Homelessness

enhancements for homelessness and affordable housing, including 300,000 in one-time funding for the building home program

very important element of our effort to address homelessness in our community

This chart does show the number of cases filed for various case types where the defendant was not housed at the time of the offense.

unhoused population who do not engage with us and who do not engage with the SAMPS team when they're act to asked to move

they think the unhoused will get uncomfortable and not be there

to homelessness efforts, behavioral health response, wildfire resilience, public safety, and affordable housing efforts.

homelessness services are cutting programs and laying off staff

Housing solutions for homelessness discussion – Feedback

It creates new tools for local governments to address homelessness in a regional context

Service calls related to homelessness are significantly down from last year, which is, I think encouraging.

the homeless situation along Boulder Creek Path. It's a complicated situation with a lot of different,

the symptoms of homelessness that we always see in the parks, we are seeing less reports year over year

I remember when it was supposed to be the homeless shelter, and how

No one department can own this topic because of the complexity of supporting people who have an overlay of mental

What is our jurisdictional authority to to address those kinds of issues on encampments?

about how we're handling the the uptick that we're seeing this spring.

council has asked that we focus on funding and protecting homelessness services

It'll make more homelessness, more wealth divide, all of that with Sundance

representative on the Boulder County Elected Officials Regional Working Group on Homelessness

The Boulder Shelter, had, At that point, not its new building, but a prior building. And, they were open only at night, and so we began offering day services.

So I'm familiar with the, not only the scene of the homelessness scene in Boulder, but, in the Denver metro area generally.

A, a public charity that supports Persons who are exiting homelessness. Through employment and housing.

I have a background in like from an academic perspective in homelessness and substance use.

I was homeless and pregnant on the streets of Boulder County

part of our homeless strategy that we started in 2017 was to start um integrating um unhoused individuals

my mom had to ask them to remove the bench because a homeless guy was sleeping on the bench

he's a human being who is allowed to, like, lean on the bench

about unhoused people are seniors, and so we're getting unhoused as well.

We do have a local voucher program, and that's targeted, towards people coming out of homelessness.

So I encourage you to please allow the demolition permit to go forward, so that more of our unhoused seniors can be housed in Boulder.

More than 80% of those that we see who are unhoused in Boulder are older adults.

We are the only 100% free clinic. nonprofit organization in Boulder County. We're a mobile clinic. We go out into the community, caring for the most vulnerable. The unhoused, low-income, older adults.

the 14 million you've spent sweeping the homeless back and forth from camp to camp

we are strengthening our community court program and looking at different ways um in order to help the unhoused population

the community court is a collaborative effort between the municipal court, the city attorney's office, and the police department's homeless outreach team

support and monitor issues affecting our unhoused neighbors, including engagement with the Central Park planning process.

we adopted the clutch report on homelessness

the biggest part was transitional housing, you know, and then it moved to a housing-first model

Creek. you know, clear of the encampments and so forth.

Officials Regional Working Group on Homelessness has a very long name and it also has a vacancy.

just about appointing someone to the regional um homelessness working group

There is a lot of homeless people and um a lot of things like theft and stuff like that too.

there are homeless folks that are, you know, potentially live behind the store

so getting in fights with other unhoused people in and around the downtown area

Support and monitor issues affecting unhoused neighbors, including engagement with the Central Park planning process

there was the uh county's working group on homelessness that um former mayor

Whether it's unhoused neighbors, our Latinx community, or others who face barriers, we want to ensure our work

Taking care of our unhoused neighbors, raising awareness of community members struggling, connecting people to resources.

continuing to strengthen city county collaboration around policy to help people experiencing homelessness move into safe housing

Had some concerns on the focus on housing only for um the people experiencing homelessness

They constantly interact and try to help, the homeless population around them without judgment.

And I've volunteered there, and most of the homeless people you interact with are very good people.

It's a special case than I think any other areas, because the homeless shelter is close there.

There are often, unhoused people. There's no, like, access point, so anybody can kind of get into it.

it diverts wealth equity in Boulder into more towards homelessness at one end

I mean, the unhoused population one seems very separate from that.

I, like, generally, supporting people who are unhoused is a priority for me

some of our unhoused neighbors are concerned they're going to be pushed out of that common area

the county's elected officials regional working group on homelessness since its inception.

Additionally, she supported efforts to implement evidence-based solutions and enhance services for people and families experiencing homelessness.

Lauren has been a leader on issues as diverse as housing, homelessness, behavioral health, labor relations

fully fund and protect the city's ability to reduce and prevent homelessness

it looks like they have 100% solved homelessness

some of the issues come back into town that tend to go away when it comes to some of our unhoused population leaving

kids are not riding a bus because of the homeless population

to two homeless people started fighting, I'm pretty sure I saw a knife

Connecting folks to other services in the area so that we don't have things like encampments

moving all the people, the homeless people, the unhoused, like, out of the civic area

the principal item on that agenda was learning about the homeless outreach team.

the more significant needs that people um often talk about in our community is specific to the unsheltered

the city will support efforts to end unsheltered homelessness by allocating funding for the building home program

Incorporated into the 2026 operating budget are also realignments associated with homelessness to uplift the city's homelessness strategy

And then throw in Sundance, and throw in CU South, and throw in, where do we put the homeless camping now?

a lot of them do have relationships with some of our unhoused neighbors, because they see them on a daily basis

We also have a draft policy. That has kind of carried over from the former plan about transitioning people experiencing homelessness into housing

we're moving the bridge house from a contract to the competitive grant process

In addition, the city will support efforts to end unsheltered homelessness by allocating funding for the building home program

Under the livable goal, there is a proposed realignment of city services to advance the recently updated homelessness strategy

Panel members questioned the department's overall attitude towards the unhoused community.

session summary on homelessness, uh, I assume we're accepting the material but not necessarily agreeing

HAB recently formed a subcommittee on homelessness to address housing solutions for the unhoused

maybe check into what they changed in the homeless situation.

there's little discussion about our unhoused population and shelters as living spaces

panel regarding the homeless… homeless community for youth that's closing in Boulder.

it's almost entirely PSH, is how we are budgeting homelessness exits

There's a difference between homeless or unhoused, or whatever you want to call it, and unsheltered.

The cops out to remove people from public spaces and provide them with ancillary services in doing so.

Gave an update on the city's homelessness, strategy.

The way that we enforce Boulder's camping ban, we do have a camping ban, it's been on the books for a long time.

the city is working very hard to end homelessness in our community, and safe and managed public spaces has some adjacencies

Rough sleeping, which is also referred to as unsheltered camp, homelessness or unsanctioned camping.

from the beginning of launching the keep families housed program with you which is one of the most successful prevention of family homeless programs around

individuals who are experiencing unsheltered and sheltered homelessness who have very severe behavioral health issues and substance use conditions

And that really has put Boulder on a path to end unsheltered homelessness through deeper integration of these practices.

Those are containment strategies for individuals who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness.

You just have to experience all the subsidies they give to these developers to build more and more higher-end places with more and more homeless

Horizons International, which was supposed to be the homeless center 25 years ago

the cost of more homelessness, and the cost of the trash

I would like nothing more than open comment to be dedicated solely to homelessness and mental health, transportation and other local issues

if we could help to provide advocates in the libraries for mental health

we still continue to see a lot of unhoused folks who are struggling mentally and their mental health is deteriorating the longer they're on the streets

There's 2 2 homeless people for every one that leaves.

It just drives up homelessness here to the point.

Members of the prab had requested an overview of the city's response to the symptoms of homelessness and park through our safe and manage public spaces program.

the housing solutions for the Homelessness Subcommittee. So the 2 things City Council received our letter

officers had like um like a lot of historical knowledge of some of the unhoused people that the street

I know the homeless discussion was very enlightening

we've also requested already that the homeless outreach team hot team be in attendance next time

the homeless shelter that this horizons international, that's being taken down

Homelessness is also up there. Uh whereas you know it was it was high up in the list that speaks to tolerances

There it is, subcommittee housing solutions for homelessness.

There's, you know, 20 affordable housing needs created for that one thing, and then there's more homeless.

I'm fed up with all the impact of the homeless in, you know.

