Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has seen an increase in homelessness. Over half of a million people experienced homelessness in the United States in 2022. Solving the problem of homelessness requires collaboration: agencies from different sectors sharing not only resources but also the information and skill needed to make real systemic change. This project, Sharing the Solutions: Police-Court Partnerships to Address Homelessness, was developed by the Center for Justice Innovation (formerly Center for Court Innovation) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services to highlight and share successful collaborations across the country among police, courts, behavioral health experts, and people with lived experience. The Center convened an advisory board of more than 20 experts from across the country to serve as advisors to this project over a two-year process.
How to Use this Toolkit
This multimedia toolkit has been developed for police and court professionals interested in enhancing or developing new or specialty programs serving people experiencing homelessness. The toolkit contains video, podcast, and written content on topics that include the following:
- How to engage and work with special populations experiencing homelessness, including veterans and young people
- The importance of having people with lived experience at the table
- In-depth discussions with police leaders and specialty court judges
The table of contents provides the title and a brief description of each module. Within each module, you will find opportunities to learn from local and national experts and access further recommended readings and resources. Whether you are just beginning to plan your collaboration or already have longstanding partners working with you, this toolkit will provide local and national perspectives and resources to support you and your colleagues.
Acknowledgments
This project was supported, in whole or in part, cooperative agreement 2019CKWXK012 awarded to the Center for Justice Innovation (formerly known as the Center for Court Innovation) by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) or contributor(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific individuals, agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the author(s), the contributor(s), or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.
The Center for Justice Innovation would like to thank the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services for their dedication to this work and the communities they serve, with a special thank you to Vonda Matthews, who provided valuable input and support throughout the project. This toolkit has been made possible with the guidance of our advisory board of subject matter experts. We are deeply thankful to our advisors for their continued support and consultation. Finally, there are many people whose experience, expertise, and feedback informed this publication. In particular, it is with gratitude that we thank our current and former Center for Justice Innovation colleagues: Aaron Arnold, Janelle Cotto, Walla Elshekh, Caitlin Flood, Bill Harkins, Medina Henry, Julius Lang, Bonnie Sultan, and Robert Wolf.
Table of Contents
Module 1: Learning from Leadership: Police Executives
A common theme among successful police-court partnerships is strong leadership from individuals who support innovative communication. This panel discussion among police executives shares examples of such innovation and the community partnerships it enables.
Module 2: Hearing from the Bench: Judicial Roundtable
Community courts across the country work to divert people experiencing homelessness from the justice system. This panel of specialty court judges talks about work taking place in their communities and provides recommendations on how police can partner with similar programs in their home communities.
Module 3: The Intersection of Homelessness, Health, and Justice Systems
People leaving correctional facilities are more likely than people who have never been incarcerated to have behavioral health and housing needs once home. This panel offers the perspectives of peers, police, corrections officials, and behavioral health experts as they discuss the intersection of correctional, behavioral health, and housing systems and provide recommendations for local partnerships serving people experiencing homelessness.
Module 4: Outreach Teams and Peer Partners
Many police departments have formed specialized teams that provide outreach and wraparound services for people experiencing homelessness. These outreach teams often collaborate with people with lived experience who serve as peer partners. This panel highlights two police outreach teams who work with such peer partners discussing collaboration strengths and steps to remove barriers to housing and sustained services.
Module 5. Spotlighting Local Collaborations
In this section, multi-agency collaborations from two jurisdictions talk about how community connections allow for systemic solutions. These panels tell the stories of how their collaborations began and share promising practices for those in the field looking to either begin for further refine their multi-system work.
-
Module 5a: Houston, Texas, Police-Court Partnerships
-
Module 5b: Austin, Texas, Multiagency Partnerships
Module 6. In Practice Podcast
This project was featured on two In Practice podcast episodes. The first episode discusses the intersection of homelessness and transit police, including successful partnerships among transit authorities, police, and local service providers that give the unhoused a chance to access services while also helping transit systems pursue their mission of safe transportation. The second episode is a discussion between a veterans’ treatment court judge and a Veterans Affairs (VA) representative about the intersection between housing and veterans and promising solutions for this population.
-
Module 6a: When Public Transportation, Police, and Homelessness Intersect: Supporting a Vulnerable Population
-
Module 6b: Addressing Housing Insecurity Among Justice-Involved Veterans
Module 7. Webinar Series
This project was featured in four national webinars supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and the Center for Justice Innovation. Topics include:
- Webinar 1. A National Perspective on Police-Court Partnerships to Address Homelessness
- Webinar 2. Spotlighting the Austin, Texas, HOST Team: A Cross-Agency Collaboration Serving People Experiencing Homelessness
- Webinar 3. Understanding Our Past and Reforming Our Future: Law Enforcement and Homelessness
- Webinar 4. Police Partnerships with Directly Impacted Individuals and Communities
Appendix. Recommended Resources and Readings
As of January 2023, we changed our name to Center for Justice Innovation. Though some of this toolkit was originally created under our previous name (Center for Court Innovation), the name in these webpages has been updated to reflect the new name.