homelessness update and success stories
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The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Jun 2, 2026
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The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jun 2, 2026
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What was said
Machine transcription of 26m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 79% of 73 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Thank you, ladies. Now move to R25, addressing the homelessness update. Kathy.
Good morning, Commissioner.
I want to start off by saying thank you to the board. You know, a few years ago, homelessness has been dear and near to public services' heart, and we've never really had a place to put our homeless. And with your support. and obtaining the Grand Boulevard and the Youth Lane, we now have a place to put our homeless. And then you came along and you said, Hey, we need a program administrator and we hired James Walters in October. And let me tell you something, we hired the right guy. He is really, really moving
the needle. And I hope you're going to be as moved as I was. They've done their second outreach, and while we were conducting business at our last board meeting, they were out in the woods. And I can't wait to hear some of the success stories and the community partnership that has been forming. to really move the needle and make a difference in our homelessness. So with that, I'm going to introduce James Walters, our program administrator, and he's going to take it from there.
Thank you, Kathy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Really appreciating the positive energy and uh of the meeting thus far and and we're gonna continue that for the next few minutes and uh would also though be remiss if I didn't echo Keith Wiley's comments to Commissioner Weightman and as a birthday present to you I'm not going to sing Commissioner
We need that bear toe machine
Since I came on board, one of the uh initiatives, one of the philosophies that that we have uh taken under our wing and tried to promote was promising uh new strategies. And and that came nearly day one when I sat in New Employee Orientation with our county administrator, and we talked about our county value of innovation. and acknowledging much of the frustration uh that's felt by our citizens, by our employees, and and by the board itself. And needing
to employ new strategies if we're going to get new results. So Did a lot of evaluation. An assessment and under the direction of Assistant County Administrator Kathy Pearson, We formed a team.
Like missioned. uh partners. And some of those partners are within county government. Some of them are are outside. Uh and and we'll talk about the specifics of who they are in a minute.
It's important that we note that the selection of those partners was not random or happenstance. It was intentional. And it's important that We understand that we're going to be able to do Each of our partners were individually working on the issue.
Well what we wanted to do was knock down some silos and bring everybody together and say What can we do together? Because the aggregate Is much stronger than any single individual. If we work together, what can we accomplish? And that's what we've done. Get it.
So The team consists of Catholic charities Primarily in outreach. And providing the shelter that Kathy spoke about. We have to have a place, a low barrier place. for for these folks to go. Wherever they transition out. Subsequently. They have to have a pledge. Great partnership with the Pasco Sheriff's Office
providing Two things. One security for our outreach teams. but also giving us some teeth when we go on either county property or private property to ensure we have trespass warnings in place. to motivate individuals to do better, to seek help, to change their circumstances. Bayou Rescue MIH, these folks
have been tremendous. They come out with us. I don't know if the c if the board has seen they got a great big bags full of stuff, equipment, whatever firefighters carry out there in the woods. And and they're tromping out there with us, carrying these great big things with us and and doing the outreach. Animal services is out there. We're gonna bring these folks up in a minute. Uh Each individual group has a component. Code compliance helps us identify, we get our intel. The
lion's share of it from code compliance. about what they're seeing, what complaints they're receiving, about encampments and homeless and and areas we can target. We take that information, we get it from the sheriff's office, we get it from private citizens. And and we assess it. And and that's how we we make prioritize decisions on where to go when we do our targeted outreach. And so Gina, please. I'm gonna ask the team to come up. We
have representatives from each one of the teams. So These are not again our our teams that we selected are not random. And the individuals that are s coming up and standing behind me are not random. board, this is the team that goes out and does the outreach with us. Th these are not just representatives for the day. And while these folks are assigned to do the work.
It's important that we recognize the leadership that allowed this to happen. First by the board enacting that strategic plan, County Administrator, Assistant County Administrator, Pearson. But also Each one of their bosses So Maggie Rogers with Catholic Charities. She's the CEO. She's the one that made sure They were bringing in the resources, Catholic charities, to allow us to go out and do the outreach. Our
own chief fire chief, Chief Gwynt. assigning resources. Our Sheriff Nakko. Director Sanderson from Code. Director Herrero from Animal Services. I'm so appreciative. of each one of them because they had to have a leap of faith with me. 'Cause they said Walters has some idea He wants to use our people to conduct this outreach. And they had to have a leap of faith and and have a level
of trust in the process. And they acknowledge that we've got to have new tactics to get new results. And they did that. I'm going to ask them to share their experiences in just a moment, but I want to give perspective on one of the experiences that we had when you met last and we did our last outreach on May 19th. And that was Uh we were at uh private property that trespass warnings exist, fifty-four and grand
area. And we went into the woods. Yeah. And uh the way these the these outreach usually work, our our partners, our our deputies, corporals from the community engagement team, they lead the way, they make sure we're gonna operate in a safe environment. We're grateful for them. And they it's not just that, but they their mindset of the deputies is they say, I brought my friends from Catholic charities, I brought my friends to offer you help and assistance.
