By Ashley McCarty-
The third local Community Meeting was held on Sept. 10 with Executive Director Craig Gullion from Compass Point Housing on hand to discuss the homelessness issue.
Those in attendance were Gullion, Jason Francis, Donna Young, Ryan Myers, Chelsea Blevins, Brett Spencer, Sarah Thomas, and Shawnda Prater.
“I appreciate Jason asking me to participate in the meetings. Had we known about a previous meeting, we would have come to that,” said Gullion.
Gullion explained that Compass Point Housing is an independent non-profit affiliated with The Counseling Center, Inc.
“Our role at Compass Point Housing is to find and maintain housing that we consider recovering housing for people that are in treatment for substance abuse disorders. We take referrals from The Counseling Center. The Counseling Center provides not only those referrals, but they also offer recovery support services, and that’s the staff people that work in those houses, they also provide transportation and outpatient services that those people attend,” said Gullion.
Compass Point Housing communicates with The Counseling Center, Inc. wherein the center explains what their needs are and where they are located.
“Our role is to find those properties and be able to fulfill those needs, but also work with the local Board of Mental Health and Addiction Services. They try and assess where the needs are not only for addiction needs, but also mental health needs, as well,” said Gullion.
The Counseling Center, Inc. works with referral sources to place individuals accordingly on where spots are available. According to The Counseling Center, Inc. 90 percent are legal referrals, 10 percent are voluntary.
Gullion explained that Compass Point Housing has three different levels of housing, Level One, Two and Three, respectively. Level Three housing is staffed around the clock, whereas Level Two is more peer run with some staff surveillance. Those individuals are still connected to treatment services at The Counseling Center, Inc. and employment readiness.
“This group will be working to fill the gap for the individuals that leave the program. After they leave, they either become homeless, they kind of get back in that cycle. We will be working on finding a solution for those individuals that do leave,” said Francis.
Gullion said that, although he didn’t work for The Counseling Center, Inc. that Francis may want to get in touch with them to discuss their three-page policy on the procedures that they take when a client leaves the program.
“I was hoping that a representative from the Adams County Homeless Shelter would be here, but one of the issues they have is, when they do get an individual that is either using, or has a warrant, or, if they would leave the program, if they’re on a court-order and they leave, so then they’d have a warrant for their arrest. So, the homeless shelter can’t take them, and if they’re in that cycle already of being on drugs, the homeless shelter can’t them, so they either end up in the woods in a tent, or the fairgrounds, or the lake. That’s the gap that we’re trying to fill,” said Francis.
The Counseling Center, Inc. in Portsmouth transports the individuals to the appropriate housing facility; the group posed whether or not the center could also return the individuals.
“There’s a lot of our people that suffer from dual-diagnosis, and probably 85 or 90 percent of them have trauma. They’ve had trauma in their life, and there’s a lot of complex issues that have led them to the path they are right now,” said Gullion.
Gullion said there were three of each level housing facility in the county.
“Primarily, there’s peers living there, but then they have staff oversight; there may not necessarily be someone there 24/7. There’s one house that we looked at, it had an office there that was locked, but there was no one in the office at that particular point in time. They have different office hours there. The people that are living in the Level Two, they’re working, not only going to treatment services, but they’re also working to try to find employment and get jobs and stuff like that, too. So, they may have different times that someone is actually there to work with them, and it’s more of like case management at that point,” said Gullion.
Francis disclosed that not all individuals experiencing homelessness were associated with The Counseling Center, Inc. and Compass Point Housing.
“We’re very concerned about — and I know The Counseling Center is, too — about outreaching to those that may be suffering with mental health or addiction issues that end up homeless. So, perhaps they can have some sort of help with some sort of outreach to be able to go to where those people are, outreach to them,” said Gullion.
Part of the outreach could involve Shawnee Mental Health, he added.
Francis said he would put together a catalogue of services for targeted individuals.
“One of the things that we can do with this coordinated plan, is, now there is one document that has every possible treatment plan available. If someone says they need help, here is your reference guide. Some of the goals that we had [were] not only to contact The Counseling Center, but start a program with the homeless shelter to help that organization get funding for other housing, possibly more cameras, that kind of thing. So, there will be a resource guide, and there will also be working goals that we can work towards,” said Francis.
The group also discussed how mental health affects homelessness, drug abuse and crime, and continuing education for these individuals.
“I know McDonald’s most certainly, at 40-hours a week, or even Columbus Industries, or even working a full-time job making on average, walk-in, no college degree is anywhere between $11 to $15/hour, and with most rents around here being $600 to $700/month for a trailer, when you’re looking at that, it doesn’t seem feasible. So, maybe we could also focus a little more on education,” said Thomas.
Francis said that was one of the things they were working on. Spencer briefed Thomas on the future of the former Prather’s IGA building.
It was announced earlier this year that Adams County received a $2.3 million grant from the Ohio Development Services Agency to renovate and turn the former IGA building into a workforce development and training center.
“So, what that program is, it’s exactly what you’re talking about,” said Spencer. Spencer said there will be six to eight professional programs that will be available at the training center.
“There will be all kinds of levels of vocational training, there will also be the ability to get a high school education as well was certification vocation. It’s an exciting thing, it’s one of the most exciting things I’ve seen come down the pike in a long time. They project January to February, I’m praying it’s available by May of 2021. I would be thrilled after 14 years to focus on this sort of vocational training and education. Get them a good job and life skill training,” said Spencer.