SAPD team takes new approach in targeting chronic homelessness

July 25--Billy Hill, 55, sits slouched over on a concrete barrier at a downtown parking lot at Fourth and North Alamo streets, seemingly in a trancelike state and unaware of his surroundings.

In 90-degree heat, he and a young man wearing a black muscle shirt and sagging black pants both twitch and sway as they drip in sweat.

"I think this is the highest I've ever seen anyone," San Antonio Police Department Officer William Kasberg said as Hill's head hangs between his legs, his hand clenching a blue plastic lighter.

Kasberg and fellow Officer Jarred Herrera approached Hill as part of the Integrated Mobile Partners Action Care Team, whose mission is to combat chronic homelessness. The team tries to help those struggling with drug addiction and mental illness who would otherwise face arrest.

The team, which began with only Kasberg and his partner, Officer Jesse Trevino, who are mental health unit officers, and one mobile integrated health care paramedic, recently applied for a grant through the Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing. With the hiring grant, in which the group seeks as much as $3.1 million, the goal is to add 25 officers to the team.

Scott Ackerson, vice president of strategic relationships for Haven for Hope, the city's shelter for homeless people, said IMPACT's goal is not accomplished by simply rounding up homeless people from camps: They have to make the decision to change themselves.

"The multidisciplinary team is effective because you've got the combination," Ackerson said. "As we know, you can't arrest away homelessness. Being homeless is not a crime."

On that hot Friday in May just before noon, the officers discovered that Hill and the man next to him were experiencing the effects of a drug with the street name klimax, a type of synthetic marijuana that other homeless people said was cheap and much easier to come by than regular cannabis. It's often disguised as potpourri at gas stations, Kasberg said.

Hill was the first to come to, slowly.

"Show me your hands," Kasberg instructed Hill. His hands were light in the center and stained brown on the tips, a sign that Hill may have just been smoking the synthetic drug.

Hill squinted at Kasberg in bewilderment. When asked how much klimax he smoked, Hill said he just got there.

SAPD team takes new approach in targeting chronic homelessness from Lindsey Gawlik on Vimeo.

The Integrated Mobile Partners Action Care Team tries to help those struggling with drug addiction and mental illness who would otherwise face arrest.

Media: Jacob Beltran

"How much klimax did you smoke today? Please don't lie to me," Kasberg asked again, quickly and firmly.

Shaking his head, Hill mumbled that he hadn't been smoking the substance, still squinting beneath his baseball cap.

"I asked you a question and you looked me dead in my eyes and lied to me," Kasberg said. "You understand that's part of the drugs, right?"

After finally getting through to a more lucid Hill, Kasberg asked if he wanted to go to Haven for Hope's Transitional Campus and offered him a water bottle.

Kasberg said Hill was the first person since the program's commencement in January to accept a ride to the campus.

"I was homeless by choice," Hill said, but the circumstances that put him there weren't. "I was out of work. Someone offered me a job. ... I showed up, but they never did."

Jobless, Hill lost his home and was forced to wander the streets for months.

The man next to Hill was still too high and had to be taken to a detoxification center across the street from Haven for Hope. Kasberg radioed for a police vehicle to pick the two up.

A nurse at the detoxification center told Kasberg that if the other man had been outside any longer, he could have died from dehydration as a result of the drugs and the heat.

Overall, records show that the team has interacted with 544 homeless people from January through July 15. Of those in that group, 191 were either under the influence of drugs or alcohol and were taken to a detoxification facility or placed in emergency detentions because of their actions and mental or physical condition, records state.

South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless' annual point-in-time count reported 2,781 people were experiencing homelessness on Jan. 21 across Bexar County, according to its website. The report also found that 1,137 were staying in streets and courtyards, 982 in emergency shelters, 645 in transitional housing and 17 in safe havens.

SARAH defines chronic homelessness as living with a disabling condition and being continuously homeless for a year or more or having at least four episodes of homelessness totaling 12 months in the past three years.

Bill Hubbard, SARAH executive director, said categorizing someone as chronically homeless places them higher on the priority list when it comes to receiving services, placing them among homeless veterans, children and families.

"Those people probably have the most difficult time trying to find shelter and maintaining it, and have a difficult time finding work ... which is a reason why they're homeless," Hubbard said.

He said that during the count of the homeless population downtown, more than 800 said they had a mental illness. Of that group, 500 said they had a substance addiction.

Kasberg recalled one of the first homeless men they encountered in January, during the start of the team's operation.

The officers referred to the man as Mr. Handy, and they began building a rapport with him.

"Every day, we stopped in front of him, gave him a bottled water, gave him a hygiene kit," Kasberg said. "Finally, by the third and fourth day, he says 'OK, I'll go with you.'"

Mr. Handy was taken to Haven for Hope, where he stayed for a few days. After accepting basic services, he exceeded the maximum stay allowed by the shelter and was forced to return to the streets. An SAPD officer would find him dead weeks later.

"We found out that Mr. Handy had passed away in a Port-a-Potty," Kasberg remembered, having received the call from a bike patrol officer.

Kasberg said he and the team considered Mr. Handy their martyr for the project.

"To become successful, you have to take ownership of your failures," Kasberg said. "Because we've had failures, it doesn't mean that the entire project is a failure."

To keep track of services being offered to homeless people, IMPACT utilizes the Homeless Management Information System, which is used by local organizations offering services to the homeless.

"We look at them as people in our community that have made different choices; we're not any better than them," Kasberg said. "We try to get them off the drugs, self-medicating, and maybe there's an issue with provision" of services.

During their work earlier that day, the two officers ran into other homeless people who instantly recognized them. In the street, they catch up like old friends.

"People aren't going to engage until you've built a level of rapport and trust," Haven for Hope's Ackerson said. "Then they're willing to come down. The IMPACT team has started to become very successful with this, getting to know people in the downtown area."

More often than not, the encounters aren't friendly, and the officers interact with people who refuse their help because they don't know them. In one exchange that day, one woman kept telling them to leave a group of homeless they were trying to talk to, inciting those around her.

Despite any harsh words directed at them, the officers kept a positive attitude and would still offer help in the form of housing or medical attention.

At the San Antonio Public Library downtown, Kasberg recognized a man in the courtyard who was high on klimax.

When Kasberg offered to take him to the detoxification clinic after pointing out his high, it wasn't hard for the man to accept.

"One thing we typically find is (San Antonio libraries) have been very inviting to the homeless, but with that you have people utilizing street drugs, things of that nature," Kasberg said. "Our job is obviously not out here to arrest these folks, but offering them sobering and detox ... getting them off of this location and into services where they can possibly do better."

jbeltran @ express-news.net

Twitter: @ JBfromSA

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