And that's the that's the the philosophy that we're bringing to this. And we encounter we come across this encampment and there's a tent and the deputies are uh getting the attention we could tell there's somebody inside they're a little slow to come out And a younger adult female comes out who's clearly seven, eight months pregnant, maybe. She comes out of the tent. And um And her partner, male partner comes
out of the tent. And while the deputies and Catholic charities engage with them, the the tent still zipped down. You can see inside.
There's a little head inside the tent. Four year old boy. Her son.
And He's not sleeping in the woods anymore.
He's non-verbal, four years old, my granddaughter's four. So I have some kind of idea, not that my granddaughter would be the the best example, but some idea developmentally about where she's where he should be. He's nonverbal, but he's getting help. Mom's not having at twenty-one years old not having another child birthed in the woods. But It's because of the leadership of the bosses and this team out there doing the work. They want to share some of their experiences,
some of their stories with you. So whatever order you guys want to come up.
A non-county employee will go first. Hi. Good morning everybody. I'm Danielle Husband with Catholic Charities. I am grateful to be here. I've gotten to share with you a little bit about what we've been doing since our project opened in October 31st of 2024 over a grant. And then at Youth Lane, when we expanded that property. And then we also have our shelter over in Hudson for women exclusively, which is Felicity House. So we actually have three shelter opportunities throughout the county. And this was my first outreach too, so March 31st was the first time I
ever entered into the woods to do it. I have the bug bites to prove it. I was out there. I am so grateful for these guys. The the kindness and the gentleness that came from PSO in going into unknown territory was quite phenomenal. On as an aside at Grand we've gotten to know certain fire rescue folks pretty well, MIH really specifically, and they have been a fantastic addition to this team. I'm grateful for them as well. This really is a partnership. And as much as we show up looking big and huge, but when the folks and you
can see their fear, there's a relief also that washers over them. On uh the March 31st, one of the places we went to was 19 and 52 is a bus stop area. And we met a gentleman up there and e he's a little bit younger than who's at Grand. He's in his forties, but his entire face covered in tattoos, his hands covered in tattoos, his neck. It was everything that people would see him and they would they would pull away because he just didn't seem friendly. And he was sitting on the bench that day and I I walked up and I said, Could you use our help? And he immediately was like Okay,
let's go. And you know, it took some logistics. We had a couple people we transported back. Um and uh and our day ended out in uh Wesley Chapel area, so it took us a while to get back and I was the last staff that was at work finishing up for the day and somehow it ended up being Daryl and I were the only two in the dining room. And he was eating dinner at the end of the day and I looked at him, I said, Are you okay settling in? Intake go okay. and he looked at me and he cried. And he said, Thank you. And then he said, My mom says thank
you. This is a 40-year-old man that is going through it. And it wasn't working out at home, but he's not on that bus stop anymore. And he's at the shelter. He's still there with us. He's working. He's got some pretty significant mental health issues, some previous substance issues. We're working around all that. It's going to take him some time to get him ready to go into the community on his own, but he's no longer on that bus stop and he's getting that second chapter. chance to move forward. And so for me, this is why I come and I do this every day because I know that we're seeing the person. We're not just making an assumption and walking
away from them. So I'm grateful for what we've been able to do. I am incredibly grateful for all these folks. I personally have a fear of large dogs and there was a large dog in this May opportunity. And um and she was on the ground with them and it's rolling around like the biggest puppy and it was it it was everything just it worked together it and it it's been a really neat opportunity. So I'm grateful but I'm really grateful to all of these guys that have made this happen and helped transition those folks into the shelter with us. So thank you for you know letting me share
that time with you.
