November 16, 2021 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] [Music] [Music]

[7:16] [Music] bouldercounty.org families slco 19 SL vaccines and also we have another announcement while we are happy to have council members in person today we want to acknowledge that reflecting covid precautions we are not yet able to welcome the community back into council chambers we are grateful that we have the technology to host a hybrid meeting and have the community join us online

[8:00] council members will be able to hear community members who are speaking during open comment and public hearings and community members will be able to see council members on the dis please take it over niia for further announcements thank you mayor proam and Welcome to our incoming uh newly sworn council members to the meeting I just wanted to say a brief thank you and for the benefit of our audience that's watching us we have been with the support of our great Partners at Boulder County Public Health um complied with the regulations to become a verified fully vaccinated event and that is why you will see many of us still with mask on when we're not speaking because it is still strongly encouraged given where we are with Co transmission rates but when we are not we will be unmasking uh to speak and uh just appreciate everyone following the protocols thank you

[9:02] thank you very much naria and next please Alicia go with the roll call thank you mayor proam and good evening everyone and Welcome to our newly elected council members council member Benjamin present rocket present farts present friend here Joseph present Speer present wallik present Wier present Yates delighted to be here mayor protim we have our core thank you very much the next item in our agenda is a motion to amend the agenda to add item 1A declaration honoring transgender day of remembrance and also to move the public hearing heing item 5A to public hearing item 2A

[10:02] to hold mayor and mayor protm elections which will reorder the agenda and also add item 9A discussion on future inperson meetings and 2022 meetings do we have a motion so mve second thank you um please raise your hand if for the motion please the motion has been passed unanimously now we will have a declaration in honor of transgender people transgender day of remembrance November 20th 2020 trans transgender people in Boulder are valued and important members of our community transgender people are more likely to be discriminated against in the area of housing employment and healthc Care the city of Boulder will continue to educate and

[11:00] Advocate about transgender issues and provide funding for services and programs for transgender Community November 20th of each year we honor transgender people who have been murdered because of their transgender identity and we acknowledge the level of extreme violence and fear faced by the transgender people nationally and internationally the city of Boulder values continuing support for transgender people by Direct ly advocating for transgender cultural competency training expanding programs for transgender people and providing access for equal representation of transgender people in the decision-making processes of city government we the city of Boulder the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado declare November 20th as transgender day of remembrance do we have anyone from to receive this

[12:02] you can hear me oh I think I can hear uh thank you thank you for the proclamation honoring this somber day of morning and reflection every day our trans Community local and Beyond faces intense hate violence and murder but they remain strong and resilient so I my name is Juan Raina I didn't introduce myself but uh so on behalf of out Boulder County's lgbtq plus community our trans steering and events committee members and staff I thank you for this important acknowledgement thank you all so much thank you very much do you have do we have any comments from Council Members no okay great thank you Alicia do you take us to the next part of the agenda yes ma'am next as amended we will have item 2A which will be the public hearing for the mayor and mayor protim elections

[13:02] great before we head to that I'd like to lay some of the ground rules and explain what will happen next in accordance with the council rule 6 section 9 we will now conduct the election of the mayor and mayor protm council member brackets and Yates have submitted their hotline post expressing interest in becoming the next mayor council member friends has submitted her hotline Post in becoming mayor protm we will hold the public hearing first then I will call for nomination for mayor and second and if there's no second for a nomin there's no second for a nomination after nomination for the mayor I will call for nomination for the mayor protm after all nominations have been made I will call for a motion in a second to close the nomination then I will open the floor to nominated candidates to make a statement if they so choose as well as any council member

[14:00] if more than one candidate has been nominated for a position I will then ask the city clerk to flip a coin to choose whether we go in alphabetical order or reverse alphabetical order to vote on the candidate we will vote by raising hands after the May mayor election is concluded we will repeat the voting process for mayor protm after the mayor and mayor proem has been elected the mayor will take over as the chair of this meeting now we will go on to the public hearing for the mayor and mayor protm today we only have four speakers each speakers will have three minutes we have ly SEO Laya hicki Claudia theme and Jill Grano we'll start with Len SEO juny I don't yet see Lynn in the meeting we can move on to the next person until she comes all right and lla

[15:02] I am activating your mute button you should be able to unmute thank you very much Council and staff thank you for your time this evening it's uh it's exciting to realize that when I address Council I'm speaking to several new faces my name is Laya hickey I'm a resident of Boulder and I'm here to support Erin's candidacy for mayor in the time I've lived in Boulder I've had the per perhaps dubious pleasure of listening to an awful lot of Council meetings so much so that I've come to feel a familiarity with many members of council I believe Aaron is incredibly well suited for the job he has a great deal of experience he's been on Council since 2015 but I believe the qualities which truly suit him for this job are his pragmatic desire to solve problems his thoughtful and meticulous approach in doing so and the genuine willingness to examine all sides of a problem which comes from that

[16:00] desire to truly solve it in short Aaron is the kind of person I wish were running meetings at my office I believe he would make an incredible mayor and I urge you to vote for him thank you thank you Laya next is Claudia theme Claudia you should be able to unmute Claudia thank you good evening council members my name is Claudia Hansen theme I live in the holiday neighborhood I want to say a few words tonight in support of eron Brockett for mayor I was part of the boulder progressives group that endorsed Erin's reelection campaign in 2019 and since then we've had many conversations about issues of mutual concern Ain has advised me on my own activities and I consider him a political Mentor but I knew Aaron first and continue to know him best as a labor in the Wild Sage co-housing community and I

[17:01] want to share a few Impressions from that perspective that I think will complement Erin's long record of public service that most of you are already familiar with in co-housing we have a lot of meetings to set policies and priorities and to manage the ins and outs of living together in community yall have nothing on us in that regard um and in these settings I've always found Aaron to be a thoughtful and compassionate listener even when he has a horse in the race Aaron facilitates without being in a formal leadership role he summarizes he clarifies he puts points in conversation with each other to arrive at better answers he wants people to not just be heard but to feel understood even when consensus is impossible this is leadership that Boulder needs since joining city council Aaron has become our community resource for all things related to local government and in that role he's always taken care to inform rather than instruct or Lobby

