Nehemiah Action Proclaims

More than 1,000 people gathered April 20 at Evansville’s Old National Events Plaza for the annual Nehemiah Action sponsored by the Congregations Acting for Justice and Empowerment.

The hour-long event offered a simple message: “People matter.”

“Justice is important because people matter,” said Father Jay Davidson, administrator of St. Anthony of Padua and St. Joseph parishes in Evansville.

CAJE asked local public leaders for action on two primary issues – mental health and affordable housing. The program also included an update on CAJE’s ongoing efforts to equip local first-responders with Naloxone – commonly known as Narcan – an antidote to the effects of an opiate overdose.

Mental health

CAJE’s mental health committee reported that the only two options law enforcement officers have now when dealing with people who are suffering from mental illness is to take them to the emergency room or to take them to jail. “The Vanderburgh, Posey and Warrick county jails are serving as mental health wards,” said committee member Diane Fehrenbacher, a St. Anthony parishioner.

Tashedah Adams of Mount Olivet of Galilee Baptist Church noted that officers on local law enforcement rosters have crisis intervention training, but don’t have the choice of a mental health center when determining what to do with those in crisis.

Vanderburgh County Council member Tom Shetler and Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Weddng agreed to serve on a Crisis Care Center Task Force. “I’ve been in law enforcement for 35 years,” Wedding told the crowd. “This is not a new problem, but it hasn’t been properly addressed. Just keep in mind that we are going to need you to help us sustain this.”

Affordable housing

Benedictine Sister Jackie Kissel of St. Anthony Parish reported that research suggests Evansville needs as many as 10,000 affordable housing units. “Today,” she said, “we have families who have to decide whether to pay the rent, buy food or get medical care. They find themselves paying too much for high-risk, low-quality housing.”

Paul Keller of St. John the Baptist Parish in Newburgh noted that an affordable housing trust fund already exists – but without dedicated funding sources to make it consistently viable. “That funding source does not have to come from a budget line item,” he said.

Evansville At-large City Council member Conor O’Daniel agreed to sponsor a proposal by early June that would mandate bi-monthly meetings of the city’s Affordable Housing Fund Advisory Committee, and that would require an annual report from the committee recommending funding sources for the trust fund to the mayor and city council.

Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke committed to working together with the city council “as hard as we can” to identify those funding sources, but did not agree to CAJE’s request that, beginning in 2016, city budgets would include a dedicated allocation of $2 million for the trust fund.

“I can’t stand before you and give you the answer you want to hear,” Winnecke said. “I can assure you that we will work as hard as we can to identify funding sources. It is a priority.”

Narcan

At the 2014 Nehemiah Action event, CAJE got commitments from the Warrick and Vanderburgh County sheriffs’ departments to provide officers with Narcan. Linda Wilkey of St. Lucas United Church of Christ reported that a Warrick County deputy used the opiate antidote to save a life last December.

The Evansville Police Department did not agree to provide Narcan to officers last year, but EPD Sgt. Jason Cullem spoke to the crowd about ongoing EPD research.

“As a result of working with law enforcement agencies in Marion County,” Cullem said, quoting a statement from Chief Billy Bolen, “EPD will initiate a pilot program that will make Narcan available to officers in all three sectors on all three shifts.” Cullem said EPD will report on the program to all stakeholders, including CAJE.

Father Ed Schnur, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Poseyville and St. Wendel Parish in St. Wendel, read a letter from Posey County Sheriff Gregory Oeth. Oeth announced that, pending the availability of funding in late May or early June, he expected to provide Narcan to deputies in late June or early July.