Vick's House
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posted by Bob at Sunday, March 04, 2007
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17 Comments:
St. Paul officer's house is his legacy
The housing program for ex-prostitutes is a sign that Jerry Vick's efforts go on nearly two years after he was killed.
By Paul Gustafson, Star Tribune
Last update: March 03, 2007 – 8:35PM
Breaking Free safe house
Kyndell Harkness , Star Tribune
Gerald Vick
St. Paul officer's house is his legacy
Jerry Vick got it, Vednita Carter says.
The late St. Paul police vice officer didn't see his job as simply arresting prostitutes. He also made it his mission to move them away from abusive pimps and drugs by connecting them with groups such as Breaking Free, a St. Paul nonprofit run by Carter that helps women escape prostitution.
Now, a year after Harry Evans was convicted of murdering Vick in an East Side alley in May 2005, Breaking Free is running a St. Paul safe house that is home to four ex-prostitutes working to make the transition to healthy, self-sufficient lives.
Its name is Sgt. Vick's House of Hope. But Carter said the women who live there don't stand much for ceremony. "They just call it Vick's House," she said.
They also call it a lifesaver.
One resident, Judy, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used, said she became a prostitute at age 15. She stopped using crack cocaine a few years ago, but then relapsed and became very ill.
After leaving the hospital last fall, she was able to move into Vick's House. Now 51, she is off drugs again and working to put her life back together.
"If I had been back out prostituting, I could be dead by now," she said. "Living in this house has given me a chance to heal. We have chores, but I don't have to worry about going to work. The main focus is on healing, and to get us ready go out and seek work in a professional manner."
Breaking Free, which helps about 300 prostitutes a year and is supported by government and private foundation grants, already had a 17-unit apartment building in St. Paul that provides permanent housing for ex-prostitutes and their children. Most of the women there have stabilized their lives and found jobs.
Before he died, Vick talked with Carter about another need: a place for women just coming off the streets who needed help and time to solve personal problems before they could become self-sufficient.
"A lot of them are sexual abuse victims. They're depressed. They're coming out of drug abuse," Carter said. "We really wanted them to have a place and time to focus on themselves, to work on their issues, to understand what had happened to themselves. Otherwise, they end up back at step one."
Plans for a bigger safe house
Colleagues knew that Vick, the most decorated officer in St. Paul police history, was ahead of a national trend to treat prostitutes as victims rather than lawbreakers, said Cmdr. Todd Axtell, Vick's vice unit boss. St. Paul police have carried on that approach, Axtell said.
"There were many times Jerry would choose not to make an arrest when he felt a quick intervention by Breaking Free would have a better long-term impact," Axtell said. "He went out of his way to help them get into drug rehab or find housing."
Vick's mission to help prostituted women was part smart police work and part heart, Axtell said.
"Jerry knew that we would never make progress in the vice unit if we just had a revolving door [for prostitutes] through the courts. ... But, obviously, he really did care. He always had a soft spot for victims of crime. And many of these women are truly victims of crime."
It took several rounds of coaxing and cajoling by Vick a couple of years ago before Gail Patterson got off the streets and went to Breaking Free for help.
"He wanted to know why I was out on the street, and he told me about a group that helps women like me. It was more of a concerned approach. It did stay with me, and finally I just came in," she said.
Patterson has been in and out of Breaking Free programs, and admits that she still sometimes struggles. But she was recently at the group's University Avenue office to do volunteer work. "I really give [Vick] credit for my life," she said.
St. Paul police have helped groups such as Breaking Free seek grants to expand their programs, and other vice officers have maintained and strengthened Vick's ties to the group.
Breaking Free, which has a $700,000 annual budget, received a three-year $350,000 federal grant to begin its transitional housing program.
Now it's getting ready to take the next step: buying a bigger transition-program house.
And the group will have help from Vick's family and St. Paul police officers. They're laying plans with Carter to hold a fundraising event from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on May 20 at the North St. Paul American Legion to raise money for the new Breaking Free house.
What became clear only after Vick's death, Axtell said, was "the impact he had on, and how much he is missed by, the social service agencies who he worked with to help prostituted women."
Paul Gustafson • 651-298-1545 • pgustafson@startribune.com
This akes a lot of sense......while the city takes the position that they do not want the landlords to rent to this type of person and then they agressivly punsih the landlords if they do so, but at the same time the city is also trying to find the same type of person a house. LOL!
