ST PAUL, Minn. — The City of St. Paul is replacing its Community Outreach and Stabilization Unit (COAST), for a new program called Familiar Faces, beginning in January.
The COAST Program included social workers who would follow up with individuals who made mental health-related 911 calls. Familiar Faces plans to go beyond the assessment period, building relationships with individuals until they are back on stable ground.
"It is taking the relationship and the interaction beyond service referral," said Familiar Faces program administrator Chris Michels. "It's partnering and brokering trust with the individual, so we're following with them through however many steps it takes to get to that kind of stabilizing place."
The city says Familiar Faces will be made of individuals that police officers, paramedics or EMTs see so often they become familiar. Many of those individuals are unhoused. With the program, officers will make direct referrals to the Familiar Faces team about potential individuals to whom they should reach out.
According to St. Paul's Homeless Assistance Response Team (HART), as of Sept. 4, there are 28 active encampment sites in St Paul, with a total of 185 occupants. Seventy-six percent of those occupants are men.
"We're going to build a relationship; we're going to build trust; we're going to know you as an individual and what your challenges are," said St. Paul Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher. "We want to make sure that we have a clinical team that also knows that person and is working in partnership with our emergency responders to address those needs."
KARE 11 spoke with Sue Abderholden, the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Minnesota, who says she is concerned that the city is ending an effective program in COAST, without being clear about what this new program will look like.