HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 4/23/2024 - Memorandum From Brittany Depew Re: Quarterly Homelessness Update – Q1 2024Social Sustainability Department
222 Laporte Avenue
PO Box 580, Fort Collins, CO 80522
970-221-6595
bdepew@fcgov.com
CC: Executive Sponsors: Rupa Venkatesh, Assistant City Manager & Jeff Swoboda, Chief of Police
Beth Yonce, Social Sustainability Department Director; Meaghan Overton, Housing Manager
MEMORANDUM
Date: April 17, 2024
To: Mayor and City Councilmembers
Through: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager
Tyler Marr, Deputy City Manager
Jacob Castillo, Chief Sustainability Officer
From: Brittany Depew, Lead Homelessness Specialist
Subject: Quarterly Homelessness Update – Q1 2024
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, targeted response and long-term, systemic approaches.
SHORT-TERM, TARGETED RESPONSE
Staff and Partner Collaborative Response
• Tactical Team
o The Tactical Team has continued to coordinate and collaborate on complex situations to
ensure people experiencing homelessness are supported and connected to appropriate
resources while maintaining an accessible, healthy, and safe community for all.
o This group aims to increase consistency in response and process, enhance information-
sharing across internal departments and with external partners, prioritize people-centered
connection opportunities (resources, outreach, co-response) ahead of enforcement, and
collaboratively brainstorm possible solutions to new and recurring concerns.
o Ongoing projects include monthly community hot breakfast events for people experiencing
homelessness, rapid response to urgent concerns, weekly site cleanups, and assessing
mitigation options for hot spots.
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• Homelessness Policy Advisory Team
o The newly-established Policy Advisory Team will hold its first meeting in mid-April. The
intention of this team is to focus on policy needs and updates related to homelessness
response.
o This team serves as a bridge between the weekly, rapid response-focused tactical team,
and the quarterly strategy-focused executive team.
• Homeless Outreach and Proactive Engagement (HOPE) Team – Police Services
o During Q1, the HOPE Team assisted with the safety of 227 site cleanups, responded to
837 calls for services, and engaged in more than 40 community events. Additionally, the
team provided support on 6 stolen bike recoveries, 6 RV tows, and 123 citations/arrests.
o Data from the HOPE team’s collaboration with Outreach Fort Collins is included below
under “Outreach Fort Collins.”
Site Cleanups & Camping Enforcement
• In Q1, over the course of 12 cleanup days, 359 sites were cleaned, including 276 cleared with
assistance from a contracted cleaning crew, and the remainder completed by Natural Areas staff,
Parks staff, rangers, or other groups (including occupants of active camps).
• Of the sites that were cleaned, there were 361 sharps collected, 631 total person hours, 148 cubic
yards of waste (approximately 1,000 bags), 16.5 cubic yards of metal recycling, and 65 shopping
carts.
• There are currently 20 sites awaiting cleanup.
• During Q1, the average days to completion for a given site was 12 days.
• To date, the average cost is $6,354 per cleanup day, which generally includes around 23
individual sites.
• In Q1, approximately $82k was spent from the site cleanup budget.
Emergency Weather Shelter Plan
• The Emergency Weather Shelter Plan (EWSP) is activated when the National Weather Service
issues a severe winter storm warning, severe windchill advisory, and/or forecasts overnight
temperatures at or below zero degrees.
• Upon activation, City staff coordinates with shelter and outreach partners to ensure no one is
turned away from shelter due to space constraints in dangerous weather conditions.
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• During the 2023-2024 winter season, the EWSP was activated for 7 nights: January 11-15 and
January 18-19. This is relatively few nights compared to historic trends (there were 17 activation
nights during the prior season).
• There is interest in reassessing winter activation criteria; however, an update to these criteria
would likely result in a higher number of activations and increased funding needs. Staff have
included targeted emergency weather funding in 2025-2026 budget requests and, if funded, a
team of City and County staff would collaborate next year to update the emergency weather plan.
• Extreme heat activations will follow the same process as last year: If the National Weather
Service’s HeatRisk map shows heat levels at Red/Major, the system will be activated, and the
Murphy Center will extend their hours to provide additional indoor cooling options.
o https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/heatrisk/
Seasonal Overflow Shelter
• Fort Collins Rescue Mission operated the overflow shelter at 117 N. Mason starting November 1,
along with their main location on Jefferson St., and provided their final night of overflow on April
10, closing earlier than the anticipated final day of April 30 due to staffing constraints, funding
being fully spent, and the mild weather.
