NEWS
A PLACE TO GO Boulder is exploring an ‘alternative sheltering’ pilot program for people experiencing homelessness. Here’s what that could look like. BY WILL MATUSKA
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here’s a race to end homelessness. Earlier this summer, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced his ambitious goal to house 1,000 people by the end of 2023 after he declared a state of emergency earlier this summer on the issue of homelessness and housing insecurity in Denver. The Mile High City is building 11 new “micro-communities” — tiny homes with a healthy mix of supportive “wraparound” services — to help reach that goal. The first site (2302 S. Santa Fe Drive, Denver) is underway. Temporary transitional housing is hardly a new solution to homelessness, but it’s increasing in popularity among cities across the nation as a bridge between unsheltered homelessness and permanent housing that takes people off the streets. While projects (which are also referred to as safe outdoor spaces or designated camping sites) vary in scope and scale from city to city, they are typically non-congregate settings attached to some level of resources, from mental health and addiction support to WiFi, laundry and showers. Tiny homes, pallet shelters and ice fishing tents are also used. It’s in this landscape that the City of Boulder is considering an alternative sheltering program (the City’s allencompassing term) as it looks for solutions to its unsheltered homelessness problem. Rachel Friend, whose term on council will end next month, has long advocated for this kind of project. “People are going to be camping,” she says. “So to me there’s a question of where’s the best spot: Is it along the creek, or is it at a sanctioned spot that has resources? I think a spot with BOULDER WEEKLY
showers, bathrooms and staffing resources is better.” The council has given direction to explore a pilot project, but Boulder is still in the early stages of conceptualizing a program. While it’s further along in the process than ever before, major details of the project — like who would manage it, cost, structure type and location — need to be worked out before it’s even put to a vote before council. But it poses an important question: What could an alternative housing community look like in Boulder?
experiencing homelessness for a number of reasons. Alternative sheltering can “extend dignity” to those people for whom it doesn’t. “Our primary goal is to make sure folks have access to the basic resources that they need to live, even if it’s temporarily in an alternative sheltering program,” Montoya says. “Nobody deserves to not have access to a bathroom or a shower.” Montoya experienced homelessness in Denver before joining CVC. She was in her mid-30s and had a career in commercial and residential real estate. When a romantic relationship ended, she coped with depression through drinking and drug use that spiraled into housing instability, then homelessness. “I experienced homelessness on the streets that I grew up on,” she says. While today Montoya believes congregate shelters play an integral role
Courtesy: CVC
EXTENDING DIGNITY
The Colorado Village Collaborative (CVC) is a nonprofit in Denver that operates two tiny home villages and three safe outdoor spaces that mostly consist of insulated ice fishing tents and some pallet shelters. CVC was recently chosen to manage the largest microcommunity in Mayor Johnston’s House1000 plan so far (2301 S. Santa Fe Drive), but it also operates programs separate from Johnston’s initiative. Cuica Montoya, director of CVC’s safe outdoor space program, says congregate shelters don’t work for everyone
addressing homelessness, when she was homeless from 2011 to 2014, she “didn’t hear great things” about larger congregate shelters. So she stayed outside, slept in hotel rooms and couch-surfed when she could. During the last point-in-time count when the City of Boulder asked people experiencing homelessness if they occasionally stay in the shelter, more than 90% said no, citing reasons like “prefer to stay outside,” “do not feel safe,” “cleanliness concerns,” “location of shelter,” and “lack of independence.” According to the City’s website, “roughly 80% of people experiencing homelessness in Boulder are utilizing some form of sheltering.” Boulder Shelter for the Homeless
(BSH) is a nonprofit that holds most of the city’s sheltering capacity with 160 beds. It also provides wraparound services like meals, counseling and medical care. BSH averaged eight unoccupied beds per night in 2023, according to Boulder’s homelessness dashboard, the lowest annual average since the City started tracking that data in 2017. (The highest was 31 unused beds per night in 2019.) The shelter has also turned people away on 10% of nights since 2020 because it ran out of beds. Because emergency beds are first-come firstserve, being turned away could discourage people from seeking shelter in the future. Boulder Shelter is also closed during the day, separates sleeping arrangements by gender and doesn’t allow dogs. Boulder’s estimated total sheltering for this winter is 194 to 239, depending on hotel room capacity and overflow space. The total number of people experiencing homelessness is harder to track, even with the City’s latest PIT counts, but Newton says “there’s been an increase in visible unsheltered homelessness.” Alternative sheltering options like tents or pallet shelters are quick and cheap ways to create shelter. Although Newton says there’s no guarantee people will utilize alternative sheltering at a higher rate than congregate settings, it’s clear they could remove some barriers. For example, CVC’s safe outdoor spaces accept people, via referral from street outreach, with partners and pets, are open 24/7 and do not impose a time limit on the duration of residents’ stays; the average stay is nine months. “It’s not just a shelter, it’s a program,” says Dede de Percin, chief executive officer at CVC. “If you just build a shelter, and there are no services and supports, it’s not going to work long term. Moving somebody into stable housing requires the time and effort to connect them to services and supports and resource navigation.” CVC rounds out its safe outdoor space program, which is funded by private foundations and federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), by providing meals, bathrooms, NOVEMBER 16, 2023
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