MORE HOMELESS, LESS HELP

Last year, many questioned Opening Doors' PIT count. Community Health CEO Chandra Smiley told the Board of County Commissioners that her organization served the health needs of more than 7,000 homeless people in the area in 2021 and expressed doubts about the Opening Doors 2022 count of 727.

Escambia County Administrator Wes Moreno agreed.

"The numbers for the count, they just seem extremely low," Moreno said.

The additional help from the county and groups like Community Health might have made a difference this year, but Smiley still believes the number is low. She told Inweekly, "It's way understated. We had a more coordinated effort in Escambia County, but Santa Rosa is way understated. And we didn't even really get to the north part of Escambia County like we really should have. So, it's still significantly low."

Assistance Shutdown

Escambia and Santa Rosa counties have more homeless people and fewer dollars to help struggling families pay their rent and utility bills. Even as the area's economy continues to rise, parts of our community are being left behind as inflation and housing devour more of payroll checks.

Opening Doors of Northwest Florida revealed at its April general coalition meeting that the 2023 Point-in-Time count tallied 1,180 homeless individuals in the two-county area, a 62% jump from last year and the highest number since 2007. The previous record was 1,160 in 2010.

The count is an annual exercise done in January that assesses the local homeless population. The count is conducted in communities across the country, with the data then reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the past, HUD has used the information when determining its fund allocations to address the needs of homeless communities in varying areas, but Opening Doors PIT Coordinator Martika Baker says that is no longer the case.

at the meeting. "The goal for communities is to identify the number of people who are homeless, and we build a collaboration plan to address homelessness in our community."

The "we" is the Continuum of Care that Opening Doors runs for Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. The CoC is charged with establishing and operating a coordinated entry system that provides a process for conducting comprehensive entries of housing and services needs for individuals and families. A considerable part of the meeting was devoted to rehashing the coordinated entry system that HUD mandated five years ago but still hasn't been fully implemented locally.

Baker was pleased with the 2023 PIT count.

"We did a wonderful thing this year with PIT. We are thankful to BRACE, Emergency Management, Code Enforcement and Community Health Northwest Florida for helping us with Escambia County's coverage of the unsheltered count," Baker said. "The partnership with 90 Works helped us to push further into Santa Rosa County than we've probably ever done before."

As we move to get better at reporting our homeless population, federal funds to help families keep their shelter dried up in April.

Opening Doors has exceeded the number of applications for rent, utility and deposit assistance, according to its website. New applications for assistance were closed April 13, and the program won't resume until July.

At the meeting, Opening Doors offered few suggestions for attendees to help their clients in May and June. Inweekly checked with Doug Brown, the Community Action Program (CAP) executive director, whose nonprofit also provides assistance. He had positive news.

Thanks to Sen. Doug Broxson and Rep. Alex Andrade, the CAP will have assistance funds to help locals with rent and utilities, Brown said.

"We have been informed that a budget resolution has been reached that has fixed funding issue effective immediately," Brown said. "We should be made whole on all obligations as quickly as their finance department does its processing."

He added, "It's a huge, huge, huge fix. Rep. Andrade, who heads up the subcommittee for

DEO (Department of Economic Opportunity), and Sen. Broxson, who heads up Senate Appropriations, were the key champions to getting this resolution."

DEO administers four programs funded with federal dollars—Community Services Block Grant, Low Income Home Energy Assistance, Low Income Water Assistance and the Weatherization programs.

"Those four programs are funded from the Fed, and then Tallahassee, by population, directs those dollars to each county," Brown said.

CAP has been running those programs since its inception. "It's cost reimbursement. We all do the work, invoice DEO, and the state promises to pay us within a certain time."

"We spent beyond that authority that the legislature had given them, and DEO failed to project that the bank account was getting low because there's folks using these programs around the state," Brown said. "On Good Friday, DEO dropped this bomb. Agencies literally shut down operations immediately."

CAP had to rush to submit all its vouchers by April 13 to be considered for reimbursement, Brown said. "That led to the huge scramble to get payments in but with no expectation of when we would get those funds back. At the same time, those pledges are still pending at these utility companies. We were on the hook to the utility company with a promise to them because we've got a promise from the state."

