CAPS-MI

CAPS-MI it's goal is to find a house for 5-7 mentally ill Fortworthians

The founder, Lynne Curran, has just received her 503C non profit designation which means that if you donate to the org, you are eligible for a tax deduction. Lynne is very experienced and knowledgeable in working in peer run (very inexpensive) facilities. She has been in a leadership role with The Paradise Center ( paradisefwtx@yahoo.com ) which is a peer ran Community Center for persistently and severely mential ill individuals. There is absolutely no place for m.i. people to go in Fort Worth except jail and JPS for 3 days, homeless shelter and nasty, filthy, abusive group homes. If you ever care to stop by The Paradise Center (505 S. Jennings), you can hear for yourself how life changing the center has been for many severely m.i. people who were on the verge of suicide everyday. If you would like for Lynne to give her 10 minute "sales pitch" at your next neighborhood meeting or organizational meeting, or would just like more info in general, or would like to hold a fundraising event to help the org get started, please contact her at http://www.capsmi.org/ . You won't be disappointed.

MHMR of Tarrant County - What are they doing exactly?

OK, so I go the CB Sports over off E. Lancaster (just east of Riverside) to drop off some shirts for embroidery. When I get out of my car. I see this woman (looks like a man in one of the pics, but she's a really "pretty" female, believe or not) sitting at the next business doorstep sort of in a fetal position with her shirt pulled over her knees. The next day my friend, who owns a business nearby, calls and says that there is this woman hanging around who obviously is mentally ill, what should she do. I say, call The Paradise Center (South Jennings - blue awning) or Lynne (http://www.capsmi.org/) or the police but they won't do anything unless she is in "emminent harm to herself or others."

Long story short, this afternoon I went over to where the woman was laying and asked if she was ok, she said "I'm alright." She got up and walked away. I called the police, spoke with the officer for about 15 mintues picking his brain for how to improve the system and help these people. After the officer left, I sat there in my car watching this lady peek around the corner of the fence to see if I was waiting in my car. Finally I decided to move the car, a little so that she would come back to the church parking lot and I could have a better chance of "engaging" (buzzword buzzword) her in conversation. She proceeded to walk back to her church doorstep home and few belongings. I rolled down my window and said, "What are you doing out here sleeping on doorsteps, are you alright?" She replied, "I'm alright." We went back and forth from opposite sides of the street for a minute or two. She was actually sort of fun to talk to. She said she was wealthy. When I asked who she was talking to when she wasn't talking to me, she said she wasn't talking, she was singing. After a while, I asked if there was anything I could get her, or do for her. She said get her some food. She wanted fries, hamburger and soda. I went down to the local hamburger joint and got her just that, brought it back, parked, to see if she would come over to the car. She did. I looked straight in her eye and asked, "Why are you living on the streets, I worry about people like you?" She said, "Bless your soul. I'll be alright."
I told her that my friend owned a business around here and to please let us know if she needed anything. She said she lived at the Salvation Army and had been here since Christmas.

My point is:

1. What is MHMR of Tarrant County doing for people like this woman?
2. How much money does MHMR take in for helping the mentally ill in Tarrant County?
3. Where is the money going?
4. Is it true that the CEO of MHMR of Tarrant County makes $300K per year in salary?
5. If so, why? What is it exactly that the CEO is doing for MHMR?
6. Why is Mayor Moncrief and Otis Thronton so focused on "Affordable Housing?"
7. Why is money for social health mental/emotional/psychological services always last on the list for which to spend money on?
8. Why is housing always first? It's easier to get and build, that's why.

Yes, along with this story we called MHMR hotlines, etc. There is no real help.

The solution? HOLD PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE! In other words, for this piece of free bread, you have to go talk to this lady right over here in the next room, you have to watch a video, you have to do something....nothing is really "free." We have to find a way to "engage" these lost souls in conversation, even if it's two or three words, and show them that someone DOES care and that their life is worth having, living, caring for and taking care of. That's the bottom line and it's expensive, up front, but pays off in the L O N G R U N . Otis Thornton, (CFW Homeless Coordinator) has to get off the "affordable housing" (walls) fix, and put our taxdollars in social/mental/emotional health services! Which is expensive and more "in depth," more of an "investment." Pay social workers/counselors close to top end pay, open Central Resource Facility where ALL SERVICES that homeless & mentally ill need!! Hold people accountable, even if it's say something before getting a hand out. For this is HOW you BUILD SELF RESPECT AND WORTH in people who have NONE!!! Hello, am I reaching your brains Mayor Moncrief, Otis Thornton and all of you people who don't have any "contact" with the homeless and persistently and severely Mentally Ill "folks" (buzzword buzzword) in our great City of Fort Worth? We MUST "invest" in mental health services and emotional r-e-h-a-b-i-l-i-t-a-t-i-o-n. Otherwise your homeless bill will go up every single year from now till eternity.

No overbearing caseloads!! MHMR pays too much at the top and not enough at the "street level!"