[18:00] he respects political difference and tries to educate people about resources and processes rather than about his desired outcomes wearing an activist hat sometimes I wish he weren't quite so diplomatic but he understands and takes seriously his role as a representative not so much of the city but of the institution of local participatory democracy this is also leadership that Boulder needs finally Aaron shows up when there's a community need we haven't seen as much of him at Wild Sage since he joined city council and that's understandable it's full-time work on top of full-time work but he does show a deep commitment to being present when presence is what really matters he joins us at Community celebrations he joins us when we gather to work and he joins us when we gather to grieve without fail and as you have all seen Erin also does these things for our larger Boulder Community he shows up to witness or participate in the ways that community

[19:01] members ask and that is how I at least want our city represented in the public eye we talk about the mayor of Boulder being a leader amongst equals and that is how I have seen Erin conduct himself in the 12 years I've known him as a neighbor I'm grateful that he's stepped forward and I hope that you will appoint him as mayor for the coming Council term thank you thank you Claudia next we have jel Grano juny I do not see Jill or Lynn in the meeting um if either of you are present in the zoom meeting if you could raise your hand to let us know that would be helpful but otherwise we may be able to proceed with the meeting at this point thank you we will proceed and if they show up just let us know at this time we will close the public hearing I will now open the nominations for mayor anyone I'll go ahead rual friend

[20:00] thanks juny I would um be proud to nominate Aaron Brockett for mayor of the city of Boulder and um I do have a few words to say but I don't know if it's now or later you're welcome to speak on the nomination okay great um and I want to thank Bob Yates as well for being willing to stand for mayor 2 um he also would serve Boulder dutifully in this role um but back to Aaron Aaron has served six years on Council um and Layla and Claudia have uh expressed well some of eron's great qualities so I'll just add a little bit to what they already said um having been here for six years he does know our issues and challenges inside and out he will guide our city with the strongest focus on equity and inclusivity as well as with kindness and I'm looking over and I'm I'm sure this is hard for you to hear Aaron because you're so humble all of the good things that people are saying about you but I'm going to continue um communicating and relationship building is a very big part

[21:00] of the mayor's job and I know from experience working with Aaron that he will excel here um he's a bridge builder he is pragmatic he's open to new ideas he's intellectually curious and smart he is so efficient that he's always amazingly right on time he is not going to uh as as the person running meetings he will not waste the community's time I believe it all um and just want to note that we are living through some unusually turbulent times on top of the hard issues that we are tackling as a city we have increasing polarization and divisiveness and we often have sort of All or Nothing win or lose mentalities on the issues that come to us and Aaron is the opposite of that he's never quick to anger or judgment he's calm he's considerate he's collaborative he has good dad jokes for every occasion I hope he will give us one in his uh Speech and he leads with his heart uh but he fills out the pictures with data and detailed analysis I think that Aaron is the type type of leader that that everywhere in

[22:00] this country needs in 2022 so it is my great honor to nominate Aaron Brockett as our next mayor thank you thank you Rachel do we have any more nominations yes I am very pleased and and delighted actually to nominate my friend um Bob Yates for the position of Mayor of the city of Boulder um as he has expressed in uh his expression of interest uh in applying for this position we have an abundance of riches this year uh in that both candidates are eminently qualified and capable of Performing the job um I am nominating Bob um because I have always found him to be fair extraordinarily knowledgeable about the issues uh if you have read his uh periodic newsletter uh you will almost never fail to learn something or many things about the issues of the day and U that body of knowledge I think will serve this community well

[23:02] um in terms of how he interacts with the community he is always there uh he is always prepared to meet with people to listen to people uh and to respond um I have gained a great deal from my friendship and association with Bob and I believe very strongly that he would make an excellent mayor and so I am very proud and delighted to put his name in nomination thank you very much is there anyone else who would like to speak about the nominations of these two council members no not at this moment okay great is there a motion to close the nomination so moved second the nominations are now closed oh go ahead

[24:00] thank you now we will go to the protm nominations anyone or council members while we have H several council members go ahead uh or council member Matt I would like to nominate council member Rachel friend uh for the position of Mayor protm um Rachel's been on Council now for 2 years but I think she's demonstrated and shown that she's probably been here for longer than that um you know she's an attorney a mom and she's one of the most selfless uh people that we have on Council and really is the epitome of fighting for those who don't have a voice um she's demonstrated a clear understanding of our process and procedures and is clear in providing guidance to make uh this body here uh a more effective and more inclusive group um you know between all of that coupled with the fact that you know her husband and one of her kids is

[25:01] an ER do and nurse I think Rachel is going to provide a unique perspective to help lead us through the pandemic and Beyond um and so I'm just really um humbled with the opportunity to nominate you uh for mayor protm because I think you're doing outstanding job anyone else would like to speak on the nominations all right is there is there now is there a motion to close the nominations so moved is there a second the nominations are now closed would the candidates like to make a statement please well I I put everything into my hotline post but I just want to say I'm grateful and humbled uh for the very kind words that Rachel and the folks um in the public hearing said and also thank Bob for his C I'll keep it short as well U first of

[26:00] all as I said in my hotline post um and as Mark just said I think there's an abundance of riches I think actually many people on this Tas could could serve as as mayor or mayor prot so I really appreciate Ain and Rachel stepping up and volunteering that and I I hope that everyone on this di does have that opportunity mark thank you for your kind words I appreciate it very much and and Ain um good luck to you I know you'll make a great any of the council members are interested in speaking on the nominations I will just say briefly that um I also put my intent in the and U feelings about this nomination in my hotline post and will not belabor us with more statements but it it would be an honor to be mayor protm thank you well I'll make a comment just that I've worked with both with um council member yat and council member Barett and I can say those are two well-qualified

