Law enforcement and mental health professionals made their case to Fort Worth’s Fairmount neighborhood, to convince residents the two-year-old Mental Health Jail Diversion Center is a good neighbor.
The diversion center is owned by Tarrant County and operated by My Health My Resources (MHMR), the county’s mental health authority. The center opened in 2022 as an alternative to jail for people with mental health issues. A person suspected of a minor, nonviolent crime can go to the diversion center for connections to mental health care, substance abuse treatment and housing.
On Monday night, about 50 residents filled a room in Arts Fifth Avenue to ask questions about how the place works.
The meeting was meant to be a forum for residents who have been expressing concerns about the center online, Fairmount Neighborhood Association President Andrew Epps said.
“We don't want to feel frustrated and like we're just yelling in a Facebook group or posting online and just complaining to the county,” Epps said. “We want to make sure that our complaints are tailored."
In an ideal world, people would not be released from the center and into Fairmount, Epps said.
“If they're brought in and do refuse care, they may be evaluated, taken to a safe place, taken back home to where they live, brought back to their place — and not just released and go back to where they were in the neighborhood,” he said.
Most people who go to the center are experiencing homelessness and have been picked up for trespassing, according to the center’s director, Mark Tittle. Most probably live close by, he said.
“The vast majority of people who are coming to the diversion center, come to the diversion center from within a 2 to 5-mile radius," he said.
People who are brought to the center are under no obligation to stay. They can leave at any time, and when they do, they don’t just get sent to jail. The center offers them transportation almost anywhere in the county they want to go, except the place they were picked up by police. But some people don’t want that, Tittle said.
During the meeting, Epps asked who is responsible for making sure people who refuse transportation "just don’t wander back into the neighborhood.”
Walking the streets is not against the law, said Fort Worth Police Commander Robert Stewart. He’s in charge of Fort Worth PD’s Central Division, which includes Fairmount.
“This is their freedom to move about wherever they would like to. We can't inhibit that freedom," Stewart said.
If a person trespasses or causes a disturbance, that’s when residents can contact police, he said.
How does the diversion center work?
Center director Mark Tittle walked Fairmount residents through the steps.
- If a police officer picks someone up for a nonviolent misdemeanor, like trespassing — and that person seems like they need mental health care — that officer can decide to take that person to the diversion center instead of jail. People can also be diverted to the center once they’re in jail.
- People must be at least 18 years old to go to the center. If they need emergency medical attention, or if they're violent or suicidal, they cannot go to the center.
- People have to agree to go to the center, and they can leave at any time.
- Once they get to the center, they get a physical and mental health check-up.
- Support staff help people get connected to benefits, housing, treatment and even family members in other states.
- People can stay at the center for a few hours or months.
Fort Worth city council member Elizabeth Beck – who represents Fairmount – said she supports the work the center is doing, but she wishes it was doing that work outside a residential neighborhood.
"It's been my goal from the beginning to do what I can to support the efforts of the diversion center and also be an advocate for my community that I represent, and make sure that they don't suffer any consequences because of its location," Beck said.
People have raised concerns about people in mental health crises walking through the neighborhood, which can be “unnerving," Beck said. She acknowledged there’s no way to know if people came from the diversion center, but either way, there's a "negative light on the positive work that they're trying to do there."
“It being in the neighborhood like that, it creates that either actual reality or perceived reality,” she said. “My concern was that it would disturb the peacefulness of the Fairmount neighborhood."
KERA reached out to the Fort Worth Police Department to ask if there has been any uptick in crime in Fairmount.
"After asking several people in leadership, they don’t believe we have seen an increase in crime in the area," Fort Worth Police spokesperson Officer Tracy Carter wrote in an email.
Epps asked MHMR staff present at the meeting whether it would be possible for the Fairmount Neighborhood Association to get a place on the diversion center’s advisory committee. MHMR's Ramey Heddins said he can pass the idea along.
Beck is a member of the advisory committee, which no longer meets regularly, she said.
“That dialogue that we used to have with the county is no longer happening," she said.
City government is working on helping the neighborhood, Beck said. Fort Worth police are extending bike patrols to West Magnolia, Fairmount’s popular street of shops, bars and restaurants. The city has also expanded its homeless outreach with the High Impact Pilot, designed to bring psychiatric services to people experiencing homelessness and get them into housing.
Michael McDermott has spent 40 years in Fairmount, and he said he left the meeting feeling less concerned when he came in. He didn’t realize people brought to the center were suspected of minor, nonviolent crimes.
“I think we're fortunate to have it in the neighborhood so they can take care of local needs rather than, you know, they have to go to a diversion center in North Fort Worth or something," he said.
He did agree with the idea that the neighborhood should have greater representation on the center’s advisory committee. According to Beck, the committee does have a member who lives near the diversion center.
Tarrant County is currently looking for money to keep the diversion center open. The center opened using federal COVID relief funding, which is set to run out this spring, county budget chief Helen Giese told KERA in August.
In September. county commissioners passed a new budget that didn’t allocate any money towards the center. The county is now looking to the upcoming state legislative session to secure funding, MHMR CEO Susan Garnett told KERA.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on X @MirandaRSuarez.
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