By Rich Pollack
Over the past seven years, Virginia and Harvey Kimmel have supported many of Delray Beach’s arts and education initiatives, from library programs to Milagro Center activities.
Now they are adding a new area of investment to their philanthropic portfolio — homelessness.
In late January the Kimmels announced a $300,000 grant designed to help the Police Department expand support services to the city’s homeless population.
The grant, which will provide $100,000 a year for three years to cover the salaries and benefits of an additional service population advocate, is the largest the Kimmels have made in Delray, Harvey Kimmel said.
“We hope this grant will provide services that the people experiencing homelessness here need by adding more resources,” he said.
Thanks to the efforts of Ezra Krieg, chair of the Delray Beach Initiative to End Homelessness, as well as others in the community, the Kimmels learned of the widespread support for helping people in need and decided to join in.
“Homelessness really became our choice because we believe some of those in the homeless community, if given support, can turn their lives around,” Kimmel said.
The Delray Beach Police Department’s community outreach team, which consists of a licensed clinician and two police officers, last year placed 70 people in shelters and 15 others, including homeless seniors, in permanent housing.
In addition, the outreach team helped hundreds of people in both the homeless and recovering communities connect to needed services.
Services include helping people get Social Security cards and other forms of identification, transportation, health care and other basics.
“They just need so much and they’re such nice people,” Virginia Kimmel said.
With need continuing to grow, the Police Department has already hired a new service population advocate, a clinician who will start in the middle of February.
Ariana Ciancio, who in 2017 became the department’s first service population advocate and one of the first in the state in a police department, says the new member of the team will help her focus more on members of the recovery community while still doing homeless outreach.
She said the additional clinician will also help with the city’s homeless prevention efforts for people on the verge of needing places to live.
Krieg sees the Kimmels’ donation as an important step toward addressing the needs of people living without permanent housing in Delray Beach.
“This investment helps a good program get even better,” he said. “With very little financial assistance, we’ve been able to create a collaborative that has impacted the lives of a number of people. The support from the Kimmels to expand the Police Department’s community outreach team can do even more for more people.”
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