So I will look at that as far as comments regarding homeless, we do have a wonderful working relationship

would also love to consider a regional collaboration on issues like homelessness and behavioral health

more help with uh those experiencing homelessness they would say well that's not fair we have all these other counties

the county to help us a little bit more with unsheltered homelessness specifically

I think that Boulder is a magnet, because we offer shelters and services and provide affordable housing

really, the hope is that we're gonna get direction from council. And I understand that that might not happen.

We kind of divided it into temporary housing, transitional housing, permanent, supportive housing, funding, funding, taking a look at front range services.

as long as there is homelessness, parks will be a place where people who are unhoused will congregate.

we've taken a new stance along the creek path and other public spaces when it comes to camping

untreated severe mental illness and addiction, which inevitably result in a cycle of jail and homelessness.

we spend most of our time in the park engaging with the unhoused

which was supposed to be the homeless center

And then we have a homeless problem. We're spending 6 million dollars a year for.

a group too often overlooked, left without resources, and treated as invisible until tragedy forces us to acknowledge them.

And yes, it is profoundly impacting Boulder's unhoused population.

I have profound sympathy for the unhoused and feel you are failing to provide them as well as the children

just talking to the Bridge House folks to kind of understand a better level of comfort and inclusivity with that population.

We approved a subcommittee to focus on housing solutions for homelessness.

one of the city Council members seemed upset that this county money could not be used for psh permanently supportive housing

There's a lot of very important homeless policy issues or unhoused policy issues.

First, in fall 2024, HAB investigated housing solutions to homelessness. We convened a panel of homeless housing providers, including All Roads, EA, BHP, and Bridge House

And so all of that to say specifically with the larger encampment that tends to be just moving slightly around on the creek path.

There are 4 encampments on the Mall and around the Mall and our, we actually have experienced some vandalism.

and the majority of the assaults were unhoused. Community members a lot of times assaulting other unhoused community members

So I know that's not exactly an answer directed at at the unhoused, but our attitude is

Whether those people are unhoused, or students, you know, away from home for the 1st time

I know there tends to be a number of unhoused people that live, if you will, in that area.

we've already got the homelessness way out of control.

the three areas around the homelessness programs and innovations that we're focusing on for this priority is the high utilizer initiative

around the homelessness programs and innovations that we're focusing on for this priority is the high utilizer initiative the system evaluation

the safe and managed public spaces team uh continued to make good progress in 2024 addressed over 1,000 encampments

Roughly, that's probably in the 30 to 35,000 for the unhoused households

The other piece of current need is for unhoused households, and that's mostly coming from service outreach

People feel unsafe when they see camping in parks when they see drug use in parks.

And from what about unhoused people in the parks.

focus on homelessness before another person freezes to death on our streets

crisis of unhoused people in the area we should tax them and fund protections

data as well as what the city is and community is doing to address homelessness.

There was a City Council study session on homelessness programs.

It used to call Boulder homeless overflow, and I was in the middle all the time.

all of the individuals on the high utilizers list are currently unhoused and the primary solution

to see kind of landscape of of different types of homelessness

we've been working in Dallas for uh the last four years we've seen you know dramatic reductions there

relationships within the unhoused community so they're building Community networks within the unhoused population

they have two individuals on staff who are unhoused to uh develop

to the 6 million dollars we're paying for homeless people because we are adding all of this high-end housing

members of our unhoused community are people, and that we're saving lives

as far as the development and homelessness. I just wanted to say, I think it's about 6 million a year

The issue of the sizing of your staff to handle the encampments spacing

the evaluation that was done of our homeless system

Bridge House is an organization that it's a nonprofit that tries to bring people out of homelessness

Bridge House is not designed to be permanent. It's designed to be

I don't think the solution to all the tents along the creek is at sundown

The city's effort with support from the county office of disaster management is for people who are single adults

The most important people we're reaching out to are people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness.

unhoused folks who either for whatever reason or not, going up to boulder shelter or all roads, as it's called now.

We have no room for homelessness, more homelessness, as all of these high paying jobs are driving the demand

This is what drives homelessness in boulder plus the private equity investors

I think, technically, yes, people coming out of homelessness and like stabilizing.

besides the obvious harassment that the homeless population experiences

actually the 1st homeless person he'd seen at the Coffee House.

for our unhoused youth in this community it really is a matter of life or death connecting them to the Housing Services that they need

Boulder Community is working with to end homelessness and support unhoused people together is one such organization

the winter poses extreme hardship for our unhoused community members including vulnerable youth who face heightened risks without stable shelter

looks like Boulder Bridge House will still be doing the homeless memorial. The day of remembrance.

while interacting with a person he perceived to be unhoused

he cares about nothing more than addressing homelessness and any suggestion that he is UN caring or complacent is simply false

the director of Boulder housing and Human Services Dawns a headlamp and walks to Boulder Creek to keep tabs on new encampments

today the list came out of the homeless that we are accounting for the deceased

But I don't want to have a discussion about mental health issues and encampments and judicial issues like it needs to be housing for them.

I moved the Board to schedule a listening session on homelessness.

There's like a lot of people that are talking about homelessness, and that gets into so many issues that have nothing to do with housing.

so we urge that there be immediate more frequent removal of encampments to prevent homeless campfires

we suggest that the system remove encampments more frequently which is to tag on Monday respect the 72 hours

I'm speaking tonight on homeless encampments along Boulder Creek and homeless campfires the current system is not working

So now we're doing all this transportation of all these homeless people going into suburban, homeless shelter

Bridge House will be holding its memorial for folks experiencing homelessness who have passed away

I had to stay at the Comfort Inn up by the homeless Center for 5 days

Those are mostly going to be our people that are setting little fires are unhoused that are setting up fires by their camps.

especially on the weekends when the day shelter is closed local businesses and residents have uh reported increased property damage

August of 2024 um two months after the day shelter began operations a high record of 180

one of the things still burning on my is that you know where are we encampments

the homeless shelter here we're not going to have any PL any hotel rooms for them this year

I know that we are uh continuing to build more permanent Supportive Housing in the city

does the city plan to incorporate more permanent Supportive Housing into future mixed income developments and construct more permanent Supportive Housing with wraparound services

to advocate for and create sustainable permanent Supportive Housing for the unhoused

Homelessness and substance misuse. Right? If we're addressing those issues that are pushing people into precarity.

When people are housing, insecure or homeless, they have unmet needs, traffickers leverage those unmet needs

crisis people are evicted they get on drugs they get homeless they get on the street they get in the mental care situations

every Community should have permanent Supportive Housing in their Community every Community should have a shelter space

actually arriving at zero um functional homelessness um yeah so since I I mean

does that include like the permanently Supportive Housing or the bluebird one

In this geographic location there is a concern about public safety that we've faced in part due to the unhoused population.

we have a homelessness program eval valuation and policy discussion on December 12th as a study session

it's a little bit like playing pingpong on mental health and also on some of the homeless Services

to continue to be the day Center for our unhoused population

started with the with the discussion about homelessness and specifically unsheltered homelessness and how it is a um

Our department housing and human services spent over a year trying to find a location for the Day Services Center.

Permanently supportive housing is a place you can live forever. And you don't need to have job skills.

We had a great panel here. solutions for homeless at the August meeting, and we learned a lot

There was an encampment in the green space that's just east of the table, Mesa.

There is such an intersection of people experiencing homelessness and substance, abuse issues and mental health issues

go out during encampment notifications and clean ups.

livable themes were housing unhoused populations and encampments affordability affordable housing

we are seeing more tons of trash we're seeing more encampments cleaned up

you know, homelessness associated with all the inflated costs of housing in boulder, and I wanted to know how to deal with it.

that we have all of these homeless people here, and we have them because of you

a lot of folks that are experiencing homelessness or at risk of experiencing homeless are in that sort of older adult age range.

we've really, really sort of good news where we've landed is the concept that 90% of the homeless.

I think the challenge and is that individuals who become homeless come from every community. They don't come from simply boulder

It was about the homeless and housing the kid to the City Council pretty much

the need for permanent Supportive Housing is acute

would you like to see an additional category for 100% permanent Supportive Housing projects

I think from building and advancing permanently Supportive Housing is some of the most important work that we do

like um our coordinated effort around homelessness in the UNH House mental health

we need to tear, you know, take care of our unhoused people, and but we also need to enforce this camping ban

We did also hear feedback about the humanitarian side and making sure we're taking care of the population and not moving people around needlessly.

and then the housing approach and the close partnership we have with what was both the boulder shelter for homeless

They're pretty. Obviously been interested in knowing when the Homelessness Day Service Center would be opening

We hosted a homeless policy framework round table with the chamber and our preference at this boulder

So the hot team is a homeless outreach team. which is 2 officers who engage in basically case management and provide transportation

I really like the Bridge house model. It's a nonprofit.

