BOS Considers Funding Fort Bragg Homeless Outreach Program

Michelle Blackwell

September 12, 2023 -- How much will Fort Bragg’s innovative Care Response Unit save the county’s general fund? Supervisors Ted Williams and Dan Gjerde brought Fort Bragg Police Chief Neil Cervenka to the Board of Supervisors Meeting on September 12 to provide an overview of the innovative homeless response program initiated by the city and managed through the police department. The program known as “CRU” or Care Response Unit utilizes a non-enforcement type of interaction to help the homeless get what they need and hopefully get them off the street.



The CRU team has served 321 individuals and successfully reconnected 22 homeless individuals with family or friends, persuaded 18 into rehab programs and moved 7 into permanent housing.



The program which was initiated by Mayor Norvell got its start with grant funding from the State of California’s Behavioral Health Justice Intervention Services Project. Funding for the program through grant and city funds will only last through mid-2024. Cervenka asked the BOS to fund the program for four years at a cost of 1.72 million using Measure B dollars. Measure B is tax money that was designed to fund the construction of psychiatric and behavioral health facilities, operation costs, and services to treat mental illness and addiction.



So how does the program save the money in the county’s general fund?



According to Chief Cervenka it costs a minimum of $107 dollars per day to incarcerate an individual in the county jail and goes up based on health and psychiatric needs.



Since the CRU program’s implementation there has been a sea change in how the Fort Bragg Police Department deals with the homeless and spends its officer hours. There has been an overall 27 percent decrease in calls for service involving homeless from the 21/22 fiscal year to the current fiscal year. The most dramatic being 242 calls in December of 2021 versus 58 in December of 2022. There has been a 20% decrease in arrests of homeless and an increase in overall arrests.



The program also includes contract staffing for Project Right Now, which helps youth with substance abuse disorders fight addiction.



The Board of Supervisors directed staff to determine if current funding for homeless services, that is not as effective, can be redirected to CRU and agreed to send Cervenka’s request to the Measure B Committee for consideration. Williams also asked staff to determine how much money the CRU program has saved the county, presumably, due to reduced jail expenses.