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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Board - MINUTES - 02/21/2024Page 1 01/17/24 Minutes Economic Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, February 21, 2024 – 4:00 PM 300 LaPorte Avenue, Council Information Center 1. CALL TO ORDER: 4:05 PM 2. ROLL CALL a. Board Members Present – • Denny Coleman • Thierry Dossou • Erin Gray • John Parks • Braulio Rojas • Richard Waal • Renee Walkup • b. Board Members Absent – • Mistene Nugent c. Staff Members Present – • Jillian Fresa, Economic Health Manager, Economic Health Office • Erin Sporer, Business Support, Economic Health Office • Brittany Depew, Homelessness Lead Specialist, Social Sustainability • Kat Hart, Economic Specialist, Economic Health Office d. Guest(s) – 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. Renee motioned and Richard seconded to approve the January minutes. Motion carried unanimously. 7-0. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Homelessness and Businesses Conversation • State and local conditions • An estimated 10,000 people are homeless on a given night. Page 2 01/17/24 Minutes • Local context 2023 Q4 • 530 people experiencing chronic homelessness. • 2,955 people enrolled in supportive services. • 42 people who had been chronically homeless were permanently housed. • In 2023 135 people experiencing chronic homelessness housed; decreased 16% (unique to Fort Collins – not a trend statewide) • City does: • Funding and support for homelessness prevention programs, convene partners to address systemic issues, research best practices, enforcement/compliance/oversight, respond to resident and business concerns, emergency weather shelter plan activation. • City does not: • Own and operate shelter, provide direct homeless services, provide housing vouchers to people experiencing homelessness, conduct street outreach, provide mental or behavioral health services. • Current projects: • Seasonal overflow shelter, countywide strategic plan, tactical team, future 24/7 shelter, Homeless Outreach and Proactive Engagement (HOPE) Team, extreme heat response plan, alternatives to shelter, camp cleanup pilot, and community hot breakfast. • HOPE Team • Out of police services • Tasked with any police-oriented response to homelessness, build trust and relationships, proactive work, walk streets, engage with folks, and educate about services. • Been a wonderful asset. • Not enforcement first • Tactical Team • Tactical Team lives between coordination/policy and cleanup/enforcement • Made up of • City of Fort Collins: park rangers, uniformed officers, Transfort officers, HOPE team, and recreation. • external partners: Outreach Fort Collins, Poudre Fire Authority, and Larimer County • Meet every week to decide and assign what needs to happen. • Urgent rapid response, people centered and housing first, hot spots and mitigation, and weekly cleanups. • Collaboration is critical. • Future 24/7 shelter • Not a City project but an interest • Operated by Fort Collin Rescue Mission • City’s role: regulatory and funding • Entered development process Nov 2023, target open date Nov 2025 • 200 beds for men, day shelter, and other services. • 1311 N. College (Hibdon & Mason) • Owned by Bohemian Foundation • Outreach Fort Collins (OFC) • Street based outreach program that serves as a mobile response team to address and deescalate disruptive behaviors. • Not City owned/run. Page 3 01/17/24 Minutes • Group of social workers: don’t kick people out, write tickets, or enforce. • Proactively engaged clients who are at risk of or currently experiencing homelessness. • You can call them if you are feeling unsafe but nothing illegal is occurring. If something illegal is occurring call the police. Police can decide if it is illegal or not and dispatch OFC if needed. • Tensions and challenges • Natural spaces • Maintaining safe and accessible spaces for all residents. • Visibility • The visibility of unsheltered homelessness can lead to rushed solutions. • Housing first • Housing first challenges in a community with high cost of living, balance with harm reduction • Strategy • Aligning partners to shared goals and outcomes. • Assumptions • Root cause of homelessness, response system, and enforcement. Questions • Of those unsheltered, was it because the shelters were full? • Shelters are full 100% of the time. We don’t have enough shelter space for the current population. It is an interesting time to do this count because people are more comfortable to be unsheltered in the summer. • Is the HOPE team made of actual police offers or social workers? • They are uniformed police officers. Their badge says HOPE. They have training in trauma, negotiation, and counseling type of police work. • Is that their full-time job? • Yes, the team does not operate 24/7 so if there is a 2am call, it is not going to be the HOPE Team, but they do operate 6 days a week. It is their full-time assignment. • Do we know what the root cause of homelessness is in Fort Collins? • When we look at root causes, there are so many. How many systems have failed a person to lead to it? Substance is often not a cause but a result of homelessness. It can lead to it, but they fall into addiction because of homelessness. For women a lot of time it is because they are fleeing domestic violence and abuse. The final straw for a most folks is a loss of community. For example, divorce or medical bankruptcy; there are no more safety nets or people they can rely on. • Do we have a path to get them back into the workforce? • Yes, but any sort of path like that is their choice. There is no mandatory requirements in these services. Our main services offer employment services and workforce skill development. There are also