What does Boulder’s new homeless strategy mean for its community?

Boulder’s latest effort to address homelessness is the most radical one yet, but critics wonder if it addresses the needs of the community well enough.

On Sept. 19, Boulder City Council unanimously approved revisions to the management plan of Boulder Shelter for the Homeless. The shelter is the county’s main service provider for the homeless community. Its management plan determines how it functions, so any changes made to the citywide initiative have to be routed through the BSH management plan.

The revisions go along with the city’s Homelessness Strategy Vision approved in June. The vision focuses on long-term housing, with the city adding at least 35 new permanent housing options each winter season, when the shelters are open for night use by the public. 

These options happen through vouchers, of which there are two kinds. One is project-based. These are created in part through national funds and stay with a particular residence. The other kind is tenant-based, which move from space to space depending on where the resident is placed.

For the upcoming season, which starts on Oct. 1 and goes to the end of April, the city already authorized 36 new vouchers, bypassing its original goal. They’re looking to push that to 52, to fill up all the residences they have available, though as of this publication they have yet to obtain the vouchers for the remaining 16 leases.

Another aspect of this plan is the removal of a sobriety requirement. As long as someone behaves well, they won’t be required to be drug-free and alcohol-free upon entry into the new system. If they extend to summer programs, which are more intensive, shelters will enforce sobriety. Throughout their transition, the services provided will encourage them to move towards a sober lifestyle, but the focus is in getting “highly vulnerable” folks off the street and a sobriety barrier may prevent someone from seeking help.

This goes along with a larger theme of emphasizing services. The plan is largely based around getting people into a stable living situation, then working with them to re-establish themselves through health assistance, case management and finding a job.

What does it mean to focus on services?

The main strategy offered in the report is Coordinated Entry, which Wendy Schwartz, the homeless program manager for the city of Boulder, said is a national-level best practice. It’s an organization system that assesses those who seek services at a shelter through a standardized process. They’re then matched with the help that will be most beneficial for them based on their level of perceived need. The new plan will base this system out of the BSH.

People with a higher level of need will receive long-term transitional stays at shelters, which is what BSH offers year-round, in addition to their winter emergency services. Those with highest need will be placed in intensive programs designed to get them into housing as soon as possible. Until they’re placed, they’ll stay in program-based shelters.

Those deemed at lower need receive support on what the city calls a navigation plan. This is for people who can get back into housing through rent assistance or who just need a temporary place to stay via a walk-up shelter for a few nights.

For those who are at risk of homelessness, but haven’t lost their residence yet, a pilot program called Keep Families Housed offers rent assistance in an effort to prevent them from getting in a homeless cycle to begin with.

“Rent assistance is far better for the individual involved and more cost effective for community to help them make a couple of rent payments or a security deposit, rather than allowing them to become homeless or stay homeless,” Schwartz said. “Then they need a really broad range of ongoing emergency supports for a longer amount of time, and the longer people are homeless the more negative consequences it can have for them.”

The process is different than in previous years, which relied on lottery systems to get residents short-term beds, now classified as navigation services. Mike Homner was homeless and is now an advocate for the homeless in Boulder. He was a member of the Homeless Working Group, which formulated many of the recent changes, as a representative for the Boulder homeless community. He said that while there’s more organization and a good emphasis on long-term housing, it could be a barrier for those who might not be ready for long-term solutions, but still need short-term help.

“There’s people who have PTSD, they have mental illness, and those people will not engage,” Homner said. “The most vulnerable people are gonna be the ones that are not gonna get into this entry system.”

He mentioned an idea that the Working Group used called the 80-20 rule, where 80 percent of services, including beds and case management, are used by about 20 percent of the homeless population, while the remaining 80 percent use about 20 percent of the services offered.

“The problem with that is, the amount of people that are counted are never counted in that full realm,” Homner said. “The reality on the ground is different. Nobody wants to be outside, period. Everybody wants that place to sleep.”

How many homeless people are in Boulder anyways?

It’s difficult to get a census of Boulder’s homeless community and even up-to-date estimates vary. Schwartz said that while the level of homelessness in Boulder is “a challenging population to count,” the city estimates that it has around 400 people currently, including those seeking shelter services.

