Thread by @shayshinecastle

Next up: Speer has requested a check-in on emergency shelter for the unhoused, as Boulder Shelter has hit capacity this winter.

The Shelter added 5 more beds in response.

The fire has exacerbated things, bc the Shelter relies on hotel beds for overflow and.... hotels are full. They can't do extra hotel rooms during "critical" weather (6+ inches of snow or below 10 degrees), per email from Firnhaber today.

"We have been talking about this even before the fires, bc COVID was creating real challenges for us," Firnhaber says. (Hotel rooms are also used for COVID-vulnerable populations)

Firnhaber says 10 extra beds were added for this season: 5 in the shelter and 5 in the hotels. (pre-fire)

So 170 beds are current max capacity (with hotel rooms, assuming they're available). Shelter has 145 beds.

There's also the COVID recovery center, which is being used for positive unhoused folks, and now Marshall Fire victims.

Over the winter break, in response to the shelter hitting capacity, the ACLU warned Boulder that continuing to ticket ppl for the camping and tent bans violated the Constitution (since there's not adequate shelter space).

A previous court ruling (not in this district) found that it was cruel and unusual punishment to criminalize unsheltered living when there wasn't adequate shelter space. The Supreme Court let a lower court's ruling on this stand, a kind of tacit weigh-in on the matter.

The ACLU's Annie Kurtz spoke tonight, again saying that Boulder is in violation of the Constitution. Stopped short of saying the city would be sued, but that's always a possibility.

Speer: "I propose that we step away from how many shelter beds we have available and whether ppl are being turned away or not. Everybody in our community can prob agree with the statement that we have more ppl living in our public spaces than we have beds for."

Speer: "We have a law that when ppl are outside, they can't even have a blanket over them."

"For me, that issue of how can we get ppl out of our public space is kind of the most central. Most folks in the community are really taxed right now, but we've also seen in the last week how much the community can step up and help us find solutions," Speer says.

Speer: Can we do a Request for Information to see if anyone is capable of doing extra sheltering? Or a sanctioned campground? Or anything that could help?

Yates: I thought we did a RFI a couple years ago...? And didn't Bridge House operate an overflow shelter for a year or two, and that ended 1.5 yrs ago. Why was that? Or how that ended?

Firnhaber touching on the 30th Street facility that Bridge House ran (when winter sheltering was a standalone).

I've been told by Bridge House's exec directors, past and current, it wasn't their decision to stop: It was the city/county. They were dead set on consolidation.

It was, in part, bc the 30th St facility was supposed to be turned into affordable housing, and only available for 2 years. But here we are, 1.5-2 yrs later, and it's still not been redeveloped.

Firnhaber repeating the same things he's been saying for years: We used to have more shelter beds, and we had more turnaways. Sheltering doesn't end homelessness; that's why we focus on housing.

True, but one caveat here is that there was sheltering without a housing-first focus on the end. A true continuum of care has adequate emergency resources for the unhoused AND a goal of housing people: Not just one or the other.

At least according to all the experts I've spoken to over the past ~3 yrs or so.

Firnhaber: This year, we've had 45 individuals turned away due to capacity. No turnaways for capacity in the past 10 days.

That's compared to less than 5 ppl per year, in the past couple of years.

Firnhaber: "What we have seen with the strategy in the last 3.5-4 years is significant progress in the number of turnaways. Everybody is going to have a dif opinion about the number of shelter beds that is right for our community."

"We also need to look at what the right solution is to address the capacity turnaways. Bc we know a lot of people are new to our community, the solutions for those individuals are diversion or reunification," Firnhaber says.

Firnhaber: "Additional resources into that could drastically reduce" capacity turnaways.

LOL Speer has a hand-drawn graph that she is holding up to the camera.

A council first (for me).

Speer: The last 10 years, homelessness is going up. That correlates exactly with home prices going up — the no. 1 predictor of increased homelessness.

Fact check: True.

Speer: We've also increased enforcement.

"When I look at these things, I'm not seeing that we're implementing strategies that work to get people out of our public parks."

Yes, some people just need gas money, Speer says. But I'm thinking about the ppl who are camping bc, for whatever reason, the shelter is not accessible to them.