[27:00] candidates but as well they're just great and decent human beings and it's been really you know it's been I've been very grateful to have work served with these two because covid has really impacted our community and here we are we are still standing and we're still working hard to protect the community so I'm grateful to to have these two people uh who was here before me before I started so I'm grateful to both of you and also I just want to say to Rachel and thank you for putting yourself forward because that's what leadership is about it's not about having all the answers but it's about stepping up even when you don't know what that lead leadership will look like and what will be the challenges that you will face moving forward so thank you for putting yourself forward and now we will move on to the vote for the mayor since we have uh two candidates the clerk will now flip a coin to determine whether the vote is Al alphab alcal heads or reverse alphabetical on which candidates will

[28:01] vote on first bracket or Yates one so tell is which of the candidates we'll go for Yates first so we will now vote on the mayor all those in favor of council member Yates please raise your hands thank you we have three candidate three uh council members for Yates now all those in favor of council member Aaron please raise your hands council member Aaron Brockett has six

[29:04] votes so with all that say congratulations our council member Aaron rocket has been elected mayor of the Boulder City Council congratulations all right great this was really exciting please mind if I just um just quickly that's this is uh an extraordinary honor um and I will do my very best uh to live up to the trust that you all are placing in me tonight and um thanks again Bob for your candidacy um and I know that we'll work very closely together in the upcoming Council and uh you know I'll have a lot to learn taking on this new role and I Look to all of you to help guide me this moving forward thank you so much this was really exciting so now we have the mayor protm elections all in favor of Rachel friend for mayor protm please raise your

[30:04] hands we have a unanimous vote for Rachel as mayor PRM and congratulations Rachel thank you juny um I have just a couple words I want to thank Matt Benjamin for the kind words that he said in nominating me and also to juny and Bob thank you for um role modeling the mayor protm position for the last two years you both um did an excellent job um and I'm looking forward to just um supporting mayor Brockett and the this Council and uh City staff in the community in this role as best I can so I appreciate the opportunity and the honor and I do have one bookkeeping item if this is the right time to bring it up which is yeah good enough um I am currently the rotating member of CAC and so if I become having become mayor proam somebody's going to have to sub in for the next four as that is my my

[31:02] obligation till the end of the year would this be the right time to discuss that or do we want to put it under matters I think this is for the for the mayor for once I think we have to adjourn this part of the meeting and then you both take over to have that discussion so should I do a motion to end this part of the meeting and reopen you can say we you know the mayor can take his seat thank you so this part of the meeting is over please mayor come over and take your seat

[32:09] all right well here we go so I believe uh Alicia our next bit is open comment is that correct that is correct sir okay well let's get to it we have 20 people signed up they'll get two minutes each um bear with me as I do this for the first time uh so we are going to start with um Jacob Payne Amba cth and Nisha schnap and Ain um we're going to um we typically do the meeting rules Renda we're not able to hear you up here oh uh we typically do the meeting rules before we start open comment let's do that meeting I will share my I also just wanted to add that uh I got a text from a Community member asking us all to lean in that we're hard to

[33:00] hear that is good to know thank you and I'm sorry brand should we not be able to hear you up here um I'm trying to balance the needs of channel8 with the needs of the room so I will do my best to do both at the same time I'll put on my no worries sounds good theater voice uh so these are the rules um for our um meetings this evening to make sure that we all can stay engaged in and in a productive atmosphere together the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civic conversations this Vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members staff and Council as well as democracy for people of all ages identities lived experience and political perspectives for more information about this vision and the the community community engagement processes that led to it please visit

[34:01] our website and search productive atmospheres for some examples um of rules of decorum found in the boulder Revised Code and other guidelines that support this Vision these will be upheld during this meeting all remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to City business no participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person obscenity racial epithets and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability to conduct the meeting are prohibited and participants are required to sign up to speak using the full name they're commonly known by and individuals must display that name before being allowed to speak online um if you see your name does not read that way please reach out to me in the Q&A and I am happy to help you out currently only audio testimony is permitted onine line and with that new Mr Mayor we are

[35:01] ready to begin thanks so much Brenda so uh let's get on with open comment oh sorry that was me no worries okay so our first three speakers tonight are Jacob Payne Amba cameth and Nisha schnap Jacob you should be able to unmute now hi can you hear me we can great hello my name is Jacob Payne and I'm a Boulder City resident I'm here to speak to council about concerns for housing insecurity in our city and ask city council to consider taking immediate action to improve our situation I chose to move to Boulder from Atlanta Georgia where I grew up because of the great resources and Civic culture here in Boulder we live in a really unique City with remarkable public transit and infrastructure for

[36:01] our size however I've noticed that housing presents an outside City in our an outsized issue in our city as well Boulder has made impressive forward-looking decisions about our open space and City layout and it's time to make changes to housing rules as well to create a a broad plan that considers all of our residents with Equitable and equitably addresses the unique housing needs of our city if we want to preserve our Park land in Open Spaces we need to allow for healthy density improvements to keep Boulder livable I'm excited by the potential for the next year and our new council members to help make Boulders housing laws more socially just for all people while we work toward achieving that shared goal please take action now to help lift people up and protect them from harm the eviction crisis in the US is not over taking action now will prevent compounding factors from hurting our community covid-19 is again on the rise with a 14 % gain in National daily cases over the last two weeks and as

[37:00] winter weather begins to set in the risks of housing insecurity are much more severe I am asking for a six-month suspension on enforcement of unrelated people living together while we work together to make long-term reforms to housing in Boulder thank you thank you Jacob next Amba Amba kth Nisha schnip and Eric bud hello um good evening my name is amaka I'm a relatively new resident of Boulder and a volunteer with bedrooms are for people I'm joining others here in asking for a six-month suspension on enforcement against unrelated people living together our city council Works to develop longer term reforms I'm really excited that our city council is looking to prioritize occupancy reform and I have a lot of confidence that you will act to improve housing availability and affordability in Boulder but I'm a scientist and I know how hard it can be to collect unbiased data even in the

[38:02] best of circumstances let alone in a situation like ours where people do not feel free to speak up out of fear in the current climate of fear around enforcement against over occupancy I worry that it's going to be very hard for Council to collect data to truly understand the negative impact of our harsh occupancy laws on the current residents of Boulder with the suspension of enforcement that we are asking for which is very similar to the executive order suspending limits on house sharing issued by the governor last year residents of Boulder will be able to come forward to freely share their stories with city council about housing in Boulder without fear of legal repercussions people will feel free to share their best ideas for how we can make housing better more affordable and more available in the city the suspension whereas asking for will allow for Council to Envision an enact truly Democratic occupancy reform that will

