015-ish, I saw how people would enter into programs or housing programs but then six, seven, eight months later they wound back up on the streets. I just couldn't wrap my brain around it. So that's why we started with focusing on the recidivism piece but we quickly just kind of like open it up to, hey, this is a bigger thing that we need to explore. When we talk about somebody mentioned cost and shelters, we did across our 28 individuals. Two individuals that never stayed in the shelter. Of the 28 that stayed, they averaged 173 nights per person. And then when you look at the cost, so we averaged that it was $5,017 per participant for shelter costs. So when you add that up, that's pretty extensive. We had some other data related to why did you go into a shelter and then why did you choose to leave? But more so, I wanted to focus on the needs part of it because when we looked at the actual percentage of individuals who left the shelter as an unsuccessful outcome, we realized that the majority of those exited by choice which was 71% said that their needs weren't being met. So we thought about, okay, you have a bed, you have resources, you have services, but when it came down to it, they felt that their needs weren't being addressed. So when we take that and we look at it from a big picture perspective, we think about housing, we think about services or whatnot, but when you drill down to the core of it, it comes down to individuals' needs. We think about housing and all these other things, but when we look at it from a needs perspective, you think about how that drives everything afterwards. So we've got individuals with behavioral health issues, physical issues, addiction issues, and we look at their needs and we get down and step back and look at the needs and how do you identify those needs? Chief, you talked about it when you interact with individuals that are out there. I wouldn't expect somebody, an officer to show up and be able to identify somebody's needs and correctly navigate them towards the resource. It's an intentional process where somebody has to receive a quality assessment to truly understand the full picture of their needs and from that, integrate it into a service, okay? And that's another thing that I know that we were just talking about as well as integrated services. So we are currently with our partnership with the city, we are looking at several things, one being a platform, which is a service provider platform but it's an internal platform and an external platform. Somebody mentioned up here like, hey, there was a number you could call when you have somebody that you think is unsheltered and you want, so that's what we're looking at right now as far as a platform is concerned. So something internally where we could plug in these resources and services, because we just talked about how important the collaboration piece is, which right now we really don't have a true collaboration or coordinated entry process in my humble opinion, but that internal piece would connect all of those together and then from an external, you'd have a source that you could go to where you could plug into that system and then once the person is in the system, they operate internally as far as getting the service connected. Sounds great, right? It actually, it is. The good thing that I like about it and I'm a big proponent of accountability. So what I like about what I'm looking at right now is this system has an accountability component where somebody comes in, they receive an assessment based on their needs, they're directed to a service and then when that person gets assigned or that person is assigned to that service, there's a clock that starts on there. So there's accountability clock on there where this person has to get contacted, engaged and then at that point, they'll say, yes, hey, I can fill their needs or no, I can't and this is why they get redirected. So that's what we're looking at right now. Are you suggesting like an intake center? Well, this is what I'm talking about is strictly a platform. Okay, but we've got other components to it. Is that like an online platform? It is, it is an online platform because when we think about like a consolidated care center, I would absolutely support that we bring people into a single point where people can be funneled through services that way. However, I've seen in the past where some organizations or programs have been resistant to that. So when we think about doing it from an online perspective, it's easier but the biggest piece of it is the accountability piece and that's something that I've been really, really looking for and that's what we're currently working on right now. So you'd have assessment, referral, case management, accountability, but you also have a public connect component to it as well. How does that fit into the whole framework of triaging? Whether you triage, can you accurately get a good assessment of someone online and how do you bridge that gap in terms of the triage where you did bam, bam, bam. And I hear that a little bit, but I hear more so the perhaps the online presence and getting a good feel for that as opposed to that in-person touch. Right, I understand and maybe I didn't explain it as well as I should have. And that's what I wanted to ask. Yeah, absolutely. So think about it, a concept of an individual says, hey, I am either unsheltered or I'm at risk of becoming, okay. From an external perspective, they could make a phone call or they could go to a website and they fill out some information and then that would be funneled to a service provider that would schedule an appointment with that person and then they would conduct an in-person assessment with