Charleston's Homeless Court helped 13 people find housing in one year, but is it the answer?

By Adam Manno

After first meeting in 2015, the committee behind Charleston's Homeless Court proposed that its cases be heard outside of a traditional courtroom.

People struggling with homelessness aren't thrilled by the prospect of going to Municipal Court at 180 Lockwood Blvd. The steady presence of law enforcement deters routine violators, who are often ticketed for doing things they can't help, like urinating in public or sleeping outside.

Sometimes, just getting there can be a challenge.

"A lot of them couldn't come to court, and we were trying them in their absence and that wasn't fair," said Judge Joseph S. Mendelsohn, who presides over the city's Homeless Court in a room at One80 Place, a nonprofit homeless shelter downtown.

Hearings are scheduled for the fourth Thursday of the month, but the court can go months without convening if there aren't enough cases on the docket. Mendelsohn and Judge Phyllis A. Rico Flores take turns on the bench depending on their schedules at Municipal Court.

There are about 70 homeless courts across the country, according to the American Bar Association. Some of them are held during infrequent "Stand Down" events for homeless veterans.

In Charleston, having your case routed to Homeless Court is a tangled process that puts defendants at the mercy of hard-to-track referrals and unspecified criteria. One80 Place can help individuals apply to the program, but most cases come straight from Municipal Court.

Prosecutor Will Bryant flags potential candidates when he's going through incident reports with Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Byrd in preparation for court.

"If the person is homeless and the charge is appropriate, we recommend the person to Homeless Court, and they're given the paperwork for Homeless Court and we give them a follow-up date," he said.

At One80 Place, defendants are paired with service providers like Origin SC, the Charleston Dorchester Mental Health Center, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. If the defendant proves that he or she is cooperating with a personalized program and making substantial progress toward finding housing, the case is dismissed.