Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness aides repeat offenders

The first time Daryll Wilson was arrested was in Los Angeles.

After stealing liquor from a grocery store, he said he served 19 months in prison before heading to his home state of North Carolina.

Doing so was a violation of his probation, and after arriving in Chapel Hill, he was arrested again.

“I actually got arrested on purpose because there was a warrant out for me,” Wilson said. “But they didn’t want me, so they let me go.”

Wilson has been homeless for nearly 30 years, many of which he has spent on Franklin Street. He is one of several homeless people in Chapel Hill who are chronic offenders: people who have been arrested multiple times and are at risk for arrest in the future.

While most chronic offenders are not homeless, the homeless are considered a high-risk group for arrest and recidivism, or being re-arrested.

And as it gets colder, the risks for homeless recidivism might increase.

Wilson said he has heard of other homeless people intentionally getting arrested to have a place to sleep, especially when it gets cold.

“I was almost one of them,” he said. “I almost froze to death last night.”

Lt. John Sellew at the Orange County Jail said he doesn’t know how many chronic offenders Orange County has, but there are a handful of arrestees they see regularly.

Many of the repeat offenders they see are arrested for minor things, he said. And some of those most regularly arrested are homeless.

“We get repeat offenders in for mostly non-violent misdemeanors,” Sellew said.

“Things like sleeping on park benches, which is a crime in Chapel Hill. Also misdemeanor larceny and misdemeanor assault.”

Jamie Rohe, homeless programs coordinator for the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness, said people may get trapped in a cycle of being in and out of jail.

“A lot of the chronically homeless stay out of trouble and keep a very low profile,” she said.

“Some do not. Some disrupt businesses and pedestrians and are arrested for it.”

Rohe said the reasons some homeless people cycle in and out of jail are complicated and difficult to approach. Mental health issues, drug problems and chronic joblessness can speed recidivism among the homeless.

“The whole key to keeping folks out of jail is to help them deal with their underlying problems,” Rohe said.

To address homeless recidivism, the partnership has started several programs aimed at high-risk individuals. One such program is Outreach Court, in which the partnership works with the Chapel Hill Police Department, local courts and the UNC School of Law.

In the program, if a homeless person is charged with a minor infraction, the court gives him the option to pursue a treatment plan in exchange for having the charges dropped.

“It’s sort of a carrot and stick approach,” Rohe said.

Another program called 100,000 Homes attempts to address a major risk factor for recidivism: exposure.

Service providers make a list of all homeless people in the area and try to place them in housing. So far, the initiative has housed six people since its inception last year.

“That doesn’t sound like a lot,” Rohe said. “But when you realize that those people were once considered impossible to house, it really is a huge deal.”

Sarah Furman, a crisis counselor at the Chapel Hill Police Department, has worked with 100,000 Homes and deals regularly with homeless arrestees.

She said in the past, many in the department had considered homeless chronic offenders an impossible problem. But the efforts of the partnership seem to have boosted departmental morale.

“We’ve seen real successes with folks we had some pretty extreme concerns about in terms of finding housing or jobs or health resources,” she said. “There’s hope. People are energized.”

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.