SLT Police team with others to start South Tahoe Alternative Collaborative Services

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A collaboration between the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD), the Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless, El Dorado County Behavioral Health, Barton Health and the Caltahoe JPA ambulance will be bringing a new service to South Lake Tahoe community members in crisis.

The emerging collaboration is called the South Tahoe Alternative Collaborative Services (STACS).

There have been many conversations surrounding the need for mental health services to be used instead of police responses to those facing an issue and a modeling of the Eugene, Oregon program Cahoots. What works in a town with the highest number of homeless per capita in the country with over 2,000 homeless individuals (Eugene) may not work in a town where there are varying numbers depending on the season so the discussion has been centered between the collaborators on what can work locally.

The mission of STACS is to provide focused non-traditional field interventions and follow-up to individuals experiencing homelessness, mental illness, and/or substance use disorders in order to reduce barriers to accessing behavioral health services, increase stabilization, and end the cycle of homelessness.

SLTPD Chief David Stevenson spoke during Tuesday's City Council meeting and said his department will commit one full time patrol officer from its existing budget to STACS. This officer will also be assigned to HOT (Homeless Outreach Team) and the new modified “PERT” (Psychiatric Emergency Response Team) for the City.

Exact details and the final working agreement are still being developed but the new program has an anticipated start date of October 1, 2020.

With Cahoots there are a medic and crisis worker driving around Eugene together. El Dorado County already has a behavioral health department and 12 paramedics, but there are rules for the county to have a medical Cahoots-type car on street.

Stevenson said community paramedicine is still a year or two down the road, and in the meantime the collaboration is resulting in something with the same goals: Get that population stabilized, get them service, and end the cycle of homelessness (if that is also what they are facing).

The program started when Stevenson was a lieutenant. The department had to respond to the 2020 Grand Jury report that suggested South Lake Tahoe have establish a Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) and explore with El Dorado County in getting a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) implemented on the East Slope as they already have on the West Slope.

In April, SLTPD started their Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) and this new collaboration of services will address the PERT request.