Pensacola allocated $2.2 million for homeless programs. How has that money been spent?

Pensacola set aside $3 million of federal American Rescue Act Plan funding last year to address homelessness, allocating more than $1.5 million to eight different programs in January.

That allocation has grown to $2.2 million in the months since, but the city has only paid out about $488,500 to the eight programs as of Sept. 1.

Each program must request reimbursement from the city before it actually receives the cash, and some programs have been slower to roll out than others or are using other funding sources first before tapping the city's funds.

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Escambia County is seeking public comments for its own $4 million grant program and held a public input meeting Monday at the Brownsville Community Center at 5:30 p.m.

The city currently has about $736,000 unallocated for homelessness programs that will be allocated in the future by the City Council.

Here's a breakdown of each program funded by the city and how much has been spent.

REAP

Re-Entry Alliance of Pensacola has been the biggest recipient of ARPA funding from Pensacola, with allocations for two different programs. In total, it has been allocated $642,000 in funding by the council.

As of Sept. 1, REAP has received $179,157 in payments from the city out of the $642,000.

In January, REAP was awarded $400,000 to set up a day center and temporary shelter, which has become the Max-Well Respite Center that opened earlier this year.

The City Council changed its allocation in February, giving REAP another $42,000 for the creation of the Safe Outdoors Space camp that was set up in the wake of the closure of the Interstate 110 camp. REAP said it would take $58,000 out of the respite center funding to allocate a total of $100,000 toward the camp.

Last month, the City Council approved another $200,000 for REAP's The Lodges women and children's homeless shelter.

REAP is now facing allegations for the way people have been treated in the camp and recently fired the director of the camp. Funding for the camp has been frozen by the City Council as it seeks to conduct an audit.

REAP Executive Director Vinnie Whibbs told the News Journal he didn't think it would be appropriate to comment until the conclusion of the audit.

Hotel vouchers

As an emergency measure last year, the council approved $180,000 to be used as hotel vouchers for temporary shelter. Whibbs had previously told the News Journal that his organization placed many people in hotels as the city closed down the I-110 encampment.

As of Sept. 1, $175,837 has been spent toward the hotel voucher program.

LOTUS Campaign

The council approved $425,000 for the LOTUS Campaign, a North Carolina-based nonprofit that helps homeless people find permanent housing by working with landlords to rent to people who would otherwise not be able to sign a rental lease.

So far, the city has expended $40,209 on the program.

Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson has said LOTUS is working to sign up landlords willing to participate in the program.

Lakeview

The Lakeview Center was allocated $300,000 for a response unit that sends case workers and mental health professionals to interact with people experiencing homelessness on the streets.

As of Sept. 1, Lakeview has not sought reimbursement from the city; however, its Homeless Evaluation Assessment Response (HEART) Team has been up and running since February, according to Lakeview Center spokesperson Kelsi Gulig.

The HEART Team is currently operating off of another federal grant awarded through Opening Doors Northwest Florida and the city funds will be tapped once that grant expires.

The HEART Team has been averaging 100 encounters per month, said Carolyn Shearman, Lakeview's director of emergency services.

"We go out and try to initially just establish a relationship and just try to get some engagement," Shearman said. "We may see someone a few times before they're really interested in working with us."

Shearman said the program is set up to have a team of one counselor, two case managers and a nurse who work with people to get them any kind of help they need, from finding health care to permanent housing.

"Some people, we've been fortunate, and it was just like the magic combination to get them directly into housing," Shearman said. "... That that doesn't happen quite as often as we'd like, but it does happen."

Pensacola Dream Center

Pensacola Dream Center's Canopy of Hope shelter was awarded $300,000 by the council. So far, the shelter has been reimbursed $53,740.

Dream Center Executive Director Terri Merrick told the News Journal the funding has gone to fund the salaries of four people at the Pensacola Dream Center.

"They're getting part-time pay, but they're working full-time," Merrick said.

Merrick said the Dream Center has been able to shelter 47 people either in hotels or temporary housing.

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The organization also reported that it has 25 paired coach and mentor matches and has conducted 32 hours of professional counseling and helped five people get into recovery programs.

"We start working with them, let them get calmed down," Merrick said. "We start getting their profiles, see which direction they want to go in and see if they want help. Then we work toward getting them, whether it's transitional housing, addiction recovery, or if they are trafficked and they need to be into a safe house or if they need help for domestic violence, we just start moving all those pieces forward."

The Dream Center is also close to opening the Canopy of Hope shelter that will operate for three years to house four women at a time going through the Dream Center's program.

"There's no way we would have been able to do this much (without the ARPA funding)," Merrick said.

Bright Bridges Ministries

Bright Bridges Ministries was awarded $281,400 by the council for operations of a 30-bed men's shelter. So far, the organization has not sought any reimbursements from the city.

Bright Bridge Executive Director Robin Noble did not respond to the News Journal's request for comment.

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Robinson said last week  that the shelter had unexpected delays in opening its doors and only recently has been able to take residents, and funding is for their operations.

"The idea is that is to sustain them for a while," Robinson said. "It's very good to have them back open."

Children's Home Society

Children's Home Society was awarded $135,254 to launch an internship program for master's level students seeking degrees in social work to work in case management and counseling for runaway and homeless youth.

So far, Children's Home Society has been reimbursed $39,646.

Diana Born, clinical program director for the western Florida region of Children's Home Society, said the program had seven interns so far, and one of them was hired by the organization's clinical program after she graduated.

Born said the program has enabled the organization to reach more children in the community who may be homeless or even victims of sex trafficking and to connect them to services.

Born added that many of the interns are in their early 20s and often only a few years older than the people with whom they're trying to connect.

"(The program) gives us the ability to have extra people in place to help link more kids to the resources they need," Born said.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: How much has Pensacola spent on homelessness programs?