‘It’s just this endless, vicious, expensive, frustrating cycle’: Colorado Springs residents weigh in on updated homelessness plan

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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