I think I'd like to hear from someone in the shelter who works regularly with homeless people.

Should we get someone to talk about homelessness?

it's now all fenced off to try to as soon to try to keep the homeless situation out of there

but we don't have that housing so what are we going to do meanwhile while waiting

housing first is a is a strategy that is three-pronged Accord ording to the researchers

we're really focused on the chronically homeless individuals who call Boulder Home

it's the grown-up version of Boulder's policy towards unsheltered homelessness

we have one person for one toilet that's a you know an incorrigible

their main goal is to work with all of our partners Partners to try to figure out how to get people out of homelessness

so like at Bluebird got one homeless person for one bathroom and one kitchen

we recently completed the Bluebird apartments for individuals exiting homelessness in an affordable housing

There's a lot of work around homelessness programs and innovations that are really around. Addressing homelessness upstream.

And I found this through a lot of the homeless situations, and how people are just kind of off doing their own things

that joint meeting on homelessness that we went in um at the county hosted

The goal is that they all be housing focused and that we want folks to exit homelessness

we're continuing to work on a framework policy for addressing homelessness

my community engagement for April 2,024. I toured the boulder, homeless shelter.

we've invested in new programming in Wildfire resilience in homelessness Solutions and Behavioral Health programming over the past several years

my question is with regards to the other homelessness programs

around the evaluation and anal analysis from a fiscal and performance perspective of our homelessness programs

homelessness programs and Innovations uh including uh support of the high utilizers program

programs like building home that are helping people who have for example become unhoused and are now housed

as we think about the high system utilizer uh program that we're about to embark on

as of last summer homelessness is increasing in Boulder County and bbsd reported a record number of homeless students

services for the unhoused at the Bandshell

Put more and more homeless people on the street, and I don't want to pay for it.

At a time when family homelessness Is kind of at the highest rates it ever.

that it is not worthwhile to pursue a district until issues of unhoused and public safety are addressed in the area

that just makes homelessness worse, and this is something that will make it better

does not do anything but increase homelessness in Boulder

Then this now says, studying implementation of homelessness programs, including high utilizers

the 2 items one are the the high utilizers, and we're already doing some work around that

Again, there are part of this spectrum of homelessness in the in house which I utilize.

Well, housing is also the curse in that the more housing, the more services, the more services, the more need for housing, the more wealthy, and equity, the more homelessness

You spread the wealth equity, and you get more people homeless and more people evicted.

Another one is the high utilizer program. This is also not quite in flight.

They are moving people out of encampments and into housing

hopefully, we can make a huge difference in the enormous problem of homelessness in the next 2 years

this is affecting your residence this homeless problem and you know how it happens

They accept their. Priorities, for example, homeless. Tess. For example, all the issues around Is, for.

And it's interesting because the homeless person gets one bathroom and kitchen at Bluebird

and we have more of the homeless cycle of despair. We can't afford developments like this

except for 0, for the homeless people. and then the people that are trying to live in their places get evicted.

providing much needed services to our unsheltered community

especially in some of the higher priority areas like housing um homelessness and um the unhoused

national and local increases in homelessness also challenge our regional support systems

It's happening with all of our unhoused and a bunch of other people.

All of our unhoused individuals that that end up in boulder initially from downtown has been my experience

child poverty and the number of students living in homelessness has more than doubled from 2019 to 2022

seeing as the relationship between this newly formed historic district and the homelessness

we have no business giving them handouts when we have homeless problem

adaptive use for use of vacant underused office buildings as an alternative to encampments

But having been in the city a lot in the last week. There's still a lot of visible homelessness.

People did do 2 sessions on homelessness just in the last one month.

I know in Denver because of the homeless situation they've had to close down their rec centers earlier hours

where they take folks and put them in full wraparound folks experiencing homelessness.

when we're not saving the lives of an unhoused person that's going to die of

we have people dying right now in this community a lot of them sadly in December

address the VAR and very individual needs of all those that are in our community experiencing homelessness so with that I will um send it over to Carl

being on the huti this list is usually correlated and overlaps with you have been here for a while um that being said there is also a natural response that people ask for any program

connect people to housing um and so I think it's important to look at the context that both meeting folks where they're at um as well as as helping them to exit homelessness

unhoused folks that are populating this area um and it's my hope that well not my hope it's my actions

we'll say that we will be speaking about that at the upcoming meeting on February 8th as we talk about all of our homelessness strategies

in light of the 600 families we know are unhoused

specifically on the issue of of homelessness uh funding uh our C our previous council did add a position

But I think If we only focus on the unhoused, it's gonna be a

So my issue with the ACLU suit is that this concept of you can't ban camping unless there's an alternative

What's going on? I guess the huge encampment there, like the Walgreens keeps getting broke into.

We do it now twice a year, once in the winter, once in the summer for homeless individuals

The boulder share shelter for the homeless location in North boulder. and you can access information.

providing an update on homelessness services. Alright. and please, at least have it support me on this one.

February eighth our housing department is going to do an update on all the homelessness programs.

But how people are treated, or how it's used. there's not a connection between designation and and the the use in that way?

We all know that there's a lot of unhouse people who live in this park.

many of our most visible homeless live by their own rules in outdoor drug infested conditions that we deem illegal

I have founded two homeless nonprofits streetcape being the latest I also spent 5 years on Boulder streets as a chronically unsheltered High system user

the expectation was that we were actually going to try and reduce the amount of encampment sweeps by actually offering a place for people to have authorized encampments

the homeless will go from one town to the next and they'll propagate to Boulder and we'll just be doing nothing

The wealth inequity just causes more homelessness and we haven't got the money for it.

there are unfortunately many homeless people and people that like to take advantage of students walking home

the unhoused and and homeless population is by definition I would say the hardest to reach

the most recent largest survey of unhoused people

how much of a problem if at all they felt homelessness was in the city of Boulder

Each one of these projects drives up the cost of land, increases homelessness

anything that has to do with. You know, the unhoused community is definitely one of my

Some of my passions are the unhoused community. I used to be a member of that community

I want to thank everybody that came out to the homeless Memorial that we had on Tuesday evening

the more that we do these kind of develop M the more homeless that we are creating and that is the root cause of homelessness in Boulder

21st has been designated national homeless persons Memorial Day by the National Coalition for the homeless

also in thinking about um talking with folks who are experiencing homelessness um people who have lived experience with homelessness this to me feels like an important additional group

is there a balance between um investing in some you know services that may uh help people who are living unsheltered in these areas um versus just kind of doing straight updates

the symptoms of homelessness were it did exist in the park during this plan's development and it is contemplated throughout um ways to make the park safe and welcoming for all

homeless shelters etc. etc. The private nonprofits and there's a list of them

Is it going to be allowed to be used as a homeless?

If it's just going to create a situation in which yet more unhoused individuals are going to be heading into that building

Holder, Omar Shelter taking on the day shelter. Not. And, I haven't read the words, that's permanent or temporary solution.

we don't necessarily want to get into like all the all of the permanent supportive housing treatments and case workers

And the homeless shelter. I don't know what the costs were on Folsom. But I'm sure they were cheaper.

opposing the archaic counterproductive process of clearing homeless encampments

I would like to address the compassionate responses to homelessness

I wanted to make myself a Community Connector for the homeless crowd

to which homeless people do we owe a duty of assistance

we added sister cities in Palestine Israel and Nepal we struggled with homelessness we still do

some community members wish Council was better at articulating their homelessness strategies

this kind of permanent, supportive housing housing first model has a has been the most successful in getting residents off the street

for the most part, really, really people who are transitioning out of homelessness

So it's critical housing and supportive services for older residents who have been experiencing homelessness.

Particularly the encampment team. Your response to the passage of

Advocate to the county for support on homelessness services

what are those things that we need to advocate for to reduce homelessness

in our faces in our parks and by our Creeks when they could be in our many unused places

so the city is finally looking into a legal camp for about 25 homeless folks

If it's helpful for homeless services, Arepa. And then, just in any given year, for the city services.

millions every year that we are allocating for housing services for assistance to community members who are homeless

specifically for homeless programs that serve homeless community members. Happy to share information about those.