Good story on Vick and you slumlords turn it around to be about you. I'm sure you can tie the Iraq War into your plight here in St Paul.
Well if you knew the actual details on Vick you wouldn't be saying so much. Vick would get blow jobs and other sexual favors from these prostitutes in exchange for helping them and not arresting them, so in my eyes he is no better than the pimps or johns! That information came from fellow officers and other law enforcement personnel. Also several of the participants from the Ramsey Co. Womans Workhouse (VOA)that would go to this breaking free program that is suppose to be so good would return to the VOA with cocaine and crack, so I would have some questions on the credibility of that program.
I take back what I said on 9:43.
9:52 proved that there is a breed lower than slumlords. Himself.
Whats the matter 10:44? Shouldn't the truth be spoken, or is it the truth isn't what fits in your wonderful make believe world? I was not pleased with what I wrote either but its the truth, its a shame isn't it? I am sure Vick did offer some help and good to the community I was just stating the fact that the way he went about it wasn't proper, and it is also a fact that participants returned to the workhouse with drugs from the Breaking Free program, would you like to know more details as like how they would get by the gaurds at the VOA with the crack cocaine? They would wrap it in chewing gum and stick it to their pubic hairs! Want more details just ask, you shall recieve, I only wish I could offer you the names of the officials that snitched Vick out on his sercret dirty deeds but I promised not to and I do keep my word or I wouldn't be trusted.
truth according to?
I can only tell you its the truth. Sorry if I could give you more info I would, some of it I witnessed myself. Believe what you would like I am not here to convince anyone of anything, I am just speaking what I do know of the situation.
10:44 AM
Why do you keep using the word slumlords?
Who are You in Real life, a City Council MAN named DAVE - LEE - JAY - DAN - PAT or a Council WoMAN - named "KATHY" - DEBBIE?
Each time some one has a story about anything, You jump in and call some one names.
GO back to
E--D e "MOC" RACY
where they will Suspend You for name calling.
www,BillDahn.com
www.BillDahn.Blogspot.com
Dear 9:52 AM
WOW!
It is really easy to make statements when a highly decorated St. Paul Police officer rests in the ground due to a dirt bag that took his life and is unable to defend himself. Let’s show yourself you RAT. You talk big when you post anonymously; it is like you are still hiding behind your Mother’s apron stings
Gerry and Joe were/are some of the finest officers on the police department. The dirt bag who killed him was no choirboy. Yeah, Gerry helped a part of our population that heeded help and no one wants to help. What do they do after he is gone, but try and soil his good reputation. It is easy to say someone did something when they are not around to defend themselves, why don’t you put name on what you say. You are just a girly man anyway. Gerry had guts; you are just a baby.
Are a former pimp of one of the girls or did you get arrested by Gerry?
Or you the SPPD RAT I am thinking about?
To 11:37.....don't waste your time arguing with these nit wits, you're not going to convince them of anything other then what they want to believe. Everyone with any street smarts knows that this kind of stuff goes on all the time. 10:44's statements are just an admission of his ignorance and he's trying to cover it up with an elitest attitude.
Like I stated previously I cannot reveal the sources of this information only that it came from a very reliable source that included some law enforcement officers. I agree it is still a shame that officer Vicks life was taken in the line of duty by some scum bag loser, the point I am trying to make is that even Vick was not doing his job in a professional manner, and the fact that drugs are easily accessable through the Breaking Free Program also brings some doubt in the programs credibility.
I'll take a Vick with his shenanigans any day over the rest of these St Paul cops. Vick really did care about people as people....most of the rest of the cops just pretend to care.
I wasn't trying to turn anything around about me 9:43, and I have no intentions of trying to tie the Iraq war into the lanldord issues. I have every right to make the connection between the city punishing landlords for renting to the wrong people while the city tries to find the same people housing. My business was destroyed by this hypocritical double standard the city of St. Paul promotees every day.
12:53
Your double standard accusation only works if you beleive that all poor people are criminals.
And the city treats them as though they are. I can't tell you the number of innocent women and children I have seen thrown on the streets because the city was after the behavior of their friends more than the violations of the housing code.
Thrown into the streets to starve and freeze and live under bridges so scum like Kathy Lantry can build their political careers!
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