The city of Pensacola paid consultant Robert Marbut $30,000 to facilitate its Task Force on Improving Human Services and develop a set of recommendations on how the city should deal with its homeless populations.
Dr. Marbut, who has worked on developing solutions for other areas in Florida, was brought in after the city’s homeless ordinances, including one that banned blankets in public parks, drew national scorn.
[For more on Marbut, read the press release on him that was sent out when he was part of the city’s Community Forum on Homelessness – Marbut Forum Intro.]
Dr. Marbut was touted for his “ability to work with a wide range of parties and interests to develop logical and well-planned initiatives that are doable in the real world.”
According to the city, his Marbut Consulting had helped communities to dramatically reduce their homeless street populations while improving street graduation rates. While traditional shelters may have graduation rates of 5 to 9 percent, communities around the country, which has used his transformative principles, have graduation success rates of 51 to 84 percent.
Like Robert Lupton, who visited Pensacola last week, and his “Toxic Charities” concept, Malbut believes that Pensacola enables the homeless, rather than really helping them.
In early October 2014, Marbut and the Task Force on Improving Human Services presented its recommendations to the Pensacola City Council after the briefed Mayor Ashton Hayward and his staff.
Those recommendations were:
1. Move from a Culture of Enablement to a Culture of Engagement. Redirect community from giving handouts to homeless to giving food and donations to “high performing†agencies that increase “street graduation†rates.
2. Transform Home Management Information Service (HMIS) from a “Score Keeper Model†to a “Proactive Case Management Tool.†Promote universal agency participation in HMIS.
3. Increase the number of emergency housing units for families-with-children. Loaves & Fishes has three-week program cycle, eight-weeks are best practice nationally. Need a fundraising campaign to add 37 more units.
4. Establish a true 24/7 “Come-as-you-are†service center at Waterfront Rescue Mission It will be the “main intake portal†for homeless adults within Escambia County and city of Pensacola. It will be the location for the Master Case Managers for adults.
5. Repeal Sections 8-1-22, 8-1-23 and 8-1-24 of the Code of the City of Pensacola. These laws would likely not withstand legal challenges. The ordinances can be revisited after Recommendations 3 and 4 are implemented.
Since then, there has been little action on these recommendations. When I asked this past December Chief Operating Officer Tamara Fountain and Assistant City Administrator Eric Olsen about the recommendations. They told me that it was a Pensacola City Council issue so I asked Andy Terhaar, the Council President, about it when I interviewed him on his expectations for the year (New Man With The Gavel).
Terhaar said, ““I don’t know that it’s going to come up in January, but I think it’s going to come up hopefully soon. (Repealing the ordinances) is not hard to do. I guess we need to talk about if we agree with this plan, and if we’re going to move forward with it. I mean, we paid a lot of money for it.â€
I called him yesterday for an update because Marbut’s recommendations weren’t placed on the agendas for the January or February meetings. He said that he was working with Rusty Wells, the assistant city attorney, on how to handle the ordinances. He also wanted to get the administration’s thoughts on the issue before bringing it up to the council.
“I would like to see it come up in March,” said Terhaar, “but I can’t guarantee it will happen.”
Meanwhile more cold weather is headed this way. The lows will deep into upper 20’s when the Pensacola City Council meets tomorrow night.