You know, we're playing 2 something 1 million or 2 to 6 million to clean up after the homeless here.

the ability of the city to pay for the homeless that are here, the developers not paying, the developers getting subsidies.

our point in time count shows only 171 people living unsheltered in our community

encampment removal is at best a temporary solution it doesn't address the root causes of homelessness

we know from research these encampment cleanup um programs don't help reduce homelessness

does that include homelessness prevention programs like the emergency assistance rental assistance or is that separate

so often we focus on exits out of homelessness in this homeless update we talked a lot about housing

The issue of homelessness is nationwide, and requires a much greater outlay of funds than will ever be generated from this tax.

I support that camping ban staying in place I support safe zones for the kids I support safe zones for the public

HUD does have a definition of permanent Supportive Housing we could look at that

invest in the programs and infrastructure to expand permanently Supportive Housing psh

And it also preferences the idea sweeping rather than other ways in which the unhoused are put into situations that are less problematic to the public.

evidence has demonstrated as being more viable ways of in fact dealing with the problem of homelessness and promoting public safety

it will just sort of move the problem from one place to another.

a top Council priority to help address the needs of our unsheltered adult homeless population

homelessness Services which is a program that supports the unhoused community Through the muni court programs

funding for permanently supportive housing vouchers to help with to help fund 48 local psh

we did, I think Dmc. Did. Also we put money where our mouth was for the day shelter.

And then there's a group of people there. It's not encampment technically, because there's not tense

we up our enforcement of encampments to 3 days a week

so I'm on the front lines of some pretty bad behavior from the unhoused

then I think homelessness and unhoused will be a much simpler problem not easy but much simpler

for example for reaching out to people who have experienced homeless or home lessness or currently unhoused

the most impacted people or the most marginalized so I would like to see us move forward with the county with a 15 increase

to sort of help with people who are currently almost to provide some of those permanent supportive housing.

we are still enforcing the camping ban and providing the appropriate notices and taking um the measures

homelessness services were another use that people raise concerns about in addition to the broader public input

but I attended their presentation on homelessness. It was a fascinating presentation.

we feel in the selection of the site there's a great deal of emphasis placed on the centrality of the location for the people it intended to serve I.E the homeless

would you like us to consider sanctioned encampment sites would you like us to consider a broader array

we committed to having an evaluation of our homeless Services System our system is part of a wider system

We all like to talk about keeping families out of homelessness and secure in their housing.

thanks, especially for working on dealing with the consequences of homelessness and boulder.

with the utilities team and Bpd's homeless outreach team and we mostly connect people to the resources that we have in our parks.

I notice you have unhoused engagement. Is it also going to include low income segments

a concern around homelessness and sanctioned encampments and things back at our um midterm Retreat

we're dealing with the homelessness epidemic the root causes of increased homelessness in places like Boulder are directly tied to Rising rents

as challenging as the unhoused and people camping as that is for the community

I also hear the business Community saying that businesses are leaving our community because of the homelessness crisis

priorities in Boulder including creating affordable housing providing services for the homeless

here they've told us that the top issues to them are housing affordability homelessness and to some degree there

one of the historic aspects of it is the homeless Libino around there and back.

for helping the homeless, we're supportive of that.

with the primary goal of not only meeting people's basic needs, but connecting with the housing

we have the update on the homeless day shelter

There's homeless people who use this maybe simply putting out a place where the people to use the toilet

are primarily working during the engagement phase to assist with service needs for those who are unhoused and unsheltered

their primary area of focus is the unsheltered unhoused individuals with the highest level of Acuity

unhoused individuals were able to successfully transverse the journey from living on the streets to permanently Supportive Housing

So the encampments and have not been happening there, because it is privately owned.

update on the letter to Council, regardless regarding the conversation around homelessness

having heard from effort that families doubling up is one of the ways that people stay out of homelessness

if you were living next to a homeless Center would you want a good neighbor agreement

I am here to speak about why a good neighbor agreement is necessary if a homeless Center opens at 1844 Folsom

the new day Services Center that HHS will be getting off the ground next year which will serve individuals experiencing homelessness

we are contemplating a good neighbor meeting um with respect to the day shelter

I toured um a day shelter in Denver they had a pretty rigid rule like you could not come in for services

to be able to give feedback on the operations of such a center it's an administrative approval

some an expert in homelessness recently wrote to me and said that she didn't feel like

we do know that we have a needs for the day shelter

funded with temporary funding support for plan day shelter programming increased support

we're not trying to solve homelessness. We realize we're addressing the symptoms of homelessness.

I do know there's a high utilizer group, so there is a real small portion of ticketed campers

For example, we have that 72 h noticing requirement right now we notice the 10.

so we were able to really bring those vaccine clinics to people who needed it to people experiencing homelessness

that kind of talked about how we're not enforcing the camping ban

unsheltered homelessness is strongly associated with chronic homelessness which exacerbates the issue even more

I'll transition a little bit to the challenges we see in homelessness meth use and now fentanyl use

that causes homeless problems. And that's the biggest problem that the city of Boulder has

some of that open space is currently being used by our unhoused population

the meeting did include an update on a homelessness. challenges, and interventions for people who are adults, kind of single individuals families

It's not necessarily going to address all the complexities that are part of the issue of homelessness

the whole program is brand new and city council, I think, understood that the so this

not for the encampment clean up work, but for just general storm, storm, water, and flat maintenance

experiencing homelessness primarily unsheltered next slide please High utilize um

we have assigned a sergeant and two homeless Outreach officers who mostly are non-enforcement in their capacity

do we know what percentage of shelter versus unsheltered uh homelessness occurs within families

instead of just worrying about how students are kind of all over the city and dumping things

stopping the flow of the trash that we see in in August from these areas to encampments

they're going to talk about family homelessness, individual homelessness, and then there is the same update involved it.

This was like the like ongoing project from before, like last year's term. another broad umbrella of issues is homelessness.

that's a really good question to be asking next week when we have a study session really devoted to homelessness Services

these are the folks that we are talking about with these multitudes of crimes that we're trying to address with housing

we should make sure that there aren't homeless encampments bordering our schools and paths

I think that activation is supposed to help with that with um sort of some of the encampment issues

it feels like we're at a bit of a Breaking Point with encampments

we are tightening up our encampment abatement protocols that already prioritize Parks schools and other public spaces

The City Council was doing another taxpayer study on homelessness, which there's no solution, not anywhere in any other States

if I ask you to think if the if one of the remedy remedies you're seeking is to house the unhoused.

Another issue, a third issue i'll mention is whether adding unhoused as a protected class, is the best approach

I'm troubled by just really the general disdain for homeless people in our community.

on April Thirteenth City Council is having a 3 h study session devoted to homelessness topics.

Boulder it increases the density which increases our cost of everything which increases homelessness which we then have to deal with

my issue here today is not with the unhoused residents who are 100 members of our community

I looked at the greatest Community concerns that we hear about all the time it's homelessness it's planning

you know the unhoused population is incredibly diverse

is that homelessness issues it wasn't in the scheme of things

Homelessness day center is in process, housing and services leading that conversation

a 100 increase in median rent is associated with a nine percent increase in homelessness

People have to come into boulder and can't afford to live here, and the more that the homelessness becomes a problem.

