City wide plan underway to combat homelessness in Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, ILLINOIS — Homelessness has been an ongoing issue for some Central Illinois cities like Springfield. Now, Jacksonville police said they are starting to see a rise of homelessness in their city.

The Jacksonville Police Chief, Doug Thompson, told me the department is unable to figure out what’s causing the increase.

Chief Thompson said some of the unhoused community members have been residents of the Jacksonville area for a long time.

But in some cases, Thompson told me unhoused community members are unfamiliar to the department, and they don’t make contact with them, until they see them on the street.

“We don’t know if someone brought them here, we don’t know if they just had family here and thought I’ll just come here to try to get help,” Thompson said. “ But we do try to address that We have our Chaplin. I noticed one the other day and I messaged the Chaplin and said ‘hey, I’ve seen this individual over here, have we made any contact with that person.’”

Now, a community effort to combat homelessness is underway.

Thompson said the department is looking to build a TASC team, Treatment Accountability for Safer Communities.

“One of the things that TASC is good with is, they’re trained to deal with this kind of situation,” Thompson said. “They have the mental health training, the background, they know where the resources are.”

Thompson said some unhoused individuals refuse the resources of the police department out of fear or being comfortable with where they are. Thompson said creating the TASC team can help combat that issue.

“If they walk up and see us talking to them, they’re maybe thinking that they’re in trouble because they’re talking to us, and that’s not the fact,” Thompson said. “We’re trying to do everything we can to help them, where’s this [TASC], they’ll see someone in civilian clothes… Give them comfort somehow, someway different other than what law enforcement does.”

Putting this TASC team into action will take some time as the department works to put a plan in place.

Until then, city agencies like United Way and the Salvation Army are working alongside the department to create a timely plan.

The Jacksonville Salvation Army Captain, Justian Corliss, said they are searching for long-term solutions.

“Making sure that we have services that aren’t just addressing the immediate emergency service,” Corliss said. “But the long-term process of getting people from an unhoused situation into a stable living environment.

Thompson said the last thing Jacksonville police want to do is hand out citations.

“The idea of law enforcement is not to be punitive or cause you harm,” Thompson said. “It’s to get you assistance and to help those that need help. If we’re out there writing a citation to somebody because they’re homeless, or they’re having a mental health crisis, that does not help.”

Thompson said the department also partners with the local cooling and warming centers to help unhoused members seek shelter.

In order to use the centers, unhoused members must go to the police department to get clearance. This ensures no problems will happen at the center.

Corliss said combatting homelessness will be a community effort and financial support will be needed to create a long-term solution.

If the TASC team is created, Thompson said the program will be funded through a cannabis tax grant.