HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 08/06/2024 - Memorandum from Brittany Depew re: Quarterly Homelessness Update – Q2 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
MEMORANDUM
Date: July 31, 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 – Q2 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 This team, consisting of both City staff and partner agencies, meets weekly to discuss
rapid response needs related to homelessness in our community. The Tactical Team has
increased collaboration and alignment across the response system.
o Ongoing projects include quarterly community hot breakfast events (which will consistently
be hosted at the FoCo Cafe beginning in August) for people experiencing homelessness;
weekly site cleanups; and assessing mitigation options for hot spots
o Recent topics have included cleanup response on private property, RV policy, and storage
of items collected during cleanups.
o Recent hot spots include Gateway Bridge (just west of the Whitewater Park) and several
businesses/vacant properties along the north College corridor.
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• Homelessness Policy Advisory Team
o The Policy Advisory Team held its first meeting in mid-April and continues to meet monthly.
The intention of this team is to focus on policy needs and updates related to homelessness
response.
o The initial topics to be addressed by this team include policy considerations around
property cleanups, repeat offenses, abandoned property, RVs, and trespassing, and the
recent Grants Pass v Johnson Supreme Court ruling.
• Homeless Outreach and Proactive Engagement (HOPE) Team – Police Services
o During Q2, the HOPE Team assisted with the safety of 609 site cleanups, responded to
752 calls for services, and engaged in more than 40 community events. Additionally, the
team provided support on 11 stolen bike recoveries, 14 RV tows, and 185 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 Q2, over the course of 8 cleanup days, 268 sites were cleaned, including 182 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 489 sharps collected, 420 total person hours, 75 cubic
yards of waste (approximately 489 bags), 16 cubic yards of metal recycling, and 55 shopping
carts.
• There are currently 37 sites awaiting cleanup.
• During Q2, the average days to completion for a given site was 10 days.
• To date, the average cost is $6,323 per cleanup day, which generally includes around 23
individual sites.
• In Q2, approximately $50k was spent from the site cleanup budget (for contractor cleanups only,
does not include vehicle tows, etc.).
Extreme Heat Response
• The Extreme Heat Response Plan (EHRP) is activated when the Centers for Disease Control’s
(CDC) and National Weather Service’s (NWS) joint HeatRisk Map forecasts a “major” heat risk
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event. These calculations include many factors like temperature, humidity, time of year, and
length of heat wave. https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/Applications/HeatRisk/
• Upon activation, the City asks the Murphy Center to extend their hours until 8pm to provide a
cooling center for people experiencing homelessness into the evening.
• So far in 2024, the EHRP has been activated for two days: July 12 and 13.
Seasonal Overflow Shelter
• Fort Collins Rescue Mission (FCRM) operated an auxiliary overflow shelter from November 2023-
April 2024 at 117 N. Mason (a City-owned building) to provide 70 additional shelter beds for men
during the winter.
• FCRM, in collaboration with City staff, is currently in the Development Review process to again
operate the overflow shelter at 117 N. Mason for the 2024-2025 winter season. The project review
meeting with staff will be held July 31.
• Additional shelter during the winter is critical for keeping people out of life-threatening conditions
overnight. During summer months, health concerns related to extreme heat take place during the
day, leading to partnership with the Murphy Center to extend their daytime hours, rather than
increasing additional overnight sleeping capacity.
LONG-TERM, SYSTEMIC APPROACHES
Prevention & Supportive Services
• Catholic Charities
o Continuing to be at capacity for families (space for 7 families in emergency shelter).
o Women not at capacity, do have beds available nightly.
o Stay-in days for hot weather available when the high reaches 95 degrees or more.
o Still operating in a financial deficit at the close of their fiscal year.
• Crossroads Safehouse
o Crossroads Safehouse wants to express gratitude for all the support and continued
commitment to survivors in our community.
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• Fort Collins Rescue Mission
o For Q2, FCRM has provided 13,092 meals and 8,450 nights of shelter, and
approximately 390 men were turned away due to space constraints.
o Case manager has helped guests obtain the following: 5 SNAP benefits, 7 applied for
Social Security income, 7 completed Vi-SPDATs (vulnerability assessment), 1 birth
certificate, 4 gained employment, 7 IDs, and 5 moved into more stable housing.
• 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.
• Family Housing Network
o Family Housing Network overnight program has been significantly impacted by the
additional requirements of the temporary certificate of occupancy. Several faith
communities have opted out of hosting FHN families.
o The FHN day shelter has moved into a temporary day center space, which does not
have laundry or a full kitchen. A long-term agency goal is to centralize overnight shelter
and day shelter programs to decrease number of days families are homeless. FHN is
looking at larger spaces and hopes to find a permanent location by fall.
o FHN's rapid rehousing program has paused due to funding constraints.
o The Sherwood House program continues to be successful in sheltering highly vulnerable
families with wraparound support to overcome complex issues that require more time to
resolve.
o So far in 2024, FHN has offered support to 112 families.
• Outreach Fort Collins
o Client activity increased throughout the quarter, which is typical for this time of year.
o OFC staff engaged with 509 unduplicated clients, offering immediate needs education and
resources 785 times and completing 75 agency referrals.
o In Q2, OFC saw a significant increase in contacts at top five geographical hot spots (27%
increase from Q1), and an increase in homeless contacts and contacts with top 10 highest
frequency clients.
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o OFC 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 Q2, of which 15
were previously unknown to OFC.
In Q2, OFC had a total of 285 contacts with all previously referred HOPE clients,
including offering immediate needs education and resources 120 times and
completing 18 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 Q2, 2,552 people were served by these funds across all homelessness programs.
Evaluation, Metrics, and Reporting
• Point in Time Count
o The 2024 PIT count was led by the Northern Colorado Continuum of Care (NoCO CoC)
and was conducted on the night of January 30. The 2024 PIT Data Dashboard is now
available.
o In Fort Collins, 259 individuals (68%) experiencing sheltered homelessness and 122
individuals (32%) experiencing unsheltered homelessness were counted.
o The number of people experiencing sheltered homelessness decreased by 5.4% in 2024
(there were 273 people counted in 2023), and the number of people experiencing
unsheltered homelessness increased by 1.6% in 2024 (129 individuals counted in 2023).
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• 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 Q2:
o There were 2,646 homeless individuals with active enrollments (seeking services).
o There were 559 people experiencing chronic (more than one year) homelessness in Fort
Collins.
o 24 people who had been experiencing chronic homelessness were exited into
permanent housing.
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 first attempt at hiring a consultant to create a countywide homelessness strategic plan via
RFP process was unsuccessful.
• The RFP was then edited and reposted in June. More applications were received than last time
and the process continues to move forward.
• Proposals will be reviewed by the committee and next steps discussed on August 5.
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