[39:02] make Boulder accessible to all of us including those of us that aren't wealthy and do not live in traditional family Arrangements this is essential as we strive to make Boulder more welcoming of all kinds of diversity thanks for your attention thank you Amba Nisha schneep Eric bud and then Patrick Murphy please hi my name is is Nisha I'm a volunteer with bedrooms are for people and a homeowner in South Boulder I'm asking city council to enact a six-month suspension on enforcement of unrelated people living together as longer term reforms are developed I find it deeply problematic that enforcement of city code is currently so unequal I have seen code enforcement drive on my street many times in the past several years a few times the officers stopped at workingclass houses that had too many cars but drove by the houses of well-to-do retirees even though they had several

[40:01] cars in their driveway and long trailers or RVs permanently parked on the street a few years ago the neighbors living across the street from me got evicted and and another neighbor living in a street parked RV was forced to move it's not fair that wealthier people or people who bought their home decades ago should get more access to public parking with workingclass people having to defend not only their parking spot but often also Al their housing this past election showed that occupancy limits and affordable housing are huge issues to many in Boulder I urge the city council to seriously work on these problems but to do so in a way where all members of our community can join the conversation no one should be afraid of repercussions like getting evicted or fined um by being able to participate and shaping policy that will impact them our City's government needs to work to repair the lack of trust it's lack of trust is earned from working-class people to both

[41:01] rebuild trust and improve equal participation in democracy I ask you to suspend enforcement on unrelated people living together while considering these longer term reforms thank you thank you Nisha next we have Eric Bud Patrick Murphy and Margaret LMP hello uh my name is Eric bud I'm a co-lead on the Bomar for people campaign um we've been working on this campaign for almost two years now um in the most recent iteration and tonight we are asking for a KN of five from the city council to have the city manager and the city suspend occupancy limit enforcement while longer reforms longer term reforms are being made um so for some context um in 2015 2016 I was involved heavily with the Boulder Community Housing Association with which worked on the Cooperative housing ordinance that we was ultimately passed in

[42:01] 2017 um at that time the city suspended occupancy limits um to protect people who were who were going to benefit from that process and we're asking for something very similar from the city tonight that process took nearly two years and the final results of the legislation and ordinance that resulted from that is something that hardly works at all um we have only created one or two new cooperatives through this process and essentially it's we created something that was that was really barely functional and so we are asking for um a six-month suspension on this because we would like the city to take some urgency and build off of the massive Outreach that we've done um over the past two years and the election um the issue that was put forward by our campaign in the election um over occupancy so you know we know that

[43:00] off-ear election turnout um doesn't represent the whole city um one thing you all should know is that um our our measure got about 48% of the vote this year um and only 49% of registered voters turned out in this election compared to 2020 when 92% of of active voters turned out in the election and so we want to make sure that the city protects people right now and that we can move ahead with reforms that include everyone in the city and particularly those people who are directly affected you know and H are housing insecure because of this discriminatory law you know our team spoke at nearly every open comment in 2020 and we just want you to know that we are super excited to have a council that will lead with compassion and will represent those who have not had a voice in our community for so long so thank you so much for listening to our request thank you Eric next is Patrick

[44:00] Murphy Margaret LMP and Laura Tyler we are currently having trouble with Mr Murphy's um presentation Aaron um so perhaps we could move to the next speaker while we see if we can't get that downloaded appropriately Patrick if you don't mind we'll wait for you for one more personal we get the presentation set up so that's then Margaret lmpt next you should be able to unmute Margaret hello thank you so much for allowing me to speak uh I want to congratulate the new members of the council and the new leadership and I want to ask that you take seriously the wisdom and expertise of community residents who have been urging more transparency public participation more de Democratic and inclusive processes for decision making and more collaboration to that end we ask you to

[45:00] listen to the nearly 10,000 people who signed petitions challenging the provisions of the uh annexation proposal for CU South this fight over annexation is not over we ask you to look at the uh climate change negative climate change impacts right here right now in Boulder by not Paving over the CU the South Boulder flood plane with concrete more concrete will only increase flood risk not decrease it we don't need another campus in the face of declining enrollments Nationwide for CU we would like for you to re-evaluate the entire annexation proposal in light of the city's uh climate change agenda right now right here in Colorado Estus Park people are being evacuated because of a new wildfire right here right now in Washington State and British Colombia increasing flooding is

[46:01] has closed Highway 1 and is causing people to lose their lives in flooding we really need to look at the annexation agreement and go back to the 2001 recommendations for South Boulder Creek's flood plane by Gilbert white that called for the natural use of the whole flood plane as a way to more naturally prevent the kind of flooding that we had in 2013 we really want you to examine the annexation agreement or we will seek to repeal it for you we ask you to put the referendum that you have before you uh on the ballot for 20122 and uh I thank you very much for your attention thank you for that Margaret can we go to Patrick Murphy's presentation now we can give me just one moment to share

[47:00] I'm Patrick my name is Patrick Murphy I've lived in Boulder 52 years I attended the first public Zoom meeting of the boulder Excel advisory panel if we do this right it'll work if not we'll be repeating the wasted decade and $30 million of the munion I don't think all the 18 members of the panel attended this first meeting but thanks to those who did the muni had advisory panels as well well and we can see how ineffective they were to reality check the mun in summary my opinion of the first meeting was that there's still a tendency to forget the Mandate for Speed the equity filter and as Greta thunberg would say a mandate for no more blah blah blah fortunately some on the panel had the nerve to speak up about the direction of the panel for example the first two advisory panel priorities were number one 100% Renewables and number two building electrification fortunately the 100%