Hello everybody, my name is Lauren Taylor. I'm one of the social workers on Pasco County Higher Rescues Mobile Integrated Health Unit. For those of you who are not familiar with our program, much of our work focuses and supports individuals struggling with opiate use disorder. and other social and complex medical needs throughout Pasco County. What we've learned is that issues like substance abuse, mental health, and homelessness are awfully deeply interconnected. When we were asked to participate in this event, we were grateful
for the opportunity. It's been an incredible example of what can happen when multiple agencies throughout the community come together and work together and share. a like-minded goal of helping vulnerable members of our community. We're especially thankful that through this we have been able to help specific family members and specific people out in the area that are homeless. And provide them with the shelters and the resources that they need,
especially the young child that we recently helped, and we're able to connect him with immediate needs that he needed at that time to get him out of the woods. We are proud to be a part of the ki a county that values collaboration, compassion, and positive outreach, and we look forward to continuing to support these efforts in the future. Thank you guys.
Morning, I'm Corporal Zimmer at the Pasco Sheriff's Office. Really excited to have the partnership that we've now formed. And obviously just the security aspect walking into these Camblins camps, we never know what we're gonna encounter, who's gonna be out there, whether they're armed, whether they have warrants, mental health status, or whatnot. We deal with a lot of the homeless issues within our community engagement bureau. A lot of these people that we know who they are. And with this new partnership in the past, we really don't have any options
of like where we can put these people. And just to shed a little light onto that four-year-old child, many of you guys don't know, we were out with this child probably six months prior and reached out to some other organizations. that were unable to get them any help to get them out of the woods. There was a DCF report called in. However, they weren't able to track them down because they remained homeless and they just went to the next camp. So to be able to have this new partnership, we were able to get that pregnant woman, the
man, the four-year-old, and into a uh a place for them to stably go and then DC have to come out the next day and actually have a follow-up. And if there's nothing more impactful than that and that day, that the child's not gonna be in there and we're actually gonna have that follow-up and hopefully get them into a a plan of succession, I mean that means the world. So uh we're proud to be uh part of this partnership and thank you for your guys' support.
Good morning everybody. Uh Craig Korr. I am uh supervisor with Pasco County. Really happy to be part of this initiative. We've been um you know part of the campaign to uh resolve some route resolve the homeless issues in Pasco County for quite a while. So we're really, really happy to have this initiative uh with uh the collaboration from all these other Departments and entities. As to echo what Corporal Zimmerman said, it's
it's a a big question mark when we go out each and every call. We're happy to supply what information we have from the public and then from what other information we gather from. other agencies or other sources. But we're happy to move forward. We appreciate the support. We are gonna uh continue to attend all of these different outreaches and uh whatever other support we can be uh for the county.
We look forward to it. Thank you.
Hi everyone, I'm Julie Lynn Pukin. I'm one of the animal control officers. It was a great opportunity to be able to go out and work with the different agencies and departments so that we can actually make a difference. It it felt amazing to be able to go out there and help. I met someone who'd been living in the woods for two years. So he had an entire setup there. And he had a pet cat. And it's the most well taken care of cat I think I've ever seen, inside or outside of someone's house. It stayed right next to his side and he almost wasn't able to take it with him. He
didn't have a way to transport it. I've never been quicker to run inside my van and I was like, I have a carrier. You can have your cat. I promise you can keep your cat. But it it just I don't always get to go out and help. There's limited resources of what we're able to do when animal control is out for a call because usually it's for a dog being super aggressive or something along those lines or something injured or sick. So it it made a really big difference to be able to help in this sense and I'm glad to be given the opportunity.
It's pretty phenomenal.
Yeah.
It's amazing what the animal services piece and It it and she's not telling you everything. Uh one of the ideas that she had was they're gonna do a uh under the leadership of Director Herrero is they're gonna do a a program at Pasco Hope at the shelter to make sure whatever animals have come in to the shelter received. They've got their shots or license. I don't know, I'm not the animal services guy, but whatever they're supposed to have. Because when those folks transition to
their next step in housing, If their pets don't have everything they're supposed to have, they can't do that. So it those those that and those initiatives are taking down barriers and walls that are allowing folks to progress back into society and back into life. Uh another note with the fire rescue piece, one of the uh Yeah. When I met with the fire chief, uh one of the things we talked about was we've got MIH there. Uh so you we never know what we're gonna run into in
any of these encampments. And if somebody has a a medical emergency, uh we've got somebody there that's trained, that's qualified and equipped that can handle that immediately. And if we're not sure we got somebody there to make that call. And if it if we don't have them, then it's just one of us. That making that call on the fly, maybe we're calling a rescue out of a station that may not need to, and now that rescue's tied up where there may be a real emergency. So uh just an example of of freeing up resources and and
really the whole thing is just uh exemplar put the right people in the right place with the right mindset and the right things happen. Junior please.