I'm paying. and it's because of the homelessness and the wealth and equity.

over the half half century the city has made thousands of enemies many hundreds of lives have been shortened degraded and ended

we have an encampment clean up team. That's part of our led by our water Utilities department

there's probably hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars damage from the homeless math users in the libraries

because family of homelessness does predict adult homelessness and so what are we doing to prevent this issue

we do spend a lot of money on homelessness and now we're going to spend a whole lot of money on a sanctioned encampment

do we understand who our unsheltered homeless are because I'm out there almost every week working with a lot of folks

how do we prevent people from get from being homeless and unsheltered in the first place

that study session we hope to be completely devoted uh to homelessness on that day

I'll hold most of my um more direct homelessness um questions

didn't open that day's shelter for this this last storm that just happened in the last 24 hours

camping bands and sweeps do not prevent crime or homelessness if we want a safer more secure Boulder for all

this process not only reproduces homelessness but also deepens racial gender and health inequalities

the proposed language implies that camping bans can have a positive or at least neutral impact on reducing homelessness

make sure that everyone has a place in our community including those that are unsheltered as well

we're hearing on the issue of um the complex issue of our unsheltered

the safety zone designation would eliminate the 72-hour grace period for encampment removals

It will not have the family homelessness, conversation, a Key City partner is not available that evening

The intent is to destigmatize the members of the House community and others

for advice on fostering inclusiveness, particularly as it relates to our homeless population

middle income Housing day services center for homeless community members

a building home project which is helping people who have recently transitioned from homelessness to housing

Boulder has Used winter as a weapon against the homeless for decades it works about 30 currently homeless die every year here

open a day shelter which certainly be a great development for our city and something that has been needed for a long time

it's going to take uh something Beyond a day shelter discussion this is a specific problem the drug use

we need a day shelter for our people experiencing homelessness and that people have services for we have services

safety concerns for the employees specifically at night surrounding homelessness on the hill

I just want to make sure that that does not increase the instances of homeless people in this neighborhood

our homeless shelter, which is basically the library is closed

So homeless count as a result of all of the extra work that works for you.

the cause of ending homelessness is kept urgent as is the city's commitment to preventing such deaths in the future

the winter poses extreme hardship for our unhoused community members

this whole path is littered with vagrants and things

multiple topics, as it relates to members of our and housed community. They'll be talking about family homelessness.

an encampment encampment along a pathway blocking a public way near Canyon and Broadway

talks about criminalization of homeless people and your testimony here or status for the homeless strategy

I'm going to comment on the homeless shelter strategy from 2017 written by uh your predecessors

the photo project was um people experiencing homelessness get a disposable camera take photos

better informing the HRC around um uh the homelessness as a protected class um with the human within the human rights ordinance

the only thing that the city of Boulders seems to care about and throw their money at is a homeless drug addict with a lengthy criminal record

no day shelter or similar facility has demonstrated any measurable success at any ending or alleviating the cost burden of homelessness

the memo referred to ending homelessness which I don't remember being kind of the goal of the center

That's where the and that's where the homeless are allowed Now, living In in this affordable housing

anywhere from like 50 to 70 percent of the folks that they respond to and work with are people experiencing homelessness

police officers that focus on assisting people experiencing homelessness in the community into housing resources

the role of the camping ban is not to solve homelessness it's to keep our public spaces Clean safe and managed

a stricter camping ban one mile from all schools

research shows that camping Bans are a failed approach to homelessness because when

we train our staff to to work with homeless people, and and to keep an eye out

I think ending homelessness itself is very hard so I think uh reducing or some of the language

they would address the needs of high utilizers um help get them out of uh the unhoused situation

I have some concerns like that people are being um given you know Keys rather than uh the real Supportive Services

and yet we have people experiencing homelessness people going hungry people who who can't get the health

we're talking about investing a total of 2.8 million dollars in encampment Management in 2023

this is a bad idea and here's why I have personally seen progress in areas where encampments have been cleared

to the best of my knowledge none of our homeless Services have solved homelessness yet it is not being proposed that they be defunded

I've been homeless on the boulder streets for 7 over the 30 years that I've lived here

dating back to may of 2021 when the pilot originally was approved for safe and managed spaces

i'm not really excited about getting another encampment team um for five hundred thousand dollars

the cost of the navigation center facility whenever we decide what that is

it wasn't just the noble acp that supported the You know this homeless community and bridge houses as part of that safety net

whether there's actually data that navigation centers and places that collect people actually lead to housing outcomes

a lot of people don't get the vouchers and we don't have enough housing so there are a lot of people who are unsheltered

really investing in housing first approaches and getting people into housing and putting their investments into housing instead of additional shelters

about the discussion on day service and navigation center there is some concern

criminalizing the poor souls who cannot afford a home is not the solution

the more higher end that we have the more wealth and equity we have and the more homeless people in every corner

with our annual homelessness update obviously we'll be a little premature to have a formal report

develop a day shelter and day services for the city of boulder for people experiencing homelessness

it is the frequent anti-social behavior of unhoused residents that necessitates laws like the camping ban

we'll talk about homelessness strategy um in another month or so

this is actually true for a number of organizations who provide assistance to homeless community members even though that's not necessarily

in terms of homeless services and sheltering again the organizations listed here are those for which we have funding contracts

we have separate funding contracts going out for homeless services for rental assistance and a

How the homeless population is treated. Especially because there's so many like innovative ideas like safe lots or pop ups

You have to say it's interesting those two strategies around homeless hotspots right

the aclu didn't sue neighboring towns for their zero services instead they chose the easy target boulder

zero additional actions to counter the campers illegally occupying and fouling public spaces

in particularly in the closure of the covid recovery center as well as a need that's been in our community for some time for unhoused individuals

what is the homeless respite center i assume that's different than the day shelter

lots of great information on homelessness so we've been tracking shelter utilization

let me just go through it really quickly there's also a homelessness deck dashboard.

the effect of the camping ban is to punish the homeless for something they have no say in

i am here today with concerns about the homelessness issue in the city

a person who was previously homeless in this Community for nearly five years

as long as the main library is being used as a de facto day shelter

is a distraction from what I think is Boulder's most pressing issue the homeless crisis

the city should f focus on sustainable long-term solutions to days Sheltering

hoping that we would have fewer and fewer people returning to homelessness once they've been able to exit

your second question about reduced returns to homelessness so what I mean one of the things about

Our current 25% churn rate for permanent supportive housing

we're also looking at providing a day shelter with

there but you can see they're really aimed at helping to resolve a person's unhoused status

finally we have a seriously addicted encampment crowd they steal and support a habit

The more you build the more homeless, you have the more homeless, you have the more despair

more focusing the conversation on navigation uh on having a navigation center up and operational in two years

think of what other perhaps services or programs or gaps for our unsheltered specifically unsheltered community could exist

meant to focus on the the hundreds of people that have been housed who were previously homeless

we've got money that might be coming from the state in the form of matching funds in order to help serve our unhoused

it is our de facto day shelter for our unhoused what are we doing about that

the atrium can be utilized to support other city services including the unsheltered

every meeting that i come to here it's about the homeless people the encampments the low-income housing

so that we don't have these encampments all over this is what it is for

I'd love to move on and hear some thoughts from staff on scoping on the homelessness items

how can we create spaces where people can be throughout the day um and sometimes at night if needed

what can we do about unsheltered homelessness um you know and how can we um this I think ties into

so i think having a day shelter navigation this really fits well with the arpa money that we'll likely receive

i'd love to also make sure that we focus on a day shelter and a pure navigation center

with homelessness we have a once in a generation opportunity to take advantage of hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding

I think that money should come from the county because it's county residents who will be attending the day shelter

The navigation Center builds a sense of healthy Community meets people where they are on their housing journey

Our parks and other spaces, who are currently unsheltered and using those spaces as kind of a living space.

recently counted eight people denied space in the boulder shelter on one night when paired with Boulder's camping ban

a combination of things so either um running a severe weather shelter or um day shelter or uh sanctioned encampment or safe parking

there was a partnership with a bridge house that went on for a couple of Seasons they had a smaller number of beds

I implore this city council to swiftly create a low barrier emergency overflow and day shelter to provide adequate accessible spaces

the winter poses extreme hardship for inadequately housed low income income men women and children in Boulder

on the heels of the dedication for National homeless persons Memorial Day

it's just driving the homelessness and the meth people, and I know they're not intentional

homelessness is focused on evaluation of adult homelessness policy changes and again across the departmental team

the top five were advancing racial equity coveted recovery homelessness housing and police oversight

the only proven method of actually exiting people from homelessness is to provide home housing

roughly 75% of the individuals experiencing homelessness in Boulder County are in the city of Boulder

one of the questions that we get asked is um around people who are in our unhoused community who died in the prior year

you have an unhoused individual who is um deceased along with the newborn

we had an unhoused vulnerable individual pass away outside with either a newborn or stillborn infant

we've recently suffered a tragic loss in our unhoused community

on the verge of homelessness and he said, I will i've got one I built it with my dad and I parked it somewhere

wanted to express uh his thanks in the progress around um uh housing first and getting and changing the whole mission of of the shelter

create the 160 bed shelter at 4869 Broadway and work diligently to change the Sheltering culture to one that focuses on exiting people from homelessness

when I got on councel I had no idea what a complex and wicked problem homelessness is

so many people i've heard from are concerned about rising homelessness and encampments but they see us investing

we get more and more homelessness nobody can talk about anything at the council candidate meetings except homelessness

my goals is to work with people experiencing homelessness who are charged with violations that reflect their unhoused status

we had our first homeless advisory council meeting in august and have had our second one in september

attended by people experiencing homelessness and it frequently there is a free breakfast

one of the biggest gaps we have in services for the unsheltered and in mental health support

the way the city worked with the shelter boulder shelter for the homeless back when that was being constructed

particularly those today that were about um waste efforts and and homelessness

that includes a high percentage of all the individuals city-wide who have been unhoused

earlier this calendar year the council approved a number of initiatives ostensibly aimed at ameliorating issues stemming from homelessness