[48:01] Renewables goal can include absolutely everything the building electrification goal is out of position and shouldn't even begin until the electric grid is mostly Renewables rather than coal and gas a 100% electrified building today or car for that matter this connected to the grid without solar or wind source is a whole lot of coal and gas burning wind incentives were never discussed and that indicates a blind spot by the controllers of the panel the carbon tax that Boulders collecting and is misappropriating is also never discussed carbon tax should be used for carbon reduction but that's not what it's primarily used for that fact has not sunk into city council yet more details on that next time the planet Burns floods and dies while Boulder fiddles we need wind incentives solar incentives reck and energy use reduction

[49:02] fast or risk Panic soon thank you Patrick next we have Laura Tyler Sarah Don Haynes and Robert smoke hi my name is Laura Tyler I'm with the South Boulder Creek Action Group um here to welcome and congratulate Mark wallik Matt Benjamin Nicole spear Lauren fartz and Tara Wier congratulations on your successful campaigns um I want to offer a special thanks to those of you who took a clear position of support on annexing CU South for flood mitigation this is exactly what good leadership does you learn about an issue you take a clear position and then you engage in the art of education and persuasion to bring the community along

[50:00] with you this is hopeful it's beautiful it's very difficult work it takes guts and I honor you and because ballad issue 302 did fail 57 to 43 that's a 13o split I do feel hopeful that our community is ready to move forward with reducing flood risk supporting housing and trans through the annexation of Cu South so I wish you all well I wish you so much success in your work on Council this year and please know that members of South Boulder Creek Action Group are standing by to support and help as we can thank you thank you Laura next is saridon Haynes Robert smoke and Kevin McWilliams how to do this is Sarah Don Haynes I'm a South Boulder resident of and an organizer volunteer supporter

[51:01] with bedrooms are for people I was also a four-year organizer for co-ops with Boulder Community Housing Association and I'm also a co-op I was recently presented with our permit recertification and we considered not doing it the cost is $645 and it comes with a 70-page application and while we commonly have six people currently only have five in our five bedroom for bathroom house we have one car my plug-in hybrid my housemates are trans immigrants some are facing crisis in health Educators nonprofit employees hourly workers and we can't afford to risk our housing or the fines that come with it and we'll submit the permit but we shouldn't have to do so much to live in this city we lost the radish Co-op this year it's a DE devastating loss for the queer Community what if they didn't have to fund raise and spend weeks to

[52:00] months on a permit would they have survived I believe our Council can afford to offer a nod a five to suspend occupancy limits um enforcements for six months and that we can make a better policy that reflects our housing climate and racial um and inclusivity goals thank you for your work on this I know this is um a hard um uh hard uh dilemma that we sit with because um we we uh we have we have a lot of work to do so thank you thank you thank you bye and congrats everybody thanks s Don uh next we have Robert smoke Kevin McWilliams and Blake Stone hello can you hear me yes we can hello you can yes we can okay thanks uh my name is Rob

[53:03] smoke I've been a boulder resident most of the last 35 years um I guess right now I just say I'm a resident of Colorado I um have uh just a brief comment um I know that when uh Council passes rules or laws or regulations or whatever um generally uh there's some agreement that we give the thing time to work okay and um I know that last Council the last Council passed a um a mandatory uh jail term for someone having a tent I think they might have to be a repeater repeat offender with the tent but in any case I think uh that kind of law is inherently discriminatory and and generally an abuse and encourages the wrong kind of

[54:00] attitude across our uh City in our community and I would add that the death of an infant and her mother in in weather that we know is only going to get worse but we know was was bad weather um that has that has to be the thing that substitutes in this case forgiving law chance somebody with a tent might be a $100 tent is in a much better chance of uh surviving a very cold night than somebody who doesn't have one and it is that simple and yeah if you want to crack down and I heard that term used so many times by members of a certain group in Boulder uh if you want to crack down yeah I think it's okay to crack down on people who are violating laws like you know theft or whatever but cracking down on somebody with a temp is just wrong it's just wrong in a basic sense and uh

[55:02] that's what I have to share tonight thank you thank you Robert next we have Kevin McWilliams Blake Stone and harlon Savage hi this is Kevin McWilliams can you hear me yes hi uh I have been a resident of Boulder since 2001 when I moved here for college um and I'd like to extend a warm welcome to the new members of the city council as well as those who are continuing on in their service of our great City and I very much appreciate the work that you all are doing I know it's not easy um i' actually like to relay a sort of personal experience around the occupancy issue which has been discussed by others here um and that is that I have lived nearly my entire time in Boulder over occupied in one way or another um you know and so I've been subject to the negative effects of this uh ordinance for quite some time um and as a matter of fact I've had two different times that uh had occupancy violations once in

[56:00] 2015 and once in 2018 uh and in both cases uh we did not have any notion that our neighbors had an issue with us there were no complaints about parking or noise or Garbage or any of those other normal nuisance issues the first sign we had of it was that there was a yellow code enforcement ticket on our door and then soon enough the police on the code enforcement people coming through our house searching our house looking at numbers of toothbrushes how many bedrooms there were and so on um you know so I would just like to point out to the members of the council who maybe haven't experienced this kind of thing that it is really trying to live for a long time in fear of your own City and of the law enforcement of your own City because you're choosing to live with people that you want to live with and trying to make your housing situation affordable in a city that really has issues with housing affordability um you know and furthermore I'd like to point out that uh you know it seems really unfair and unequal to continue

[57:01] evicting people or subjecting them this to this kind of enforcement while there's a crisis like covid happening um so I strongly support a moratorium on the occupancy enforcement until such time as the council figures out a way to relieve this pressure uh thanks for listening I appreciate it thank you Kevin next we have Blake Stone Haron Savage and Max Hollingsworth hi there my name is Blake Stone and I'm a professional Hospital chaplain at Boulder Community Hospital where we are currently experiencing a peak in this pandemic uh I have been working in Elder Care and Boulder for the last eight years I've lived in Boulders 17 years and for many of those years housing was a major issue in my life I lived in a four-bedroom house with three other professional adults each of us working and engaging in Boulder and our neighborhood during that time time we were harassed by the city twice for over occupancy when our neighbors sold their houses to Real Estate

