HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 04/22/2025 - Memorandum from Beth Yonce re Work Session Summary – April 8, 2025, Council Priority: Improve Human and Social Health for Vulnerable PopulationsSocial Sustainability Department
222 Laporte Ave.
PO Box 580, Fort Collins, CO 80522
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WORK SESSION MEMORANDUM
Date: April 15, 2025
To: Mayor and City Councilmembers
Through: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager
Tyler Marr, Deputy City Manager
Jacob Castillo, Chief Sustainability Officer
From: Beth Yonce, Social Sustainability Department Director
Subject: Work Session Summary – April 8, 2025, Council Priority: Improve Human and Social
Health for Vulnerable Populations
BOTTOM LINE
The purpose of this memo is to document the summary of discussions during the April 8, 2025
Work Session. All Councilmembers were present.
DISCUSSION SUMMARY
At the Work Session, staff provided a status report on Council’s Priority: Improve Human and
Social Health for Vulnerable Populations, discussed identified barriers and programs focused on
removing obstacles, shared real-life human impact stories, and discussed newly emerging
barriers and challenges.
Highlights and themes from Council discussion are as follows:
General support for current programs and efforts to address and lower barriers and to
connect and support disproportionately impacted communities in Fort Collins
Affirmation that staff are generally meeting Council’s expectations and to keep the work
moving forward
Council noted that staff should report on specific barriers programs are removing and
data to show the impact of program outcomes. For example: how many potential
households could be signing up for Get FoCo? What percentage have we reached to
date.
Council noted the importance of translation and interpretation services for City services
and programs/events
Questions were posed about the regional response to air quality concerns, and the
economic impacts of poor air quality.
Regional response: The City, Larimer County and State Air Pollution Control
Division have worked jointly to expand air quality monitoring to inform real time
conditions, trends and links to sources of emissions. Additionally, the State has
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recently adopted, and continues to evaluate, a number of rules and regulations
that tighten emission limits and leak-detection requirements for sources. This is
informed by advocacy from local jurisdictions including the City and County.
Economic impacts: In Larimer County, thousands of residents suffer from asthma
or COPD, conditions made worse by ozone pollution. Hospitals and clinics see
increases in emergency room visits and respiratory cases on high ozone and
smoke days. While difficult to quantify, these health impacts translate to
economic costs, including medical expenses and missed days at work and
school.
Concern about how Spin scooters may impact sidewalk accessibility, especially for
people who may use wheelchairs or have other physical disabilities, when they are left in
the middle of sidewalks. Staff from FC Moves provided this information:
o Spin regularly monitors for improperly parked bikes and scooters when an
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool that reviews the end-of-ride photos riders must
submit to end a ride and with drivers who pick up bikes and scooters that have
not been rented in 3-7 days.
o Riders who park improperly receive a warning with escalating penalties for repeat
offenses. Spin issues hundreds of warnings each month and repeat offenses are
rare.
o The City has installed 40 bike/scooter boxes for riders to park into encouraging
proper parking.
o There are 3 ways to report improperly parked bikes and scooters: via the Spin
app, email fortcollinsops@spinteam.pm, or call 1-888-249-9698.
Council asked about Federal funding impacts and plans to address potential cuts:
o While staff continue to monitor whether Fort Collins will be impacted by Federal
funding cuts, it is important to recognize that large Federal cuts to human
services and other programs supporting the most disproportionately impacted
communities would be catastrophic. Staff continue to work closely with
community partners to support and plan as best as possible.
In response to a question from Council regarding whether the Epic Homes program is
delivering the intended outcomes:
o As of March 2025, Utilities has supported 597 home efficiency, heat pump, and
solar upgrades through the Epic Loans on-bill financing program, loaning over
$10M to support homeowners improving residential buildings, averaging
approximately 70 new loans annually.
o The loan program helps provide an alternative cash flow solution for funding
home upgrades but is not necessarily intended to fill a “gap” in any given
demographic that may not be otherwise participating. The average income of
households served by the Epic Loans program is ~ $145,000 which indicates that
we are serving households who wouldn’t qualify for our income qualified
program, but who also need financing to be able to afford energy upgrades.
o The loan program is an example of a program designed to lower barriers to
support community home upgrades, while other strategies include providing up-
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front incentives, technical energy advising services, and assistance working with
contractors. Utilities has gathered feedback to continuously improve the program
and has measured customer satisfaction through third party program evaluations.
o As an alternative to the Epic Loans Program, Utilities also partners with Energy
Outreach Colorado's CARE program to serve income-qualified households.
CARE provides no-cost home efficiency upgrades and has experienced
significant growth—serving ten times more households in 2024 than in 2019, and
double the number served in 2023.
o In terms of vulnerable populations, efforts to improve accessibility with mobile
home households and rental households have also been made:
Nearly 50% of all CARE program households served in 2024 were in
mobile homes.
In July of 2024, Epic Homes began offering bonus incentives for rental
property owners to make efficiency and electrification upgrades to their
rentals. Rental retrofit participation jumped 60% after the bonus
incentive launched, with 16 rental participants in six months compared
to 10 in all of 2023.
Barriers/obstacles being addressed with current City programs were presented in the
Agenda Item Summary and presentation as: cost/affordability, language, transportation,
communication and outreach, documentation and fear, digital divide, and difficult
processes. Council suggested focusing on how our work is addressing these and
emerging barriers, identifying clear goals, and showing how we are meeting our goals.
o Suggested that staff report on which barriers are being removed by programs
with data to support the impact, what is the household potential reach of a
program, and how many have we reached.
NEXT STEPS
Staff will continue to provide regular updates on this Council Priority and will continue to work on
metrics improvements.
FOLLOW-UP ITEMS
Council Work Session later this year to further discuss options for Mobile Home Park support.
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