How is Denton’s Downtown Ambassador Program going? Meanwhile, concerns about homelessness persist

When the city launched the Downtown Denton Ambassador Program in January, many More Fun Comics & Games employees were skeptical because they thought city leaders could use the nearly $1.5 million in a smarter way, an employee told the Denton Record Chronicle.

“When you see the huge check they wrote to the actual company and the actual salaries of the ambassadors, it was a little frustrating,” the employee, who asked to remain unidentified, said Wednesday afternoon.

About nine months later, the employee said the ambassadors, who work as a hospitality and security team, have been picking up litter effectively, but he is not sure how helpful they have been to tourists, although he said they felt welcomed by the ambassadors. , which “seem to be pretty harmless.”

“Unhoused people still disturb the peace,” said the employee. “It still happens.”

Last week, city staff released a progress report for the Downtown Ambassadors Program for the first full five months, February through June, which showed fewer referrals for people experiencing homelessness, an increased need for power washing and that a lot of waste was collected. – over £11,000.

It shows that downtown visitors need to embrace the message of “Don’t mess with Texas”, the Texas Department of Transportation’s anti-litter campaign.

Although the five-month progress report showed a decline in homelessness referrals – from 35 in February to seven in May and June – this does not mean that people experiencing homelessness have disappeared from the inner city, or that some of those referrals have not are. for the same person, said Courtney Douangdara, the city’s deputy director of community services.

So far in October, there have been 96 referrals, Douangdara said, as of Oct. 29.

That number exceeds the 88 referrals given between February and June, according to the recent progress report.

“We do not track how many people are homeless downtown and cannot say whether the unsheltered population in the area has decreased,” Douangdara said in a follow-up email Wednesday.

“Ambassadors regularly make contact and build a bond with the unprotected population in the city center. Staff referred to the decrease in referrals to homeless services during recent meetings with Block by Block leadership and during the month of October referrals have increased significantly so far.”

It’s unclear how many of these referrals result in people seeking help at the Denton Community Shelter on Loop 288 or other nonprofits, as Douangdara said these numbers are not also tracked.

The progress report states that the ambassadors have greeted more than 43,000 visitors in the past five months.

They also received positive ratings from respondents, with 77% of local businesses saying they were satisfied with their opening hours (7am to 11pm daily) and 65% of visitors satisfied with the overall safety of walking to and from their vehicles. overnight, Dustin Sternbeck, the city’s spokesman, said in an email Wednesday.

The favorable ratings come from a quarterly survey that staff began conducting with local businesses and visitors in August.

“They do a great job of stopping by, saying hello, introducing themselves and asking if we need anything,” one business owner said of the ambassadors in a quote in the progress report. “We have had the opportunity to interact with them several times and they always approach us in a friendly and polite manner.”

However, Sternbeck said these numbers are not a true representation of how the business community is feeling because only a handful responded to the surveys.

“There were very few responses in the last quarter,” he said, adding that they plan to “take a big step” to increase engagement soon.

Patchouli Joe’s Books & Indulgences was among the downtown businesses that responded to the survey, said Charlie Forester, a manager at the bookstore.

Forester said the ambassadors have been helpful in collecting trash outside and behind the business. They communicate well when Patchouli Joe’s has a problem, coming to Forester and responding to business owners.

“They are a benefit to the center square,” Forester said.

The Downtown Denton Ambassadors Program started at the end of January as a two-year pilot program, funded with nearly $1.5 million, to provide cleaning and hospitality services and community outreach and engagement to people experiencing homelessness. It is operated by Block by Block, a Louisville, Kentucky-based company that operates similar programs in urban centers across the country.

“It’s really a great addition to our city and a great showcase of our city,” Mayor Gerard Hudspeth told a small crowd of business and city leaders and reporters at a kickoff event in January. “I’m very excited about this.”

In March, city staff published an overview of how the new pilot program had evolved. In March, Downtown Ambassadors had:

• 462 stickers and 128 graffiti tags removed.
• 2,681 kilos of waste collected.
• Five security escorts were led.
• 15 stool piles and 20 spots of urine or vomit cleaned up.
• Observed 79 people who were homeless.
• 29 people referred for homeless care.

But the breakdown didn’t provide data for aggressive manipulation, as Block by Block does for its program in downtown Fort Worth.

In March 2023, Matt Beard, the director of Public Improvement Districts for Fort Worth, said ambassadors there carry devices to track statistics and submit maintenance requests.

Beard said the number of aggressive activity incidents in Fort Worth decreased by 32% between 2021 and 2022.

“We closely monitor and actively discourage aggressive manipulation through a variety of techniques,” Beard said in an email.

Douangdara said Wednesday that the downtown Denton program has seen 10 cases of aggressive tampering since late January, but that information was not available in the reports shared with the Record-Chronicle.

“We provided the city’s ordinance on aggressive solicitations to Block by Block as they were setting up programming in Denton so they were aware of local regulations,” Douangdara wrote in an email. “The output is there to keep track of whether/when they should call the police specifically for that purpose.”

The October progress report did not delve into the specifics of downtown body waste cleanup, but instead offered a more holistic analysis, with just two graphs for hospitality industry output and graffiti removal.

Hospitality industry output statistics include:

• Hospitality assistance, including offering directions or information, assistance to motorists, safety and umbrella escorts and other services: 137 in February, 234 in March, 124 in April, 84 in May and 134 in June.
• Business contacts: 189 in February, 169 in March, 134 in April, 95 in May and 131 in June.
• Homeless referrals: 35 in February, 23 in March, 16 in April, 7 in May and 7 in June.

Graffiti removal offered two categories:

• Written/painted graffiti: 180 in February, 167 in March, 31 in April, 39 in May and 109 in June.
• Bills and stickers: 524 in February, 355 in March, 231 in April, 145 in May and 97 in June.

On Wednesday morning, Douangdara shared a more detailed overview of what the ambassadors did between February and September. These details include:

• Litter (individually collected): 111,966 total
• Biological hazard (feces): 190
• Hazardous cleaning activities (urine): 79
• Hazardous cleanup (vomit): 94
• Assistance for motorists: 79
• Security escort: 38
• Homeless referrals for service: 124

“We would like people to know that the Downtown Ambassadors are available to help with all kinds of things, such as umbrella escorts in the rain, to and from parking lots during operating hours, and even to help with flat tires or dead car batteries,” Douangdara wrote in her email.

“They are here to serve the community, and visitors to downtown can call or text the hotline for assistance: 940-354-5767.”