Thread by @shayshinecastle

Now for the annual homelessness update / changing city policies to discourage camps on public lands.

Presentation: www-static.bouldercolorado.gov/docs/Item_5A_-…

This will be divided into those two distinct sections. City Attorney Tom Carr leading the first part about city policies.

Council considering banning tents/structures from all public lands (unless you have a permit) and propane tanks (if you have more than 1-2)

The city's camping ban doesn't quite cover this, because it doesn't explicitly ban tents. It bans ppl from "sheltering" themselves — which also applies to covering oneself with a blanket or sleeping bag.

But it's difficult to enforce during the day, because people often lay down in parks as they use them recreationally. And they sometimes use tents and/or other shade structures. These are activities the city doesn't want to ban.

Explicitly banning tents or structures will allow cops/city staff to remove them as soon as they are set up, rather than waiting to see if the people use them show "activities of daily living" which is the current law.

Carr: While it's not unusual to see people living unsheltered outside, "this year we've seen far more tents and many more propane tanks than we've ever seen in the past."

"Activities of daily living" is the exact language of the camping ban, as Carr shares.

"I don't want to suggest this is a panacea," he says, but the police believe it will help them prevent camps from becoming established.

Some additional notes from the staff memo: “It should be clear that seizure of tents that are erected illegally would present legal and logistical challenges. The constitution prohibits the taking of private property without due process of law."

"This means that a tent seized would have to be stored until the owner was afforded due process, which presents a logistical challenge that would most likely fall on our already over-burdened police department.”

Police Chief Maris Herold and Officer Carey Weinheimer testifying that these changes will aid enforcement of the camping ban.

"I don't think it's a magic answer, but I think it's an incremental tool we can use to address the problem," Weinheimer says.

Brockett: Do we have a legal definition of a tent? What about shade structures that people set up in parks? "I want to make sure we're not preventing people from setting up those."

Carr: "I fear they may be included."

Carr: We could bring back language that exempts shade structures.

Brockett: Just think about ways you use parks during the day that include structures.

Weaver: All of those structures should be required to be gone when the parks are closed, right?

Suggests a language change to ban enclosed tents all the time and shade structures after dark (when parks close).

Joseph: What about Native ceremonies?
Carr: For things like Indigenous Peoples Day, they have a permit. So they would be exempted. Most ceremonies occur on Open Space land, where they already grant permits "freely."

Joseph also wants the language to be altered, as it now currently includes "tents, nets or structure" that she feels may be too broad.

A few references specifically to hammocks, which Carr reminds us are already prohibited. EXCEPT for a few "pre-approved" trees set aside for slack lining.

I wrote about this once. I'll try and find it...

The hammock ban is rarely enforced, tho.

Parks director Ali Rhodes: I'm concerned about language that says they have to be gone at nighttime, bc the intent of these changes is to "prohibit the establishment of daily living." When someone sets up a tent, it "signals" to officers that they intend to camp and live there.

Wallach: Is there any reference to the size of propane tanks we are banning? What about camp stoves?
Carr: I would recommend specific language to make it clear we're targeting the larger propane tanks.

Swetlik: What are the anticipated consequences of violating these?
Carr: "We very rarely jail anybody for anything ... for any municipal code violation" (which these would be) even tho the code allows for up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Friend: Did we do any research with individuals experiencing homelessness as to why they are using propane tanks? Are there any non-meth reasons to have multiple tanks?
Carr: "We did not."

Friend: The packet said there had been a dramatic increase in thefts of propane tanks. Do we have actual numbers for that?

Herold: "I do not have numbers on that. ... We've seen numerous reports" of thefts from the gas station near the Civic Area.

Weinheimer does have data:
1 report in 2018
3 in 2019
2020: 11

Friend: "I'm worried about discrimination in enforcement in a family putting up a shade for their kid vs. someone who is maybe seeking shelter from the sun in a way that doesn't look appealing to whoever is enforcing."

She asks Carr: How would you craft this so that it doesn't discriminate against unhoused persons who also need somewhere to be during the day?

Carr: "That's one of the most challenging things we do. The best way is to have clear criteria."

Carr: "The best way is to monitor and report and keep track of who you're citing and why and make sure you don't have bias in policing."

Swetlik: Currently, the camping ban is that you can't cover yourself with anything — blanket, sleeping bag — during the nighttime. Does this new ordinance extend that to the daytime?

