Springfield to spend $3-mil grant to target homelessness

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — The city of Springfield was one of four cities selected to receive a more than $3-million grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICIJA). The Springfield Police Department will use the funds to combat crime by targeting resources to the homeless community.

Tuesday night Springfield City Council heard proposals to send $377,937 to Washington Street Mission where offices will be set up for social workers and mental health specialists to serve unhoused people. $250,505 will go to Memorial Behavioral Health and $768,168 to South Illinois University (SIU) School of Medicine to find these experts.

"We're going to use the Washington Street Mission, have the social workers in the mission, where the homeless people are already—130 to 160 people per day who are coming through the mission. We will have social workers in the building who can meet with those individuals and really catch them before they become in crisis," Deputy Chief Joshua Stuenkel of the Springfield Police Department told city council Tuesday.

The grant would also send $587,500 to Solid Rock Youth Transitional Services, which serves kids aging out of the foster care system. Another $878,104 would fund a program with Sojourn Shelter to assist domestic violence victims who do not have a home.

"These are getting at those underlying targets of what everyone talks about with the mental health crisis that is impacting and compounding on our streets," Alderwoman Erin Conley, of Ward 8, said.

If these grants are approved by city council next week, the initiatives would run in addition to the Police Department's co-responder program. This program partners social workers, from Memorial Behavioral Health, with SPD officers while they are out in the field.