[58:01] Investors I guess I just want to say look Boulder I really love taking care of your elderly parents I love helping you through crisis events I've even worked in the homeless shelter for covid positive people but could you please legalize my housing I'm queer I don't have family and I love living with housemates because at heart I'm a communal person I've been involved in the occupancy uh in the occupancy and Co-op reform on the periphery for many years because I didn't want to expose uh my housing situation um to City authorities and further endanger my housing situation as I now live alone for the time being I feel safe to speak out more and give a voice to the many others who are currently afraid to speak for fear they will be evicted or flagged by the city today I'm asking the city council to allow the executive order by governor polus who lives in Boulder to suspend or eliminate restrictions on occupancy

[59:00] levels thank you all so much for listening and the work you do for our city and congratulations to our new city council members Thank You Blake next we have Harlem Savage Max Hollingsworth and Carol dressle am I unmuted yes yes you are okay um first thank I want to thank Council for this opportunity um to address you all on the matter of the annexation of the South Boulder Creek flood plane um I want to Echo some of the concerns that Margaret LMP made um starting with uh reminding you and that uh there is a referendum that on the ballot for 2022 and this this fight is far from over um in fact I remember that one

[60:00] council member at one point told me that the only way to get council's attention was to get 10,000 people fired up and that is in fact what happened um safe South Boulder which I'm involved in and plan Boulder um managed to get uh 10,000 signatures for the ballot initiative which did fail and the referendum which we hope will stay on the ballot for 2022 and I think that's a a strong signal um that there is a large contingent in this community that is very concerned about the agreement um I do not see that the annexation agreement is a very little benefit um to the city and I think that in terms of FL even flood mitigation that we're not getting a good

[61:00] deal 30% of a 100-year flood that fails to account for climate change is not a good solution a better solution is a land exchange that would give CU more of what it wants while protecting um one of the last intact flood planes in Boulder County um I think uh I encourage you all to look at what's happened so far study up har I'm sorry your time is out option is going is um anyway because this issue is not going to bed and we are still going to be working on this uh for the foreseeable future yes thank you thanks so much Alan uh next we have Max Hollingsworth Carol dressle and Alex Weinheimer hello Council my name is Max hollinsworth I'm a volunteer with bedroom sarer people and I'm a grad

[62:00] student at CU Boulder it's not easy to live in Boulder on grad student wages we don't get paid very much and housing in this city costs a lot I'm keeping my head above water because I'm supported by my family and I found my way into a few good paying internships having housing stability has allowed me to focus on what I'm here for which is to learn lot to teach and to do good research that's the basic opportunity which all of us grad students want but having a family with a means to support me and being in a field that has good paying internships is a rarity for most grad students and it shouldn't be a prere prerequisite to participate in the great higher education that this city has to offer many of my friends and colleagues have to live over occupied and thus live illegally just just to afford housing I can't count the number of grad students that I know who are living over occupied

[63:00] currently this isn't a new problem but it's a problem that a pragmatic city council could finally fix for this reason I'm asking you all the council members for an immediate six-month moratorium of enforcing evictions on unrelated people living together this six-month moratorium would provide immediate security to all those who are currently living in fear of being evicted and this time be used by the council to pass laws to finally fix an issue that so many in my community face from Arts and Humanities to medicine and stem the CU Boulder grad population is over 6,000 people and is an important part of the city that you all represent I'd argue that this is exactly the diverse population um you know professionals experts and Scholars that you should try and keep here in Boulder help make feel welcome and not just let them pass through the the city has a lot to benefit from doing whatever it can to ease the housing and stability that many face thanks for your time thank you Max

[64:02] next we have Carol dressle Alex Weinheimer and Aiden cook Carol you should be able to unmute hello hello hi um I'm also um here to speak on on the issue of occupancy numbers um my husband and I are retired we're in our 70s and my entire life um nearly always I've lived in community um we bought our house in uh Table Mesa that had an Adu in place and we did that in order to afford the rent um my husband even though he has just retired from 44 years teaching at UCD um never hit six figures and uh they're

[65:02] probably very few people who aren't in the six figure category who live on our street um we've been through having the Adu as a constant source of income and have had wonderful wonderful experiences with people from all over the world staying with us and with whom we're still in touch when we became empty nesters um on a third of an acre with six bedrooms upstairs um we sometimes had housemates sometimes did Airbnb sometimes V vbo and a couple of times there were glitches even in the advertising and we were I was dragged into court there in Boulder and uh mentioned our story and uh after you know being told oh we understand but the law is the law and you owe you owe us um a fine as as well as court court fees it was like the last straw we've had up to 25 vehicles in front of our

[66:01] house from up to three scrapers at a time going from what used to be simple affordable housing um to Mega Million doll houses it doesn't seem to be a problem to the city that we can have up to 25 Vehicles parked there but for us quiet people in our home living our private lives for some reason it nams none of anybody's business how many guests or how many people we have in our home sorry your time is up okay thanks so much uh next we have Alex Weinheimer Aiden cook and Ryan shush good evening Council my name is Alex Weinheimer and I'm speaking you tonight as a volunteer with bedrooms are for people in the midst of our ongoing housing crisis there's a clear need to identify solutions that will increase access to Affordable and workplace housing while you all as a new Council work together to set your Collective housing priorities and with City staff to

[67:01] develop a work plan that includes Housing Solutions I encourage you to enact a six-month suspension on occupancy enforcement this short pause will allow important work items to progress while ensuring our discriminatory occupancy limits don't have negative impacts on people in our city who want to or need to live in a Comm a communal setting this is especially important as the pandemic continues and we adjust to the increasing costs of Housing and living over time our policies have made Boulder a less livable place with fewer convenient or even viable housing options for most people we have lengthening commutes and other travel trips which only which not only strain our transportation network but work directly against our climate emergency goals in the coming two years I encourage you to work together and seek solutions that will increase housing options across the city by giving people people more choice and where they can live I hope we can create more inclusive neighborhoods reduce our vehicle miles

