[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Fw: Hotline: Homelessness Budget

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Young, Mary

Hotline followers,


I am forwarding this email from Macon Cowles regarding the budget. He brings up some good reminders with respect to regional collaboration and comparisons on spending. Along with Bob, he makes good points.


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



________________________________
From: Macon Cowles <macon.cowles at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2016 1:33 PM
To: Bob Yates
Cc: Council
Subject: Hotline: Homelessness Budget

Bob, these are good points you make in your Hotline.

Let me add an additional perspective on this issue. I will make four points: 1) Boulder’s Current Funding of Homeless Services—how it compares to other cities; 2) The Importance of Regional Collaboration; 3) When and Where people become homeless—is this a relevant question? and, 4) Other nearby cities export the burden of providing homeless services to Boulder and Denver.

1. Boulder’s Current Funding of Homeless Services—how it compares to other cities

One has to refine the question about whether Boulder is underfunding homeless services. Compared to what? It seems to me that the funding for homeless services must go through the same cost and benefit analysis that every other program does in a Priority Based Budget. If the yardstick is “the moral imperative,” then there is not enough money in the entire City budget to provide free services on demand.

One must see Boulder’s past and current efforts in a frame that includes other cities. What are other cities doing? Except for Denver and Boulder other cities are doing very little.

Boulder already spends 3 X as much as Longmont, 6 X as much as Ft. Collins, and 17 X to 35 X as much as Lafayette, Louisville, Arvada, Westminster and Colorado Springs. Many cities, including Superior, spend nothing to address the needs of people who are Homeless. See Attachments B and C of the Summary of the Study Session May 13, 2014.

2. The Importance of Regional Collaboration

Council has been clear at the Study Sessions in the past (May 2014, for example) that Boulder needs to generate a regional response to Homelessness, as we cannot alone provide housing and services sufficient to address the need. The need for regional collaboration to address Homelessness was well captured in the Summary of the May 13 Study Session. And both the staff and Council have been working on that regional collaboration since then. It was a topic, for example, at the Boulder County Commissioner Candidates forum on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016.  (It is important to keep in mind that counties, using federal and state money, are the primary source for human services provided to people in need.)

3. When and Where people become homeless—is this a relevant question?

In May 2014, Council also asked for additional focused information: namely, 1) more detailed information about people who are Homeless based on interviews and meetings, and 2) did people become Homeless elsewhere and then move to Boulder, or did they become Homeless while already residents of Boulder or nearby communities? In asking that question, Council understood that this would take both skill and time to develop credible information. Some of the partners that you mentioned in your Hotline--Bridge House, Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, Clinica, and Mental Health Partners--may have helped to develop that information

4. Other nearby cities export the burden of providing homeless services to Boulder and Denver.

Some communities in the region have policies or practices that export the burden of providing services to the Homeless onto Boulder and Denver in ways that are not expressed in their budgets. At the CML conference in Breckenridge in June 2014, an intern in the Brighton City Manager's office informed me that Brighton transports Homeless people found in Brighton to "other cities that do provide services for the Homeless."

Broomfield, even though it is a county, devotes barely a page of its website to social services. A search of its website on the word Homeless brings up the following at http://www.broomfield.org/faq.aspx?qid=201 (accessed 9/13/2016)
City and County of Broomfield - Official Website<http://www.broomfield.org/faq.aspx?qid=201>
www.broomfield.org
Show All Answers. 1. How do I get on the Section 8 waitlist? Broomfield administers a very limited number of Housing Choice Vouchers from the Colorado Division of ...


I am homeless, where can I get shelter assistance?
There are no shelters in Broomfield; however, if you are a family with children, you may contact the Emergency Family Assistance Association at 303.442.3042. The United Way of Denver (Mile High United Way) also has current information of available shelter space in the Denver metro area. You may access their referral service by dialing 2-1-1.


Broomfield as a County does contribute some amount of money to homeless services outside of Broomfield, but is it enough to compensate for this offloading of its responsibility that is signaled on their website.

Thank you

Thank you, and all of Council, for your attention to this important issue. There are no solutions that everyone will embrace. We have to do the best we can, and the community trusts in the Council to find the right balance, difficult as that may be.

Macon Cowles
1726 Mapleton Ave.
Boulder, Colorado 80304
macon.cowles at gmail.com<mailto:macon.cowles at gmail.com>
(303) 638-6884

Begin forwarded message:

From: <cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov>>
Subject: [bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Homelessness Budget
Date: September 13, 2016 at 12:49:40 PM MDT
To: <bouldercouncilhotline at list.ci.boulder.co.us<mailto:bouldercouncilhotline at list.ci.boulder.co.us>>

Sender: Yates, Bob

Council Colleagues:


Because we have allocated two-and-a-half hours to the entire city budget tonight and we have much to talk about, I'm a concerned that we will not have sufficient time this evening to fully discuss the $2.9 million budget addendum for homelessness that we recently received from city staff.  So, I provide below my preliminary comments to that homelessness budget addendum:


1.  First, I am happy to see the city staff following the request of City Council that we provide incremental services for those homeless people who truly want and need help.  We have underfunded these services for many years and we are finally responding to the community demands--and the moral imperative--that we take concrete and efficient steps to mitigate the adverse impacts of homelessness, both on the unhoused and the housed.


2.  With that said, I am disappointed by the allocation of the incremental dollars proposed in the recent budget addendum.  Setting aside the contingent $1.9 million in capital proposed to build a integrated resource center some day, city staff is proposing an incremental $1 million for homelessness programs and services.  While this $1 million may be appropriate, it is allocated to the wrong places, as evidenced by the fact that our leading service providers--Bridge House, Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, Clinica, and Mental Health Partners--have each written us expressing their disappointment and objections.  In some instances, they say that they have not been consulted.  When those who are providing the very services that we hope to support tell us that we have gotten it wrong, we have probably gotten it wrong.


3.  Specifically, nearly $800,000 of the incremental $1 million proposed in the budget addendum could be put to more effective and efficient uses.  This includes:


(a) $326,000 for three new city staff members to be tasked with coordination, analytics, and administrative support;


(b) $386,000 for a mobile mental health unit; and


(c) $80,000 for a summer survey and meeting facilitation.


4.  Rather than spending nearly $800,000 on new projects and more city staff, I would much rather see the money applied to effective programs that are already in place but that are underfunded and which we are in danger of losing.  Our highest priority must be to get homeless people off the street, both for their safety and for the well-being of the 99 percent of our community who are housed and who pay for these programs.  If we are going to spend more taxpayer money, we must do so effectively and in collaboration with--not in competition with--our existing and highly-competent homeless service providers.

So, this evening, I will ask city staff to sit down with our principal service providers and arrive at better and more effective uses of funds that directly and immediately reduce the adverse effects of homelessness on everyone in our community.

Best,

Bob
_______________________________________________
bouldercouncilhotline mailing list
bouldercouncilhotline at list.ci.boulder.co.us<mailto:bouldercouncilhotline at list.ci.boulder.co.us>
https://webappsprod.bouldercolorado.gov/mailing-lists/mailman-archive/bouldercouncilhotline
Do not reply to this message with unsubscription requests.
To unsubscribe from this list or subscribe to other City of Boulder lists:
https://bouldercolorado.gov/newsroom/city-of-boulder-email-lists