• The overflow site served 200 unduplicated men in January, 274 in February, and 277 in March.
In Q1, this location served an average of 32 men per night. There were no men turned away.
• While last year’s shelter had a capacity for 44 men, this year there was a maximum capacity of
70 and operating hours of 5:00pm– 8:00am each day.
• The Rescue Mission had two staff members present during all hours of operation, with
assistance from Precision Security during both check-in and check-out.
• No major incidents or complaints were reported during this winter’s overflow season.
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LONG-TERM, SYSTEMIC APPROACHES
Prevention & Supportive Services
• Catholic Charities
o In January, there was a per-night average of 43 women and 4 families served, 40 women
and 3 families served in February, and 35 women and 2 families served in March.
o There were no women or families turned away due to space constraints in Q1.
• Crossroads Safehouse
o Crossroads shares gratitude with City Council for their continued support and appreciated
Mayor Arndt coming to tour the safehouse a couple months ago. Councilmembers are
invited to tour the safehouse anytime and can contact Executive Director Lori Kempter to
coordinate: lkempter@crossroadssafehouse.org or 970-699-5081.
• Fort Collins Rescue Mission
o In January, there were a total of 200 unique guests served, 274 in February, and 277 in
December.
o There were no men turned away from shelter due to space constraints in Q1.
• Homeward Alliance
o The Murphy Center is open Monday-Friday from 8:30-11:30am for indoor day shelter and
appointments, and from 11:30am-5:00pm for outdoor shelter and indoor appointments.
Core services they offer include showers, laundry, mail, and computer access.
• Outreach Fort Collins
o Overall, contacts and client activity were consistent between Q4 2023 and Q1 2024.
o OFC staff engaged with 464 unduplicated clients, offering immediate needs education and
resources 543 times, and completing 95 agency referrals.
o In Q1, OFC saw fewer calls classified as disruptive (34% decrease from Q4 2023) or
escalated (25% decrease from Q4 2023).
o Collaboration with HOPE team:
This collaborative partnership continues to result in more first-time OFC contacts.
OFC received 38 unique client referrals from the HOPE team in Q1, of which 20
were previously unknown.
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In Q1, OFC had a total of 229 contacts with clients referred by HOPE, including
offering immediate needs education and resources 74 times and completing 19
agency referrals.
Funding
• For 2024, the final year of homelessness initiatives being funded via ARPA recovery dollars,
$500k was allocated through a competitive grant process:
o $250k contracted for Resource Navigation services at Disabled Resource Services,
Catholic Charities, Homeward Alliance, Neighbor to Neighbor, Outreach Fort Collins, and
the Matthews House.
o $250k contracted for 24/7 shelter operations at Catholic Charities, Crossroads Safehouse,
and Fort Collins Rescue Mission.
• An additional $455k was directly contracted with three agencies for programmatic and operational
expenses: Homeward Alliance, Northern Colorado Continuum of Care, and Outreach Fort Collins.
• In Q1, 3,370 people were served by these funds across all homelessness programs.
Evaluation, Metrics, and Reporting
• Point in Time Count
o The 2024 PIT count was being led by the Northern Colorado Continuum of Care (NoCO
CoC) and was conducted on the night of January 30. The data and final report are
anticipated to be available by Q2.
• 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.
• Quarterly, HMIS data is shared with the City to demonstrate impacts of funding and services,
track the current number of program utilizers, and help analyze community trends. In Q1:
o There were 2,622 homeless individuals with active enrollments (seeking services).
o There were 542 people experiencing chronic (more than one year) homelessness in Fort
Collins.
o 37 people who had been experiencing chronic homelessness were exited into
permanent housing.
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Strategic Planning
• Homeward Alliance is leading efforts to create a county-wide homelessness strategic plan, with
partnership agencies and municipalities from across Larimer County. The planning team
developed a Request for Proposals to hire a consulting firm to lead the strategic planning process.
• The RFP was launched by Larimer County in March and proposals are due by April 18. The RFP
selection committee intends to select a consultant by the end of April.
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500
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Q1 2023 Q2 2023 Q3 2023 Q4 2023 Q1 2024
Total # Enrolled in Programs Total # Chronic Homeless # Chronic Housed
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