In contrast, the Boulder County Point-In-Time survey is the Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative’s annual assessment of how many people are homeless based on data gathered from one night. The 2017 survey found that of the 5,116 homeless people reported metro-wide, Boulder County contained 600 of them, with an estimated 400 in the Boulder city limits. Additionally, the report found that about 15 percent of those 600 people, or 71 people, were under the age of 24. Boulder’s census of its homeless population only includes those who seek services, which leaves out those who choose not to.

However, BSH saw 1200 unduplicated people go through their services in 2016, according to Chad Molter, assistant director of programs. That number doesn’t include youth, as most of the youth are serviced through Attention Homes, the only service provider specifically for younger homeless in the city. They estimated that at least 168 youth are homeless on any given night. In 2016, they served 658 individuals between the ages of 12 and 24 years old. This means that many youth are homeless for multiple nights in a row, but there also is likely a disparity between the counted and actual populations of homeless youth. According to Alex Bergland, the marketing and community resource manger at Attention Homes, it’s “essentially impossible” to get an accurate estimate based on one night of what is essentially an organized street-counting effort.

“We know that when we’re specifically talking about youth and young adults experiencing homelessness, it’s really hard to find them all the time,” Bergland said. “They are trying to stay safe, keep themselves protected, stay out of the public areas and especially when we’re talking about teenagers, they don’t want to sometimes be found and be put in the child welfare system.”

Of those that Attention Homes serves, Bergland said that about 35 percent identify somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum. The True Colors Fund, a nonprofit that works to end homelessness of LGBTQ youth specifically, estimates that around 40 percent of homeless youth nationally are LGBTQ. Both Attention Homes’ and True Colors Fund’s estimates are significantly higher than the national average of the LGBTQ community in the general population, which is around 7 percent.

On top of this, it’s estimated that about half of Boulder County’s homeless are families. They are less likely to be as visible as single homeless people, as having children means they will seek shelter with friends or relatives and generally stay out of the public eye. Mike Fitzgerald, a former director for Boulder Outreach for Homeless Overflow and a former homeless man himself, said that this drastically skews the population estimate.

“We got kids, a great amount of kids, that have been put out with the mother or put out with the father, and they’re never counted,” Fitzgerald said. “We don’t go knocking on doors, whomever comes to a service is going to be counted. That’s that 20 percent [who use services heavily] then, so it could be only 20 percent we’re counting.”

Aren’t there shelter beds available?

For homeless youth, there’s really only one provider of short-term services, and that’s The Source. The Source is Attention Homes’ walk-up shelter, offering daytime services like hot meals and internet access, as well as overnight stay for those who are looking for short-term reprieve. The overnight option works on 21-day cycles for 12 to 20 year olds, with case management aid for job searching or staying in school, though clients can choose to leave sooner. However, according to Bergland, there is often a wait list, as there are only 15 beds.

As for the adults, there are multiple shelters available, but many of them shut down their walk-up availability during the summer and only offer daytime services. This includes Agape Safe Haven and the H.O.P.E. outreach shelter. BSH offers 160 beds during their winter season, but have required special application for more intense services year-round. This will change with the updated management plan to the Coordinated Entry system to give people the most suited services. The updated system will also place folks at BSH for program-bases sheltering, so they will get bed priority before those deemed eligible for navigation services.

With Boulder’s revamped homelessness strategy, some shelters closed entirely. Earlier this year, BOHO shut down its operations due to lack of funding and city support. A nonprofit started in 2009, they provided 40 beds at their own facility and worked to organize pop-up shelters in varying houses of worship around Boulder. The Boulder Weekly reported that the shutdown was an unpopular move, not to mention poorly communicated, including to members of the religious community that host pop-up sheltering throughout the year. 

The Homelessness Working Group made the decision to close it. In a May 2017 report to the City Council, the group recommended focusing on services that keep people in housing or work towards getting them housing.

That’s good for the people who can deal with housing, Fitzgerald said, but for those who aren’t at that point, it gives a bad connotation. He said that while a lot of the benefit of the program is about getting people out of shelters and into housing as fast as possible, shelters are “not a place you want to stay” for a long time.