CU South is no housing solution it actually means 2 800 more unhoused people

which i suppose would cover things like uh permanent supportive housing

stating the obvious just like oh housing the unhoused it's like duh yeah

it was very much as an approach to address and support our homeless population as well as many others in our community

are you thinking about the one-time dollars used to support mental behavior health services and homeless services expansion

it certainly seems like it would plug into helping us fill that gap in um services for the unsheltered then house

about 200 school age children in Boulder City Schools experience homelessness each year when families lose their homes

we know that the homeless shelter serves folks from boulder some folks not from boulder outside the counties

the city has provided some local funding so it's a voucher program for supportive housing units

we partner with the boulder shelter for the homeless, to provide services.

how BHP is working to provide housing for for folks excellent homelessness

I just want to voice my support for the tent and propane ban

we provide 72 hours notice with a written notice um we also

it really inhibits our our progress in removing encampments when they can go a few feet away and erect the tent

homelessness and housing the actions associated with these have both been completed

spent a fraction of that on four legal camps for the homeless Boulder needs new Council candidates

hire extra cops and Rangers to sweep the homeless From Misery to misery like garbage

to provide shelter and services to persons experiencing homelessness

we can't use the fact that we don't control housing policy to ignore our role in homelessness

to homelessness because yes you can um it's important that people have something to eat every day

what comes to mind is homelessness and how can we apply the systems level

they have passed a statewide camping ban in the entire state and this may well exacerbate the problems we have in boulder

this past saturday i had to play police because i witnessed two girls being harassed and gawked at by two men from the homeless encampment behind boulder high school

so this chart depicts the citations issued to the subset of people experiencing homelessness

training for those homeless people is going to get them job training but it's not going to get them housing in boulder

you are asking for more unaffordable housing and for more homelessness and there's no solution to it

talking about the unhoused um of course it's entirely up to you but that's that's my recommendation

to get them out of the the unhoused condition they're in you better go further than that

heavy emphasis on assisting with the process of the encampment posting the encampment cleanup providing safety supporting

those encampments just move down the way and then you need even more police

the addition of more policing to homeless encampments

policing homeless uh encampments close to the city will push people up into the mountains

And a an abolition, to the camping ban in favor of bedrooms are for people.

not really it's not geared for homelessness it's not good for people who are homeless period

As we heard about last night Council the discussion about encampments.

our current program for individuals who are in sort of a housing first approach

when we're not present uh people just tell the staff that they're not leaving and so that leaves them in a precarious situation

staff are are really impacted by this work partly because there's not enough resource to do it all

i'd like to have you guys consider those encampments even more

the alarmism connecting homelessness with crime with drug use with a lack of safety in our community is all hysteria

Boulder has continued to sweep nearly every encampment where people have found shelter these sweeps do not respect the Dignity of our neighbors

unhoused people that cop loving Boulder rites love calling the cops on are our neighbors we keep us

the city would oppose impositions of restrictions on the state in terms of how they make decisions on on addressing homelessness

encampment response resourcing which was already scheduled and the safe parking issue that was already scheduled

the man in the tent did not want help they usually refuse help he said sometime that day

there are two dysfunctional systems that work in this town public safety and homelessness homelessness is a systemic problem

we have an addiction and a violent crime problem among a small subset of the unhoused which our unfortunately our housing first policies don't address

at the recent January 19th meeting a few members on Council that opposed the camping ban suggested

we will be talking more about um financing when it comes to um services for the homeless

sought to raise funds to provide emergency shelter in hotels to people experiencing homelessness

I really only heard that talked about in a couple ways safe parking and sanctioned encampments

we also have a recent example of the safe outdoor spaces in Denver that have been quite successful

we've heard about homeless services sales and use tax the climate action plan tax

encampment to stay behind Boulder high school for over two and a half weeks

that's very much focused on family homelessness um but until coven hit

the coordinator can connect them with supportive housing services so not all evictions result in homelessness

HOWOW ISSUES SURROUNDING FOLKSS EXPERIENCINGG HOMELESSNES AREE DEALTLT WITH

THE COUNTY I ISS I INN THEHE PROCESF DOINGG A A SURVEYY O OFF O OFF F INDIVIDUALSS WHOHO ARERE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS

the homeless topic is that you know we'll have people with $3.2 million houses screaming at us to do more

an overwhelming increase in number of chronically homeless coming from Denver along with the rampant meth youth in these encampments

housing first approach to homelessness is well supported by the crime statistics tonight on a per capita basis

people who use math can access traditional permanent Supportive Housing due to public health concerns about using meth

I think there are people out there who Need help and I think there are sensible solutions out there to enhance housing first

I think safe parking either will happen or is happening. I think there's promise for tiny homes, perhaps encampments

prab has identified three specific concerns as they relate to boulder parks arising from the unhoused and in cat encampments

so i'm a little bit um maybe concerned or confused about having homelessness and encampments fall

a lot of boulder like boulder rights experiencing homelessness who are underserved

the latest person murdered by your genocidal housing laws rather than reflecting on your role in his death

how often are um unhoused individuals counted do you know once a year

we decided to not do a report about sanctioned encampments although we are in support of them

i do agree that i think we were in the homeless the unhoused world pretty heavily at that point

new policies also to um reflect the direction um from the regional homelessness plans

they've worked with other communities to develop strategies and responses that are responsive to community inputs around um homelessness

it mentioned individuals who are unhoused and i wondered if there's going to be some like what the outreach looks like there

for people who are unhoused and don't have a physical address

these individuals are allowed to stay there for months at a time which is both unsafe for humans and the environment

I am urging you to stop enforcement of the camping ban um for all of the reasons

Boulders homeless residents who move often to avoid police contact experience higher rates of sexual assault

And get people off the streets and that transition them and give them wraparound services.

If you think about family homelessness. It is a continuum, where we're starting from folks who are either unstable

To ensure that they either get out of homelessness or are prevented from entering homelessness.

the state should have the ability to sort of create a minimum standard for every city to abide by

I actually would prefer that the state take some action on homelessness to sort of um make it something like

fund and protect the municipal uh justice systems ability to combat homelessness

violent sweeps of homeless encampments where our unhoused community members are living

that provides clothing and Necessities to homeless persons on a weekly basis

We want people to be housed. But until then, people shouldn't die. On the streets.

the report did make it sound like safe parking and tiny homes in encampments were viable for boulder.

they do address some of the gaps and some of the spaces that we have When we're trying to onboard people into that system.

asked Council not to do anything more for the homeless for fear it would attract more

our Target population is homeless offenders and you can see there

downtown Boulder was behind the city's homeless policies and practices

we also urge you not to support an a sanctioned uh cment down the road

the city must cease the enforcement of the camping ban and remove the six-month residency requirement from the coordinated entry screening

so you know really like the camping band doesn't get people to leave it negatively impacts people's ability to connect with Services

a grant which will help us bridge people who are close to who are close to being housed

particularly with permanent supportive housing conditions was a tough tough thing and our agencies really stepped up to the mark

one of the criticisms we often receive is that we're we're focused on permanent supportive housing and yes we are

wouldn't it be better to focus our solution on our coordinated entry approach with rapid rehousing solutions that address addiction

city staff recommended against it as well in their presentation they included this definition of homelessness people living in a place

the cuts for Grants to homeless service um I realize you know we all we all are aware of our struggles um with unhoused population

so we've communicated with um lots of different organizations that work with the homeless um and most of the people

we're in conversations with the the the boulder shelter for the homeless to uh come up with a plan for this week

um emergency temporary sanctioned encampment so if anybody has questions on that feel free