"That for me is the central issue that we're trying to solve. It doesn't really look like enforcement is working. What are we doing? How can we help?" Speer says.

Firnhaber: What you didn't graph is the number of people who are being housed. That has huge implications for capacity. Our capacity turnaways have gone down drastically in the recent years.

NRV: Right before I arrived, there had been a decision to add more resources to enforcement. That was an 18-month pilot. I know this is a convo we're planning to have, and this is a new council. We are looking at data to answer that v question: Is this working?

Brockett: I think there's some interest from myself and others on council in adding additional options, like a navigation center. But that's part of that larger workplan discussion.

Brockett: But I'm hearing there are folks in the community who may be ready to step up and assist for a short-term program for this season, to help us for the next few months.

"If we could put something out in terms of what nonprofits or volunteers in the community would be interested, I think that's worth pursuing," Brockett says.

Per Firnhaber's email today, we did find hotel beds that were kinda lost after the fire by switching up locations. So we *should* have 190 beds available for this next cold snap. Highest demand so far has been for 168 beds.

Benjamin: When might we expect hotels to have more normal vacancy? Like pre-fire levels we were used to?

Firnhaber: "I certainly don't know the answer to that. We've been able to maintain what we committed to maintain."

Benjamin: "I also want to be data focused and driven by evidence. That is only valuable if you've got common and aligned goals around what you all agree are the metrics to measure your outcomes."

"We're evaluating our goals against a changing dynamic of variables. I think we want to come back and reframe what our goals are. That might tell us what is the evidence we need, what is truly a measure of success," Benjamin says.

It feels like we have dif goals here, Benjamin says, so we're all looking at dif things as success.

Shelter does not end homelessness, he says, but evidence shows the longer ppl stay homeless, the harder it is to get out. We have one-time use $$ coming in. We can leverage that.

Councilwoman Tara Winer: Did you say that the more beds we have, the more people we turned away? Was there a direct correlation?

Firnhaber: That's correct, but it's v difficult to talk about one aspect by itself.

The other thigns that experts without the country will say is don't set up something without exits, Firnhaber says.

Which is what the old system did: All services, no housing. New system is lots of housing, fewer services.

But our data has showed that adding more shelter in the past has not had an impact on capacity turnaways, Firnhaber says. It's other things.

Winer: We shouldn't forget that v important fact. "If something didn't work in the past once or twice, it's prob not going to work in the future."

Wallach: Have we been approached by any churches, synagogues, other nonprofits who are interested in providing beds?

Firnhaber: We as HHS or the city have not been.

Wallach: "At some point, we may have to realize that this is not something that is appealing to the nonprofits."

Friend: A year to 18 months ago, when I proposed a sanctioned campground due to CDC recommendations not to displace people, "there was definitely interest." It just didn't come together in the timeline council allowed.

Joseph: "Based on Wallach's statement, I'm not sure if we should just wait on other people to come to us. We're great at the housing aspect, but I think when it comes to services, it's much more different."

"I wonder if organizations right now are reticent. Maybe they are not feeling encouraged," based on past conversations, Joseph says. "It might be up to us as a city to reach out, to create this type of programming or RFP."

This council and this staff has repeatedly turned down and discouraged service expansion. Can confirm that providers have v little faith in the city, and actively report that they feel discouraged in pursuing any type of expansion.

Hell, we had officials within the system being vocally upset about the funding and opening of The Lodge, a shelter for nonbinary, trans and women-identifying folks.

Including other providers. One thing I've noticed in talking to multiple orgs is that there's such a set amount of funding for services, and so much discouragement for anything that might "take money away" from housing, that it kinda feels like rats fighting over crumbs.

That might be a crude metaphor, but I was shocked at how it didn't feel like universal "yay" when services were expanded.

Folkerts: "We're literally leaving ppl out in the cold right now. The ACLU makes a good point about the legality of our camping ban."

"Beyond that," Folkerts says, "criminal records make housing harder in the future. This is not helping us solve this issue. This is making them more intractable."

Correx to first tweet in this thread (or one of): Friend actually requested this check-in tonight, not Speer.

Kudos to Speer for letting me know and not taking credit.

