Pensacola's top agency on homelessness needs a new leader. Why the right hire matters.

The search will soon get underway for a new executive director to head up Opening Doors Northwest Florida, Pensacola’s lead agency on homelessness prevention.

Community leaders and others who work with people who are homeless and the agencies that serve them say it’s important to find the right person for the job, especially now that Opening Doors is restructuring the way it operates.

Opening Doors has long been Northwest Florida’s Continuum of Care, which is a local planning organization that coordinates funding for housing and other services for homeless people and families, including dispersing federal funding.

The agency’s executive director for the past decade, John Johnson, resigned two weeks ago. The president of Opening Doors' board of directors, Dr. David Josephs, said they haven’t advertised the position to replace Johnson yet, but intend to by the end of December.

“We're in this process of governance consultation from (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) regarding the structure of the CoC and so it will be clearer, for instance, the role and functions of the executive director and what the Board would really want the Executive Director to focus on,” Josephs said. “We want some clarity with that governance structure so that we can clearly say, ‘OK, here are the main things the executive director of the Continuum of Care needs to be focusing on,’ so that for the new executive director the priorities are really clear.”

Answering whether the board will conduct a national search for the new director, Josephs said they are discussing "multiple options" and that a national search may be helpful if there are no local candidates.

Restructuring Opening Doors is one of the recommendations from Joe Savage, a senior regional advisor for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, who visited Pensacola this spring to help the community better address homelessness.

Savagerecommended that Opening Doors split its nonprofit service from its role in administering federal money for homelessness to prevent potential conflicts of interest that could send a red flag to the government and prevent funding opportunities from flowing into the community.

Opening Doors is now working with a HUD technical advisor to bring the organization more in line with federal guidelines, including creating a separate governance board to oversee the CoC.

Josephs said they want a new executive director who can continue the work that has already begun and keep funding priorities in line with outcome based federal guidelines like the ALL-IN strategic plan launched by the White House in May to end homelessness. The plan also sets a goal to reduce homelessness 25% by 2025.

“President (Joe) Biden's All-IN plan, which speaks to all of that, to actually end homelessness, not to mitigate homelessness,” said Josephs. “We have a few more meetings of coordinating the COC and then we'll post the position and hopefully we'll find a candidate that has the passion for this.”

Josephs said they hope to hire an executive director by the first part of next year, depending on the candidates. He expects the restructuring of the CoC to wrap up next spring.

Why the new hire matters

Across city and county lines in Northwest Florida, community leaders say homelessness is impacting individuals, families and neighborhoods. People from all walks of life are struggling for a variety of reasons, from a lack of affordable housing to mental health and addiction issues.

The results can be seen in a variety of ways, from people couch surfing with friends and family, to others living in their cars or camping in the woods, like the hundreds of people staying on vacant private and county-owned property in Brent and other places throughout Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

“It's just a huge issue and nobody seems to really know what to do,” said Escambia County Administrator Wes Moreno. “We need somebody who can lead the way and create a partnership with the city and the county and community partners and guide us along the way.”

County and city leaders have been working together and separately trying to address homelessness. Federal experts say the best approach is one where community leaders are on the same page and an efficient CoC can help with that by establishing a plan and setting priorities, especially if the governing board is made up of a variety of community stake holders.

“I think someone that understands best practices, that has seen what right looks like, I think would bring immense value to us,” said Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves, who invited Savage to come to Pensacola. “It's OK for us to rely on people's expertise who know how to get these things done. This is not a topic for which there's any room for ego or territorialism. It's too important to helping those in need in our community and it's too important to our quality of life and how this is managed. Whether you're a business owner or a resident this issue affects everybody. I think that we have to be in lockstep as a city, as a county, as a COC and as all of these service providers who are passionate about helping people. We’ve got to get on the same sheet of music.”

Both the city and the county are working on public safety ordinances that address people standing in and around roadways. The city is also evaluating the possibility of a low-barrier shelter, while the county looks at ways to provide transitional housing.

While collaboration among community leaders is key, others say it’s also important among service providers. They want an experienced leader at the CoC to get all homeless service providers on the same Homeless Management Information System data collection system, weed out duplication of services and implement coordinated entry, among other goals.

Chandra Smiley is CEO of Community Health Northwest Florida, which provides medical care for the indigent and others. Thousands of people who are homeless are treated at Community Health each year, and Smiley has been working with local leaders to help streamline services.

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“I don't know that we've ever really done a good job at identifying where there are duplication of efforts and where are there gaps in services,” Smiley said. “Understanding who are the members of the Continuum of Care, where does one start and one stop and another provider pick up, I think that's important. The other thing is leveraging not just federal funds but there are a plethora of funding opportunities out there that somebody who understands the need and understands the challenges can go out there and bring additional dollars into our community.”

Connie Bookman, founder and CEO of Northwest Florida Homeless Reduction Task Force, agrees the CoC needs an experienced leader who is savvy at helping service providers train on HMIS, improve their outcomes and access more dollars to help get people off the street.

“The task force has two major goals,” Bookman said. “One is to have more access to HMIS, and that our COC will be a seamless entry for anyone experiencing homelessness. For a new director to have the mindset of there are no closed doors, that's why it's called Opening Doors, right? If you're experiencing or have a threat of homelessness, how do you access the system? Because it's impossible many times for lots of organizations, but our COC should be the leader in that.”

Laura Gilliam is president and CEO of United Way of West Florida. She also worked for United Way in Huntington, West Virginia, before moving to Pensacola. Gilliam said the CoC there worked hard to get on the same page and as a result was able to provide more brick and mortar shelter and reduce homelessness in their community.

“It wasn't a perfect CoC, it went through some struggles, but they had a very engaged board and there was a lot of trust on the part of the agencies that they were able to develop over time,” Gilliam said. “That community, which is smaller than this one, had fewer individuals listed as homeless, got over $3 million in HUD funding, and the same year we (Pensacola) got $871,000. When you're getting the data, when you're got a Continuum of Care that's working together and you've got people using HMIS, then you're showing what the need is in the community.”

Most city, county and community leaders agreed they’d like to see a national search for the next executive director for Opening Doors. Gilliam also suggested creating a search committee made up of community stake holders to help identify candidates.

“We're all kind of working together and I think we've made some strides and some efforts to get ourselves in alignment, but you really still need that point of the spear and that point of the spear is really that executive director of the COC," Smiley said. “I think somebody coming in with no ties, just fresh and coming from an area where you know the Coc has been successful and maybe has some best practices to bring, I think that's who we need to go look for.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Community leaders weigh in on who should head up Opening Doors