So we've hit um 14 targeted areas. If you're doing the math, there's not 14 there. We didn't include everyone. In some places we've hit more than once. Some of those places are so massive that uh that's not okay.
And these are again prioritized by the the intel that we receive, the likelihood of uh the unhoused population being prose. Present and uh either county property or existing trespass warnings in place.
Uh a great example of of the teamwork there. Uh w uh a deputy, you could catch a glimpse of uh the unhoused individual there in the tent that they're talking to, uh MIH with all their gear, the Trump through the woods with and and the Catholic charities team.
Mm-mm. So in the in the two primary operations and and two subsequent minor ones, we've encountered uh 22 individuals that were initially taken out of their circumstance and placed into shelter, and that's either at Pasco Hope on Grand, Youth Lane, or Felicity House. She mentioned the cat. We've also got two dogs. So uh the Catholic charities is great. They count total heartbeats, whether they've got two legs or four. And
so eighteen of the twenty-two two-legged folks are still receiving treatment. 18 of the 22. The other four, they've either self-discharged or uh they made decisions that uh was not conducive with them staying in shelter receiving services. And and so, but eighteen out of twenty-two since March 31st, folks, I think that's pretty good. Um
Next please. We talked about the family. I mean that's just tremendous. Uh the other deputy, the corporal that was here, uh, he said that day, he said I've never rescued a four-year-old kid out of the woods before. I don't know what else is going to happen today, but it's not going to top this. That's a pretty good day to me. Um We had another gentleman in the area of 54 in Grand. He'd been in the woods for years. Pural
years. And he's he has cancer. and not able to receive his cancer treatments because he didn't have an address.
He's now a resident. at Pasco Hope on Grand Boulevard and he's getting his cancer treatments. All right. So between the four-year-old, all these other uh she mentioned Daryl at the at the bus stop, it's saving lives and and it's it's moving the needle in Pasco County. So those are success stories. One of the things, uh Danielle mentioned it. One of the surprising things personally for me is how receptive
the folks that we encounter by and large, there are a few outliers, but by and large, they're receptive to help. They're not I want to be here this is me leave me alone it's they're offered the assistance they're like like some of them can't pack up fast enough they're like yeah heck yeah how do I go And so they just need to be presented with the opportunity.
To continue this. We have to have the continued support of our partners. Yeah. Probably the largest piece of that. is the the great partnership we have with Catholic charities. They're expanding their capacity on Grand Boulevard with more pallet homes and hopefully uh expanding services into East Pasco because we've got to have that low barrier option, especially in East Pasco, and and that's the key. to uh continued
success. The more capacity we have, the more staff we have. And to speak to The staffing. And to Maggie Rogers' leadership Catholic charities doesn't have an outreach staff in Pasco County. The outreach team that they're sending into the woods in Pasco are coming from Tampa and Pinellas. So we're all looking at building that capacity up. As we continue to work on county property, we feel it's important we
take care of our business. One of those things that we have to address is clean up of county property. We're working with public works on some of those initiatives, making them aware, and they're going out and getting assessments and getting bids and those types of things so they can have their arms around the magnitude of the issue that they're presented with. But in the interest of uh taking care of our own business as a county. We've got to be able to get our property cleaned up, especially when we're holding our private
landowners accountable.
Thank you. Any questions I'm
not okay to leave them there.
I'm sorry?
I don't want I don't I'm not okay for them to think they can live on the Walmart property.
When we finished our operation on the nineteenth, there was no one there.
Okay, was the boat there then? Because there's a boat there now. I figure someone's living
in the boat.
Um so there is another camp then just to the east of that. 'Cause I've s I'm seeing them going in and out of the woods. I don't know whose property that is. Um But we're we're trying to buy that Walmart property. Or and they've got a sign out there that it's for sale. Um It's just been just a pain. Uh so when you when you go into the woods like this, because I don't think this is the Walmart property. This is I think
I mean what happens to all that trash on the ground? I see I see a garbage can there? The garbage can is empty and everything's on the ground. They're walking around. That gentleman's barefoot. This cannot be I mean this is This is obviously a very unhealthy situation.
It it is. And that's one of the things that we've acknowledged is the unsanity.