CSP
CITY BUDGETS FOR DOWNTOWN SERVICES
The Clean Team that keeps downtown’s sidewalks cleared of various messes and snow in a defined area downtown got a boost in the budget the City Council passed on December 12, 2011. Without funds to operate, the Clean Team would have dissolved had not the City Council voted unanimously to partially fund the Clean Team for $50,000 in 2012. The one-time appropriation sponsored by Council member Vivian Stiver comes from the city’s general fund and was moved from the $200,000 the Mayor had requested for abatements. (The $150,000 remaining for abatements is a sizeable commitment to that use, equaling actual abatement expenditures in 2010 and 2011.) The City’s 2012 budget also contained a general fund appropriation for the Community Service Patrol. This was the City’s second $50,000 contribution to the CSP in as many years; funding is expected to continue through 2014 if the CSP is able to match the City’s contribution.
In a related development, Council member Stiver circulated by hand delivery a draft resolution to form an ad hoc committee to study the formation of a local improvement district downtown to provide funding for the Clean Team and the Community Service Patrol. The committee would be comprised of four property owners in the downtown area, two business owners in the downtown area, one resident in the downtown area, and one council member to serve as the non-voting chair of the committee.
A MEASURABLE IMPROVEMENT
Downtowns typically have a variety of needs in the urban core that exceed the level of service envisioned by the City’s charter. Downtowns typically rely on non-governmental organizations like the Downtown Association of Fairbanks to field programs like the Community Service Patrol (CSP) to sustain a welcoming climate and to serve underserved populations. The CSP does both – with measurably positive impacts.
The CSP’s mission is to “ensure that all incapacitated people are treated in a fashion where their safety and well-being is ensured” and to “protect and promote downtown Fairbanks”. The CSP operates as a joint foot- and van-patrol in a defined area downtown six days a week, 15 hours a day to keep downtown safe and welcoming, and to take incapacitated or intoxicated individuals into protective custody for transport to an appropriate point of care to protect them from cold-related injuries, death or victimization.
Alaska Statute Title 47, Chapter 37 provides that intoxicated or incapacitated people – “chronic inebriates” – be taken into protective custody and transported to the safety of home or to an appropriate treatment facility. However, because the vast majority of chronically inebriated people are not engaged in criminal behavior and because law enforcement agencies concentrate on deterring and responding to criminal acts, the needs of a vulnerable population of people “falls through the cracks” to the CSP.
For twelve months ended September 30, 2011, three CSP Ambassadors:
- transported 1,555 people from the downtown to an appropriate point of care;
- made these transports on behalf of 261 unique individuals;
- found 15 individuals with injuries or complaints requiring CSP transport to the hospital;
- found 12 individuals with injuries or complaints requiring EMS transport to the hospital.
The CSP has a positive impact on downtown’s business climate. The following table illustrates that the CSP’s “total encounters” with chronically inebriated people has fallen 40% this year to date since 2009, suggesting that the CSP has dampened excessive behavior in downtown’s parks and sidewalks. That the “total transports” are unchanged shows that the number of people needing protective custody is unfortunately stable.
| Project Outcome – Welcoming Downtown | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 ytd(9 months) | % change 2009 – 2011 |
| Total encounters | 2528 | 2065 | 1507 | (40%) |
| Total transports | 1191 | 1412 | 1137 | (5%) |
The CSP creates efficiencies for Fairbanks’ emergency services and medical providers. Every protective custody transport is one less that the Fairbanks Police Department needs to make. Fairbanks Police Chief Laren Zager has estimated that the CSP does the work of three full time police officers – an annual taxpayer savings of roughly $250,000.
More striking perhaps is the way the CSP has been able to transport chronically inebriated people to appropriate institutional care, which saves community medical resources. As the graph below illustrates, more of Fairbanks’ chronically inebriated people, many of whom are also homeless and may suffer mental disorders, are being transported to FNA’s Gateway to Recovery Enhanced Detox Center where they can commence medically supervised alcohol withdrawal. Correspondingly, admissions to the Fairbanks Memorial Emergency Room have declined as that facility is being utilized more for medical visits only. Steady use of FCC’s 12-hour sleep-off reflects a need for the facility as much as it suggests a lack of alternatives.
| Project Outcome – Transport to Appropriate Points of Care | 2009 BASELINE | 2010 | 2011 YTD | % change2009-2011 |
| Transport to ‘home’ to a consenting adult more | 12% | 17% | 11% | (8%) |
| Transport to Detox more | 20% | 35% | 39% | 48% |
| Transport to Fairbanks Memorial less | 43% | 27% | 23% | (47%) |
| Transport to Fairbanks Correctional Center less | 25% | 21% | 27% | 4% |
| Total transports | 1191 | 1412 | 1137 | (5%) |
The CSP has an annual budget of approximately $180,000. The program would not exist as it does without a diverse group of sponsors supporting a community effort to address the problems faced by and presented by chronic inebriates in the Fairbanks community.
