Homelessness Proposals
Create an official city board to oversee homeless services and make recommendations to HHS and to City Council directly. The city occasionally runs engagement sessions with homeless service providers, community members with lived experience and/or those who are currently homeless, and other key stakeholders. However, those sessions feel disconnected to those involved and only focus on a sliver of the work being done. Given the complexities of the issues at hand, the magnitude of the need and of the city's investment, and the key nature of nonprofit providers to the work being done, the city should implement a Homeless Services Board that consists of nonprofit partners and people experiencing homelessness.
What problem(s) does this proposal aim to solve?*
Boulder has a complex infrastructure of providers who work together to address various needs in the homeless community.
This provider network is best suited to identify gaps in programming and to identify work that can meaningfully move the needle on homeless services.
This provider network is best suited to discussing the logistics and cost of various additional proposals surrounding homeless services, and to help the city's HHS staff bring forward proposals to City Council that are grounded in the reality of budgeting, staffing, and provider availability.
People in Boulder who are currently experiencing homelessness are best suited to describe the barriers to accessing current services, the needs that feel most pressing to members of the community, and to give an on-the-ground read to the likely success or failure of various program proposals.
The city needs a holistic approach to its homeless service needs and programming, and piecemeal engagement can never replace direct feedback and conversation.
On several occasions the city has pushed out an RFP that has not been bid on by any providers, or has discussed an RFP that seemed very out of step with actual costs and scaling, or has failed to launch an RFP for a much-needed service when instead spending money on much less effective work. This panel will ensure those things do not occur again.
Proposed Board Details:
The board should ideally consist of 2 representatives from each homeless shelter, each homeless reentry program, and each homeless outreach program in the City of Boulder. It should also include 1 representative from each program that works with people from Boulder’s homeless population but does not provide direct care services (i.e. food banks, medical providers, mental health providers, substance abuse and recovery programs,faith-based groups, community court, etc.). While some of the folks in the above categories may have lived experience, the panel should also include 5-10% of its seats specifically for those currently or recently experiencing homelessness in the city.
This board should meet at least once a month and should allow for subcommittee work to put together proposals to answer specific questions from staff or to submit ideas to City Council.