By Alissa Noe, Alissa.Noe@colorado.edu
Louie Omaha just wants to play his music. But because he roams the street as a transient playing guitar on Pearl Street of downtown Boulder, he can’t find the financial support to do what he loves.
“I’m a homeless musician, more or less, trying to find work, trying to find gigs, trying to make money on Pearl Street,” Omaha said. “It’s a little slim right now. That’s why I’m out here.”
Omaha’s story is just one of many, and the Boulder Center for the Homeless is trying to curb the difficult issue.
Homelessness in Boulder and all of Colorado has risen dramatically over the past few years, and shelters in the area are becoming overcrowded. According to two separate studies done by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, one in 2015 and one in 2016, the homeless population in Boulder County alone had risen by about 300 people in that one-year time span.
The first study by the MDHI delved into trends across the state over various counties and analyzed each demographic—men, women, families, children, etc.—individually. Since 2011, the population in Colorado each year had fluctuated some, but by 2015 it had grown by almost 1,000 people.
About a year ago, Omaha—which is a self-appointed stage name—started his journey in Arizona. But after deciding that he didn’t like the desert, he made the big move to the Centennial State.
The tough job market quickly sent him out to the sidewalk.
“I hooked up with a friend in Pueblo for about a month and didn’t like it there,” Omaha said. “Left Pueblo—this is cutting it way short—went up and met up with some old friends in Wheat Ridge.
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Omaha’s few belongings are piled up on the street corner, propped up against a brick wall. (Photo by Alissa Noe)
The housing costs of Boulder make Omaha’s plight that much worse, no matter how hard he tries to get back on his feet.
“(Housing costs) have a lot to do with it because if you really want to find a job, you kind of have to find a place to live,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to find a job when you’re not living somewhere, so it’s hard for us once we’re on the street.
“It’s hard for us to go get money to get a place, and then get a job to hold the place. If it was more accessible to the homeless to get the more affordable housing, it would be easier for us to get the cash up, to get into the affordable housing and get a steady job to keep the affordable housing.”
On a Wednesday afternoon in late September, Omaha could be seen roaming the corner of Broadway Street and Canyon Avenue, holding a sign that said, “Hope you are blessed. Anything helps. Bless you.” All he carried with him was a guitar case and a few bags of what little personal belongings he had left.
The Boulder Shelter for the Homeless is located on Broadway in the far northern corner of town. (Photo by Alissa Noe)[/caption]The Boulder Shelter for the Homeless on the north end of town provides a safe haven and valuable resources for people like Omaha, who may have a tough time getting back on their feet.
The shelter’s resource specialist, Laurel—who asked not to be identified by last name for security reasons—said that year round, she and her staff strive to help anyone in need in Boulder, no matter what walk of life.
The Boulder Shelter for the Homeless is located on Broadway in the far northern corner of town. (Photo by Alissa Noe)
She stressed that the universal term “homeless” can have many facets, and that sometimes that population includes some unexpected people.
“People don’t understand the homeless community,” Laurel said. “There are the people you see that you just know that they are homeless, and then there are the people that you never in your wildest dreams would guess are homeless.
“We’ve had college professors who end up here. It could be mental health. There are a lot of reasons people end up here for a time. More people come here for one night or two nights and never come back. Some stay the whole time. You see these people over and over again, in fact, year after year.”
Boulder County has a significant homeless population of over 700, according to the most recent MDHI Point in Time Summary study.
The study, according to the MDHI, “provides a snapshot of homelessness by interviewing those who are homeless at a particular time.” In 2016, the research was conducted on January 25. Of the 3,697 people surveyed, 504 homeless people said they stuck to the Boulder area. When the number of people not surveyed was incorporated into this statistic, however, the number rose to 726.
Despite the large homeless population, Laurel said she and her staff try to accommodate as many people as they can, especially during the colder winter months. But that task is often too tall for the shelter to handle alone.
According to an agreement the shelter made with the surrounding businesses upon construction, they’re limited to 160 beds on property for any overnight guests. That means they often have to turn away a good number of people.
Laurel said the shelter will automatically welcome women and any transgender person every night, as they represent the two most vulnerable demographics of the homeless community. But for the men, the selection process works a bit differently.
“We’ve changed our system this year to a lottery system in advance, so people will actually know if they’re allowed to stay here tonight,” Laurel said. “If they’re here the night before or in the morning, they can sign up with staff or call a number at a certain period of time and put their name on the list.”
Per the business mandate, each guest can only stay a maximum of 90 days over the winter. When the shelter reaches top capacity, another nearby charity steps in to help everyone get off the streets when the temperatures start to plummet.
“Boulder Outreach for Homeless Overflow aids in the efforts when an excess of people flock to the homeless shelter during the winter, providing a safe haven in a nearby church or synagogue,” Laurel said. “It’s really just a blanket on the floor, but it helps keep them from the elements.”
For now, while the weather stays fairly warm and dry, Omaha said he’ll stick to nature. But when the temperatures begin to drop, he’ll seek out the services of the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless to ensure he survives, even though shelters aren’t necessarily his forte.
“It’s not very comfortable, and I have a hard time dealing with a lot of people. Other than that, I was (in Denver) for six months and I only went to the shelter nine times, and that was all during the really harsh heavy blizzard days where I had no choice. I wanted to live.”
