HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 3/28/2023 - Memorandum From Brittany Depew Re: Quarterly Homelessness Updates
Social Sustainability
222 Laporte Avenue
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.416.8055
MEMORANDUM
DATE: March 22, 2023
TO: Mayor Arndt and Councilmembers
THRU: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager
Tyler Marr, Deputy City Manager
Jacob Castillo, Chief Sustainability Officer
Beth Yonce, Social Sustainability Department Director
Meaghan Overton, Housing Manager
FROM: Brittany Depew, Homelessness Lead Specialist
CC: Josh Birks, Sustainability Deputy Director
Rupa Venkatesh, Assistant City Manager
RE: Quarterly Homelessness Updates
Purpose: The purpose of this memo is informational to provide Council with quarterly homelessness updates.
Bottom Line: Addressing homelessness in Fort Collins is a collaborative, multi-sector effort that involves
dedicated, cross-departmental staff and funding resources from the City, the Northern Colorado Continuum of
Care, nonprofit organizations, and community members to make homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring.
Ongoing efforts address both short-term, immediate response and long-term, systemic approaches.
SHORT-TERM, TARGETED RESPONSE
Immediate & Proactive Response
Tactical Team
o In November, a team was established with representatives from Social Sustainability, Parks,
Police, Recreation, Natural Areas, Code Compliance, Security, Transfort, Poudre Fire Authority,
Northern Colorado Continuum of Care, and Outreach Fort Collins to address immediate needs
and emergent concerns while building a more agile and complete response system .
o These coordinated efforts have led to positive outcomes, including shorter response tim e,
stronger collaboration between City departments and partner agencie s, and quicker referrals for
people experiencing homelessness – including one client who was moved into housing in only 20
days!.
Homeless Outreach & Proactive Engagement (HOPE)
o Police Services recently created the new HOPE team , an innovative outreach team that uses
problem-oriented policing strategies to address issues surrounding homelessness within the city.
o The team is being led by Sergeant Annie Hill and up to 4 officers will be assigned to the HOPE
team in 2023.
o The HOPE team provides different response and services than Outreach Fort Collins but there is
much collaboration anticipated between these two groups.
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Camping & Enforcement
Beginning in January, a pilot project launched to conduct encampment cleanups once per week on a trial
basis until at least early April.
So far in 2023, Natural Areas staff have cleaned up 187 camps, including 149 cleared with assistance
from a contracted cleaning crew.
Since January, the number of active camps declined from 71 to 56, largely due to the consistent, now-
weekly schedule and the higher levels of collaboration made possible by the weekly tactical team.
On average, each cleanup costs approximately $5,000 and cleans an average of 19 camps.
Current encampment budget will likely be insufficient to cover clea nup costs on this accelerated schedule.
A team will be presenting to Council Finance Committee on May 4 to discuss this further.
Extreme Weather Response & Planning
Emergency Weather Shelter Plan
o This plan is activated during emergency cold weather events, when forecasted temperatures are
below zero overnight and/or when severe winter storms or severe windchill are expected.
o Once activated, community partners notify people experiencing homelessness of incoming
extreme weather and urge them to seek safe indoor shelter.
o Agencies work collaboratively to ensure all people are safely sheltered, which may include
various partners purchasing hotel rooms for the duration of the activation.
o Emergency shelters, operated by Catholic Charities and Fort Collins Rescue Mission, allow
everyone to utilize their services, including those on their currently banned lists, and the City
covers costs of additional security as needed.
o Transportation is provided when the activation occurs on Sundays or holidays when Transfort is
not operating.
o For the 2022-2023 season so far, this plan has been activated seven times for a total of 17
nights, more than the historical average of 10-12 nights per year.
Extreme Heat Response
o A collaborative team from Social Sustainability, Environmental Services, Safety & Risk
Management, and Larimer County’s Department of Health & Enviro nment has been working to
develop an extreme heat response plan to pilot in summer 2023, the first time a formal activation
plan will be in place during the summer months.
o Historically, the need for heat response activation first occurs in early-mid June, and the planning
team aims to have a plan finalized by early May.
o This plan would support both people experiencing homelessness and the City’s outdoor
workforce, with plans to expand to additional populations (such as isolated seniors) after the initial
pilot period, which will run from June-September 2023.
