NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — A new unit of the New Port Richey Police Department that works to assist with homelessness is growing.
In the summer of 2023, Sgt. Matt Patche helped launch the LIFT unit, which stands for Life Improvement Facilitation Team. Since then, Patche has worked to get to know the homeless community in downtown New Port Richey and connect them with resources to get back on track.
“We explain to them we will be your support system if you allow us to through this journey and it will be a journey… there will be ups and there will be downs,” he said.
The unit, which started at first as just Patche, has now grown into a small team of officers. The group is now joined daily by BayCare case worker Sandy Smith Serrano.
Patche said it was overwhelming at the beginning as he was getting to know everyone living in the nearby parks, making plans for them, finding resources, and then followimg their journey. Now he and his team work closely with Serrano as she helps execute plans and follow up with residents who are seeking assistance or treatment.
“I don’t have a specific budget to say, 'Let me take you off the streets and place you in a hotel room,'” Patche said. “But that’s where Sandy comes in and helps make those connections.”
The biggest change over the last year, Patche says, is the relationship between the officers on his unit and those who live in the area. He says they have built trust and now when they park their cruisers on Main Street, people walk up to them instead of walking away.
Robert Jones Jr., who is known by many in Sims Park as ‘Guitar Bob’, says the LIFT unit has helped prepare him with what he needs to hold a job.
“I trust these officers when I don’t trust other police officers very much. To be honest if I don’t know them I don’t trust them,” he said. “It shouldn’t be that way, and it is that way to be honest.”
On a day to day basis, the LIFT unit patrols downtown, speaking to residents and asking if they need things like clothes and food. After building trust, they start working on finding solutions to whatever it is that is holding that person back from finding permanent housing.
“Now that the stigma has been broken, they come and talk and feel comfortable telling us what they need,” he said.
Last year, New Port Richey Police Chief Robert Kochen asked the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office to take over school resource officer (SRO) duties at the city’s middle and high schools in order to free up salaries to create the department’s LIFT unit.
The new BayCare case worker position is being paid for through National Opiods Settlement funds.