[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Item 5A - 1st Reading 2017 Budget - Funding for Family Homelessness

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Young, Mary

Colleagues, staff, hotline followers,


As part of the first reading memo, staff included $150,000 for a City of Boulder/EFAA Keep Families Housed Pilot. I strongly support this initiative and I would like to see the amount increased by an amount sufficient to provide for up to a third month of short term rental assistance for the purposes of this pilot.


There are roughly 870 families with children living below poverty in the city of Boulder, but the exact number is difficult to gauge as these family units can be largely invisible. These are working families that we know are contributing members of our community. They live on the edge and any small economic shock, such as a reduction in hours for one month, can destabilize and place them at risk of homelessness.


An increase in the amount for the pilot should be aligned with a short list of specified metrics that could be evaluated after the one year pilot.


The benefits of preventing family homelessness yields huge benefits through avoiding the lasting effects of homelessness on children.


Therefore, I would like to see an increase per the above in the $150,000 at second reading.


Best,



Mary Dolores Young
Mayor Pro Tem
Boulder City Council
303-501-2439

"All ethics . . . rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts . . ." - Aldo Leopold