It does not, Carr confirms.

As a reminder, we're not actually voting on any ordinances tonight. Council is just giving "informal" direction; staff will bring back ordinance language that *should* require a public hearing.

Weaver: I'm not sure why we'd allow propane tanks of that size at all; not just banning more than 1-2. Do people use those at parks?

Weaver, Wallach and Young all in favor of these seeing these ordinances in the future. Young also wonders about how often ppl are bringing propane tanks "to a picnic in the park."

Yates also wants to see these ordinances; echoes Brockett's concerns about needing to exempt shade structures and Weaver/Young about needing to know how common large propane tanks are.

Friend: "My understanding is the one tank is used for warmth. I would be hesitant to dip below one because we already have problems with people freezing."

"I agree that parks are for parks, and yet people have to have a place to be. ... It's hard for me to move forward making it harder" to have a tent when we don't have a place for people to legally have a tent, Friend says.

So she supports banning more than 1 propane tank but not the additional structure ban.

Brockett echoes that, but supports both of these ordinances.

Also says "pitch a tent" which, giggity.

Swetlik: This is another situation of an "ideal-world law vs. the world we live in law."

Swetlik: "Until we can solve that issue (homelessness) this is adding more enforcement to a mostly unenforceable situation. We can move forward with it, that's fine, but I don't think it solves anything, ultimately."

Moving onto the annual homelessness update. You can read my roundup of data here: I pulled in more sources than just the staff memo, to try and add context. Not sure how well it worked. boulderbeat.news/2021/05/07/bou…

Staff starting with a recap of responses during COVID. Boulder did very well with the Recovery Center, which was (impressively) first staffed by some 200+ volunteers before switching to paid staff.

I didn't post the whole list of volunteers because Idk if there are people there with domestic violence concerns or other needs to remain anonymous.

But the full list of folks is in the city council packet if you want to take a moment to appreciate those folks ♥️

Boulder staff reported much less COVID spread among the unhoused than initially anticipated, which is a big success, and recorded 0 COVID deaths among the unhoused.

I'm not sure it's possible to 100% confirm that, given how many unhoused people may never come in contact with someone to verify a case. But still... it could have been a lot worse. Boulder's response was v good.

Also not sure it's possible to 100% confirm 0 COVID deaths... I mean, what if someone caught it here and died outside the county?

But again... a v good response to COVID for the unhoused population, compared to other places.

Some interesting stats on the race/ethnicity of unhoused persons using various services. Without exception, BIPOC individuals more likely to be Diverted (no access to services, except help getting out of town) relative to their share of the population.

That's bc most ppl being screened have been in BoCo for less than 6 mos., says Vicki Ebner, so it's going to be our most diverse population.

Ebner: "As we've moved to a more housing-focused response system, that's where we're starting to see movement along that path."

A very hideous and unhelpful graphic attempting to show a v good statistic: The number of super-longterm shelter residents is decreasing over time as more people are housed.

Still, there are more than a dozen people (19) staying at the Shelter for 300+ nights, 35 staying for 200-299 nights and 89 ppl staying in the shelter for 100-199 nights.

That underscores just how long it takes to find housing for people, given Boulder's housing shortage.

Affordable* housing shortage, rather.

Ebner going over the BTHERE outreach team, funded by the CARES Act. It's been v successful so far (find some of their input here) but I've since learned 2 of the initial 3 members are already leaving. So...? boulderbeat.news/2021/05/01/bou…

Ebner going over "high-system utilizers" which means they are frequently interacting with the courts, jails, hospitals, etc.
326 individuals IDd - 24 prioritized
25% over 50
38% over 60
8 have chronic health condition
2 living in encampments

Encampments are dif from living unsheltered, Ebner says, since encampments connote more then one tent.

Helpful distinction, but of course all unsheltered persons are subject to removal under the city's camping ban. (If reported and found)

Firnhaber: "The number of individuals going through Coordinated Entry has dropped. We don't know all the reasons for that."

Reminder: It wasn't in-person during the pandemic; you had to call. The county did distribute some cell phones, but it is still a barrier for unhoused individuals who often don't have steady access to electricity, for example, to charge cell phones.