services through the VA for veterans. So yes, but it is an optional path if they want to. Some businesses in town specifically work with shelters to hire like Ginger and Baker and the Union. It is not a formal program. Page 4 01/17/24 Minutes • We always hear about how the men are being housed, what about the women and families. Where are they going and what facilities are available to them? • There are a couple of options. For men, there is the Rescue Mission which has 41 beds and we added 70 for the winter. For women and families, the needs are different. Catholic Charities has an emergency shelter near New Belgium which has rooms for families and bunks for women. The Crossroads Safe House is available for those fleeing from abuse. It is open to men, women, and families. The Family Housing network is not a shelter, but they do have 7 rooms/two houses on Sherwood for families that are transitioning into permanent housing. Typically, they can get into permanent housing within 6 months. • How do we reach Outreach? Is there an app? • That is a wonderful idea. They have a website that has all their information. They also have a phone number, 970-658-0088. • Can you talk a bit about the unhoused residents vs the unhouse transients and how they are treated differently? • It is incredibly hard data to know. It is all self-reported data. Close to 80% of people are from Larimer County that are homeless and using services. Out of state is 5-6% but I think the amount of people that leave and go to other communities is about the same. They believe transient in and out is close to 1:1. People who are more transient don’t seek services or stay for long. If you ask someone where they are from, you don’t know what they are basing it on; was it where they were born, where they grew up, or where they have been for the past 6 months. • Regarding your statement about asking 20 times and someone not wanting help but then you ask one more time and they say yes. In New York City they are not waiting for a yes. They just remove them. Do you know if that program is working? • New York is a right to shelter state. Nobody can be turned away from a shelter. I am not familiar with their housing process, but I know it is a billion-dollar system. • Wondering if not taking no as an answer has been successful. If someone is in a certain situation, they might not know what is best for them. I know they have civil rights and have a choice so you can go both ways on that. • We operate under a housing first framework. You would always take no for an answer. That person is the expert in their own life. If the answer is no, it’s no. That is the general practice you will see. We do have conversations about repeat offenders but that is a very small percentage, however that one can be the most disruptive. There is no simple answer. Do we keep moving the same camp or take no every week? Is there a way off that? Under our philosophy, we would take no for an answer. We don’t have an alternative; we don’t have a house for them. • What are your thoughts on how to address the affordable housing issue. How are other cities addressing that challenge? • The Land Use Code. Some suggested updates could help us get to that. If we don’t have density, you won’t have affordable housing. It won’t solve it. An affordable one bed could be $1,300 or $1,400/month and that is not affordable for a lot of people, and they Page 5 01/17/24 Minutes need more than one bedroom. Landlord engagement is happening but if someone has a voucher, they can use it anywhere. It doesn’t have to be a certain company or catalyst project. You get housing vouchers through the housing authority, and they pay part of your rent for life. You can take it with you if you move to a different state. If the apartment is above market rate, you can’t use a voucher and most apartments here are. If the voucher is not being used, it expires. Even if we build affordable housing, affordable for who? Vouchers and landlords are a promising area and there is a lot happening in this space, but nothing has moved forward. • It could be a huge cost reduction savings in emergency services, could that money be used to address it? • It is estimated to cost about $38,000 per person who is unhoused using those services. It would be a huge cost saving to house people but that is saving tax dollars so I am not sure how that would work. • Are you looking at empty buildings to convert into housing? • We don’t really have empty buildings. We have explored it but there is not a lot of inventory. One thing that gets in the way of that is zoning. For places that are zoned for housing there is not a lot of stock. There is talk about converting hotels, but it would not be a project that is led by the City. There is not a lot of return on investment. Between inventory and developers there is not a lot of funding to do it. To change zoning, you must change the code which can be too expensive. • Is CSU involved or collaborating? • Yes and no. I wouldn’t say we work super closely. CSU Police is a strong partner and are part of the weekly tactical team. CSU as a bigger entity talked about student, staff, and faculty affordable housing and a safe parking program which would allow for people to legally sleep in their vehicles (which did not get approved at its final level). There is some student help. They have 10-15 units that are partially paid for, for unhoused students. There are some restrictions with our occupancy ordinances, and it is more than that, but they are having conversations. • Curious where you got the data that states substance is a result not a cause of homelessness. • I don’t know the numbers specifically but that is based on national trends. It does cause it sometimes but the rations and how