[68:00] traveled and support the growth of lockable 15minute neighborhoods thank you thank you Alex next we have Aiden cook Ryan shart and Kristen Hess hello uh my name is Aiden and I'm one typical case of someone who would be brought into the process by Council passing an occupancy eviction moratorium I was born in Boulder and I've spent my whole life here minus two years away I've been extremely fortunate economically and I'm literally the only one of my friends from high school who has been able to afford to stay here and buy a home and even then I couldn't have made it work without renting out rooms in my house fortunately that's compatible with my lifestyle because of climate change I've chosen not to have children of my own but I do want to have a family and I currently live in a house in Boulder with my domestic partner and four other people these are long-term members of our household and we operate as a family sharing food chores sorry sorry sharing food costs and chores around the house many residents of Boulder choose to live this way either to afford the city or to create Community or both but

[69:01] nobody knows how many because folks like us live in fear of eviction one unusual circumstance sets my household apart and enables me to speak honestly to you tonight because we're a more stable household we made the decision to make our family status formal and we actually underwent a formal adoption process under Colorado law so I've legally adopted three of my housemates to protect us from eviction which is silly but also kind of an example of how the absurdity that we've been pushed to by Colorado's or sorry Boulders exclusionary housing laws um this solution is Not Practical for everyone and all residents of Boulder deserve the same safety security and peace of mind in our housing that we have so I'm asking the council tonight to take a major step in that guaranteeing that uh by approving the moratorium so that people like us can be included in the long-term process of reforming these exclusionary laws thank you so much thank you Aiden next we have Ryan shush Kristen hes and Dan Williams good evening council members uh I'm Ryan schard I'm a boulder resident I'm also a

[70:02] member of the transportation Advisory board but uh speaking here on behalf of myself first uh congratulations to the new council members uh I've been so inspired by all of the attention I have heard in the campaign given to climate action Transportation equity and inclusivity and I'm really just so excited to have you and the new Council representing Boulder uh and I'm here tonight to that effect to support the six-month suspension on enforcement of unrelated people living together as long until longer term reforms are developed uh I was personally drawn to this issue as an advocate for climate compatible Transportation um but came to learn that an even better reason to relax our occupancy limits and the enforcement of them is that it's the right thing to do and that's because the limits are discriminatory exclusionary and they don't reflect the kind of welcoming of people that are so important to the future of Boulder there are so many people left out by the current situation people who do who want to rent single rooms because they can't afford to do otherwise those who like the idea of of

[71:00] living together cooperatively for the sake of doing so those who don't own a home and are looking for housing in the rental market which is statistically a population that is much less white than average those who live in homes that are over occupied and who are not full parties to leases that provide for their complete rights and responsibilities and people who own homes who would like the opportunity to to support and live with any of the the the above folks that I've mentioned um there's so much need and interest in this from around the community and if you combine that excuse me with the fact that we are in an eviction crisis and a covid crisis it's not the right time for the city to be enforcing limits on housing occupancy I ask you to support the six-month suspension on enforcement of unrelated people living together thanks very much thank you Ryan next is Kristen Hess Dan Williams and Heather bowler hello um my name is Kristen and I'm I'm a volunteer with bedrooms are for people tonight I'm speaking in support of the six-month suspension on the enforcement of unrelated people

[72:00] living together as longer ter term reforms are developed it is very challenging to find affordable shared housing in Boulder personally as a graduate student I struggled to find a three bedroom um sorry no worries [Music] um my document closed see um I struggled to find a three bit motion to live legally as three related people in Boulder much of the available housing has unequal bedrooms like two good sized rooms and one very small

[73:00] closet sized room the difficulty to find housing for three unrelated people leads to looking for more bedrooms for more space and more occupants for affordability everyone wants to live legally but affordable comfortable and legal housing options are very limited in Boulder I support a six-month suspension on the enforcement of unrelated people living together as we actively work together toward creating Housing Solutions this suspension would provide housing security for residents impacted by the reforms that will be under development over the next six months moreover this six-month suspension also keeps people in their current living situation which has known benefits for reducing covid-19 transmission rates as the weather gets colder and more people gather indoors there's an expected increase in the spread of covid-19 not only will this suspension proide the time necessary to develop long-term reform forms that will also benefit the public health of Boulder residents and visitors during a global pandemic thank thank you Kristen

[74:01] uh next we have Dan Williams and then the last speaker is Heather bowler well hi good evening city council I'm Dan Williams in 2020 I served as legal counsel for bedrooms or for people and until recently I was a candidate for city council I'm here tonight to talk with you about occupancy limit reform and the super majority of you have expressed support for modifying occupancy limits and I want to thank you for that I that's important and and great for our city tonight I would urge you that tonight you direct staff through a KN of five to pause enforcement of occupancy limits while you do your work for at least the next six months I'll say on the campaign Trail one of the loudest arguments I heard against veterans or for people is that it would allow investors or encourage investors to buy properties in Reliance on getting rid of occupancy limits and then uh subdivide Properties

[75:01] or build new bedrooms on properties the great thing about taking a pause tonight through a KN of five is that won't happen a developer is not or an investor is not going to buy a house in Reliance on a pause because they won't know what your ultimate reforms to occupancy limits are similarly a a a landlord isn't going to build new bedrooms in a home based on a pause from a knot of five knowing you're about to enact a new ordinance on occupancy limits so this is frankly in some ways It's the Best of Both Worlds you can immediately pause occupancy limits without the fear of the uh loudest objection to the bedrooms measure which is that investors are going to start buying up Properties or landlords are going to startop start modifying homes so you just have this amazing opportunity tonight during a pandemic to do something right to prevent people from ending up on the street and prevent housing insecurity

[76:01] without the downsides that the boulder voters were concerned about with respect to the bedroom's measure thank you have a good evening thank you Dan next is Heather buler Heather you should be able to unmute chse hello hello my name is Heather bowler and uh congratulations to all of the new members of council and welcome and thank you to all of you for the hard work that you put in for our city all year round and um I am here tonight to please ask Council to consider a six-month suspension on the enforcement of people unrelated to each other living together and sharing housing in the city of Boulder um I've been a volunteer with bedrooms are for people for almost well