that person. So that would be the intake process. So that's when the triage began. Correct, correct, correct. So I didn't explain it as well as I should. Well, I appreciate the overview and we'll have Tracy back to give us a more in-depth overview as he continues his study. And so, and one thing I want to continue to challenge us all to think about going back to, because this is the hard part, what is it that we can do in the short term? A lot of these strategies to make systemic change are going to be long-term and they're things that we are all going to have to work together to invest in, particularly as it has to do with coordination of services. But what can we do in the short term to address some of the very real challenges that we are seeing in our city, whether it's in the form of affecting our neighborhoods, our businesses, whether it's in the form of people not getting the mental health services that we need and we've talked about some of them today but I will be someone that will continue to push our committee to think in terms of what we can do in the short term in addition to the long term because it's something that we've consistently heard from our constituents that we need to address. So I want to be able to get us out of here before six. So I will open it up if there's any other last minute comments before I hand it over to my colleagues to make some final observations. Could I ask one other question? So the Midlands Area Consortium for the Homeless has to coordinate with service provider groups to get any HUD funding. And part of the Mock, M-A-C-H, I believe they have a screening process too. They use a vulnerability index. Were you describing something that's separate from that? So one of the, my understanding is the Mock does very good work but it's only people that are participating in that. You're thinking about creating a resource that's maybe parallel to that but for other people that aren't participating in the Mock. What I'm talking about is the biopsychosocial psychosocial which is a whole, all around the system. Great, thank you. And just to repeat that for the public what Tracy said was that for those listening on Zoom is that he's talking about a biopsychosocial assessment that would allow a holistic approach to understanding people's needs. Any other comments? I just want to make a comment real quick. Excuse me. One of the biggest problems that we find ourselves dealing with in the probate court, especially when we're talking about mental health and getting people to the services that they need there as has been shown today there's plenty of resources out there. Even with the online platform I think that's great. And Ms. Farrell can't attest to this but most of the time what I'm finding in my courtroom is people aren't able to make that first appointment which is the catalyst to them being seen being put in the system, being followed through with a case manager and being able to have those resources given to them, directed to them. So I'm asking is there any way that we can dedicate? And the biggest thing I always hear in my courtroom is I don't have transportation. And so, and it turns out that if they are able to get over to let's say Columbia area or the RAIDAC or any of the many resources that we have for them they can then find resources to maybe get a bus pass or something like that in order to make those trips more successful but it's always that first trip. And so, I know you guys will get them there in a crisis situation but are you telling me that if for that first trip they needed to call CPD? Tell them if we bring some of you in crisis and we're gonna keep them from going right back on the street and creating the same issue that we will take them where you need to take them to get them off the street and get the services they need. All right, I understand that in a crisis situation but what about a non-crisis situation? This is a person that could be like you said on the cusp of homelessness or on the cuffs of having a breakdown and they're living with their parents or something like that and their parents are working. They don't have a way to get there. They're not gonna call the police to take them. And I think that's really where our partners that are working with people experiencing homelessness every day have to really step up and help us. The city again can't be doing everything but we certainly need to do our part. And so I think a large part of this process as well and I know we've mentioned this several times but it's hard is to bring our provider community, our community advocacy groups together and to be able to really help them understand where there are opportunities to be the early interveners or to be the partner that we are able to refer. I mean yesterday we had a man, a young man, my age in his early 30s experiencing homelessness that came just to speak during the public comment session saying we need help. And so I had the opportunity to talk with him after the city council and he just simply, he didn't even know Mercy or Laredak or you name it. He didn't even know they existed and he had been homeless for six months. And so some of those things are as simple as going back to I think what Ms. Farrell talked about is are we communicating in a way that is even effective? Are we assuming that people have internet access? I mean he had a phone and he said most people that he in his shelter had access to a phone. That's a great thing. Perhaps we use that in order for us to then leverage existing services and ensure people get the services that we need. So I appreciate that comment. And Steve I think it'll be our last comment. Yeah just a quick question really. The homeless service