Fort Walton Beach is addressing homelessness. Here's where the process stands so far.

FORT WALTON BEACH — It has been two weeks since the first workshop to discuss the Fort Walton Beach City Council's No. 1 strategic plan initiative: tackling the issue of public safety and vagrancy.

The Northwest Florida Daily News had the opportunity to sit down with Councilman Travis Smith of the Fort Walton Beach City Council, along with Bonnie Barlow and Ted Corcoran, representing Bridgeway Center and Community Solutions of the Emerald Coast, to dive deeper into their respective positions.

Here's what we know.

Recap of the first workshop

The Fort Walton Beach City Council held its first workshop on the No. 1 item in the strategic plan, which the council unanimously voted on earlier this year.

In the plan, Community Solutions of the Emerald Coast, along with 13 other organizations from around the area, offered a $520,000 plan that would upgrade and enhance the capabilities of One Hopeful Place, which would include converting its cold weather shelter into a facility open year-round, finding a social worker and medical professional to oversee care and rehabilitation, and having the possibility of having long-term housing on the property.

After a lengthy presentation, the council advised Community Solutions to look for outside funding opportunities to help fund the project.

'Definition of insanity.'

After the presentation, Smith was the first council member to start the conversation. He believed that if the city went through with the proposed plan, there would be a fear that the homeless population would increase due to rising resources for the community. The Northwest Florida Daily News asked Smith to expand on those thoughts.

"Have you not seen the city of San Franciso?" he asked. "Why did San Francisco turn out the way that it did? It's because they started pushing for a lot of resources to it."

"We have resources here that the city has graciously bestowed upon One Hopeful Place, and I think our city has been very gracious and wanting to help the people in need, but I think that there may be a difference in what we may have been discussing in that meeting," he said.

"It seemed to be that from the council's perspective, we want to have a conversation more about vagrancy. It seemed like that conversation with One Hopeful Place was more of a conversation about homelessness. I see the two different, personally."

Smith went on to talk about the conditions at the Landing and the area around it. He told the Daily News that many people don't want to go down to the landing, and many parents with children don't want to use the parks due to the lack of safety and cleanliness.

One idea the council gave Community Solutions was to ask other cities in the Fort Walton Beach area for assistance, such as Mary Esther and Shalimar.

"I believe Gloria (Deberry) said it best: We're more than willing to give them a hand up but not a handout, and that handout hasn't been working for us for 10 years since that facility has been open. In the grand scheme of things because things have done nothing but get worse. We have not seen anything get better," Smith said.

"What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?"

Was there anything the council liked about the plan?

There were two main parts of the plan announced by Community Solutions that Smith liked. First, he believed half of the project could be completed without monetary funding to get some pieces in place. Those included changes to the Okaloosa County EC-Rider system and using the Fort Walton Beach police to form relationships with the homeless population.

The other part Smith liked was the consolidation of the various groups involved in their efforts to all be on the same page. But he also believes that no amount of dollar signs could help fix this issue.

"One thing I do know is there's not a problem in the world that exists that you can just throw money at, and it goes away," Smith added. "I don't think it costs half a million dollars to do that. I also don't believe that our city should be on the hook for all of this. Like I said, this is a regional problem. This isn't a city of Fort Walton Beach problem.

"I talked to plenty of residents that say they don't want to give money to this. They see it not working; they see it getting worse. They don't want to give their money to it. I'm a representative of them.

"I treat the city's money like it's my own individual money, and I'm not going to let it go lightly, and I think a majority of our council feels that way."

Community Solutions regroups

On Friday, the Northwest Florida Daily News sat down with Bonnie Barlow from Bridgeway Center and Ted Corcoran from Community Solutions of the Emerald Coast to determine the next steps in their process.

Barlow mentioned that the first step on their side would be to regroup and develop another viable solution that could be well received by every party involved.

"I think they are very clear on their position," said Barlow. "We've taken their feedback and their suggestions and we've talked to each other, along with people in the audience that had ideas. This is kind of like the first round. We now see what their objections are, along with their positive suggestions, so we are taking all of that into consideration and regrouping."

Barlow and Corcoran also added that they are both grateful to the Fort Walton Beach City Council for bringing this issue to light. If really hasn't been addressed in the past.

Corcoran also agreed with Smith's thought that this issue is not just a Fort Walton Beach issue but an Okaloosa County issue.

"I think the overall thing is that the community is grateful for the city of Fort Walton Beach for making a priority of an issue that is traditionally unspoken on and allowing the community to offer ideas," said Corcoran

Commissioner Ketchel's thoughts

While the aide to County Commissioner Trey Goodwin was able to read aloud a statement on the matter during the workshop, the Daily News reached out to Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel on what her thoughts would be about the planned initiative in her district.

“I have been actively engaged in conversations with the chamber of commerce and I believe my experience as a licensed clinical social worker on the national and local level can be helpful with this challenging issue," said Ketchel in a statement. "We will be working on gathering a team of stakeholders made up of representatives from the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce, the City of Fort Walton Beach, and the county to find long-term solutions that will benefit the businesses in downtown Fort Walton Beach as well as the people experiencing homelessness.”

What's next?

All parties agree there should be more discussion on this issue.

Smith already has mentioned to City Manager Jeff Peters that another workshop should be held. Smith hopes to have another meeting by the end of the year or during the first quarter of 2024. September is unlikely due in part to meetings involving finalizing the city budget and selecting a new council member to fill the vacated seat left by Larry Patrick.

For Community Solutions, it is in the beginning stages of formulating a new plan that could be discussed at the next workshop. The organization is in talks with other city governments in Okaloosa County and the Board of County Commissioners to build a plan that all parties involved could get behind.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Addressing homelessness in Fort Walton Beach: Where do we stand?