Fortunately, Andrade, Broxson and other lawmakers fixed DEO's poor process, and funds became available. Andrade shrugged off the praise from Brown.

"A lot of people helped with this," Andrade told Inweekly. "These assistance programs are important because they offer a hand up to people."

Unfortunately, Brown said the budget resolution would not help Opening Doors because its funding comes from a different pot of money. CAP will reopen its assistance programs once DEO begins processing its outstanding reimbursement requests. {in}

To learn more about CAP, visit capc-pensacola.org. The PIT count can be found at openingdoorsnwfl.org.

A WIN FOR EVERYBODY Teens living in two Lakeview Center foster care group homes now have an opportunity to take swimming and sailing lessons thanks to a partnership with the YMCA of Northwest Florida and the Pensacola Yacht Club Satori Foundation.

A grant from the Satori Foundation funds swim lessons at the YMCA for teens at Lakeview Center's Arcadia Place and Cabot Heights, which serve teens in the foster care system who have experienced abuse or neglect and struggle with mental health issues.

"This exciting partnership provides an opportunity these teens wouldn't otherwise be exposed to," said Allison Hill, CEO of LifeView Group, Lakeview's parent company.

Once the teens learn to swim, they qualify for a weeklong sailing camp with Satori.

"What we learned quickly is that kids wanted to do it, but they couldn't swim," said Alan McMillian, the foundation president. "We started seeing swimming as a core part of our mission. Now we look forward to working together with the Y for years to come."

"This is a great example of organizations figuring out what you need and what you do well and then working together to accomplish things," said Andrea Rosenbaum, the YMCA's director of advancement. "We are a pioneer in aquatics and know how to teach people to swim. The Satori Foundation is all about getting youth out on sailboats, where they build confidence while learning math and science.

"And for these teens in Lakeview's foster homes, this is an opportunity to introduce them to something new and exciting and show them some ways that they can really move their lives forward positively."

At Arcadia Place and Cabot Heights, specialized caregivers support the teens' recovery, health and well-being, preparing them for living in a family setting or an independent environment. Some teens stay in the homes longer than two years, before aging out of the foster care system.

The partners hope this program will build teens' self-esteem and impart important safety information for living in a region with many wa- ter-based activities. In addition to lessons, swimsuits will also be provided to teens who can't afford them.

"When we're looking at partnerships, we want to be a convener," said Michael Bodenhausen, the YMCA CEO. "It takes multiple organizations working together to make the community better."

Beyond that, the YMCA is incentivizing the teens' participation by offering lifeguard training and the pathway to a job on its aquatics team.

"We're telling the teens that we'll enroll you in a lifeguard class here, and then we can hire you and give you a job," Rosenbaum said. "Goodness knows, we need more lifeguards. In this community and around the country, there's a real lifeguard shortage right now. This program is going to be a win for everyone."

OPERATION BROWNSVILLE Operation

Brownsville began 8 a.m., Monday, April 24, with Escambia County Code Enforcement and Animal Control stepping up its operations in the Brownsville area. The Escambia County Sheriff's Office has a webpage with a calendar of scheduled events.

The webpage quotes Sheriff Chip Simmons: "Through enforcement and engagement, this operation will provide a robust but uniform community effort aimed at reducing gun violence while uplifting and strengthening the residents of the Brownsville area."

As of Friday, April 28, the ECSO calendar listed a series of Community Conversations to be held at 5:30 p.m. the first four Mondays of May at the Brownsville Community Center. The discussion topics cover crime prevention, drug and opioid awareness, business development and entrepreneurship and the school district's career and technical academies. There will be an additional conversation Monday, June 5 on gun violence and awareness for teens.

The calendar also lists Florida Licensing On Wheels (FLOW) BUS will help people obtain driver's licenses and identification cards from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday, May 13 and 20. Operation Brownsville will end with a movie night Friday, June 16.

Simmons hopes to duplicate Operation Brownsville in other neighborhoods in the county, he said.

Over the next 60 days, Simmons' agency will work with the Pensacola Police Department, the county, city and area nonprofits to increase public safety, services and outreach in the Brownsville community, stretching from E Street to Kirk Street with Jackson and Avery streets serving as the southern and northern borders.

How will the sheriff measure success?

