ST. LOUIS — At a downtown MetroLink station one recent morning, mental health worker Shane Spurgeon struck up a conversation with Daniel Wilson, who said he was homeless.
Wilson, 59, accepted the offer of a plastic bottle of water and a hygiene kit as Spurgeon told him about places where he could find help. “You can get a shower, do your laundry,†Spurgeon said of one facility, the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Empowerment Center.
An hour or so later, co-worker Amanda Vogler handed rider Jeffrey Brown a box of Narcan, a nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses, and showed him how to use it if needed. She and Brown, 57, sat facing each other on a train headed for the North Hanley station.
Vogler had started talking with Brown, who said he was homeless, a few minutes earlier on the platform at the Forest Park-DeBaliviere station.
Spurgeon and Vogler are among small teams from Chestnut Health Systems, a Bloomington, Illinois-based nonprofit, assigned to regularly roam MetroLink trains and stations. Workers approach riders in a low-key way and offer referrals to shelters and services to people who are homeless, dealing with drug or alcohol problems or other issues.
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The project is part of Metro Transit’s ongoing effort to improve MetroLink security. It aims to reduce loitering by all-day riders, also known as loop riders, and to address alcohol and drug use, panhandling, argumentativeness, sleeping on train cars and behaviors that can make other customers feel less safe. The agency is also improving and expanding surveillance cameras, adding police patrols and installing fare collection gates and related fencing at stations.
“Not everybody we deal with needs police and security intervention,†said Kevin Scott, general manager of security for the Bi-State Development Agency, which oversees Metro. The program began in 2021 on a pilot basis in St. Clair County and expanded last year to ºüÀêÊÓƵ and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
“Having these clinicians and peer recovery folks on the system is a counterbalance and provides better options to bring services we couldn’t otherwise provide,†he said.
Making connections
Officials say the goal isn’t to be punitive but to encourage people to find help. If a rider needs to be kicked off a train or issued a ticket for violating the rules, that’s up to security personnel and police. The mental health teams will respond to emergency calls on MetroLink and Metro buses when security personnel ask for help defusing situations.
Emily Schwaegel, a substance abuse clinician with a psychology degree, administers the program. “The ultimate goal is to minimize problematic behavior on the train and to create a positive experience for riders and staff,†she said.
Some outreach workers, such as Vogler and Spurgeon, have been homeless and faced addiction themselves. This helps them relate to the people they encounter.
“With our lived experience, it’s helped when they’re having a hard time,†Vogler said.
Vogler and Spurgeon said what someone is wearing isn’t necessarily a tipoff they need help.
“He may have some nice clothes on but I’ve learned to look past that,†Spurgeon said. “He could have been given that stuff.â€
Vogler said she says hello to just about everybody she sees on platforms and trains and has conversations with those who want to do so.
Two-member Chestnut teams often engage with people they come across for the first time. Other times they check on individuals they run into daily or several times a week.
Spurgeon began chatting with a woman, Michelle, 40, on a train headed southbound from North Hanley. She’s worried about violence at home and how her boyfriend treats her.
“If you need a place to go, we can help you with a shelter,†he told her. “It’s your choice.â€
At the Civic Center station, Spurgeon came upon Erin Wood, a 32-year-old homeless woman he had begun noticing there on and off about a week earlier. She asked him what shelters were available that night.
“They’ve got some beds open but I can’t make a referral right now,†he told her as he checked for availability at one shelter via his smartphone. “So check back with me in a little bit.â€
Offering help
Teams bring carts with them, packed with snacks, tents, rain ponchos and sleeping bags to give away.
Then there are backpacks for people who don’t have much of anything, Schwaegel said. They include things such as T-shirts, sweat pants, flip flops, water, snacks and Narcan.
Overall, said Bi-State’s Scott, “the unhoused footprint is relatively small†on the MetroLink system and that dealing with it is just one part of Chestnut’s effort.
Still, statistics for January through March of this year released by Chestnut said 551 of the 960 people — about 57% — its teams attempted to engage with were homeless.
Chestnut workers said many homeless people use trains and buses to get from place to place and aren’t just hanging out.
For instance, Brown, the man Vogler talked with, said he was using MetroLink to connect to a bus at the North Hanley station to go to a cousin’s home in Bellefontaine Neighbors to get something to eat.
Of the 960 people that Chestnut workers engaged with during the three-month period, 173 were sleeping on a train or platform, 102 appeared to be “under the influence†or otherwise affected by substance use and 40 were “loop riding.â€
In addition, 33 people were “symptomatic of mental illness,†23 were loitering and 13 were suspected of having an overdose. Two were panhandling and just one person was creating a disturbance.
During the same period, the teams handed out 173 hygiene kits, 175 winter supply kits, 53 backpacks and 517 cards referring people to community organizations. Chestnut said its workers directly connected 337 people to service providers.
Among those organizations is the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s Belleville Council, which operates an overnight shelter, soup kitchen and outreach ministry in East ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
Pat Hogrebe, the facility’s executive director, estimated that maybe 5% of the people referred there are through Chestnut’s program with Metro. “It’s a good way to connect with people,†she said.
The 2021 pilot project began after Ken Sharkey, the managing director of the St. Clair County Transit District, expressed concern about the “people in distress†he’d see while riding MetroLink in his county.
Sharkey said a county mental health board official suggested he get in touch with Chestnut, which has three Metro East facilities.
The transit district, which contracts with Bi-State to run MetroLink and the county’s bus lines, now spends $510,000 a year on the Illinois part of the Chestnut program. That will expand this summer to include a major bus route serving East ºüÀêÊÓƵ and Belleville.
Bi-State, meanwhile, currently has a $790,000, two-year contract with Chestnut for the Missouri side of the program.
“For every single person you get into a shelter (or) into treatment and you don’t see them again, there’s always somebody new that pops up,†Schwaegel said.
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Library announced Wednesday that social workers in five branches will provide free assistance to connect people with resources and referrals regarding things like child care, health care and housing. People seeking assistance do not need to live in the county nor do they need a library card.
The detectors will be rotated among MetroLink stations in a four-week pilot program, said Kevin Scott, general manager of security for the Bi-State Development Agency. Scott said he hopes the effort can start in a few weeks.
We talk to six ºüÀêÊÓƵans to see just who is (or is no longer) using public transportation.Â
Since a new policy begun in July 2020, about 190 people have been barred from Metro Transit, including 12 permanently, for various violations of the system's code of conduct.