WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:00.049 --> 00:00:03.170 Alexis Kenyon: A proposal to open a daytime shelter for unhoused 00:00:03.199 --> 00:00:06.859 individuals in Boulder has provoked debate in recent weeks. 00:00:07.189 --> 00:00:11.956 At a meeting last month to get community input about where a potential 00:00:11.956 --> 00:00:17.196 daytime shelter could be and what services it could offer, moderators 00:00:17.196 --> 00:00:18.906 struggled to keep people in line 00:00:19.893 --> 00:00:20.473 ` Moderator: Shari? 00:00:20.733 --> 00:00:21.953 Shari: Can you hear me? 00:00:22.248 --> 00:00:22.728 We can hear you. 00:00:22.728 --> 00:00:23.418 Okay, great. 00:00:23.808 --> 00:00:27.818 So, talking about the building, I tell you what, one of my big, biggest 00:00:27.818 --> 00:00:32.742 concerns is how are you gonna prevent or will you prevent drug use inside the 00:00:32.747 --> 00:00:34.572 building and who's gonna pay for that? 00:00:35.182 --> 00:00:39.277 Other ,other day shelters, like the the San Francisco Linkage Center is 00:00:39.277 --> 00:00:42.810 a low- barrier resource center, which sounds a lot like this Boulder day 00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:47.090 shelter outline, but it's become a fenced-off, city- sanctioned drug market. 00:00:47.150 --> 00:00:52.680 So, I think the money would be better spent on in-patient psychiatric treatment. 00:00:54.908 --> 00:00:55.248 Moderator: Thanks, Shari. 00:00:55.268 --> 00:00:56.538 Shari: Don't know why that's so funny. 00:00:57.193 --> 00:00:59.648 Moderator: Just a reminder, the set of questions is around the 00:00:59.648 --> 00:01:02.683 facility and what kind of affinities it would have in the community. 00:01:02.773 --> 00:01:02.833 Shari: Okay. 00:01:03.733 --> 00:01:07.603 So this is a done deal or is there gonna be a public hearing on this? 00:01:08.303 --> 00:01:10.488 Moderator: We're doing community outreach right now and then, so 00:01:10.488 --> 00:01:14.508 this is just a discussion around the services and the type of facility. 00:01:14.628 --> 00:01:14.898 Shari: Right. 00:01:14.988 --> 00:01:15.498 Thank you. 00:01:15.618 --> 00:01:16.158 danica: Thank you. 00:01:16.333 --> 00:01:20.060 Alexis Kenyon: The city is conducting these discussions because as anyone 00:01:20.060 --> 00:01:23.650 who has been downtown recently has probably noticed unhoused people 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:27.520 in public spaces have prompted complaints about trash problems 00:01:27.520 --> 00:01:29.266 along the creek, sheltering in the 00:01:29.266 --> 00:01:32.304 public library, and the use of drugs in city parks. 00:01:32.707 --> 00:01:35.947 At last month's meeting Schuyler, a mother of three, says she's 00:01:35.947 --> 00:01:37.897 afraid to go downtown by herself. 00:01:38.130 --> 00:01:43.590 Schulyer: I would say that currently our downtown areas are extremely unsafe . I. 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:48.600 have not been to the Bandshell since I moved here two years ago. 00:01:48.630 --> 00:01:51.360 I will not go to the Farmer's Market by myself. 00:01:51.750 --> 00:01:54.060 I don't go to the library playground anymore. 00:01:54.060 --> 00:02:01.470 I do not go to the creek anymore because I am fearful of my and my children's safety. 00:02:02.273 --> 00:02:05.813 Alexis Kenyon: As uncomfortable as many people feel about 00:02:05.813 --> 00:02:07.133 homelessness and Boulder. 00:02:07.463 --> 00:02:08.873 it's not going away. 00:02:09.333 --> 00:02:13.493 Shay Castle of Boulder Beat News recently published an investigative 00:02:13.493 --> 00:02:15.513 series on homelessness in Boulder. 