The city of Pensacola is looking for local service providers who would be willing to place small temporary, city-provided shelters on their property.
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves has previously announced that he plans to use about $1 million in unencumbered American Rescue Plan Act funds to purchase small, semi-permanent shelters that can be placed strategically throughout the community to increase the stock of housing available to get people off the street.
Reeves said during a regular press conference Tuesday that he is engaging the Northwest Florida Homelessness Reduction Task Force to survey local service providers on whether they would be willing to install the shelters on their properties, and what specific configurations of shelters would best serve their clients.
The announcement came on the same day that a new Florida law, House Bill 1365, went into effect. The bill mandates that local governments and municipalities disallow sleeping or camping on public property .
Reeves said the intent of the semi-permanent shelters is to provide an effective housing solution that also brings the city into compliance with the new law quickly.
"Arresting our way out of homelessness is not going to solve our problem," Reeves said. "So, having that release valve of additional units coming online much faster than a long process, it's really why I pivoted from the low-barrier shelter that we were talking about."
Reeves was previously interested in using the funds to kick-start a low-barrier homeless shelter , but that idea was taken off the table earlier this year when a report from Jon DeCarmine, executive director of GRACE Marketplace in Gainesville, showed start-up cost would be between $2.19 million and $3.47 million.
"I'm a believer in that the low-barrier shelter model but considering the cost, that isn't going to be solved quickly enough," Reeves said. "I felt this was a way for us to be able to solve the idea of supply – that if you are on the streets, if you say, 'Hey, I want to go somewhere, but I have nowhere to go,' that we're quickly able to increase the supply of those types of units that someone maybe who's been in a program, that's ready to live on their own, in their own building ... can do that."
Asked how many shelters the city could provide with $1 million, Reeves said the cost to install a 70-square-foot, single-person unit was around $20,000, and that there are two-person units that are a little more expensive. He said the city had issued a request for proposals that will allow it to get the most competitive prices across the board.
He noted, however, that the shelters are not a one-size-fits-all solution, and that part of the reason he is surveying nonprofits it to determine what sorts of structures would be most beneficial to their client base. Are they women with children who need multiple rooms? Are there bathroom and shower facilities on site? Is there a lot of land for units, but limited case workers to manage them, or vice versa?
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"The nice part is, once those funds are encumbered, we can designate based on need," Reeves said. "Maybe it's eight that can sleep two people at this place, and it's 10 that can sleep one person at this place. So the RFP will allow us that flexibility, which is what I really like about it, is that we're not just saying, 'Bring us 50 of these, and let's hope it works out.' We'll be able to kind of customize and tailor that based on who's the recipient."
Reeves said the units can be built in hours and drop shipped to the city. He added that once the ARPA funds are encumbered the city has two years to use them, though Reeves said he has no intention of taking that long.
"Our goal would be as soon as someone's ready for them, we know we can take them. We drop them in there," Reeves said of the units. "So, I fully expect in the coming months that we would – maybe not all – but we would have at least some of those units, whoever's most ready to take them, we would have those in place."
Reeves said the structures will remain city property – likely leased out to nonprofits at no cost or $1 a year – and can be reclaimed and relocated if a service provider folds or the program doesn't work out.
He also said a key component of the initiative will be case management, so that people who move into the homes have the best opportunity to succeed.
"You can't just have the unit. You've got to have the ability to service that unit, right? I mean, whoever's in there, to keep working with them, because the goal is not just to find the place, it's to get them out of that place and then into a home somewhere," Reeves said. "So, you can't just simply put them in a field somewhere with no case management and expect that outcome."
The mayor noted that a major caveat of the ARPA funds is that any property designated for a homelessness solution can't devalue the surrounding property, something he said would be a challenge in the city due to its limited footprint.
He said properties in the county would likely be a better fit, if zoning allows, and said the city has already had a few meetings with the county on the matter.
Reeves said his goal is to have the ARPA funds encumbered for the project by Dec. 31
"Once that has happened, we'll deliver some on Jan. 5 or Feb. 5 or March 5 or, you know, whenever folks are ready for it."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola to spend $1 million on small shelters to get people off the street
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