Staff reporting that they turned away 3 people on 2 occasions due to capacity issues at the Shelter (which this year consolidated 2 previously separate services into one, cutting the number of beds in half)

Interesting graph showing the increase in funding for homelessness since 2017, when Boulder started coordinating with BoCo and Longmont. Services spending has actually decreased the past 2 years, but spending on housing is WAY up.

Good note here (which I got from a reader today): As I reported, Boulder spends more on homelessness than Fort Collins and Longmont combined.

But as the reader noted, part of that is bc Boulder hosts more services than Longmont, as part of that coordinated approach.

For instance, Boulder has *all* the housing-focused shelter. Longmont has only navigation services and sheltering. So it's, like, part of the agreement that Boulder spends more.

But Boulder has always spent more of its budget on housing and human services than surrounding cities.

Firnhaber: "There's been no time when we've been working on so many parallel initiatives."

This is work ongoing to shore up gaps in the current system/approach.

Including:
Housing for those struggling with meth addiction
Housing for ppl with criminal histories
Adding housing vouchers, specifically for veterans
Shortening the time between screening and placement

Also adding more housing units. People still waiting 1-3 years for housing, as supply is a big challenge, as well as finding landlords willing to rent to voucher-holders.

Some other stuff being worked on:
Better regional collaboration
Moving all coordinated entry screening to 909 Arapahoe (June 1)
Adding Sharps containers (for needles) in public spaces
More work on family homelessness

Family homelessness often gets overlooked, since this entire system we've been talking about tonight (and talk about all the time, tbh) is for single adults.

Family homelessness is handled separately, mostly by EFAA.

Weaver: We have exited many people from homelessness into housing. Over 2 years, you've been able to more than halve the number of people with more than 100 nights each at the Shelter.

"That's an incredible drop."

True. I don't often give Boulder enough credit for how much they have gotten right on homelessness (mostly bc they're still getting a lot very, very wrong).

But both of those things are true: A lot of good and a lot of bad here.

I think the most frustrating thing is that I've never heard staff ONCE say that enforcement is harmful (they have admitted it's more expensive, at times).

I get it; it's politically tricky. But when you've got the people IN CHARGE OF HELPING unhoused people not pointing out what it is harmful, it breeds distrust among the public.

I fully expect Parks staff and Utilities and Police to call for encampment removals. But you'd think Housing & Human Services or the Shelter or HSBC itself would echo national/regional experts and say that enforcement is not an effective way of combating homelessness.

It's almost as if encampments and the larger homelessness response have become two separate issues. (They're not) but still it is apparent that our current approach doesn't really address encampments.

By having the "Solutions" side be silent on the "Enforcement" side, it seems as if they are condoning it / making it seem like an effective (and cost-effective solution).

Again, all experts have agreed it is not.

But anyway, I'm tired of ranting about this.

Wallach: "I am struck by the number of comprehensiveness of the programs you are offering. I think you're just doing a fabulous job."

Wallach Sigh-O-Meter: 1

Wallach: Why did we have fewer COVID cases among our unhoused than Denver? (%-wise)

Firnhaber: We started early with the COVID recovery center. Denver has "very large shelters."

Firnhaber: "They didn't have a place for them to go in isolation." They provided hotel rooms, but the didn't have the staff to provide oversight and services.

"It was more about getting people housed in hotels," Firnhaber says. "It wasn't strictly a COVID-prevention" strategy.

Wallach: We're seeing fewer people from out of BoCo being screened. Has there been a change in pattern?

Firnhaber: It's been consistently around 60% of non-residents (even with the change in criteria from 1 year to 6 mos...? Which I had forgotten about until RN)

Wallach Sigh-O-Meter: 2

"Is there anything that can be done to incentivize more of our neighbors" to spend more on homelessness? Wallach says. "The gap between what we are doing and what they are doing is striking."

Firnhaber: The gap is really in housing. We're able to do this because of our strong inclusionary housing policy.

Wallach: "I am v impressed with what we are doing here. I wish some of our neighbors were going to similar lengths."

Ebner: "Anybody who is engaging with the system, we're capturing those numbers. Where the under-count is is ppl exiting homelessness who aren't part of the Shelter" system: Longmont's HOPE, Bridge House before this year.

"I think we all recognize that the best interactions on the street are not police," Yates says in praising the BTHERE outreach team.

Friend: The memo says that since 2016, there have been a growing number of encampments in public spaces. How are we measuring that?