people fall into it is based on HUD nationwide. • You mentioned that land use and the Land Use Code can have an impact on homelessness. What are the specifics that would help reduce homelessness and were those included in the last rendition? What are you tracking at state level and what do/don’t you support? • The longer someone is homeless the harder it is to house them. The Land Use Code addresses density (duplexes, accessory dwellings) and those type of units are typically lower cost. I am not sure how it ties into the State Codes but in theory allowing homes to have second unites could have an immediate impact on homelessness. Some could still charge more for those units. Many people in the shelters have jobs but can’t afford to get an apartment. More density leads to fewer people becoming unhoused; the more housing Page 6 01/17/24 Minutes choices we have, the more people that can be housed. • The board requested more data however it can be hard to track the type of index they were requesting. There will not be no homelessness ever. The goal is that nobody is homeless for more than 30 days and can be put into housing. • How many section 8 vouchers does the City get on an annual basis? • Hundreds but the City does not handle them. The process is cumbersome. • From a food standpoint, do you have a relationship with the FOCO Café? • I would say so. I think not only are we lucky to have so many non- profits, but we also have a lot of collaboration with them. The tactical teams host breakfast every month with services and resources they can connect to. Sometimes the FOCO Café hosts. There is overlap with them and other partners as well. b. International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Accredited Economic Development Organization (AEDO) Update • Awarded to highest performing economic development organizations. • 70 organizations have it right now. • Only other place in CO that has it is Arvada. • Benefits: continual improvement process for department, increased credibility for business attraction efforts, stability during leadership transitions, organization of key department documents to make grant applications and reporting easier, talent recruitment tool, and showcases we are a high performing team. • Department has received other awards from IEDC and EDCC. • Process • Documentation and review • 17 defined categories they want to see documentation on • Does this organization have the resources necessary to accomplish their defined goals? • Not pass or fail. • Site visit • Team who reviewed documentation will visit Fort Collins for 2 days. • Will meet with community stakeholders for interviews. • Does this organization have all the community relationships and working environment to accomplish their defined goals? • 3 year re-accreditation cycle • The first cycle is documentation only. • The second cycle is documentation and site visit. • Best practices learned from other AEDO is to continually update the documents to make re accreditation easier. • Cycle to cycle IEDC can shift which priorities they are emphasizing. • Timeline • Q1: gather existing and create documentation, early stakeholder engagement. • Q2: April application target, provide supplemental information requested, secondary stakeholder engagement. • Q3: late July/early August target for site visit (sept award target) • Q4: community celebration at Business Appreciation Celebration. • Needs support letters for application. Page 7 01/17/24 Minutes Questions • Once we get the accreditation, will SeonAh be involved accrediting others around the country or in Colorado? Where will she be going? It could be beneficial for some role modeling. o We don’t know just like we don’t know who will accredit us yet. It is based on scheduling, but it will most likely be domestic. • Is it the City of Fort Collins or your department that gets accredited? o Our department, specifically, the Economic Health Office. • How are you going to measure if this is a successful accreditation that you want to renew? Have you put in parameters to say this is worth our time and effort vs just a piece of paper? o One will be what kind of information and feedback we get from this process. It is supposed to be a process improvement. Other things will be what did we get invited to, what is the feedback on our current programs and how valuable was it? • Did you already learn what you want to improve? o We have already seen a lot of things we can do better in terms of metrics and tracking. We have a lot of data. I am working with Katie to get some good metrics going. • Are there any costs associated? o The application fee is $300, and the actual accreditation fee is about $3,000/ 3 years. • The board thought it was worthwhile and was interested in a letter of support. • Barulio motions and Denny seconds to draft a letter for support of accreditation. Motion passes 7-0. • Denny has offered to provide input during the process. • Kat mentioned they would be awarded at the conference in Denver in September. Highly recommended anyone attend if they have time or are interested as it is a comprehensive conference. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS 9. STAFF REPORTS 10. OTHER BUSINESS a. Council Calendar • Interested topics: • Would love a presentation on the award the City received on behalf of the region from the National Science Foundation. b. Questions/Interest/Update • Mayor Arndt will be the Council Liaison for EAB • The Chair and Vice Chair want to meet with her. • EAB will have 3 new members in April – this might be a good time to invite the Council Liaison. • Beijing Noodle was awarded as one of the top 10 places to eat in the nation. 11. ADJOURNMENT a. (5:45 PM) Minutes approved by a vote of the Board/Commission on 03/20/2024