I must implore you to address the matter of homelessness for the humanitarian crisis that it is

you people demonize the homeless not coming here the right way even though the right way is a yearslong

a lot of people to move out of safe parking into actually market rate low end market rate but market rate housing

do we have numbers and data on how many people are living in the encampments and how they spend their days

sweeping encampments especially when no legal alternative for residence exists is a form of brutality

authorize an emergency encampment for people experiencing homelessness

dogs maybe comment on and help your unhoused humans as well thank you

we still subject our unhoused humans to worse treatment than we're even considering these prairie dogs

ensure that people can stay in their homes and avoid homelessness

having a fund that helped address that would probably would address some of the city's concerns with respect to homelessness

we have about 400 students in Boulder Valley Schools who are homeless

as well as getting a lot of the folks BPD deals with off the streets by redirecting those funds into the housing first homelessness strategy

when you have no plan for the homeless people this winter

does council have input into input on interventions that currently included in the homeless strategy including sanction encampments

we combine that with the hot team to try to get Services involved before tickets are issued

one of the things that we wanted to look at was the um comparison of how we are doing as a system

their main demand for you the council is to fully enforce the urban camping ban

although boulder does have a housing first program in place it could be much much bigger and better funded

boulder's 2020 budget gives 38.6 million dollars to the police and only a little over one million dollars for homeless services

we're going to have more people in the street soon does Boulder have an

encampments or safe parking things really affect and move people from homelessness to housed and how can they be engaged

we're never going to house everyone we're we're housing something like 7 to 10% by the city's own numbers

support uh homeless services and health and health and mental health services

people sometimes ask what housing has to do with criminal prosecution while in the homeless context many low-level crimes are inexorably linked to a person's housing status

this graph represents those 40 high utilizers who were housed sometime prior to 2019

the focus of this group is the the problem of the high utilizers how do we stop the cycle of homelessness

Co has had a significant impact on our homelesses strategy

we are going to continue to reserve July 14th for one of the main topics that has been a council priority which is homelessness

THE SOCIAL WORKERS TO WORK WITH HOMELESS PEOPLE WILL REFER STUDENTS TO WORK WITH

WE NEED TO PROVIDE ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS IN BOULDER

THANK YOU FOR KEEPING THE SEVERE WEATHER SHELTER OPEN TO ALL OF MARCH AND APRIL AS YOU DID.

ENGAGE HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS AND SERVICES AND WE CONTINUE TO ALL LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO DO THAT

and we're able to separate those that are in the unhoused population from other individuals

i don't know that i had heard about the um the crc expanding it sounds like maybe it's um expanding beyond unhoused individuals

the crc is going to remain open at the east boulder rec center as long as we need it to remain open to protect individuals that are unhoused

TO DEALING WITH THE HOMELESS POPULATION MAKING SURE THAT EVERYONE IN THIS CITY IS PROPERLY FED

THERE HAVE BEEN SOME ISSUES OF THE HOMELESS SHELTERS BEING AT CAPACITY

in this time of coven we'll be prioritizing three areas which are rental housing homelessness activities and economic developments

public restrooms in the parks are providing a much needed opportunity for those who are unhoused to wash their hands

he supports more transitional and Supportive Housing for the homeless and he's worked in this

so the shelter capacity that was another question that we've we've received over the last couple of weeks

we extended the um severe weather shelter to be open every night through the uh the month of April

ONE OF THE THINGS WE HEARD FROM FROM BRIDGE HOUSE AND WHEN SEVERE WEATHER SHELTER WENT TO OPEN EVERY NIGHT

WE HIGHLIGHTED THE FACT THAT TWO AND HALF YEARS AGO WHEN WE STARTED THIS HOUSING FIRST STRATEGY

YOU'LL SEE HERE THAT WE'VE IMPLEMENTED AND LEASE THE STRATEGY WAS REALLY MEANT TO CREATE A SAFE PLACE FOR INDIVIDUALS EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS

going back to issues with folks experiencing homelessness I one of the the things that we've heard about

can we have sanitation and public areas frequented by the homeless

the homelessness sanitation hand washing station public bathrooms day shelter anything else we should be looking at

everybody wants to be clean and take a shower and get washed and they can't do that here

I recently sent you a letter advocating about the homeless and the Corona virus

about the homelessness strategy and whatever do they have the capability

she said it's hard for them to get out in the evenings usually but she'd be happy to collect answers

since council wants us to find out a new idea of strategies and tools for the unhoused

a large number of people that we are exiting from homelessness who are kind of on the front lines

the people that we have placed um in Supportive Housing with vouchers

given vouchers to be um given housing who were formerly homeless

homeless homelessness right what does that mean what's the activity around homelessness

seventy three thousand three hundred and eight shelter bed nights of stay were provided to adult individuals

through coordinated efforts aligned with our homelessness strategy 354 adults exited homelessness last year

the other big sub population that we deal with are no surprise probably the homeless population

collaboratively within all of the systems that are addressed the homeless so the coordinated entry system all of the different homeless service providers

our homeless navigators are homeless navigator now homeless specialists oftentimes in conjunction with the homeless outreach team officers

if we have forty-three thousand safe for emergency services for the unhoused what kind of reduction do we see

it costs about forty three thousand dollars a year to let someone remain on housed

maybe we can move it out into the community maybe we can do an event of sorts also to support the homeless

WE DO HAVE MORE SERVICES THAT NEED TO BE EXPANDED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE HOMELESS

SPEND EXTRA TIME BEFORE REMOVING THE ENCAMPMENTS TO PROVIDE THE MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO INTERACT WITH SOCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS

PUTTING OUR HOUSING FIRST PROGRAM IN JEOPARDY HOME SO WE KEEP DATA ON THAT

for unhoused focused on housing it's an emphasis on compassion and we need to look at additional emergency sheltering

we haven't had as much focus or success on encampments or people experiencing homelessness

it became very clear pretty quickly that our homelessness strategy has not addressed that to a

we were very purposeful with our city vouchers that we received from the council in 2019 and 2020 allocations

even in December which is extremely high utilization traditionally Boulder shelter for the Homeless was averaging 128 people per night

Community costs for not providing housing for having people remain unsheltered homeless is somewhere between Thirty to fifty thousand dollars per year per person

in terms of uh dealing with homeless issues uh all you have to do is uh look up Boise decision

some of the most vulnerable people in the city are being ticketed or even put in jail simply for being homeless

I just wanted to take a moment with this new Council to ask that you please uh reconsider the enforcement of the camping ban in Boulder

emergency homeless Services reaching our most vulnerable of people since the 2017 elections

pathway out of homelessness increasing our support for public art for proving a self-sufficiency wage for city employees

is it for transitional housing for homeless is it high-end design so someone can rent it

how do we transition people from homelessness into homes

SO THIS IS HIM BY THEN THE PEOPLE WILL BE HOMELESS.

AS IF WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH HOMELESS PEOPLE IN THIS TOWN

SO THE HOMELESS OUTREACH TEAM IS STAFFED WITH TWO OFFICERS ONE OF THOSE OFFERS

THAT'S CAUSING THE WEALTH DISPARITY IN THIS TOWN THAT'S CAUSING THIS HOMELESSNESS TO INCREASE

WE PARTICULARLY WANT TO THANK YOU FOR THE SUSTAINED SUPPORT FOR HOMELESSNESS SOLUTIONS

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HOUSING FOR PEOPLE THAT DOESN'T PUT A DEMAND ON TRANSPORTATION ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING

CURIOUS ABOUT THAT IN THE PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING AND HOW YOU ARRIVED AT THAT NUMBER

this funding includes direct voucher financial assistance and case management support for permanent supportive housing units

and a small dollar amount from the homelessness Reserve that 1.9 million dollars that was set aside several years ago

ONE OF THE MEMBERS OF THE TEAM IS GRAVELY ILL HOMELESS OUTREACH TEAM

OFFICERS DEVOTED TO BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS AND TRUST WITH THE HOMELESS COMMUNITY ARE IMMEDIATELY NEEDED TO REESTABLISH THE HOMELESS OUTREACH TEAM

CURRENTLY THAT TEAM IS AN ACTIVE AND I'M HERE TO ENCOURAGE RE ESTABLISHING IT IMMEDIATELY

creating the homeless Outreach team making the Boulder Police one of the first departments

looking at adding um um homelessness status or unhoused status to um to the law

I know that Boulder is committed to helping homeless people and I well I hope they're committed to preventing people from becoming homeless

