DECEMBER 13, 2024 UNARMED RESPONSE Ypsilanti considers Care-Based Safety On Tuesday November 26 at the Ypsilanti City Council meeting, two people, Liz Kennedy and Corn Williams, gave a presentation about a community program called CareBased Safety. According to the CBS website, “Care-Based Safety is dedicated to acting with principle and intention. We are taking careful steps in building a community response program that brings loving, unarmed support to people directly impacted by structural violence – without police. In our planning, response, and practice we center the needs of people who are Black, Indigenous, undocumented, unhoused, LGBTQIA+, using drugs and/or experiencing mental health struggles.” Liz, 29, shared how she got involved. “I’m a survivor of domestic and interpersonal violence and have had traumatizing experiences with the police. I got involved in CBS when I realized that I would have to learn some tools if I wanted to keep myself and my loved ones safe during a crisis.” As CBS began its pilot program in the summer of 2023, a group of people began sleeping under the awning of an abandoned bank building at 16 S. Washington. During that summer, CBS (as well as Fed Up Ministries and Growing Hope) had become associated with what the city called “an increased public safety risk in the downtown core.” Liz commented, “The area was already a safety risk. It’s why we came there in the first place. The city was looking the other way until we showed up. They tried to make us a scapegoat.” Liz recalled, “... This summer [2024] looked really different. Our presence made a big impact. Fed Up keeps an incident log. Anecdotally, this year we cut the number of incidents in half. When we wrapped up in September there was a noticeable uptick in 911 calls. This is how opponents justified saying there was a public safety risk. Realistically, the uptick is proof of concept for CBS’s pilot.” They also noticed something new in “We had a lot of returning folks but every shift there was a new person. I think people are missing the fact that the housing crisis is generating new homelessness (sic) victims constantly. That gave the impression that there was more disruption from the regulars than there actually was. We were helping so many people that no one noticed they were all new. The new people are unseen and the whole area is considered a safety risk when really it is a refugee camp.” Corn, 38, has lived experience of homelessness. Corn explains his JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 involvement. “I was into doing my own community work when I was approached by a member of CBS. She told me about some folks who had backgrounds in crisis response and de-escalation that were trying to bring this vision (CBS) to life. When some funding came in to hire employees they tapped me to apply so now I do advocacy for Care-Based Safety.” Corn shared during the presentation: “CBS would provide the city extreme cost savings by reducing the workload of the [Ypsilanti Police Department]. The largest part of the police budget is their operational costs. Even something as slight as a 15% reduction in operational demands would result in a $750,000 decrease in costs. On top of that, the reduction on gas, dispatch and other secondary expenses would add up to nearly a million dollars. “As part of my advocacy work, I attended the Ypsilanti Police Advisory committee meetings. Disgruntled police would come to the meeting and share how detrimental working at YPD was to their mental health. Constant exposure to traumatic incidents plus being overworked and over capacity made a serious impact on their mental health. Here I was, worried that a cop with a clean bill of mental health was gonna whoop my ass or shoot me! But instead YPD is overworking these guys and arming them, knowing they potentially have a diagnosis and throwing them into danger night after night. To me that represents a huge danger to the public.” I asked Council Member Patrick the summer of 2024. Liz continued, McLean what he thought of the CBS presentation. “I'm open to working with them and the concept of an alternative response. I want to hear that they have formal training,” he shared, “They gave a long list of things they do and don’t respond to, but I’m curious about how people get triaged. That is, when they receive a phone call how can they ensure they are determining the proper response?” In response to those questions, I asked Liz, “What would you do if you got to a situation and found out there was a gun or a fire?” “We would call 911 and escalate other emergency responders. We have relationships with the ambulance and fire department.” “Do you see a day when CBS could be called to put out a fire?” Corn laughed as he inserted: "We would need a sizable grant for a fire truck.” “What if it was a bucket brigade?” I countered. Liz chimed in, “I’m glad you brought that up. Modern paramedics came out of Black communities in Pittsburgh because of segregated medical care.” From the Team Rubicon USA website: “Founded in 1967, the Freedom House Ambulance Service was created largely to serve the predominantly Black community of Pittsburgh's Hill District.” I asked Liz, “If the city were to pass a resolution to adopt CareBased Safety, what would it say?” She replied, “We would like Ypsilanti to provide a memo of understanding that establishes a committed partnership between the city and Care-Based Safety. Also funding, obviously, and to reintroduce the RFP that Council member Dez Simmons put forth last year.” Corn concluded, “Mental health and public safety services are paid for through county millages. Last year, they told us they were going to immediately allocate millage funding for mental health programs. We want the county to follow through with this and we want that mental health program to be Care-Based Safety.” GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Care-Based Safety would reduce police expenditures and save the City of Ypsilanti thousands of dollars.
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