 What a monumental day, and I really want city staff That are down there to come up here because this day would not have happened But for these folks and when I tell you in a day's time two days time like the passion The mission that I have seen in the last few days. I cannot express I'm gonna get emotional. I'm so grateful So extremely proud of this team Some of them are to have gone and come back and then we had Gray eyes some of you know, Mr. James Sanders in the Belvedere community out here Doing hot dogs on the grill and chili today. I mean it has just Been the epitome of what Columbia is coming together making something happen that Was just an idea For our community. So I'm Teresa Wilson city manager I'm gonna hand off to our mayor Daniel Rickam in and councilwoman oddity bustles who has chaired our Task force to prevent an in homelessness and let them talk about some of the strategies and what has brought us here today But I feel confident in saying from the city's perspective We're looking at a new era To help end homelessness in commute in our community the chronically unsheltered having a new tool in the toolbox if they choose to use it and Have an opportunity for a dignified option For transitional housing, it's not meant to be the end all solution But it is another tool and the city can't do it by themselves by ourselves But we are clearly demonstrating through this council True investment in human capital because we'll and we'll talk let you talk to our new Homeless services director and her team today and we are we have more than double the fiscal investment By the city in homeless services. And so with that We want to show this approach to ask our partners to now Up with us and let's address this even further. So with that, I'll give it to Mayor Daniel Rickam in Thanks, everybody for being here today. Thank all of council. That's here today Councilman McDowell Councilman DeVall councilwoman Herbert councilman Brennan councilwoman Dr. Bustles excuse me Make sure that I get everybody correct But y'all this is this is incredible Think about this this project in less than 70 days came from an email research to reality Less than 70 days Not only are we looking at providing Opportunity for our unsheltered where we have our deep focus now. I'm gonna be very clear This is temporary our long-term goal is to provide a permanent solution with the wraparound services That provide each and every individual who's suffering through homelessness through whatever the circumstance is an Opportunity to have a successful life moving forward in a home shelter Apartment etc. We're gonna continue to work together as a community, but These folks over here if they're in their uniform or not in their uniform Sacrifice their extra time effort to make this happen. It was a community build It was a city project from its inception to now as it's coming out of the ground and you know on behalf of a Grateful city on behalf of this city council. I want to give y'all a hand and say thank you This is only the beginning And I want to thank all our partners all the people who came and sat down I know miss Wilson and her team Had extensive meetings to put all the logistics together But we're now taking a step forward We're not gonna solve it with this issue But we're gonna reduce it and we're gonna make sure that people have a dignified place to go and an opportunity to take advantage of all the services all the compassion and Everything that this community has to offer if you're in that situation with that I'm gonna hand it over to dr. Bussells as I reflect on February which feels like a lifetime ago, but really wasn't that long ago when the mayor Volin told me that I would be chairing the task force I think one thing was very clear with my colleagues and I councilman Brennan and councilman McDowell That the way things are happening was not working and that required us to have some hard conversations Uncomfortable conversations. We had to really look within our city. Look at the way things are set up the way We may have been avoiding Solving the root causes of issues facing our city and kicking the can down the road for years and really hold people Accountable and so today what you see is a combination or a perfect storm of so many Wonderful things that the city has to offer our exceptional staff that put this together in 70 days Our partners that were willing to pivot and recognize that we have to try things a little bit differently our city manager that was open to a new approach that the city council wanted to take in terms of Streamlining and bringing services back into the city in terms of the coordination and understanding where there are gaps and most importantly a community that was very supportive whether it was business owners our state legislators our Community partners that recognize that this is not just a that neighborhood or that corner of the city issue This is something that affects everyone No neighbor no citizen should be forced to live on the street and when we take care of our own our city grows It thrives and there's so much potential that we can reach And so this is just one step in our journey to ensuring that Columbia is an exceptional compassionate place that takes care of our citizens And so I wanted to talk a little bit about our short-term and our long-term solutions I'm gonna pause Yeah, we're working on our quiet zones actually. Thank you mayor. So hopefully that'll resolve some of that We always knew that the task force would immediately be focused on short-term solutions That is for the 250 people that we estimate are chronically unsheltered We knew that by November 1st when typically our temperatures drop We had to do something about that right and in our research and in our conversations with providers and community members We realized that no one was actually focused on this specific population It can be very daunting to think about homelessness when you think about it as an entire issue But when you start to narrow down what the city's lane is what the city's what the city's purview is We began to realize there's really a path to make a difference And so like city manager said the city can't do it all but we can certainly do our part And so as we started to look at the chronically unsheltered We realized that the number one thing we need is a place where people can have temporary housing That is single occupancy So one of the things that you'll notice in the pallet shelters is that people can live alone and with dignity and The second thing is is we got to have providers meet where meet where people are and when you look at the map of services All across the Greater Richland area even with a car It's difficult to reach some of the services that are available for the homeless And so we really hope that this is an opportunity to develop that hub that triage point where providers can come and get Folks into the services that they need and really make a more effective system that allows those wraparound services to occur This is a short-term solution to a long-term problem And there's much more work to be done that you will be hearing about over the next several months and years To help kind of put those puzzle pieces in place I Think I've shared with you all in the past that we've learned that Columbia actually is the only place That has a low barrier shelter like our partners at transitions In fact, we serve almost 19 counties just in Columbia And so today I'm asking my regional and state partners to step up and help us because We can't take the social burden and cost of those experiencing homelessness alone for the entire state And we're continuing to work for that regional cooperation that state cooperation to ensure that we're providing services that are Done well and are well supported by our our partners We've also learned that there continues to be a lack of services after 5 p.m Particularly around mental health yesterday at our legislative committee meeting We worked with our lobbyists to start thinking about a strategy to