THE ATTENDANT PROBLEMS THAT COME ALONG WITH ALLOWING THEM TO SLEEP THEIR HAND

THE OCCUPATION OF THE HOMELESS IN OUR SPACES

i wonder why so many people are homeless we are asking for just compensation for our trailers

i am homeless and i try to access emergency shelter

what's happening for our houseless individuals and why we're struggling so much with housing

some of us have had experienced homelessness some of us live tiny

reconsider Alpine balsam as a homeless shelter instead of offices as a homeless shelter

the boulder city council turning down the proposal to keep the severe weather shelter open all winter

the city funds this facility to the tune of $300,000 a year those are taxpayer funds

PASSED TAXES ON VACANT HOMES TO FUND HOMELESS SERVICES OF THE IDEA IS THAT IF THE HOUSE IS SITTING VACANT

INCOMING RESIDENTS MUST BE CHRONICALLY HOMELESS BASED ON HUTS DEFINITION RESIDE IN BOULDER AND HAVE AT LEAST ONE DIAGNOSED DISABILITY

EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS IN BOULDER THEY ARE GOING TO FILL OUT

SO YOU'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT'S GOING ON HERE WITH THE CAMPING BAN

IF A LITTLE WHILE AGO THE MAYOR SAID THAT OUR CAMPING BAN WHICH IS ENFORCED AGAINST THE HOMELESS IS A NECESSARY EVIL

INFORMATION REPORTED NOW FROM OUR HOMELESS OUTREACH TEAM OR THE HOT TEAM WHICH INTERACTS WITH A SUBSET OF THE HOMELESS POPULATION

so that we're not in a situation where you have somebody who is

having them homeless or having them at the shelter are both bad alternatives and you know we've modified the operating agreement

the problem that the the community the working group talked a lot about was how do we figure out a way to house these individuals

homeless here in Boulder face this brutality along with our minorities as well

the homeless people let's remember that the homeless people are hassled every single day there's a bias against them

we just talked about having some homeless advocates and homeless people here to tell about that experience

should we consider including I guess people would call homeless people and this because there's nothing more affordable than outside

I feel like homeless people can be really picked on more than other people because of this very vulnerable state

housing status adding homeless or housing to a protected group what do people think of that

COALITION OF ORGANIZATIONS NOW BROUGHT TOGETHER TO HELP PEOPLE FIND AND KEEP HOUSING

we've been trying for a long time to improve the homeless situation

we have 210 beds available every single night for homeless adults in the city of boulder

the city's new permanent supportive housing program and the shelter staff found an appropriate apartment for him

they have ways they feel we can keep working on the homelessness issues in town

the effectiveness of the homelessness strategy that was adopted a year ago

the first topic homeless and homelessness strategy it's in my list

I'VE WATCHED A COMMUNITY NOT DEAL WITH HOMELESSNESS AND PRODUCE NOT ONE BUT TWO TEN YEAR PLANS TO END HOMELESSNESS.

I'M HOMELESS MYSELF AND THIS KIND HAS TO BE TAKEN CARE OF BECAUSE UNDER THIS.

want to work with the community to think through that because it is really important in this idea of mediation

commit to a process of binding arbitration between shelter staff and residents who are kicked out of the shelter

some on council and our homeless initiatives manager have said that we have enough shelter beds because no one has been turned away

I'd also really like to see some housing first there some way housing first just because it's so close to all of the

the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado declares November 10th through 18th 2018 National h and homelessness awareness

addressing hunger and homelessness is an issue that's a high priority for I think all of us in Boulder

the boulder law concerning home homeless camping be either revised justly or eradicated so that the Boulder Police Department can stop violating

I THINK ONE THING TO CLARIFY ITS RATE OUR TEMPER SINGLES ESSENTIALLY ZERO PERCENT NO INCOME HOMELESSNESS TO SIXTY PERCENT

I'm curious if you guys do any pre work with any of like through attention homes or bridge house or anything like that

IN PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED PEOPLE OF THE HOMELESS COMMUNITY TAKING THEIR BELONGINGS

AND AS WE ALL KNOW HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS IS A BIG ISSUE IN BOULDER

on the homelessness strategy which again you adopted last year

IF YOU'RE HOMELESS OR IF YOU'RE A SERIES OF PERSON IF KOSTER IS TO INVEST CERTAIN WAY.

I COME TO YOU TODAY MANY SEMI LAWRENCE SEMINARS THE FOURTH RATHER. NINETEEN TWENTY SIX CAME BOULEVARD APARTMENT NUMBER AND I AM HERE TODAY TO REPRESENT TWO PARTIES ONE SEVERELY DISABLED PEOPLE AS WELL LIKEWISE PEOPLE WHO ARE HOMELESS OR AT REST

WORKS COLLABORATIVELY WITH COMMUNITY PARTNERS TO REDUCE LOCAL POVERTY AND FAMILY HOMELESSNESS BY FOCUSING ON LONG TERM.

ARE HOMELESS IS PRESENT PREVENTION PROGRAM FOR FAMILIES OF KIDS

HOMELESSNESS FOR FAMILIES BECAME AN ISSUE AFTER PURCHASE HOUSING TO HOUSE HOMELESS FAMILIES

PEOPLE WHO ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS AND TRADE SCHOOLS

BETTER INTEGRATING THE HOMELESS INTO THE LIBRARY IN THE PERCEPTIONS THAT THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE HAS ABOUT THE HOMELESS POPULATION

we've also brought in the homeless service providers and development community to pair up rental and housing options

SOME HOMELESS FOLKS WERE DRIVEN OUT OF DOWNTOWN AND STARTED THEIR CAMPFIRE OF THERE

I COME AT THIS FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF WORKING WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS EVERY DAY

I'VE COME TONIGHT TO BE THE LEGAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE HOMELESS

WE HAVE A STUDY SESSION SCHEDULED FOR AUGUST WHICH WE'RE GOING TO GIVE YOU A HOMELESSNESS UPDATE.

I'M WONDERING IF YOU HAD CONSIDERED AT ALL PROVIDING UM I GUESS IT WOULD BE TRANSITIONAL HOUSING

there were ten that went to the bridge house ready to work program so that's the employment program

it's certainly a great a great resource for folks who are living on our streets right now

put resources into folks who we know don't walk through the doors of service providers

so we use bridge house ready to work in the area outside of the library

primarily they point to the presence of the homeless population or people who they perceive to be homeless as an issue within the library

developing the wide variety of other housing options for homeless folks in our community

we have to be concerned with the success of the management plan at the homeless shelter

we're investing a lot in homeless services already and to have people jump ahead because they have the labels

if the shelter is providing severe weather shelter we don't know who would be providing it

up to 50 additional short-term shelter beds they have not decided whether they will be offering any additional severe weather shelter

they will be offering up to 50 additional shelter beds with navigation services

working with bridge house bringing homeless man into makerspace to take emerald ash borer waste

it was our discussion around the you know perma supportive housing as it relates to our homeless strategy

if there's any way to think about permanent supportive housing or in the other facility

so I have up to 116 program beds 50 in navigation beds if needed and then whatever the overflow is

we're tasked with creating 35 permanent supportive housing units per year starting October 1st

we've also got our housing department committed to at least another 35 permanently supportive housing vouchers

we are proposing to put 750,000 dollars into the new homelessness strategy

put together a task force for homelessness and I didn't realize that tonight was mostly about sexual predators

I am been in Boulder for over three years now moved from Asheville North Carolina where I was homeless

I feel like there's enough homeless people in the community that need beds and the homeless shelter from what I've heard

I received a government grant in this case it was for provide housing for the homeless

I REALLY THINK WE NEED A SUPERVISED ENCAMPMENT AWAY FROM THE CREEK WITH A BATHROOM FACILITY

WE'RE ENABLING AND FACILITATING IT ESSENTIALLY ILLICIT ENCAMPMENTS WHERE THINGS ARE TAKING PLACE

THE COUNCIL ABOUT WHAT THE CITY IS DOING WITH REGARD TO ENCAMPMENT ISSUES ALONG BOULDER CREEK

there are a bunch of homeless people tonight on the coldest night of the year

and I was pretty much told good luck so I called the police and and I said I'm here at Boulder Park and I'm homeless with my two girls

she had a baby with her and she was homeless and uh my friend we were having a very casual friendly conversation

I was paying $750 a month cost for my kids to be in foster care yet I was homeless and in this review