City council receives homelessness report from APD

Nov. 7—ASHTABULA — The Ashtabula Police Department presented their findings on homelessness to city council during a meeting Monday night.

The department has identified 37 perceived "homeless" individuals who are known to frequent Main Avenue.

"We identified 37 arrests from June 1, to present," Ashtabula Police Chief Robert Stell said. "This number represents a little over 20% of all arrests in the city of Ashtabula during this timeframe."

Another challenge the department faces is available jail space.

"The ability to house violators is limited even in the best possible situation," Stell said. "Our situation presently is that our nine available jail cells, seven of them are holding Ashtabula County Jail inmates due to their unwillingness or inability to take these inmates.

"These inmates are being held in our jail well past the 12-day limit allowable for our facility and has been incredibly burdensome on our ability to properly manage our jail population. This directly impacts our ability to make physical arrests."

In August 2023, patrol officers and detectives teamed up to establish a community outreach program, creating the Homeless Initiative Team (HIT).

APD officers Ryan White and Tim Bruckman shared their findings from this past year.

The team found the homeless population primarily gravitates toward wooded areas, abandoned homes and businesses within the city.

"I've worked diligently with [Planning and Community Development Assistant Director] Mary Church to remove some of these vacant houses," Ashtabula Fire Marshal Steve Chase said. "It's a huge problem."

He said during the winter months, the homeless start fires.

"There are fireman in this country, killed every year searching vacant houses for homeless people," Chase said.

APD officers have conducted routine patrols in the gulf and local trails, which had become hotspots for homeless camps.

Bruckman shared the progress they've made cleaning up these areas.

"When we began in 2023, we estimated that there was 15 to 20 different camps," he said. "At the end of summer 2024, there was less than five in the wooded areas."

Other popular areas included the North Park gazebo and the Ashtabula County District Library.

"Several homeless individuals used the gazebo as place to congregate due to shelter that is provided," Bruckman said.

He highlighted the centrally-located and readily-available resources made available through Signature Health, Square One and local churches.

He said many homeless individuals have used these resources to seek medical care, addiction treatment, housing and free meals.

"A lot of these individuals are reluctant to leave their current living situation, even when help is available," White said. "They prefer staying where they are because they're familiar with the area, and some don't want to leave behind the sense of community they've found with other homeless individuals."

City Manager Jim Timonere said although these agencies have been doing a great job, they are not communicating with each other.

To solve this problem, the city is currently looking at locations for a day center, which would provide one location for all of these different agencies to come together.

"[This will help us] truly identify what programs or what help these individuals need rather than, here's your food and out the door," Timonere said. "It's more of that interaction and gaining trust. I have a couple of meetings set up this week hopefully advancing that. Also a meeting with some individuals to discuss the mental health situation that we have here."

White said drug use and mental health issues are significant contributing factors in the rise of homelessness, with methamphetamine being more easily obtainable.

The department has encountered many individuals with a history of substance abuse which leads to losing their job and eventually ending up homeless.

Many individuals that are removed from rehab facilities, like Square One, for behavioral issues find themselves back on the street.

"These individuals are coming from Parma, Toledo, Dayton, we've found them coming as far from South Carolina and Texas to utilize Square One," White said.

He said once they are kicked out of rehab programs, they have nowhere to go. These individuals stay for the resources and link up with other homeless in the area.

In other areas in the county, including Roaming Shores and Jefferson, agencies that are dealing with individuals with a mental health crisis, bring them to Ashtabula Regional Medical Center (ARMC), White said.

"Oftentimes, within an hour or two, they're being released," he said. "Now here they are back on the streets. Multiple times we've seen where these individuals are being dealt with outside of the city."

Consequently, there has been an increase in crimes including theft, assault and prostitution.

HIT plans on collaborating with administration, council and local providers such as Signature Health, Glenbeigh, ARMC and Square One, to draft legislation that will deter businesses from attracting individuals from out of town and enhancing existing resources for aiding the current homeless population.

Officer Pat DiAngelo has been patrolling Main Avenue the past three summers, from 7 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

"I enjoyed talking to the business owners, their clients, customers and citizens that are walking on the street," Diangelo said. "I also took great pleasure in telling them about the highlights of the city and of the county, because I love the history of our city."

He said the issue of homelessness can't be ignored, especially when it starts to impact everyone in the neighborhood. While patrolling the parking deck and surrounding areas, it's a constant cycle of issues, including breaches, fires and illegal activity APD is trying to manage.

Ward 5 Councilperson Jane DiGiacomo said previously she would like to see a dedicated officer on Main Avenue to patrol year-round.

Stell said this is not feasible, due to APD officers being called upon to handle a variety of incidents throughout the city.

"We typically handle approximately 15,000 calls for service each year," he said. "We also typically have just four officers on patrol at any given time. It's just not practical to have an officer on Main Avenue 24/7 with all the other duties required, which includes monitoring and caring for inmates throughout the day, preparing and distributing meals, transporting inmates to and from court, transporting inmates to and from medical appointments and still responding to emergency calls and non-emergency calls for service."

DiAngelo said patrolling has helped decrease the numbers of homeless they see on Main Avenue.

Timonere said there is an extremely horrific underground network staying rich off homeless people.

"That is also another thing that this police department is dealing with," he said. "There's some bad actors out there that we hope to be rid of."