Firnhaber: "That's feedback we've received, mostly from the parks department, based on observations. ... We need to do a better job of creating a baseline around that."

Friend: "We spend so much time talking about encampments, I think it's really vital we are measuring and understanding what the data is."

Friend: What about the staff memo that also says we are seeing more meth use. Is that based on arrests?

Firnhaber: "No, that wouldn't be related to arrests. That is also anecdotal information, but it's feedback we are receiving ... from various partners doing outreach over time.

Friend: It's important we're at least establishing baselines and trends.

Friend: Can we compare other cities investments to their outcomes, and our investments to our outcomes?

"Our expenditures have gone way up, but our encampments have also gone way up."

"That's troublesome," Friend says. "It's important to see what's happening in other cities."

Firnhaber: It's difficult to find other cities with the same data as us.
Friend: Maybe just Longmont, since they're also in HSBC? Or MDHI? (Metro Denver Homeless Initiative)

Friend: It could be that other cities are spending less and producing better outcomes.

Some discussion now over options for residential drug treatment and/or housing options for meth users.

This is a hard-to-house population due to the dangers of meth production/contamination.

Swetlik: "I def understand that the problem of homelessness is a failure at the federal and state level, and we're left to pick up the pieces ... and have the arguments locally. That's not very fair."

Swetlik: How many ppl coming from outside BoCo are from out of the state?

Ebner: Of the ppl not from here, something like 70% are from within CO. "It is def more of a regional issue than a national migration."

Swetlik: "We're going to keep having the same arguments again and again until at the state level it's dictated that every (city) has" to provide services for a certain % of the population.

"Essentially it just ends up chasing ppl around. And that's not fair to anybody."

Swetlik asking about unhoused deaths; coroner report doesn't come out until July or Aug.

That will show how many ppl died outside due to being unhoused/unsheltered; at least 2 in the past year, I believe.

Hard to quantify that, as homelessness itself takes decades off your life.

Swetlik: "We have shelter under-utilization yet encampments. That is the crux of where our problems come from. If we can answer why that is ... Right now, we don't have the why behind that."

"That should be the next data-driven focus we have," Swetlik says. "I appreciate we s pend a whole lot of $$ compared to other cities, but we tout ourselves as one of the best cities in CO and the U.S., sometimes."

"The best needs to do the best," Swetlik says. "That means spending $$ on ppl who have nothing."

Joseph: Why are white unhoused ppl much more likely to be directed to housing (and not into diversion or navigation) than BIPOC (who are more likely to be diverted or put into navigation)?

Ebner: "Just like everywhere else in the nation, ppl who are experiencing homelessness are disproportionately people of color."

That points to systemic biases that lead more people of color to experience homelessness, Ebner says.

Joseph asks about city-level data (bc of lot of this is done at the county level)
Firnhaber: HHS has 50% less data staff than we had a year ago. So we have it; we just haven't been able to mine it.

HHS lost 44+ full-time employees between 2020 and 2021, more than 9% boulderbeat.news/2020/09/04/bou…

Joseph: Why is CO Springs spending so much of its $$ on shelter when Boulder spends so much of it on housing?
Firnhaber: That is typical. But this also represents local gov't $$. Many cities have programs run without city $$.

Brockett asking about overflow plans for winter sheltering.
After COVID, Firnhaber says, the Shelter will go back to full capacity.

Friend: We're still at a 60-day cap. What if we have a long cold snap in November-December. Do we have additional severe weather days for individuals?

Firnhaber: There's an entry process every time someone uses the shelter. A worker will talk with them and say, 'Look you're at day 40. What's your plan?' and encourage them to use services.

Firnhaber: We're looking at that process and that cap this summer.

Reminder: 588 unique users of winter sheltering; 8-10 super-users (60+ nights), 2 of whom have since been housed, Firnhaber says.

Avg use was 4 nights per person

Swetlik: What's our strategy or plan for extreme cold-weather days? (10 degrees or colder or 6+ inches of snow, I believe?)
Firnhaber: The shelter will remain open, as it did this year, and we will provide morning services to those not staying at the Shelter.

Swetlik: "If we can figure out how to decrease encampments while increasing use of the Shelter... if we can get the data behind the number of encampments and see if we're doing the right things to push ppl into better situations than being on the street ... that would be great."

That's all for this one.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you.