CITY DOES IT: $50,000 FOR THE COMMUNITY SERVICE PATROL
On Monday November 22, the Fairbanks City Council voted 6-0 to financially support the operations of the Community Service Patrol with $50,000 per year through 2013. (News-Miner story and editorial.) The City’s move punctuates a successful year of bolstering Fairbanks’ response to both the troubles faced by chronically inebriate people and the challenges they present to the Fairbanks community. Successes downtown in 2010 include:
- A ‘Housing First’ effort in Fairbanks is progressing;
- The Alaska Mental Health Trust provided $64,000 to the operations of the CSP;
- Additional Alaska Mental Health funds also purchased a new van for the CSP;
- Keystone supporters of the CSP increased their giving in 2010: Fairbanks Memorial Hospital increased by12% and Doyon Ltd by 33%;
- The Fairbanks North Star Borough now supports the CSP’s operations, matching the Hospital’s contribution;
- Discussions have revived among downtown landowners about creating a Downtown Improvement District to help support the operations of the CSP and other supplemental services.
There is much more yet to do. The ordinance requires a hefty $140,000 match to get the City’s $50,000 contribution to the CSP. Still, the City’s action does much to ensure that the City can cost-effectively meet the requirements of state law while encouraging others to participate in our community’s response to chronically inebriated people. One thing you can do right now is thank City Council members Vivian Stiver and John Eberhart for sponosring the ordinance and the whole council for supporting it.
Vivian Stiver vstiver@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 347-2102
Chad Roberts croberts@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 452-2435
Bernard Gatewood bwgatewood@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 978-4723
Jim Matherly jmatherly@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 456-6626, Cell 460-1944
Emily Bratcher eebratcher@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 460-1658
John Eberhart jseberhart@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 452-8251 ext. 3005
Mayor Jerry Cleworth jcleworth@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 459-6793
CITY STEPPING-UP ON COMMUNITY SERVICE PATROL
The city of Fairbanks is on the cusp of making a four-year commitment to support the operations of the Community Service Patrol. While acknowledging that the CSP saves the Fairbanks Police Department as much as $250,000 per year by handling non-criminal activity presented by incapacitated persons downtown, city council members also voice support for joining – and encouraging – a community-wide effort to address the problems confronted by and presented by chronically inebriated people.
For ten months ended June 30, 2010, three CSP Ambassadors operating in a defined area downtown initiated and resolved 1,465 encounters with chronically inebriated people. These encounters resulted in:
- 1,087 transports in the CSP van from the downtown to an ‘appropriate point of care’;
- Service to 286 unique individuals;
- 43 individuals relied heavily on CSP transport to points of care (> 6 transports/year);
- Blood alcohol levels exceeded .300 in 328 of the transports, or 30% (this is nearly 4 times the legal limit for driving while intoxicated);
- 68 individuals had injuries or complaints requiring CSP transport to the hospital;
- CSP found 6 individuals with injuries requiring EMS transport to the hospital;
- 71 individuals were pre-empted from getting inebriated (CSP discarded their alcohol).
Ordinance 5822 is co-sponsored by council members Vivian Stiver and John Eberhart. It is likely to go for a vote Monday, November 22. If you support a positive business climate downtown, and if you support a community response for the chronically inebriated people in our community, please contact City Council members and Mayor Jerry Cleworth.
Vivian Stiver vstiver@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 347-2102
Chad Roberts croberts@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 452-2435
Bernard Gatewood bwgatewood@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 978-4723
Jim Matherly jmatherly@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 456-6626, Cell 460-1944
Emily Bratcher eebratcher@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 460-1658
John Eberhart jseberhart@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 452-8251 ext. 3005
Mayor Jerry Cleworth jcleworth@ci.fairbanks.ak.us 459-6793
HOUSING FIRST REQUIRES A SPONSOR
Any effort to bring permanent housing to Fairbanks’ chronically inebriated people will require a sponsor agency – not a loose consortium of players. That was the “aha” upshot from a field trip to tour Seattle’s 1811 Eastlake, the first housing project in America to house the highest consumers of emergency services without making that housing a condition of clinical success – that is, the residents at 1811 Eastlake don’t have to stop drinking.
