COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Colorado Springs residents got their first look at what the city’s updated Homeless Response Plan might look like Thursday afternoon.

Residents, advocates, leaders, and unhoused citizens all packed into a room at the city administration building for a preview of a plan that’s been in the works for more than a year.

“I was really excited to see all these different residents that showed up today,” Housing and Community Vitality Department Acting Chief Housing Officer Katie Sunderlind said. “What was presented today was our base, and we’re going to make sure that’s updated based on what we’ve heard today.”

The presentation laid out concrete steps the city can take to make sure residents across the continuum of homelessness are taken care of with six focus areas that include homelessness prevention, enforcement and clean up, street outreach and shelter, employment opportunities, affordable housing and supportive services, and regional and collaborative communication.

Actions include ensuring housing for seniors and those experiencing mental health issues, increasing the number of officers on the CSPD Homeless Outreach Team, finding partners to operate a non-congregate shelter, expanding the WorkCOS program, and increasing the number of low-income affordable housing.

Unhoused Colorado Springs resident Louis Acker said he felt the meeting went well.

“This is the first meeting they allowed the homeless to actually be in,” he said. “I think they should have a couple people from the streets to let them know how it works because there’s a couple things I want to change.”

Housing advocate Max Kronstadt said he was pleased to hear about some parts of the city’s plan.

“I was very happy to see the city talking about using federal funding to create expanded shelter options because that’s something that we sorely need in town,” he said. “We also advocated for increased public bathrooms so opening up the bathrooms that exist and expanding bathrooms so I was happy to see that included in the plan as well.”

However, he said there are also things he’d like to see change.

“Disappointed to see the expansion of the HOT team when there’s no evidence to suggest that’s working, it’s actually actively setting people back in their ability to get out of homelessness,”Kronstadt said.

Old Colorado City homeowner David Vaillencourt said while he believes there’s a lot to like about the plan, he also sees room for improvement.

“We need more than just a 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. HOT crew, we need a lot more staff there and it can’t be just about enforcement because that’s expensive, it doesn’t make sense to just keep ticketing and bringing people to court, we need something more sustainable,” he said.

Vaillencourt said he wants the city to address the root causes of homelessness.

“Otherwise we just keep putting a Band-Aid on it and it’s just like we’re taking on water in the boat and continuing to bail it out and it’s just this endless, vicious, expensive, frustrating cycle,” he said.

Sunderlind said they plan to release a full draft in early September, ahead of the mayor’s State of the City speech.

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WASHINGTON — Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will continue to live with less water next year from the Colorado River after the U.S. government on Thursday announced water cuts that preserve the status quo. Long-term challenges remain for the 40 million people reliant on the imperiled river.

The 1,450-mile (2,334-kilometer) river is a lifeline for the U.S. West and supplies water to cities and farms in northern Mexico, too. It supports seven Western states, more than two dozen Native American tribes and irrigates millions of acres of farmland in the American West. It also produces hydropower used across the region.

Years of overuse combined with rising temperatures and drought have meant less water flows in the Colorado today than in decades past.

The Interior Department announces water availability for the coming year months in advance so that cities, farmers and others can plan. Officials do so based on water levels at Lake Mead, one of the river’s two main reservoirs that act as barometers of its health.

Based on those levels, Arizona will again lose 18% of its total Colorado River allocation, while Mexico’s goes down 5%. The reduction for Nevada — which receives far less water than Arizona, California or Mexico — will stay at 7%.

The cuts announced Thursday are in the same “Tier 1” category that were in effect this year and in 2022, when the first federal cutbacks on the Colorado River took effect and magnified the crisis on the river. Even deeper cuts followed in 2023. Farmers in Arizona were hit hardest by those cuts.

Heavier rains and other water-saving efforts by Arizona, California and Nevada somewhat improved the short-term outlook for Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which is upstream of Mead on the Utah-Arizona border.

Officials on Thursday said the two reservoirs were at 37% capacity.

They lauded the ongoing efforts by Arizona, California and Nevada to save more water, which are in effect until 2026. The federal government is paying water users in those states for much of that conservation. Meanwhile, states, tribes and others are negotiating how they will share water from the river after 2026, when many current guidelines governing the river expire.

Tom Buschatzke, director of Arizona’s Department of Water Resources and the state’s lead negotiator in those talks, said Thursday that Arizonans had “committed to incredible conservation … to protect the Colorado River system.”

“Future conditions,” he added, “are likely to continue to force hard decisions.”

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Associated Press reporter Amy Taxin contributed from Santa Ana, Calif.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Colorado is expected to hire George Helow as senior defensive coach, per source. He’ll work closely with Buffaloes defensive coordinator Robert Livingston. Helow worked under Jim Harbaugh as Michigan linebackers coach and most recently spent time last season as a special assistant to Nick Saban at Alabama. 

The 37-year-old has experience at multiple SEC & Big Ten schools, including Maryland, Georgia and Florida State. He was hired at Alabama ahead of their College Football Playoff Semifinal matchup against Michigan last year. Saban and the Tide appeared to be make every effort to gain an advantage on the top-ranked Wolverines. 

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Helow’s stop in Tuscaloosa was his second, as he previously served as an defensive intern for Alabama in 2012, first in the weight room in the spring, then under then-defensive coordinator Kirby Smart in the fall. He also had a brief stop at Colorado State for four seasons from 2016-19.
In 2022, Michigan’s defense ranked third nationally in total defense (277.1 yards per game) and fifth in scoring defense (13.4 points per game). The year prior, the unit ranked 12th in total defense (316.2 yards per game allowed) and fourth in scoring defense (16.1).

Helow played collegiately at Ole Miss with 38 games of experience from 2008-10, including back-to-back Cotton Bowl victories. He was nominated for the Burlsworth Trophy, an award given annually to the nation’s most outstanding college football player who began their career as a walk-on.