The Homeless Court in Lubbock aims to work with people who are ready to get jobs and housing.
“We saw people who have hit rock bottom who, on their own, have worked at breaking from their addiction, from breaking away from the issues that have caused their homelessness,” said Municipal Court Judge Jorge Hernandez.
The court serves as a second chance for people who have broken the law and are now getting a break through community service.
“I see a range of violations, I guess the most common would be possession of drug paraphernalia, open container, and then the traffic citations, where they picked up so many traffic citations that they don’t think they are able to pay it off,” Hernandez said.
For Hernandez, this is personal after seeing people struggle when he was younger.
“We used to go down to Mexico during summer vacation, and I remember going down to visit my cousins over there and seeing the poverty in Mexico,” Hernandez said.
The participants are able to go to the judge and get to exchange court costs for community service.
Since the program began in February, participants have had more than $6,000 in fines exchanged for community service.
Organizations like Family Promise have partnered with the judge to make this happen.
“Those folks that have warrants and misdemeanors and fines can’t get IDs, and if they can’t get IDs, then they can’t get jobs, so they remain homeless,” said Doug Morris, executive director of Family Promise.
