AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Since George Floyd's murder four years ago, more than 100 programs have been created in the U.S. to send unarmed civilians in response to some 911 calls rather than police. In Los Angeles, the city sends civilians only if the call involves someone who is unhoused. NPR's Kelly McEvers reports on what that can and can't do for the city's housing crisis.
KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: It's afternoon on the boardwalk in Venice Beach when the call comes.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: White male, age is 30, wearing black shoes...
MCEVERS: Someone has called 911 about a man who is asking for help.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: ...Jeans, black hooded sweater...
MONSE MOTA: We've got a ticket.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: ...And a red hat.
MCEVERS: The dispatcher says the man is unhoused.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Looking to start the housing process.
MCEVERS: It's a call that might have gone to the police before.
MOTA: Right here - take a walk over there.
MCEVERS: But now it comes to two women who are already out walking the boardwalk - Monse Mota and Crystal Miron.
MOTA: Venice CRT 10 copy, en route.
MCEVERS: They're unarmed. They wear these black vests that say CIRCLE Team on the back. And CIRCLE stands for this really long name - Crisis And Incident Response Through Community-Led Engagement. After a few minutes, Mota and Miron walk up to the man in the red hat. His name is Greg Teele. He says he's struggling with addiction, and he tells Miron he just got kicked out of the van where he was living.
CRYSTAL MIRON: If I can get you into rehab, that's quick.
GREG TEELE: Really?
MIRON: You got to follow the program.
TEELE: Right, right.
MCEVERS: They call an inpatient addiction program and try to get him in. And they enter him into a citywide housing referral database.
MOTA: All right, Greg, can I take a picture to add to your profile?
TEELE: Yeah.
MOTA: OK.
MCEVERS: There's no housing for Teele right now, but the hope is that by putting him in the system, he'll have a better chance when something opens up. Monse Mota later says there are so many moments like this when people just don't need the police.
MOTA: What has been happening all over the country with police brutality - this program is an advantage, that we get to divert that from happening.
MCEVERS: Mota herself was unhoused during the pandemic and lived in a shelter with her four young kids. She and Miron are both in addiction recovery. Miron is working on a psychology degree. They say their experience helps them connect with people. More than 80% of CIRCLE Team staff are formerly incarcerated. The program is run out of the office of LA Mayor Karen Bass. She says it's all part of a plan to reimagine public safety.
KAREN BASS: If you look at police calls, there's a huge percentage of this that are from people experiencing homelessness. So if you can get to them in advance where law enforcement is really not needed, but more a social service response, then that's the point.
MCEVERS: The police like 911 diversion programs. The LA police union recently released a list of more than two dozen types of calls they would rather be answered by trained, unarmed civilians, like calls to schools and for behavioral health crises. But some critics say the CIRCLE program is too close to police and other officials.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish).
MCEVERS: Out with the CIRCLE Team that covers Echo Park Lake, they get a call from a city council member who has seen one tent and wants it removed. They offer the man in the tent help with services, then tell him to leave.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: We have to keep the sidewalk clean, you know? You can't put your tent here. It's illegal.
MCEVERS: Camping is illegal in certain parts of the city. The Supreme Court recently ruled cities can clear any encampments, and California's governor recently issued an executive order pushing cities to do that. But LA Mayor Bass says, just clearing won't work, that the city only dismantles encampments if there is an offer of housing and services. The CIRCLE program is staffed by an outside nonprofit, called Urban Alchemy, that started in San Francisco in 2018, and also operates in Portland, Ore., and Austin, Texas. Over the past few years, Urban Alchemy has been criticized and sued a lot. We found 16 lawsuits here in California and eight at the federal level, alleging failure to pay wages, wrongful termination, and in two instances, sexual harassment of employees, plus alleged harassment and even assault of unhoused people. Ndindi Kitonga helps run a mutual aid organization for unhoused people here in LA and is critical of Urban Alchemy. She says she worries that putting vulnerable people in charge of other vulnerable people might not always work because she's not sure Urban Alchemy staffers get adequate training.
NDINDI KITONGA: Because they are a nonprofit and they're not a public institution, it's very difficult to get a sense of what people's training looks like. We're interested in accountability and transparency.
MCEVERS: Kirkpatrick Tyler, chief of community and government relations for Urban Alchemy, says they take every allegation seriously and investigate every incident. He says some early lawsuits were legitimate complaints against a young and fast-growing organization. Others, he says, were filed by opportunistic lawyers, looking to make money. He says, Urban Alchemy has not been found to be at fault in any of the lawsuits. And he says some of the negative coverage is overblown.
KIRKPATRICK TYLER: Because we are a young organization, because we are primarily Black-led, formerly incarcerated organization, who is making a change and a difference, and we're doing it in places where a lot of organizations have been working for a really long time, and we've not been able to see this type of progress.
MCEVERS: The mayor's office says it meets with the group monthly and that other nonprofits can compete for the contract. And for now, the city is expanding the CIRCLE program to more neighborhoods in LA. In the second half of last year, the program diverted nearly 6,000 911 calls and provided services to thousands of people. In a given month, though, only a fraction of people ended up housed. And most of this housing is temporary, like a shelter or a treatment center. Tomiquia Moss is California's secretary for business, consumer services, and housing, the top housing official in the state.
TOMIQUIA MOSS: We actually know how to solve homelessness.
MCEVERS: She says 911 diversion programs like CIRCLE are a good way to meet people where they are and connect them with services. But housing is what solves homelessness.
MOSS: We have about 70% of land in the state of California that is still zoned single family, which means you could not build a multi-family building in 70% of communities across the state.
MCEVERS: She says most Californians are against changes to zoning laws. They don't want unhoused people on their streets, but they also don't want new housing in their neighborhoods. Until that changes, she says, the state will still be about 1 million units short of the affordable housing it needs.
For NPR News, I'm Kelly McEvers in Los Angeles. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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