New job focuses on fighting homelessness in Everett

Published 4:39 pm Monday, June 27, 2016

EVERETT — A small job shuffle in the upper reaches of Mayor Ray Stephanson’s administration is more about making permanent some changes that have been in the works for a while.

Hil Kaman, the city’s lead prosecutor, last week was promoted to the role of public health and safety director, a new position in the city government.

Kaman has had a lead role in the implementation of the Safe Streets Plan. It is composed of a variety of policies designed to get control of Everett’s persistent problems with homelessness and other street-level issues.

“A lot of my work will be a continuation of what we have been doing on the Safe Streets plan,” Kaman said.

“As I got more involved in the work of the Safe Streets and Streets Initiative, my focus has been on those parts of my role in the prosecutor’s office that intersects with that,” Kaman said.

One of Kaman’s roles has been implementing the CHART program, which seeks to help people who use a disproportionate amount of emergency services. That involves providing the people in the program with social services such as mental health counseling, addiction treatment. There are currently 25 people on the CHART list, Kaman said.

In April, an analysis of the first six CHART participants showed that the program is having its intended effect.

In the six months prior to those people enrolling in the program, those six people accounted for 190 contacts with emergency medical services, 36 arrests, 538 total days in jail and 106 emergency room visits.

In the six months following their enrollment in the program, all those figures dropped by 70 to 80 percent: 34 emergency medical services contacts, 8 arrests, 43 days in jail and 31 emergency room visits among the six participants.

That reduction has had a direct financial impact too. The Snohomish County Jail’s billings to the Everett Police Department for those six individuals dropped from $28,356 to $6,300, a 77.8 percent drop, while charges from ER visits to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett dropped 72.5 percent, from nearly $198,000 to under $55,000.

CHART depends on close collaboration between Everett’s police, fire and legal departments, Providence, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and the county human services department.

“In addition to that, we’ve built a whole network of housing and social service providers we work with to find long-term solutions,” Kaman said.

Kaman also oversees the city’s new work crew program, in which people arrested for some petty crimes are given a chance to pay off tickets by cleaning up city streets.

In the program’s first two months, 36 people have been referred to the work crew, and 11 have successfully completed their commitments and had their charges dismissed, for example.

Kaman said that he also has heard from the business community in the Smith Avenue area that there has been a significant reduction in the amount of garbage. Some business owners have come out to thank the workers personally, he said.

Kaman’s job in the prosecutor’s office will be filled, city spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke said.

Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.