00:02:16.223 --> 00:02:18.550 Shay Castle: The reason Boulder has so much homelessness is because 00:02:18.550 --> 00:02:20.170 our housing is so expensive. 00:02:20.440 --> 00:02:24.120 That's a one correlation that we found to be true. 00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:27.180 The highest correlation with homelessness is housing costs. 00:02:27.320 --> 00:02:31.070 Alexis Kenyon: According to a Zillow report, housing prices in Boulder have 00:02:31.100 --> 00:02:34.240 gone up nearly 20% in the last year. 00:02:34.660 --> 00:02:39.120 Rent for a single bedroom apartment averages around $1800. 00:02:39.610 --> 00:02:43.570 In Boulder, more than half of renters are rent-burdened, meaning more than 00:02:43.570 --> 00:02:46.160 a third of their income goes to rent. 00:02:46.476 --> 00:02:50.126 Boulder is the seventh, most expensive real estate market in 00:02:50.126 --> 00:02:52.016 the United States says Castle. 00:02:52.494 --> 00:02:55.614 Shay Castle: I don't know if people know that but like it's, it's San Francisco, 00:02:55.614 --> 00:03:00.474 it's San Jose it's Honolulu, so like five places in California, and then Boulder. 00:03:00.534 --> 00:03:01.584 That, that's it. 00:03:01.584 --> 00:03:04.704 That's the top most expensive, more expensive than New York, 00:03:04.704 --> 00:03:06.894 New Jersey, like we are up there. 00:03:06.894 --> 00:03:10.794 And so it makes sense that we would have a lot of unhoused people here, cuz 00:03:10.794 --> 00:03:12.534 that's the number one correlating factor. 00:03:13.432 --> 00:03:17.652 Alexis Kenyon: Aside from sky-high housing prices, the other big reason 00:03:17.652 --> 00:03:22.992 people are seeing so many unhoused people in downtown Boulder comes back to a 00:03:22.992 --> 00:03:25.722 decision the City Council made in 2017. 00:03:26.142 --> 00:03:30.102 Up until then Boulder, like most cities in the nation tackled homeless, 00:03:30.132 --> 00:03:34.122 mostly through a church-run daytime and nighttime sheltering system. 00:03:34.782 --> 00:03:39.372 Despite efforts to aggressively push people towards sobriety and mental 00:03:39.372 --> 00:03:44.112 health services, the sheltering systems reforms were rarely enough 00:03:44.142 --> 00:03:46.272 to lift people out of homelessness. 00:03:46.752 --> 00:03:51.118 In 2017, Boulder decided it was time to try something new. 00:03:51.448 --> 00:03:55.968 a new model called Housing First was gaining in popularity across the country. 00:03:56.428 --> 00:04:00.325 This model shifted the focus from reform to housing. 00:04:00.775 --> 00:04:05.035 After the City Council voted to adopt the model, they closed daytime shelters 00:04:05.335 --> 00:04:09.715 and began aggressively moving people towards housing says Shay Castle. 00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:12.560 Shay Castle: It, it, it's kind of one of those swing of the pendulum things. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:15.620 Now what we've done is like, okay, we'll aggressively move them toward 00:04:15.620 --> 00:04:17.510 housing but they have no place to be. 00:04:17.570 --> 00:04:19.360 You have to do both. 00:04:19.781 --> 00:04:20.471 You gotta do both. 00:04:20.476 --> 00:04:23.861 And it's really tough because we do have limited resources and 00:04:23.861 --> 00:04:26.371 we're not getting the investment we need from the state or the Feds. 00:04:26.701 --> 00:04:27.631 So I understand that. 00:04:27.636 --> 00:04:29.371 It's just like, it's not one or the other. 00:04:29.371 --> 00:04:30.001 It's both. 00:04:30.421 --> 00:04:33.651 Alexis Kenyon: Despite some of the very outward facing drawbacks to 00:04:33.651 --> 00:04:39.101 closing daytime shelters, in most every other regard, the Housing First model 00:04:39.101 --> 00:04:41.201 has been a huge success for Boulder. 