The Marshall County Community Corrections Advisory Board members heard a request from Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter and Brent Martin about assisting with the purchase of furniture for the Serenity House on Jefferson Street in Plymouth.
Martin explained, based on this interiorconceptsdenver.com/services link that the request was brought to the Marshall County Community Corrections Advisory Board as the Serenity House, or permanent supportive housing, could be used for the county’s residents who may not have a permanent place to live. A portion of that population could be those sentenced to home detention with electronic monitoring, which justifies the request.
Some residents who could be placed on pre-trial diversion or home detention with electronic monitoring do not qualify as there is no place for the person to stay. Those people could stay at the facility, depending on availability, and receive supportive services from on-location entities like the Bowen Center. Within time, the person could use skills obtained from services offered to become independent and seek stable housing elsewhere.
The building is anticipated to be complete in November with occupancy set for late this year or early in 2022. There are 18 units with four one-bedroom units, four three-bedroom units and 10 two-bedroom units.
Furnishings are not included in the construction costs. Martin asked for about $60,000 to assist in purchasing those items for this housing project.
Community Corrections Director Ward Byers recommended using $60,000 of the Community Transition Budget that has about $120,000 in that line item. He noted that it is not a line item that the organization operates out of and they do not rely on that line item for operations. He said the State of Indiana does not have an objection of $60,000 being used for this purpose.
“It would be up to the board if you were willing to partner with Garden Court,” stated Byers. “If we can help house a family or an individual, keep them out of the system, and provide them with the services that the Bowen Center can provide through Project Hope, opioid addiction grants that are out there, that $60,000 is not a huge amount of money when you look at returning them to incarceration or running them back through the system again.”
There could be some priority given to Community Corrections for occupancy if a unit was open.
Board member Marshall County Superior Court No. 2 Judge Dean Colvin said he would like more time to look at the budget and learn more about the priority Community Corrections would receive in this particular endeavor, along with a policy for similar requests.
The request was tabled until the next Marshall County Community Corrections Advisory Board meeting.