"First of all, it's easier for law enforcement to measure success, but I think success is two related things," Simmons said. "If we do extra patrols in Brownsville, less crime is committed. But we also will be able to document warrant services, traffic stops, arrests and the cost of service. It's also going to be what we can show that we have done in partnership with the Pensacola Police Department."

The second measure is community impact.

"It's the involvement with our community partners and seeing what that looks like," Simmons said. "Ultimately, there will be an evaluation—Is it worth it? Is this good? Is that good? Do we take some stuff out? Do we add some stuff to it?"

It's a pilot program they'd like to try in other areas, Simmons said. The operation area was chosen because it has nearly equal coverage from ECSO and PPD.

"We wanted to use a boundary that incorporated the city and county," Simmons said. "I can't say that I looked at it and said, 'Oh, this is a high crime area right here.' There're some things that we wanted to address in the Brownsville community, but a lot of what's happening in Brownsville is happening in other communities as well. If this works in Brownsville, the thought is that it'll work in other neighborhoods."

If other nonprofits want to get involved in Operation Brownsville, they can email neighborhood specialist Ronnie Rivera at rdrivera@escambia.com. He will add their programs to the calendar on the ECSO website.

One thing you won't find on the calendar is law enforcement operations.

"We have had a couple conversations with the Pensacola Police Department, and we are working on our operations that we're not putting on the calendar because we don't want to let them know exactly where we're going to be at any given moment," Simmons said.

Law enforcement statistics will be posted later.

MAYOR PUSHES BACK On April 27, the Pensacola City Council approved a lease agreement with Warehouse 4Sports, LLC, for Port of Pensacola Warehouse No. 4 to develop an arena for pickleball and other sports and entertainment activities.

Before the vote, Mayor D.C. Reeves received some criticism about renting the warehouse for an indoor sports facility. He pushed back against the critics on WCOA's "Real News with Rick Outzen."

"First thing, I always frame it this way—I was born in 1984, and the last lease on the building in question is 1979," Reeves said. "Any citizen has had 45 years to let us know who these (potential) long-term tenants are.

"The delta we're talking about here is the revenue of what's proposed here and what we consider market rate on an aging building, of which we will be due to having improvements ourselves … We cannot just look at what is the rent rate and assume that that's the maximum return on investment for the city of Pensacola."

The economic impact on downtown Pensacola is much greater than the annual rent, Reeves said. He also pointed out the proposed agreement doesn't give the tenant control of 200 parking spaces, but the parking will be available.

BELMONT HALL

Last week, we reported Belmont Hall may move to a site near the Port of Pensacola and the ferry landing. The food and entertainment complex is the brainchild of Jordan Yee and Alistair McKenzie.

"We've switched gears now, and we are headed to the port, hopefully. We have filed an LOI (Letter of Intent) with them and are in the process of very early stages of discussing doing the food hall down there," McKenzie said.

Last week, the Pensacola City Council approved an agreement to develop Warehouse No. 4 at port into an indoor sports facility for pickleball, as well as volleyball and basketball. The city already has a deal for a developer to build a hotel near the ferry landing.

"When Scape came to town and did their whole Waterfront master plan, along with James Lima, they had identified this area, including the port, the hashtag connector, which they think is the part of the waterfront that needs to be super activated in order for Pensacola really to take up another level with its downtown," McKenzie said. "They said that they needed a catalytic project down in that area. And we think that the food hall, which is a business incubator as well as an entertainment complex, fits the bill of what they were talking about."

BRAND CHANGE

Last week, Pen Air Credit Union notified its members it would soon adopt a "new refreshed brand look that better reflects our membership, commitment to service and culture today and for generations to come."

The new brand will be revealed Wednesday, June 21.

Last September, the Pen Air members approved converting from a federal charter to a state charter, effective Oct. 1, 2022. The conversion allowed the credit union to pursue growth opportunities across 17 counties, ranging from Mobile County in Alabama to Leon and Wakulla counties in Florida. It also expanded the field of membership.

RECYCLING COMPETITION

ECUA is getting competition in the recycling market. Waste Management has announced plans to build Northwest

Florida's first fully automated, full-scale recycling facility within the city of Fort Walton Beach in Okaloosa County.

