“Alright,” this is what’s formally known as a lull in the action,’’ Magistrate Teresa Liston said after the prosecution and defense left the courtroom during the first case in Licking County’s new HOME court.
HOME court, or Housing Opportunities Through Municipal Engagement, is a new special diversion court aimed at helping nonviolent misdemeanor offenders who are experiencing homelessness.
Liston oversaw the first case Wednesday morning in Licking County Municipal Court in Newark. The proceedings took almost an hour. Much of that time was spent with Newark City Assistant Law Director Melanie Timmerman and defense attorney Phillip Proctor out of the courtroom discussing a plan for the defendant.
“They’re negotiating very carefully, hopefully an individualized plan for this defendant which needs confidentiality, and it needs to be done outside the public record,” Liston said.
The case was that of Bobby Kelley, who was arrested for trespassing for taking shelter in a condemned building. His case was transferred into HOME court because all parties agreed Kelley’s situation fit the criteria.
As Timmerman and Proctor re-entered the courtroom to talk with Liston, she asked if Kelley was currently housed. The situation was unclear, Proctor explained.
Kelley had said he was staying with a nephew but could be asked to leave.
Liston told WOSU the first goal of the court is to address emergency housing, then look at services that will help keep people in housing.
“The first question I want answered here, are you currently sheltered? If so, where? What's going on?” Liston said.
After further discussion outside the courtroom, Kelley agreed to enter into the HOME court program in lieu of a traditional court proceeding. Liston did not ask him to plead to his charge, rather she asked him to complete a list of tasks agreed upon by the prosecution, defense and the HOME court program coordinator.
Kelley has a month to find his birth certificate, get a driver’s license, and get medical and counseling services. He has to check back in with the court in two weeks.
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Proctor said the tasks asked of his client were fair, but he was skeptical about HOME court’s overall effectiveness. He noted that Kelley didn’t want to plead guilty to his charge, which would eventually be required to stay in the program.
“You know, this is not the kind of problem you can solve with a club,” Proctor said. “We’re dealing with people that don't necessarily understand the process and that's partly why they're homeless.”
Proctor said he does think that getting people into services and coaching them along the way will be helpful, but he worries about giving people experiencing homelessness too many things to do or holding them too strictly to a plan.
“We'll just have to see how it goes, and hopefully it'll go well,” Proctor said.
Kelley, for his part, was happy with the experience.
“This has to be very well put together by people who really hear me,” Kelley said. “The things they asked me to do were things I needed to do, and things that were to my benefit…everything they asked me to do was for me, and they were going to help me do it.”
Kelley was also thrilled to see how many people came to court for him. Several community members and many people from local agencies, service providers and organizations came to see the proceedings. Several introduced themselves to Kelley afterwards and shook his hand. Then, the court sent Kelley away with a boxed lunch.
“We knew the first one – there might be some unexpected bumps, but I think overall it went really well,” Timmerman said. Timmerman and Newark City Law Director Tricia Moore put together the HOME court after Newark City Council passed a camping ban in October of last year.
The ban makes it illegal to sleep or create a “campsite” on a sidewalk or bench, under a bridge or in a doorway. Those caught breaking the law can rack up misdemeanor offenses and the accompanying fines and potential jail time.
Newark’s neighboring community, Heath, passed a similar measure in February. Timmerman previously said those arrested under those bans who do not have any violent charges are automatically eligible for HOME court.
“It will be an attempt to assist those that we've had difficulty entering into services in the county and it will be a county-wide effort here because this Licking County Municipal Court has jurisdiction over the entire county,” Liston said on Wednesday.
Homelessness has been a growing problem in central Ohio. Licking County has not released data from January’s point-in-time count of those experiencing homelessness, but the 2024 count showed a roughly 50% jump from the year before, according to Denison University’s Reporting Project.
Franklin County released its point-in-time data last week, noting a more than 7% jump in overall homelessness in the county.
