A Letter to City Council: City of Boulder Homelessness Strategy

Dear Mayor Brockett and Members of the Boulder City Council,

The Boulder Chamber of Commerce appreciates the opportunity to respond to the February 13 Study Session memorandum addressing homelessness strategies.

As the foundation for our comments, we acknowledge our shared understanding of the need

for a comprehensive approach to homelessness that entails both supportive services and public safety measures. Our community has a deep well of concern for the welfare of those who are experiencing homelessness. We demonstrate that concern with significant investment, which the Boulder Chamber supports, in services that help individuals and families avoid becoming

homeless and that seek to lift those who are on our streets out of homelessness. This includes a dedication to housing solutions and supportive mental health and drug addiction programs.

At the same time, our community faces a crisis that, while not unique to urban areas throughout our nation, is intolerable in scope and impact on our businesses and residents. At a time when many of our local businesses are struggling to address high cost increases and reduced daytime workforce traffic, we need to be clear eyed about the additional strain that certain members of our homeless population are creating. Their actions represent a direct assault on public safety, a diminishment in sanitary conditions and a general sense of lawlessness that pervades when we fail to control those in the homeless community who decline offers of support, commit crimes and generally violate our standards social conduct.

Saying this does not deny that many in the homeless community have lost their capacity for self-determination. Neither does it fail to recognize the circumstances that led some to

homelessness and a life on the streets. There are far too many up-stream failures in our national public welfare system - from insufficient support for families, stressed education systems,

inaccessible health care services, and on – that are the foundation of our current crisis. We must continue our work in those areas, locally and nationally. At the same time, and as the focus for tonight’s Study Session, we must deploy our limited resources in a manner that most effectively and efficiently encompasses the two prongs of our homelessness strategy, services and enforcement. Along those lines we offer the following perspective:

Support for Permanent Supportive Housing and Day Services Center

We strongly support expanding permanent supportive housing options and the continuation of the day services center. This dedicated center has begun to provide relief to our public spaces and is critical to stabilizing individuals experiencing homelessness and supporting their path to self-sufficiency.

Clarity for Law Enforcement on Public Safety Measures

Public safety is a priority for businesses, residents, and visitors alike. We implore City Council to provide clear guidance to law enforcement on how best to address personal and business safety concerns. The Re-imagine Policing Plan provides a strong foundation for effective enforcement measures, while ensuring compassionate engagement with those who perpetrate crimes.

Clearly, though, there are remaining enforcement gaps. Most importantly, in a comprehensive manner that will entail collaboration with other government partners, we must end the revolving door cycle in our prosecution and incarceration system that frees individuals who perpetrate illegal acts to continue their criminal conduct with impunity due to a lack of law enforcement consequences.

Support for Transitional Housing Solutions

We recognize that transitional housing plays a vital role in bridging the gap between emergency shelter and permanent housing. Expanding these options will help individuals move toward long-term stability while reducing the strain on emergency services and public spaces. Simply put: If we move someone off our public parks and creek paths, we need a place for them “to go,” if even for a temporary period.

Advocating for Greater County-Wide Support

Homelessness is a regional issue that requires collaboration beyond city limits. We seek your partnership in advocating for increased county engagement and resource allocation toward our local efforts to address a regional issue. Ultimately, we must ensure that funding for

homelessness services and supportive infrastructure is equitably distributed across

jurisdictions. In line with this effort, we also need to give deep consideration to the scope of our responsibility for addressing the needs of homeless individuals and families who travel to our community in search of services. This is a challenging topic, but until we fully understand the depths of the magnet effect of our services and set the eligibility boundaries, we won’t ever be clear on the success metrics for care of our unhoused population and the appropriate resource allocation limits.

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment

It is evident from the data and casual observation that mental health challenges and drug abuse are rampant among our homeless population. We will not be successful in our effort to lift

impacted individuals out of homelessness unless we provide them with adequate treatment

services. We need to study the promising investment models and advocate for a priority focus on pursuing our own mental health and drug addiction strategy.

Homelessness Services Study

We are pleased to support the homelessness services study the City of Boulder has contracted to perform with Clutch Consulting. We are investing a great deal of resources into solutions to our homelessness challenges. Some of our investments are yielding important results, but it’s clear from conditions on the ground that we aren’t yet achieving our goals of reducing

homelessness. That is why we need to be open-minded to other innovative and proven strategies.

As noted above, we are in the midst of a crisis that both touches our hearts and is causing much community pain. There also is a great deal of community resources at play in addressing the needs of our unhoused population and in associated law enforcement actions. We must allocate those limited resources effectively and efficiently. We offer our perspective above and very much appreciate City Council’s commitment to addressing this complex issue. We look

forward to continued collaboration in developing pragmatic, compassionate, and effective solutions.

Sincerely,