Sharing the Solutions: Police-Court Partnerships to Address Homelessness

Overview

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has seen an increase in homelessness. Over half of a million people experienced homelessness in the United States in 2022. Solving the problem of homelessness requires collaboration: agencies from different sectors sharing not only resources but also the information and skill needed to make real systemic change. This project, Sharing the Solutions: Police-Court Partnerships to Address Homelessness, was developed by the Center for Justice Innovation (formerly Center for Court Innovation) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services to highlight and share successful collaborations across the country among police, courts, behavioral health experts, and people with lived experience. The Center convened an advisory board of more than 20 experts from across the country to serve as advisors to this project over a two-year process.

How to Use this Toolkit

This multimedia toolkit has been developed for police and court professionals interested in enhancing or developing new or specialty programs serving people experiencing homelessness. The toolkit contains video, podcast, and written content on topics that include the following:

• How to engage and work with special populations experiencing homelessness, including veterans and young people
• The importance of having people with lived experience at the table
• In-depth discussions with police leaders and specialty court judges

The table of contents provides the title and a brief description of each module. Within each module, you will find opportunities to learn from local and national experts and access further recommended readings and resources. Whether you are just beginning to plan your collaboration or already have longstanding partners working with you, this toolkit will provide local and national perspectives and resources to support you and your colleagues.

Acknowledgments

This project was supported, in whole or in part, cooperative agreement 2019CKWXK012 awarded to the Center for Justice Innovation (formerly known as the Center for Court Innovation) by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) or contributor(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific individuals, agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the author(s), the contributor(s), or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.

The Center for Justice Innovation would like to thank the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services for their dedication to this work and the communities they serve, with a special thank you to Vonda Matthews, who provided valuable input and support throughout the project. This toolkit has been made possible with the guidance of our advisory board of subject matter experts. We are deeply thankful to our advisors for their continued support and consultation. Finally, there are many people whose experience, expertise, and feedback informed this publication. In particular, it is with gratitude that we thank our current and former Center for Justice Innovation colleagues: Aaron Arnold, Janelle Cotto, Walla Elshekh, Caitlin Flood, Bill Harkins, Medina Henry, Julius Lang, Bonnie Sultan, and Robert Wolf.

As of January 2023, we changed our name to Center for Justice Innovation. Though some of this toolkit was originally created under our previous name (Center for Court Innovation), the name in these webpages has been updated to reflect the new name.