00:04:41.634 --> 00:04:44.994 In the past five years, the program has moved about 350 00:04:44.994 --> 00:04:47.334 people a year out of homelessness. 00:04:47.874 --> 00:04:53.341 Kurt Firnhaber, the director of 'Boulders Housing and Human Services says, if 00:04:53.341 --> 00:04:56.758 you just look at the numbers, and not out your window, you'd think the city 00:04:56.758 --> 00:04:58.708 would have no problem keeping up. 00:04:58.818 --> 00:05:02.358 Amazing until you start looking at the numbers of people 00:05:02.448 --> 00:05:03.798 entering homelessness in Boulder. 00:05:04.668 --> 00:05:09.188 Over the last four years, close to 8,000 people have become homeless in Boulder. 00:05:09.798 --> 00:05:12.918 Shay Castle says, at this rate, something has to give. 00:05:13.242 --> 00:05:16.812 Shay Castle: I understand why this is, you know, unpalatable to people, 00:05:17.172 --> 00:05:19.332 but like we've given them no options. 00:05:19.332 --> 00:05:20.652 We've given people no options. 00:05:20.771 --> 00:05:22.909 There's no shelter for them to be during the day. 00:05:22.939 --> 00:05:25.099 They can be in the libraries, but people complain about that. 00:05:25.099 --> 00:05:27.229 And during the pandemic, there were no libraries. 00:05:27.739 --> 00:05:30.559 They can be in the parks and stuff but people complain about that. 00:05:30.739 --> 00:05:32.569 Where do you want people to go? 00:05:32.659 --> 00:05:34.909 They literally have no option. 00:05:35.329 --> 00:05:36.829 They have to go somewhere. 00:05:37.349 --> 00:05:40.374 And then, I would also, again, point to what other places are doing that 00:05:40.374 --> 00:05:47.074 are having success and they all have a day shelter or day center, low-barrier, 00:05:47.094 --> 00:05:51.474 somewhere for people to be legally during the day, and they all somehow manage to, 00:05:52.344 --> 00:05:56.129 to keep people from smoking meth there, so, this is not an unheard of thing. 00:05:56.969 --> 00:06:00.239 At the meeting to gather feedback about the possible creation of a 00:06:00.239 --> 00:06:05.066 daytime homeless shelter in Boulder, in addition to worries about a low barrier 00:06:05.066 --> 00:06:10.216 shelter creating a drug market, many pleaded with the City Council to act. 00:06:10.556 --> 00:06:14.696 Michelle Rodriguez, one of the 1600 participants of the city's housing first 00:06:14.696 --> 00:06:19.966 program, who is now in housing told the group that the shelter cannot wait. 00:06:19.966 --> 00:06:22.982 Michele Rodriguez: We are desperately overdue for this day center. 00:06:23.402 --> 00:06:24.932 It needs to be now. 00:06:25.442 --> 00:06:28.562 This is not really something we can talk about and just think 00:06:28.562 --> 00:06:30.392 that it's two years in the future. 00:06:30.392 --> 00:06:36.242 Every year, about three weeks before the 21st, which is our annual Homeless 00:06:36.482 --> 00:06:42.695 Memorial Day, we have to follow a Colorado Open Records Act to get the list of names 00:06:42.695 --> 00:06:46.715 of the homeless people that didn't make it through the year for whatever reason... 00:06:47.005 --> 00:06:47.305 Moderator: Michele, Michele... 00:06:50.595 --> 00:06:54.105 Alexis Kenyon: Despite pleas for urgency coming from both sides, 00:06:54.105 --> 00:06:58.245 like the moderators of last month's discussion, Boulder City Council remains 00:06:58.245 --> 00:07:01.725 committed to keeping the conversation going for at least two years. 00:07:02.510 --> 00:07:07.590 In the meantime, Boulder has proposed 2023 budget expands police funding 00:07:07.830 --> 00:07:12.016 to continue clearing and ticketing, homeless encampments in Boulder. 00:07:12.046 --> 00:07:14.796 For KGNU, I'm Alexis Kenyon.