[BoulderCouncilHotline] FW: Homeless Update

[Firnhaber, Kurt]

Dear Mark,

Thanks for these questions.  Please see a brief reply to your questions, which we can also discuss further on Thursday if needed.

Kurt

From: Wallach, Mark <WallachM at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:WallachM at bouldercolorado.gov>>
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2022 11:27 AM
To: HOTLINE <HOTLINE at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:HOTLINE at bouldercolorado.gov>>
Subject: Homeless Update

Motivated by the questions submitted by my colleague, Nicole Speer, I have a few additional questions for staff:


  1.  When we house high utilizers in supportive housing, do we require abstinence from drug use? If not, how will we achieve the desired result of remedying homelessness through housing?
One of tenets of Housing First is that abstinence is not required in supportive housing. Housing is focused on tenancy (how not to violate a lease). People who use vouchers are treated as any other renters. Case management supports clients and encourages compliance with lease requirements (including smoking, etc.). Many national studies have shown that a harm-reduction, value-free approach has had more success in getting people stable than transitional housing programs (which have sobriety requirements) or having people achieving sobriety while living unsheltered (highly unlikely). Housing is the platform from which a person can then work on sobriety.


  1.  At BHP, I have noticed an increasing number of complaints from residents concerning safety and behavioral concerns relating to their previously unhoused neighbors, including the use of apartments as facilities to run chop shops. As I view the safety concerns of our affordable home residents as a very high priority, how will we balance their needs against the needs of the homeless to be housed in their communities?  As the system increasingly addresses the housing needs of the hardest to house, we have seen these concerns. This is one reason why we are investing in the Building Home program - it allows us to have a dedicated team of people who work with people to mitigate behaviors that are illegal or (at minimum) lease violations that could return them to homelessness. While case managers and the retention team do take a trauma-informed approach to dealing with the unique mental and behavioral health issues of clients, participation in a PSH program does not stand in front of Police enforcement or the landlord's ability to enforce leases. With that said, your concern is real, and it requires coordination with housing providers such as BHP to coordinate with service providers like Mental Health Providers and sometimes with the Police Department when there is illegal activities.


3) On page 3 of the staff memo there is a reference to 4,000 affordable housing units. Is this for the entire county? I ask because Boulder Housing Partners maintains an inventory of about 1,500 affordable units (and growing), and I was unaware that the City of Boulder had an inventory of 2,500 additional affordable and market rate affordable units. If you go to the Affordable Housing Dashboard for the COB, you will see that there are 3,815 affordable housing units.  About 800 of these homes are owned by the residents of the homes, including middle income and the remaining 3,000 affordable homes are rental units.

4) On page 4 of the memo it is stated that "homelessness is at heart a housing issue."  Is it not also the case that it is an economic and employment issue? Housing is at the core of homelessness.  However, many factors both prevent the creation of affordable housing in our community and other communities and prevent people from accessing housing.  Mental and behavior health, health care, low hourly pay and employment are all factors in preventing people from accessing housing.  You are correct in how all of these aspects are connected.

5) Is there an explanation for the very high bed utilization for June and July that would lead to turn aways?  It is likely many factors, but we do not have data that defines the reasons for the increase this summer.  These many factors likely include Boulder being a welcoming community for those experiencing homelessness, but also that other communities are pushing out homelessness.  Our service providers have also been discussing this trend.  In my discussion with Jen Livovich of Feet Forward this morning, she was reflecting on the harsher realities of being homelessness in Denver and that could motivate some individuals to locate in Boulder, Longmont, Fort Collins or other front range communities, with services.

6) On page 14 there is a table comparing capacity v. turn aways. I confess that I found this entirely obscure, and I hope that we can have a slide or 2 that will provide a clearer explanation.  We will have a slide on this on Thursday and will be able to provide more clarity.

7) I would like to dig down a bit on the excellent question from Councilwoman Speer about retention rates of those members of the homeless community who go into housing. Do we have data that shows retention rates for 1) high utilizers; 2) those suffering from drug addiction; and 3) those suffering from mental illness?  The data that exists on these questions rest with the service providers. We will not have further data on Thursday but we could reach out to these providers in the near future to provide further information.

8) One of the reasons I inquire about retention rates for various subcategories is that our emphasis on high utilizers seems to me to be useful only if we get the appropriate results. If not, I would suggest that we place a higher priority on families with children. Housing high utilizers is only worthwhile if they remain housed; otherwise, I would hate to see a woman with a child who is escaping an abusive spouse not be adequately prioritized.  Those are trade-offs that need to be considered and council's input on this could be helpful - there are a number of considerations that are impacting funding such as the need for hotels for families (domestic violence shelters are supported, but there is a need for housing for women when they have completed a transitional housing program); sheltering, support, and "pre-housing" services; housing options for high utilizers; etc.  The reality is that while our affordable housing stock in the city is growing, it doesn't meet the needs of many community members.  We have many families and critical service workers in our community that benefit from affordable housing, but there are many that still can't access this limited supply. The other side of the trade off is that high utilizers actually cost the community more than if they are housed with appropriate supports to increase likelihood of retention.


9) Project Recovery addresses drug addiction, particularly meth. Do we have any high-level statistics on the effectiveness of treatment for that addiction, and the likelihood of returning to addiction after treatment?  The discussions that I have had with Tribe Recovery indicates about a 70% success rate.  However, many of those within the 70% will have relapses and challenges to success.  I have been very impressed with the lived experience, structure and caring that this organization provides.  It seems to be an organization that has a found a good balance between grace and expectations.

Thank you for your very hard work on this very difficult issue. Mark

Thanks for your questions,

Kurt

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://webappsprod.bouldercolorado.gov/mailing-lists/mailman-archive/bouldercouncilhotline/attachments/20220831/322bee4f/attachment.html