It’s a path-of-least-resistance approach with fans in Fairbanks once you consider that we pay to keep chronically inebriated people ON the streets with highly trained police, emergency personnel, and the emergency room. It is cheaper, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, to house the most down-and-out chronic inebriates.
The field trip was paid for by the Alaska Mental Health Trust. The Fairbanks delegation joined an Anchorage delegation seeking answers to concerns about the housing first project proposed in Anchorage’s Fairview neighborhood.
Author’s note: I believe Fairview’s concerns about a “party house” had good answers:
- A facility’s ability to be a good neighbor relies on skilled management that engages with the surrounding community;
- “Aggressive engagement” by the facility staff and time-tested addendums to their lease contract both protect residents from victimization and furnish strong levers to influence positive behavior in the neighborhood;
- The population at Eastlake is medically fragile from years of substance abuse;
- Residents tend to isolate in their room rather than carouse.
TAIL WINDS FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE PATROL
A recent upsurge in financial support is good news for the Community Service Patrol. The CSP got $50,000 in direct operational funding from the City of Fairbanks and a new van from the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (whose contribution in the last twelve months totals $104,000). Article.
Taken together, these are large contributions toward improving the business climate downtown and addressing the needs of un-well people who sometimes cannot care for themselves.
The News-Miner editorial got it right, though: the CSP needs more of the community support from existing and new partners that has kept it going. If you are interested in helping, please contact David at 452-8676.
April 13 at 6 PM in City Hall Join Police Chief Laren Zager and the Downtown Association to discuss summer 2010′s plans for keeping downtown welcoming to all. Please print and display this flyer.
‘Housing First’ for chronic inebriates could work in Fairbanks
Meeting in City Hall January 12th, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation brass described a ‘housing first’ project as a viable approach to Fairbanks’ chronic inebriate problems that could save our community money, improve the business climate downtown and furnish maximum assistance to people who flat-out need help. Housing first, of course, is not without its challenges. Hear the story and read about Anchorage’s effort and Springfield, MA’s experience.
The Downtown Association will work the Homeless Coalition in the months ahead to determine the feasibility of a ‘homeless first’ project. A field trip to Seattle’s Eastlake project is being arranged. Please contact the Coalition’s Karen Lidster for more information 488-6954 fairbankshomeless@yahoo.com
City creates budget reserve for the Community Service Patrol
The Fairbanks City Council voted unanimously to create a budget reserve to support the operations of the Community Service Patrol. The CSP improves the business climate downtown while looking after the welfare of chronically inebriated people who may also be homeless and suffer mental disorders. Terms of the money’s use have yet to be determined by the Council.
The City has long supported the Community Service Patrol, but it is unusual for the Council to fund the CSP’s operations directly. Gaining direct support has been a priority for the Downtown Association the past year – after realizing in February that once again the program was under-funded, and that municipalities elsewhere typically fund such programs to relieve police and emergency services.
Initial efforts to fund the CSP revolved around the City’s general funds. In a tough budget year, however, the City Council considered that the only funds available for this unique program were hotel/motel monies. The reserve was created by re-allocating hotel/motel tax revenues that would have otherwise funded budgets of the Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation and the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau, not from the discretionary monies granted to Fairbanks non-profits.
Financing “housing first” for chronic inebriates
Alaska Housing Finance Corporation brass will be in Fairbanks to explain ongoing programs to address homelessness, specifically the financing of a ‘housing first’ project and progress on Anchorage’s effort. Dan Fauske, Executive Director/CEO and Mark Romick, Planning and Program Development Director will present Tuesday January 12 at 10 AM in City Council chambers. This is an open meeting.
City mulls financial support for the CSP
At the November 23 City Council meeting, Council members heard testimony encouraging the City to assume a more active stance in supporting the Community Service Patrol (CSP). The CSP plays an important role in improving the business climate in a defined area downtown and in transporting the concentrations of chronically inebriated people to appropriate points of care.
In years past, the City has supported the CSP with in-kind maintenance of the patrol van, small grants and additional pass-through grants from the Parking Authority. Direct financial support would be something of a departure for the City, but a necessary measure to bolster the City’s efforts to improve the business climate downtown, reduce cost- and duty-burden to essential police and emergency services, while meeting a social obligation for the welfare of those who cannot care for themselves.
The City can play a decisive role in stabilizing funding for 2010 and perhaps beyond – if needed. Council members – especially Council member Vivian Stiver – appear willing to propose direct financial support for the CSP. As the Council and Mayor work-through the 2010 budget process, please thank Council members for the City’s past support and encourage the City Council members and Mayor Strle to extend to the CSP direct financial support in 2010.