contracts that are in the general fund for the city. It appears pretty consistent year to year. Is there any analysis year to year on how effective those organizations are using those city funds? Or is it almost looks like a line item? Is there a very neat kind of analysis of how effective those organizations are? I think that's what I was I guess suggesting earlier that perhaps through the task force as well being that you all are mentioning some of the things that from where I sit I would think that the providers need to be addressing. You know they're they're a lot of item at this point. So I will now pass it over to Councilman Brennan and then Councilman McDowell for us to close. Dr. Bussells thank you for recording this focus group. I feel like it was a wonderful way to get to know each other and get to know the community of caring professionals and to learn more. And I'm glad I'm going before the Reverend. I hate going after him because he's so smooth. It must be that higher calling but to that point of higher calling I think everybody in the room right now has a higher calling for being here. You're very compassionate. You care about the citizens of this city our wonderful city. So I thank you for that to the panel. Thank you for coming out and I look forward to the next few months of really getting to know more about everything that you do, your knowledge. You need to help us understand the gaps in service not just here in Columbia but in the Midlands and in the state. I'm a big believer that the state has a big role to play in the ultimate solution for all of us. So I look forward to the public defender's office and private court. Please share with us what are some of the gaps that we as a voice city of Columbia can bring forward to the county, to the state. We have a pretty strong voice under this Columbia flag. And if we all get together and coordinate our voice we can get things done. I look forward to it. Thanks for being here everybody. Dr. Bussellers thank you so much for bringing us all together in a common room to talk about a serious issue within the confines of our city. Not only in our city but in this nation of ours. One of the things that I thought about more so than anything as I sat and listened. We cannot play or let's not play the blaming game only. This is not CPD's sole responsibility. As I listened today this is a collaborative effort. Nothing is going to get done until the village embraces this whole issue of our brothers and sisters being in places and in situations when it becomes dangerous, when it becomes uninvited. There needs to be as we think through this as I leaned over to my colleague. I simply said to her and of course we were on the same sheet of paper. This is just the beginning steps of what needs to take place these next six months. We cannot say CPD is not doing their part. A mental health is not doing their part. Civic center is not doing their part. A five points is not doing their part. This has to be an effort that hopefully and preferably will sort of fill in the gaps. We've got a gap in services. We've got brothers and sisters who are confined and it's almost like being painted in a corner and when they are painted in a corner things happen. And I don't want us to please don't get the impression that CPD because we have got counselors on board at CPD but that's not the cure-all. All of us, every community has to play a part in the healing and the redirection where we're going in as we look at this critical issue within the confines of our city. I think we need to meet next week. I am very appreciative of those who very honestly and very genuinely spoke of your concerns, what you do for us, what the city does. We could very well say let's do some more if we can but I think honest and genuine conversation has to ensue itself and when we ensue ourselves into that kind of conversation, we are able to embrace the whole issue of this critical crisis within our community. Dr. Bussells, thank you very much. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for bringing us together to not only talk about it because we can talk about it all day until action starts. That's when brothers and sisters are taken off of there, take off the chains that bind them and they are able to see pleasant horizon of affordable housing, of creative care and for triage assessments that get at the very hard. Thank you all so much. As you know, I'm a retired preacher usually. After all of this, I'd ask you to take up a girlfriend but I won't do that today. He will not do that today. Thank you all. Thank you Dr. Bussells. Absolutely, so in closing, a couple of final updates I'd like to share with you. So we know that this work again is complex and so I recently joined the affordable housing task force that Chairwoman Herbert is overseeing and so we hope that by both of these committees working simultaneously, we're able to build some holistic solutions to address the problem. I'd also like to share that you all will be receiving if you have not already our future homeless task force meetings and with those meetings, we'll also be having a meeting specifically with providers that have been funded by the city. So those are providers like homeless no more, mercy and a lot of the organizations are not coming to me off the top of my head but we will have also dedicated time to hear from them about some of the work that they do and what they believe is the solution for us to move forward to address this issue. Thank you all for your time. I think next time we may go until six as the work continues but for today, I appreciate you all being open and honest and look forward to continuing our conversations and work together.