Thread by @shayshinecastle

Alright: Homelessness.
Speer and Joseph handling this, and Speer dives right in: A day shelter

The goal: A low-barrier day shelter that measurably improves public spaces and the health/wellbeing of the unhoused.

That's exactly what a group of nonprofit service providers asked the city for this week: boulderbeat.news/2022/01/21/bou…

Speer, like providers, says the city needs to help find a building. The city, in its RFI, says providers are on their own for that one.

Though if council makes this a priority, that would (maybe) change.

Not sure if this is part of the day shelter idea or separate, but Speer also mentions:
A working group, including reps from the unhoused community

Speer made a chart! With a timeline!

"Really we see this as being a two-year process," Speer says, using a "new pot of $$, available later this year" specifically for homeless services. NOT the $20M in ARPA Boulder is getting.

Yates: "This will require a lot of discussion among us. We have probably 1,000 questions."

He starts with one: Would this *also* have overflow sheltering, something the city actually IS looking for (kinda)?

There are additional code requirements for that, Speer says, but "it feels a little silly to let (the space) go to waste overnight when the weather is bad."

The working group is part of the day shelter proposal, to bring in voices of the providers and unhoused. That's a key thing the providers asked for in their letter (which is what the story I posted is about)

Friend: Would the work group be focused just on the day shelter, or would they also ID gaps in services, other issues, etc.?

Speer: I envision it being larger. I think the recent group was the first time all the service providers got together. "It doesn't end there."

Friend: If we do seat a work group, I would like it to come back to council to make sure the right ppl are at the table and that they weigh pressing needs beyond day shelter.

Benjamin: "The cost of not investing in this... the library is our de facto day shelter. The cost of not doing anything is a massive burden on staff and infrastructure that is not prepared to handle that."

Second Homelessness proposal: A tax

Joseph: No one really knows where the funds are coming from. We have some idea, but there's no one line item in our budget.

Firnhaber said Tuesday the *county* is considering a tax for transportation and mental health. Unclear how much if any of that could be used for general homelessness services (or if council wants to wait on the county).

Joseph: The specific ask of staff is to bring back a ballot measure, do some outreach. The endpoint is a tax that is passed to support ongoing homeless services.

Wallach: Do you see this more as a sales tax increase or property tax increase?

Joseph: I have my own ideas, but I would leave that to this group to decide.

Wallach: We only get 14c on the dollar with property tax. To get enough $$ to fund this may require a large number.

And what if the community doesn't pass it? What's the plan b?

Joseph: If voters say no, they say no.

Wallach: "I like to think that as a compassionate community, we would support this. But you never know."

Yates: What work would you have to do to determine if more money would be a good thing or a bad thing, and how you would spend it?

"I know more $$ sounds like a good thing, but it's more complicated than that," Yates says.

The primary objection to service expansion in the past 3 years has been, "It would take $$ away from housing."

Firnhaber: We wouldn't want to compete with the county's pending affordable housing tax.

Firnhaber going over all the $$ that's been put into homelessness in recent years.

It's a lot.

"I don't want to underestimate the collaboration that's occurred, and the incredible amount of resources that have come in over the past 1.5 years," Firnhaber says.

Winer: "Wallach asked my question. I support the day shelter, but are you intertwining both? Do we have any way of having the day shelter without the tax, because there's a chance the ballot measure wouldn't go through. It would make me nervous to wrap those two together."

Joseph: We need a building. This is going to cost us a lot. Then we have operational expenses.

"What I want to say is current funding is not a sustainable way to fund this type of programming."

"I really believe a tax is more stable and more sustainable, and we would know here's how much $$ we have," Joseph says.

Winer: Is that the only option?
Speer: The service providers could really be helpful. Many of them use grants to do their work currently. I think that group is the one to come up with that plan.

Friend: A tax like this would make more sense at the county level. The county doesn't do a good job at addressing these populations. County residents will be in the day shelter.

The library district tax will be on the ballot this year, Friend reminds council. Let's not crowd them. If that passes, that will free up $$ for this.

Friend: A former commissioner told me the county gets zero emails on this. So email your county commissioners.

Wallach: Does our finance dept have the capacity for this?

Kara Skinner: I do think there's the potential to hire consultants to do this work. But we do have staffing and timing concerns.

Mark Woulf: We'll know more after a February meeting with council.

Wallach: Is there an indication of when the county will jump or not jump on a homelessness tax?
Friend: I don't think they're even considering it. There's a larger mental health tax. Idk if this could be part of that or not.

Speer: We could be a leader here. And this idea feels like something the state couldn't say no to.

Joseph: "We want to do something better, and create a community where everyone is cared for."

Winer: What worries me is the state tax for mental health, then we have this, and everybody says, 'No, too many taxes.'

I don't think now is the right time for this.

Brockett: There is the jail tax the county has expiring at the end of 2024 that the county is thinking to repurpose for mental health. It might or might not happen, and it might or might not be repurposed for mental health.

His idea: Have council members work with county commissioners.

So 2 major ideas for homelessness: Lots of support for day shelter. Less so for a city homelessness tax.

And now we're moving on, with 30 min left.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thanks.