work with the state to hopefully expand our crisis Mobilization unit and other services available after five so that people won't have to go to jail when they have a mental health crisis We've talked about ways in which we can continue to streamline the services that are available We have over a hundred programs available to adjust different facets of homelessness And we recognize that sometimes people just don't talk to each other And we hope that with the hiring of our amazing new director and our manager and then of course any future staff to come We can help start having some of those conversations to ensure that we are Streamlining those services And lastly we know that this is just one piece of the pie, right? The Columbia can only do so much and we hope that this inspires our Partners in neighboring entities counties states It to really do their part and and recognize that when we work together and when we recognize when things aren't working Anything is really possible. So I want to thank the staff once again for all of their hard work I want to thank the task force for being okay with being uncomfortable having conversations about what needs to happen And I want to thank my colleagues that have worked alongside me to make sure that we Get to a place where we can treat our neighbors with dignity. So thank you and I'll pass it over to our city manager so I would like for Henry Simons our assistant city manager over operations to come up and stand with me as well as Camisha Hepard the new director of homeless services for the city of Columbia between the two of them We can give you a few stats Kind of lay out the site for you from a logistical standpoint the infrastructure you see will offer tours when we finish You might start hearing some Noise behind me in a little bit because these folks are going to show you how these literally come together and have have been Constructed in such a short period of time And Camisha will talk about the programming of the site the wraparound services Dr. Bussells mentioned the trauma-informed care that we Philosophically hope to ensure is happening here as well as case management So Henry and then Camisha will will speak and I can help fill in any blank. She might have I'd like to thank mayor Rickerman our entire city council for their endorsement of The Rapid Shelter Columbia and of course especially our city manager Teresa Wilson for leading this Project, which we envision Will transform lives It is my pleasure this afternoon to Provide a brief update on the Rapid Shelter Columbia construction currently going on all around you We are finalizing construction of 54 pallet shelters For a chronically unsheltered homeless population as have been indicated earlier 50 of these shelters are 64 square foot units that will house one person each Each unit is equipped with the air conditioning unit heat a fire extinguisher convenience outlets with two USB ports and emergency exit door and one bed The four remaining units are 100 square feet units and we will utilize them for security city staff and provider operations With unanimous approval by our mayor As well as our entire council we launched this project in early September As you can see in very in a very short timeframe, we made significant progress with this work a tremendous amount has been done To keep this project on track from our engineering drawings Which includes grading and our drainage plan to dominion energy partners Who completed an installation of our new service and transformer and are also energized the electrical meters for the pallet Shelter themselves There is also installation of sidewalks that have taken place artificial turf fencing as well as fiber installations Completed in our overflow buildings what you see to the right of me your left to include communication and camera wiring as well There'll be installation of 29 cameras Within and around the shelter to ensure that the campus is secure and safe and we've also incorporated LED lighting as well Everyone involved is Extremely proud of this effort Including our internal departments as miss Wilson has discussed earlier Who formulated teams to complete this project? Just an incredible amount of teamwork that has been exhibited and on display even even as of today So I would like to recognize the following departments for their commitment public works our police department engineering our fire department Parks and Recreation Utilities department all these departments came together Absolutely Thank you. Thank you very much Came together formulated their teams and it was just amazing how quickly they work So we're grateful for their participation So we're working towards a tentative completion date of November 1st We would like to be ready to receive our first client In and around that time and this pretty much concludes my my update again We are sincerely thankful for the commitment of our external partners as well as our internal partners our city staff For the work that's been done now at this time I would like to introduce Camisha Hepard the director of homeless services for the city of Columbia, Camisha Good afternoon everybody Thank you for saying Hepard my name correctly I'm privileged to be here today. I want to thank the city council miss Wilson The council I want to thank mr. Craig Curry from transitions allowing my transition into this position to be easy and smooth I'm excited about doing something that has never been done before I'm Encouraged because I'm a part of a great community where the resources already exist So it will not be a hard thing in bringing individuals Experience and homelessness into these single occupancy pallets We have hired a great team of individuals That's going to be able to assist me with making appropriate assessments with clients Bringing them in providing the resources that they need the goal would be to bring them to a point of stabilization whether it's with their mental health or substance use or Whatever reason whatever Brought them to homelessness bringing them to stabilization and then identifying the appropriate transitional housing for them So how's it may look different for each individual? Some may need to be in supportive housing where the wraparound services are there and they have a meeting each week and Following up with what is necessary Some may be able to use rapid rehousing if you guys are familiar with that what they just need a little bit of help The transition over into housing and work on their Needs in their home I'm just excited for the opportunity I Came up just open to answer any questions anybody had I Apologize a little nervous. Excuse me So I did invite some of our partners and I thank um Melanie from Salvation Army Comet and I already recognized mr. Curry from transitions Just excited to be able to partner with them and I know that we're gonna do great things because we have done great things Thank you. First of all Unbelievable job miss Wilson. Thanks for your leadership Staff has been incredible Safety obviously has been an important part of the discussion as this has been imagined and in planned We're working with private security firm that will have a 24-7 presence here and That is a that's a presence that'll that can escalate in numbers based on the the population that we're serving here The number one priority is Safety of the clients being served and safety of our staff We've had lengthy discussions about the quality of Of security personnel with an emphasis on de-escalation conflict resolution But again number one priority is to keep everybody safe Communications important with internally with staff and and I and I say internally including the police department Although we are not providing the security here We are the first line of defense and will be in constant communication We are a very big part of the referral process and delivering potential clients here And of course we work closely with all of our city team on any kind of security or safety measures and and That relationship will be strong here as well