Questions for Fort Worth's Mayor's Advisory Commission on Homelessness (MACH)

Below is an email that I sent to my City Council Representative in hopes that she can help me or maybe direct me to the proper place to obtain some answers about the $2.4M dollars that the City is planning to spend on homelessness. At first, the City wanted a 10 year plan to "erradicate" homelessness, now I hear that erradication has been abandoned and "management of" has been substitued for the word erradicate. I am all for helping this segment of our population; however, I don't believe that the taxpayers of Ft. Worth can afford, nor would a majority of us want to, have an ever increasing budget for welcoming homeless to our City and providing them free services w/out any accountability, self empowerment thru consequences for their choices year after year. I am exercising my American right to ask questions to our elected officials and/or persons whos salaries are paid with our taxdollars.

Dear Ms. Hicks -

Below are just a few of the questions some of us have in regards to the homeless issue. Is it possible to get answers to these questions now, before the City (MACH & Otis Thornton) make their firm decisions on what budget and plans to put before the Council regarding Homelessness? I have attended several meetings on the topic, however, have been unable to find the correct and appropriate venue to ask such questions. Your help in finding out how, when, and from whom to get answers would be greatly appreciated.

1. What exactly is the $2.4M going to buy? Specifics?
2. What are the salaries of the all social workers involved in the Homelessness budget?
3. Where exactly is the $2.4M coming from? How much from City funds? What City Account is it coming from?
4. How "green" is this new building going to be? What energy saving designs and lighting is proposed?
5. Who exactly is going to be doing the accessing of individuals? Degree'd? What is the salary for such person?
6. What does one have to do to get free services? ie, watch educational video, attended class of somesort, etc.
7. What measurable systems are in place for benchmarks on decreasing # of homeless individuals?
8. How much money is going towards street outreach? (Other than engagement team)
9. Is workforce commission on site at Day Resource Center (DRC)? If not, whynot?
10. Where do the persistently and severely mentally ill individuals go? Live? What services are offered to them?
11. Since your plans are promoting "erradication" or "decreasing" homelessness, when does your annual operations budget start to decrease from $1.0M - $1.5M? If not, whynot?
12. How many x-cons does the City currently employ?
13. Is MACH looking at new City employment positions that could hire xcons? If not, whynot? If so, who is investigating this?
14. Explain how housing will help individuals who don't, and have no desire, to work?
15. What systems of accountability are planned for individuals who do not have job and have no desire to work?
16. Is the City doing anything to hold indigent offenders of the law accountable? If so, who can we contact for proof of such?
17. How many individuals claim indigency in Ft. Worth on an annual basis?
18. What is the path of an individual who commits a Class C Misdemeanor such as panhandling or PI? (Pub Intox)
19. If this individual claims indigency, what is path they follow? What consequences are paid for the crime? (Can't say community service - the City does not allow individuals claiming indigency to do Comm. Serv. as the State Law advises)
20. Is anything being done to obtain the enhancement upgrade of the law for Class C Misdemeanors? If so, What? If not, whynot?
21. Who would have the authority to institute more rehab/educational type programs in the City Jail for people who commit Class C Misdemeanors?
22. For the non profits who get hundreds of thousands of dollars to "help" the homeless popluation, what measuring systems are in place for accountability of the dollars spent by these orgs? Are the org's books open to public? Why or Whynot?
23. What systems are planned to ensure that "affordable" and "transitional" housing projects will not become blights in the future?
24. What systems are planned if measurable benchmarks are not obtained? In other words, if the homeless popluation doesn't significantly decrease year after year, what happens then?
25. What homelessness model system in the country is having success after 5 years? If there is one, what are the major contributing factors and are we using them? If none, why are we copying and believing others?
26. Is the City doing anything to promote local companies hiring individuals with criminal background? If so, what? What is the success of such promotion? If not, whynot? If not, what does MACH suggest for these individuals to do for income?
27. How many members of MACH (Mayor's Advisory Committee on Homelessness) are providers, or affiliates, of service providing companies and organizations to the homeless population?
28. How many members of MACH are ordinary individuals (persons w/out any potential to make money from the homeless population) from the direct surrounding area of shelters that have first hand experience in dealing with this population?
29. How much money, if any, is being spent on holding irresponsible, unloving, un-nuturing parents accountable for early childhood parenting (as this IS a "root" cause of homelessness as opposed to a root cause being affordable housing)?

Please don't get me wrong, I'm all for "helping" the homeless individuals as I employ as many as I possibly can and I talk to many of them constantly; I'm just not convinced that the City is spending our monies prudently and as effectively as possible in truly "helping" this population of our community. Again, thanks in advance for any time, help and leadership you can offer me.

Defining "Mental Illness"

"Most of the homeless are 'mentally ill'," it's heard all the time. What does it mean? So many different levels of "mental illness." In regards to homelessness, should it matter if your brain is pickled because of a life of drug/alcohol abuse, or if it has been with you since birth? Yes, I say, it matters. BECAUSE, if you are a pickled brain, then you HAD a choice whereas the mentally ill, AT BIRTH, there was/is no choice. Beginning of story.

Help for the mentally ill.....comes knocking.

MHMR will come to your door and hopefully our businesses, homeless camps, etc. to provide much needed services for mentally ill individuals. This will be a very interesting program to watch and see if it does the job of truly helping the mentally ill here in Tarrant County, Texas. The problem is, if they take you to hospital AND you get admitted, one can only stay 3 days and then you are released.......to the streets once again, so it's a vicious cycle. I'll think positive and hope that MHMR provides some services to our mentally ill population.

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