“It’s a place you want to lie down, get sleep, get a shower, get a good breakfast and you’re out of there,” Fitzgerald said.

Molter understands that. He said BSH plans on working with people who may not be able to go through the ideal process of staying in a shelter for a while to get them the access to housing, which he described as a right, not something to be earned.

“None of this is easy and none of this works the way we think it will, but we use outreach,” Molter said. “If they can’t come into a shelter, which is understandable, if we can get them from sleeping outside to housing, we will most definitely do that with outreach resources we have.”

Why is there suddenly an emphasis on housing? Are shelters not enough?

The Housing First model has been a long time coming for Boulder. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has recommended Housing First models for years. This way, as Homner noted, they can address issues like alcoholism or other substance abuse, as well as find work and mental health services, without worrying where they’re going to sleep each night.

This doesn’t mean that people deemed eligible for housing will go straight from sleeping outside to a permanent housing situation. Most will stay in transitional beds in various shelters around the city until vouchers become available for them to be placed in permanent housing.

“We’re turning the whole model on its head,” said Greg Harms, executive director for Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, at the Sept. 19 Boulder City Council meeting. “We are really focused on helping people find their exit out of homelessness.”

While there’s a consensus that long-term housing is the most beneficial solution, there are other options that some say aren’t tended to enough. Homner’s point about PTSD was echoed by others in the community, including a man who goes by the name of Shoez. He calls himself a traveler but frequently spends time around the homeless community in the places he visits. Especially for the younger population, according to Shoez, long-term housing may not be an option they can conceive of right now.

“A lot of it has to start with mental health,” Shoez said. “With either substance abuse or what happened to them as kids. A lot of these kids are out here cuz of there are substances or their violence or their attitude as children. Their families just turned their back on them and kicked them out and all they have is streets. That’s all they have now.”

If a homeless person or household isn’t in a shelter, or staying with friends or family, what do they do?

They camp. For whatever reason that they’re not in a shelter, the homeless have to stay the night somewhere. Some choose to stay in Nederland during the warmer months, as it’s legal to camp almost anywhere in the national forest land. A young woman who goes by the name Misfit mentioned that before she and her brother came down to Boulder, they spent most of the summer camping in Nederland.

Others drift around Boulder, sleeping outside at night. This presents a problem for both them and the city, though. According to the Boulder Revised Municipal Code, adopted in 2014, “no person shall camp within any park, parkway, recreation area, open space, or other city property.” This doesn’t just outlaw putting up a tent, because “camp” is defined as “to reside or dwell temporarily in a place, with shelter, and conduct activities of daily living, such as eating or sleeping,” not including “napping during the day or picnicking.”

In addition, the definition for “shelter” is very narrow: “any cover or protection from the elements other than clothing.” That means that someone using a blanket to sleep near Boulder Creek at night is camping. If cited, they are subject to a fine up to $300 and must appear in court or risk doing jail time.

Those who are camping are usually doing just that and nothing more. A report given to the municipal court in 2016 found that of the 3,253 camping citations written from 2009 through 2015, 84 percent were not paired with another citation. Sixty-seven percent of those receiving camping citations had received one before, but only 41 percent appeared in court. 

If this seems normal, it’s not. A 2014 report by the University of Denver’s Homeless Advocacy Policy Project found that between 2010 and 2014, the city of Boulder issued more citations than the other 14 cities surveyed in its report, combined. That means that, with the report’s estimate of 850 homeless people in Boulder, there are approximately two citations written for every homeless person. For comparison, Denver writes one citation for every 200 homeless people. That adds up to costs surpassing $945,000 for enforcing the ban in those four years.

That’s money wasted in the eyes of some advocates, especially of the homeless community. Misfit said that some people want to get off the street, but not everyone does, or is ready for it.

“Some of us like it out here,” Misfit said. “That’s rare, cause most of us are just trying to get off [the street]. There’s a few that like it out here because of the symbolism and the people that you can meet.”

Contact Breaking News Editor Lucy Haggard at lucy.haggard@colorado.edu.