Speer: This is about literally saving people from frostbite, from death due to hypothermia. "When it's 8 degrees outside and there's no sun..."

A lot of what we're discussing is about solving homelessness, Speer says, which is not going to happen tonight.

But we *can* issue an RFI to see if anyone is interested in providing shelter just for a few months.

Winer: We shouldn't have this discussion tonight, bc then we would also have to talk about drug addiction and meth use and safety.

This is not a lot of people: Under 10 people. That's a small problem. Let's focus on that. We can help that.

Speer: It's not just 6-8 people. I understand that's the maximum of ppl being turned away. But I think any of us can go and see there are more people than that currently living outside.

Benjamin: We just lost a young woman and her stillborn child. This is a life-safety issue. Reducing it to numbers... one is too many. We have Vision Zero for traffic injuries and deaths. We should have a Vision Zero for people dying outside.

Brockett: I don't think the concept should be limited to the number of turnaways we have seen so far. It should have some flexibility for more capacity.

Tate: At the risk of sounding heartless, I do need to remind council that you can't take official action.

Brockett: We're not taking a vote or making any formal decisions. But what I am hearing is there is majority interest in pursuing an RFI to see what the options might be for additional overflow shelter, provided by community partners.

NRV: I'd be interested to hear if there are innovative approaches. I received a proposal yesterday. Let's look at the easiest way to solicit info.

"In the midst of fire and winter, our nonprofit community is also constrained," NRV says.

"This may be totally ignorant and 10:30 p.m. Nicole talking," Speer says, but "can we lean on our boards and commissions?"

Friend: "We're down 50-75 beds from when I started on council. I feel if we are turning away ppl due to capacity, we should not be giving them tickets."

Speer: I got a phone call today with someone calling me a F'ing B, and I expect more after I say this, but I'm going to say it anyway — Can we ask for a Nod of Five?

I thought Nods of Five were allowed...? It's an informal vote? But perhaps not.

Speer: "If we can't get ppl into shelter, can we pause enforcement? On these cold, cold nights, when people really don't have another place to go? Interim steps, realizing it's not forever, when it's 10 degrees out."

Wallach: "I think I would rather expand the use of the shelter rather than put a moratorium on the enforcement of the camping ban. Putting a moratorium on that which was duly passed by the council is bad precedent."

Friend: I'm not exactly suggesting a moratorium. I'm more saying on days where we're over-capacity and it's really cold out, why would we be giving out tickets?

NRV: I don't know that we're actually ticketing ppl when there are capacity constraints. Certainly happy to look into those.

Totally get why she's saying that... but if you get turned away from the shelter one night, you might be less likely to go back there again — esp when transportation is a huge challenge for the unhoused (No. 1 thing they say is difficult)

And there's no way for unhoused ppl to know if the shelter is at capacity unless they go there!

Benjamin: "I'm sensing somewhat of a logical inconsistency here." We don't enforce occupancy except in cases of life safety. Why doesn't the inverse apply here? Not enforce when there are life safety concerns?

NRV: It's two dif situations. When we were having a convo about occupancy, part of that is staff constraints. We've got 2 ppl who enforce code enforcement. We were under COVID.

Here, NRV says, it's a little dif bc there are issues of access and public space usage and safety. If they're not in places that are safe for them, I think that's where we want staff to intervene.

Winer: It's not warm outside, so how is the answer to this let's have more tents?

So I guess the answer is take away their tents and blankets?

Winer: I think the answer is to open up the shelter more. "I don't think it's compassionate to have ppl be outside in the freezing cold."

Speer: "I totally agree. It's not compassionate to have ppl in tents when it's 8 degrees outside. It also feel much less compassionate to take away any blanket or covering people might have."

Speer: "Sleeping in 8 degree weather in a tent? Not good. Sleeping in 8 degree weather with no blanket or anything? Even worse."

Brockett: We're not taking formal action tonight, but there's majority interest in a Request for Information, to see what the community might be able to provide.

That's the end of this discussion and the meeting.

This new council has discussed homelessness and/or housing at most of its meetings so far. I'll look back through, but it literally might be all of them (except study sessions).

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thanks!