Eastern Iowa’s Scott County is launching a program to move people experiencing chronic homelessness out of emergency care and into more sustainable treatment.
They’ll be referred to an outpatient treatment program at a judge’s request, while caseworkers will make sure they follow a treatment plan, keep a medication regimen, and get a ride to appointments and services.
Community services director Lori Elam says it’s only the second program of its kind in Iowa.
“This is a collaboration between the courts and our mental health systems coming together,” Elam says, “and working to break this cycle of homelessness, incarcerations, and hospitalization.”
Johnson County has a similar program but it is not court-ordered.
Elam says when various providers in Davenport and surrounding Scott County got together to identify their highest users of services, they came up with a list of 17 people.
“And then we went back to our respective offices and calculated how much we had spent on those 17 people over the last five years,” Elam says, “and we came up with $7.1-million and we have not made their lives any better.”
Starting next month, a judge will be able to order someone into the program.
(Eliza Billingham, Iowa Public Radio)