A new court in Vancouver began hearing cases last month involving low-level offenses typically associated with people experiencing homelessness, such as illegal camping and unlawful storage of personal property in parks or other public spaces. Unlike a traditional criminal court, it offers people the chance to have their charges dismissed in a matter of weeks, not months, and avoid jail time provided certain conditions are met.
The Vancouver Community Court is part of the city’s broader efforts to combat homelessness while protecting public safety, according to Jonathan Young, Vancouver’s city attorney.
“It’s really one key component to addressing a larger system of homelessness and making sure that we’re addressing homelessness in a way that’s compassionate and strategic so that we can protect the most vulnerable of our ecological areas, our fire impact areas, and also provide outreach to our community members in a way that’s meaningful and meets them where they’re at,” Young said.
Cases are heard each Monday, not inside a courthouse, but inside Recovery Cafe, a substance abuse recovery provider serving Clark County.
The choice of meeting location highlights a guiding principle behind this initiative: reducing barriers to participants by connecting them with an array of different providers in the community based on their needs for housing, substance abuse evaluation or other services.
Participants must commit to a plan tailored to their needs, which are determined through an intake assessment. They are also required to complete a number of hours of community service specified by the court to have their charges dropped. Failure to do so may lead to transferring their cases to the criminal court system for prosecution.
Court-mandated treatment can be a powerful motivator for individuals who may have struggled to enter recovery, according to Brandy Branch, the vice president of outpatient and community-based services at Lifeline Connections, one of the service providers working with the court.
“I do believe that individuals need to want to change, but this can assist an individual with identifying, ‘OK, my life needs to make changes, I’m not having legal consequences,’ and so they can decide to make some changes when previously they may not have been ready,” Branch said.
Participants can opt to participate in the community court or have their cases heard in a traditional criminal court. Christie Emrich, a criminal defense attorney and the owner of Vancouver Defenders, a private law firm contracted by the city of Vancouver and Clark County to provide legal advice to people who have been summoned to appear before the court, said there is little interest among her clients to try to navigate the traditional criminal justice system when offered this alternative.
“We’ve been doing the court now for about a month. And at this point, I have not had a participant who’s turned down the opportunity to resolve their criminal charges through the community court,” she said.
For Emrich, the program is already having an impact by identifying obstacles that have stood in the way of people being able to escape homelessness and the circumstances contributing to it.
“We’re identifying things as simple as a phone and agencies in town working with individuals to help them get phones, identification, driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations. Those things have a direct impact on someone’s life and ability to care for themselves,” she said. “Participants have connected with services and are having needs met that have gone unmet for years. And I think that’s a win.”
Four weeks after their cases were first heard, the first group of participants is expected to have their cases dismissed and successfully “graduate,” according to Young.
Jonathan Young, Brandy Branch and Christie Emrich spoke to “Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller. Click play to listen to the full conversation: