By Kurt Firnhaber
Recently, a huge milestone was met by partner organizations that support the work of addressing homelessness. In late 2017, Homeless Solutions for Boulder County (HSBC) developed a strategy for addressing homelessness, based on getting people housed first, providing supportive services in housing, and creating emergency services for those in transition. Since then, 1,000 individuals in Boulder have exited homelessness. That is almost one person every day.
There have been many pathways to exiting homelessness, and much of the credit for the system’s success goes to the resilience of the people it serves. We also owe a great deal of gratitude to the housing authorities, municipal court navigators, the Homeless Outreach Team, and the local organizations working every day to find individual solutions.
Almost 490 individuals have entered permanent housing, more than 300 have reunified with family or supportive friends, 89 have entered the
Ready to Work Program, and the remainder have entered substance use disorder treatment, diversion services, or other programs.
Many criticize us for focusing on housing for those with local connections. The truth is that our housing focus is comprehensive, with varied approaches and outcomes, and a third of those who were assisted out of homelessness were new to the community.
There is a strong focus on providing a broad spectrum of services, including mental health support for the housed and unhoused, food security, health and dental care, mediation, and respite from COVID-19 and other health conditions.
This has been accomplished through a single door of access to all services, Coordinated Entry. With an update to the regional HSBC structure, there are more avenues for previously homeless individuals to participate in policy and strategy input that will further strengthen these outcomes.
While this success should be celebrated, there’s more work to be done. Within our community, we still find people camping under bridges, in culverts, parks and on open space. We’ve seen a dramatic increase in individuals experiencing homelessness who are new to our community with a reluctance for services and a growing level of methamphetamine and other dependencies.
We also have individuals who pass away while sleeping outside with an average of 35 empty shelter beds nightly this season, not including beds available at the COVID-19 Recovery Center. While we need to provide a strong complement of services and housing, we also need to work as a community to avoid situations where people are living outside and camping in harsh environments.
We’ll continue to strive for effective services that meet not just basic needs, but create paths out of homelessness. While COVID-19 has brought new challenges to encampment enforcement and maintaining safe and welcoming spaces, we have also been challenged by well-meaning community members who distribute tents, resulting in individuals avoiding service engagement, with the resulting backstop being our emergency rooms.
I recently witnessed Jenny Paddock, a Boulder Police Department and Housing Outreach Team staff member, sitting on a bench with an individual, discussing their options with compassion and empathy. We have also seen the Boulder Targeted Homeless Engagement and Referral Effort (BTHERE) outreach team encourage service-oriented approaches to people in encampments.
However, people do have the right to make their own choices, and some individuals will decide not to engage in services. Going forward, we need to continue to build upon the current strategies, including progress on residential programs for people with methamphetamine addictions; increased mental health support; housing solutions for sex offenders; and programs that build authentic community support and
inclusion. Our policy decisions must continue to focus on solutions that help people out of homelessness.
An overwhelming body of research demonstrates that getting individuals to a housing solution as quickly as possible results in the best outcomes for people experiencing homelessness as well as the communities around them. Nationally, years of shelter building and underfunded mental health services have left our national homelessness programs depleted and inadequate.
If communities keep creating more places for people to be homeless, rather than housing and services to end their homelessness, we will all be using our resources to chase something we can never catch – with our most vulnerable community members paying the price.
Our country must shift to improving the affordable housing stock, creating livable wages, and making health care accessible to all. While HSBC cannot solve this national challenge, we can continue to do our part and encourage other communities to do theirs.
Kurt Firnhaber is the director of Housing and Human Services for the City of Boulder.
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December 27, 2020 at 06:02AM
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Guest opinion: Kurt Firnhaber: A milestone, with work ahead for homeless services - Boulder Daily Camera
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