Seasonal Overflow Shelter
The Seasonal Overflow Shelter (SOS) season runs from November-April, during which time shelter
capacity is increased so people seeking shelter are not turned away into inclement weather due to
capacity constraints.
This season’s overflow shelter is located at 117 N. Mason, a City-owned building.
Fort Collins Rescue Mission operates the overflow site with support from Precision Security.
FCRM is receiving $146,000 in City ARPA funds to operate this site, and an additional $60,000 in ARPA
funding has been allocated to Precision for security services.
The shelter at 117 N. Mason has a capacity of 40 men and has served a nightly average of 33.
From November 2022-March 2023, 27 men have been turned away due to space constraints on seven
nights; in comparison, a total of three men were turned away during the 2021-2022 winter season.
The shelter at 117 N. Mason will close for the season on April 16.
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LONG-TERM, SYSTEMIC RESPONSE
Prevention & Supportive Services
The Murphy Center is open Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. for indoor day shelter and
appointments, and from 11:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. for outdoor shelter and indoor appointments. Core services
they offer include showers, laundry, mail, and computer access.
The Murphy Center has received funding from Larimer County to build a medical clinic on-site and
construction will begin this spring.
Outreach Fort Collins expanded to midtown in early September, and their new expansion area runs along
College Ave from Laurel south to Trilby, and a couple blocks east and west. This midtown expansion was
adopted as a Council priority, and $100,000 in ARPA funding was allocated to this expansion via the
2022 budget process.
Catholic Charities continues to be over-capacity for women’s overflow shelter (although they have not
turned anyone away since moving to a 24/7 model in August 2021) and is considering opportunities for
increasing flexibility and space for sheltering families.
Fort Collins Rescue Mission will see a reduction in capacity at their main location of about 20 beds on
April 2 as they remedy a violation. Their capacity heading into the warmer months will be about 86 beds
per night.
Funding
The City allocates funds to support partner organizations that provide direct services to people
experiencing homelessness and increase the availability of housing options.
For 2023, a total of $955,000 in ARPA funds is being allocated to seven agencies via 11 contracts.
The ARPA contracts include program support to the Northern Colorado Continuum of Care, Catholic
Charities, Crossroads Safehouse, Family Housing Network, Fort Collins Rescue Mission, Homeward
Alliance, and Outreach Fort Collins for resource navigation, 24/7 shelter operations, street outreach, the
Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), and other general operations.
Additionally, $100,000 in general funds were allocated to Outreach Fort Collins for ongoing operations in
their service area.
Evaluation, Metrics and Reporting
Quarterly, Homeward Alliance and Outreach Fort Collins share data with the City to demonstrate impacts
of funding and services, current number of program utilizers, and to help analyze community trends.
These reports include numbers of people experiencing chronic homelessness, accessing services, and
being transitioned into housing, and how many businesses and residents OFC engages with each
quarter.
The total number of people experiencing chronic homelessness in Q4 was 706 and 47 people who had
been experiencing chronic homelessness were moved into permanent housing. In comparison, there
were 791 people experiencing chronic homelessness in Q3 (with 63 housed), 764 in Q2 (23 housed), and
736 in Q1 (23 housed).
The annual Point in Time count was done on January 24 with the final report expected in April.
All ARPA-funded programs are required to report into the Homeless Management Information System
(HMIS) and share quarterly reports outlining the impact of these funds.
Strategic Planning
Homeward Alliance is leading efforts to create a County-wide homelessness strategic plan, with
partnership from Larimer County, United Way of Larimer County, the Northern Colorado Continuum of
Care, City of Loveland, and City of Fort Collins.
An application to fund this project was submitted to the State Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) with
final award notification expected by April.
Staff is exploring the opportunity to bring the safe parking program to the City, potentially with partnership
from Larimer County. The Colorado Safe Parking Initiative (CSPI) is a nonprofit organization that
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operates the program, to include case management, in conjunction with churches in the following cities:
Arvada, Aurora, Broomfield, Commerce City, Denver, Golden, and Lakewood. Hope of Longmont
operates three safe lots in three different churches in Longmont. The next step is to gauge the interest of
CSPI to expand to Northern Colorado or pursue another operator. Council will be presented with more
information once details of what a program could look like are better established.
Several Councilmembers attended a session hosted by Pallet Shelter and Urban Alchemy at the National
League of Cities City Summit in Kansas City in November 2022. There has been interest in exploring this
program as well and staff will continue to research this opportunity.
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