Myrtle Beach created task force to find homelessness solutions. But it has no members
Myrtle Beach’s Homeless Task Force Advisory Board has about four months left to report its recommendations to city council, but there’s a problem: the task force doesn’t have any members.
City council adopted a resolution in March to create the task force, which would include up to 11 members, to review successful efforts addressing homelessness in other communities and recommend policies and actions that should be implemented in Myrtle Beach.
The deadline for the board to report its recommendations to city council is March 31, 2020, according to the resolution.
The resolution states that the board will consist of one member each appointed by New Directions of Horry County, Eastern Carolina Homelessness Organization and Grand Strand Medical Center in addition to up to eight community members appointed by council, including a religious leader from a local church.
Internal city council emails acquired by The Sun News show that city leaders have discussed appointing members several times since that resolution was adopted, but the task force remains vacant.
The Sun News acquired emails through a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all emails sent and received from the beginning of 2018 until Oct. 23, 2019, by current council members, the mayor and city manager that discuss homelessness.
Representatives from New Directions and ECHO met with city officials at the end of April to discuss the task force, the emails show, and then council member Mary Jeffcoat named several potential members in a May 17 email to Mayor Brenda Bethune.
Her list included Kathy Jenkins, executive director of New Directions; Joey Smoak, executive director of ECHO; and Philip Hudson, a board member for Community Kitchen.
Bethune forwarded Jeffcoat’s suggestions to city assistant manager Fox Simons and responded that she would reach out to agencies for their nominations. Simons also sent an email to Bethune reminding her that they discussed appointing a formerly homeless person and someone in a leadership position at Burroughs and Chapin to the task force.
City leaders didn’t discuss the task force in emails again until Sept. 12, when Jeffcoat emailed Bethune “wondering if we should soon consider naming the people to serve on this task force.”
Jeffcoat writes that she was reminded of the task force after meeting with a pair of Coastal Carolina University professors who have been interviewing homeless people at New Directions’ men’s shelter to gather helpful data. She adds that the two, Sara Brallier and Stephanie Southworth, would be good additions to the task force.
Bethune responds suggesting she and Jeffcoat should meet in the next week to review the list of names and then put it on the next agenda, but the homeless task force hasn’t been listed on any city council agenda since.
City spokesman Mark Kruea sent an email stating that council has sent out invitations to various partners and received some nominations, “although perhaps not all.” He noted that council is eager to get the task force underway, and he expects appointments will be made in the near future.
Bethune also sent a statement emphasizing the importance of starting the task force.
“With our strong relationships with New Directions and ECHO, we have made great progress in working together to address our homelessness,” she wrote. “But there is more we can do and should do. … The Homelessness Task Force is a very crucial step in that direction and one that I am personally committed to.”
Jeffcoat offered a different perspective, telling The Sun News that representatives from New Directions and ECHO have been meeting with city officials informally, and she’s not sure the task force is needed right now.
The city had trouble recruiting local business leaders to agree to serve on the task force, she said, and as long as the current providers are progressing in their missions, that’s what is most important.
“Having a task force was not the end game,” Jeffcoat said. “It was to look at new, creative ways to address homelessness. So why create a task force if these organizations are already doing that?”
Jenkins said she’s not sure why appointments have been delayed, but she received a letter from the mayor less than a month ago formally asking her to join. She said she’s looking forward to sitting down with local leaders to talk about the issues and brainstorming how to move forward to end homelessness in the community.
Wayne Gray, board chairman for ECHO, said his organization wants to be a part of any conversation about homelessness and hopes the task force helps elected officials and the community understand the role and purpose of ECHO.
Gray and Smoak also discussed a recent conference they just attended where they learned about programs Miami, Florida, had in place to address homelessness that they felt could help inform a better system in Myrtle Beach.
Brallier and Southworth, who started the Rolling Forward Project to give bikes to homeless people, said they haven’t heard anything recently about serving on the task force.