The Fort Walton Beach MRF is anticipated to be approximately 45,000 square feet, with the expected capacity to process approximately 120,000 tons per year of single-stream and source-separated recyclables. The facility is expected to be operational in spring 2024 and will provide recycling capabilities for an area covering Biloxi, Miss., to Tallahassee.

"Waste Management is pleased to announce our investment in building a state-of-the-art recycling material recovery facility right here in Fort Walton Beach," said Brandon Shaw, WM Gulf Coast Area vice president. "Waste Management is committed to serving Northwest Florida and bringing sustainable solutions to the area as well as working together with local communities throughout the region to increase recycling through education and outreach."

SKANSKA FUNDS State Representative Alex Andrade said he has put into the budget a stipulation that the Florida Department of Transportation will take $6 million out of the remaining funds for the construction of the Chappie James Bridge and make the funds available for road and infrastructure improvements in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

Andrade praised Senator Doug Broxson's help in making it possible. Broxson chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Andrade heads the House Infrastructure and Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee.

LEAGUE SUES The League of Women Voters of Florida and the Florida State Conference of the NAACP have filed suit in federal court against the Florida Secretary of State, charging that the state's voter registration application violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

The civil rights organizations allege that the form's lack of information about the voter eligibility requirements for Floridians with past convictions creates confusion, impedes the organizations' voter registration activities and puts people in danger of criminal penalties.

"Our state has a moral and legal duty to inform prospective voters of their eligibility to register," said Cecile M. Scoon, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida. "It is imperative that Floridians with past felony convictions understand whether they are eligible to register to vote, particularly when the state is targeting those who misunderstand this with criminal prosecution. The state must fulfill the requirements of the National Voter Registration Act and protect its residents."

Florida's voter registration application, as the complaint notes, doesn't include any guidance for would-be voters who are trying to determine if they are eligible to vote under Amendment Four, a state constitutional amendment approved in 2018 that restored voting rights to most people with past convictions.

The form does not indicate that individu- als on probation or parole are ineligible, nor does it say that paying outstanding court fines and fees is a precondition to having voting rights restored (as per Senate Bill 7066, passed in 2019). The form also does not say that those convicted of murder or a felony sex offense are not eligible to vote unless they have received clemency. And it does not contain any information about eligibility requirements for people with convictions from another state.

Florida has a fundamental obligation to ensure all citizens can fully understand, access and exercise their voting rights," said Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida State Conference of the NAACP. "Yet, the state has fallen short of fulfilling its obligations, because it requires returning citizens to fill out a flawed voter registration form and without any clear guidance. This failure has generated confusion and fear for returning citizens and groups like the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, which assist returning citizens through its voter registration activities, amidst the state's ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions."

Volunteers with the League of Women Voters of Florida and Florida NAACP fear inadvertently registering an ineligible voter and putting them at risk of criminal penalties.

DIB BOARD OPENINGS Mayor D.C. Reeves is accepting applications to be considered for two upcoming vacancies on the Downtown Improve ment Board.

Qualified individuals interested in serving on the DIB must fill out an online application by 5 p.m., Friday, May 12, at bit.ly/3HaPLV2. Members are appointed by the mayor and approved by the City Council. The term for these appointments expires June 30, 2026.

To qualify for appointment to the DIB, prospective members must own property within the DIB District, subject to ad valorem taxation or be a lessee required by lease to pay taxes on the property. City of Pensacola or Escambia County officers or employees are not eligible to serve as voting members on the DIB. To learn more about DIB, visit downtownpensacola.com.

COX EVENT GRANTS Local nonprofits planning fundraising and awareness events in the Gulf Coast market are encouraged to apply for event sponsorships from Cox Communications. Cox is currently accepting applications for events occur ring between July 1-Dec. 31, 2023.

If your nonprofit is planning an event that will take place during these dates and looking for sup port, apply for cash and/or in-kind sponsorships at ccigiving.com. The deadline for applications is Friday, June 2. Organizations will be notified if their requests are approved mid-June.

In 2022, Cox gave more than $1.6 million in cash and in-kind services to nonprofits in the Gulf Coast Market, which includes portions of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties. These sponsorships are specifically held for nonprofit fundraising events, not general donations, and the organization must be a regis tered 501(c)3. {in}