[77:01] two years now and in that time it has been really wonderful to meet the students and other folks who are actually living over occupied and it always amazed me that I would be talking to people who didn't even realize that they were living over occupied um and in this time when we want people securely housed with covid-19 still raging through our communities we want people in stable housing and this moratorium would allow Council to consider how that first line of defense for folks flexible housing being able to share housing is the first way that organizations like EA and out Boulder have said when

[78:00] someone enters a monetary crisis they seek out housing with their friends or um neighbors to share and that is how we keep people securely housed for now while Council considers this issue further thank you Heather and with that that brings us to the end of open comment um Nora or Sandra do you have any responses I don't have one necessarily at this time mayor but I just appreciate everyone calling in and their thoughtful remarks great sorry about that I didn't have my microphone on um I did want to address I think one of the comments that I believe I heard and uh just to clarify there isn't a mandatory jail sentence on any camping violations um all General offenses uh in our CRI criminal code have a potential of up to 90 days jail

[79:00] um and a fine but there is nothing that is required or mandatory related to any um of our violations clarification juny thank you I just want to ask a question my understanding was back in maybe 2020 right after the pandemic that we were not either ticketing or essentially if there is an occupation occupancy regulation violation it would go to the landlord as opposed to the tenant is that correct looks like we have Jacob popping up to answer that question yes thank you I was just going to invite him as my mic wasn't working we do and thank you um thank you mayor Brockett and thank you juny bit a question um so I had a slight bandwidth issue at the beginning of your question but I think what you were asking about is about how occupancy is

[80:01] enforced and and does it go to the landlord was that uh was that correct juny that is correct but my understanding as well that at some point the CD may I don't want to speak on something that may not be true but that was my uh understanding that we were not ticketing tenants we were instead giving the tickets to the landlord that so first of all that is correct and I'll just provide you with a very very brief o out overview of the process since obviously this is a key discussion um if the city first of all the city staff does not proactively enforce the occupancy aspect of the zoning code if we we only respond to complaints if the city receives a complaint investigates and the property is found to be over occupied we serve a notice and order for the property to to the owner of the property for that property to be brought into compliance with the zoning regulation should um

[81:00] also the city does not evict occupants we don't show up and remove people from dwellings we utilize a quasi judicial process to enforce code violations against the property owner it may result in civil penalties to the owner and potentially a reduction in the number of occupants in all the cases known to my staff in the past several years we have worked with the owner and the tenants um to have them find alternative safe housing if tenants are required to relocate and to move without the need for a formal eviction our goal in every case is to compassionately work to avoid any eviction proceedings so we work with the owner the penalties go to the owner um not to the occupant does that answer your question Junie thank you good anybody else Rachel thanks Aon um I I wanted to note really briefly Kristen who spoke and had the uh glitch in in her I don't know word shutting down I just wanted to say I appreciated

[82:00] you fighting through that glitch it's happened to all of us and you finished strong so thanks for working through that um and then I wanted to address the request for us to um suspend enforcement of occupancy limits um and and make a proposal which is that um in my two years here I've learned that we are loathed to do things um like that's considered a surprise on the night of a vote so I wondered if it might be advisable for us to ask for CAC to schedule this on November 30th maybe a notify for that so that we have time for people to um work through it and get some information from staff on um any safeguards we might want to include um or or I don't know pitfalls we might not be seeing um I've been advocating for us to suspend enforcement during pandemic mic for like a year or more so I'm I'm supportive of of what people said but I also think process-wise we might do well to um ask CAC to schedule

[83:03] this so um I've got Bob and then Mark and but I also want to hear from n as well yeah I want to Second what Rachel said Rachel thank you very much I I think that is the right process I know that there's urgency here I don't think that anyone wants to delay that but um there there are probably other people in the community who may have views and we should probably give them an opportunity for hearing and and let um folks know what we might be doing and it also gives staff a little bit of time to pull together some of the some of the questions good questions were asked and so I agree with Rachel that we should have CAC schedule this as quickly as possible and tee this up for a public hearing or some sort of process so that community members can be heard and staff can advise us thanks Mark yeah my question is for Jacob um you still there okay thank you um Jacob as if citations or fines are are levied against the landlord obviously to come into compliance there are going to be

[84:00] some reductions in tency and willing or unwilling relocations of of tenants do we have any idea or or uh what the order of magnitude is of the number of um tenants that have had to be relocated as a result of over occupancy enforcements thank you for the question I don't know or have at at my disposal at the moment the number of tenants who have been relocated but that information can be gathered so we could have that back to you as soon as possible I don't have it on hand at at the moment I do have a number of cases that we've looked into in 2021 um on hand but not the number of tenants who have been displaced we can find that for you yeah and we can do that in the context of um the scheduling and and and the hearing on this thank you great happy to do it okay so oh got more um Nicole and then Rachel just have another question um for you Jacob and this is around kind of a follow-up to Mark's question um you know

[85:01] one of the things that I noticed with this um bedrooms are for people measure as well as with all the people who spoke tonight is it's uh an incredibly diverse representation of the people in our community um and so Jacob as you're looking into these numbers I'm curious if we have any information on the demographics of those who um have been subject to uh these occupancy limits and who have been um kicked out of their homes U by I understand it's by landlords U but the end result is still the same that they're losing their homes um I am just curious if we can find out about the um whether or not people are experiencing a disproportionate impact um the folks who are uh being kicked out of their homes due to occupancy limits well it's a great question and that's also something we can look into again to clarify the process the city does not conduct the eviction process when those do take place which we always seek to avoid first and foremost they are conducted by the county with the sheriff's office and they have to be

[86:00] brought by the owner so that's a quasi judicial process where the owner engages in in that eviction again administered by the county so we would have to check with them to see if they keep records in regards to demographics um that's not something that we keep Rachel yeah just wanted to clarify um when I had requested that we discussed uh discuss suspension of enforcement previously a few times we did not have a public hearing I was just requesting a not a five and that's what I would request again not a an elaborate public hearing but just that we have time to hear from staff and people can email us or sign up for open comment but um I'm thinking probably in two weeks we could so we could get that Rachel um so if I could turn to Nua then so would that work as a process that we could calendar something under Matters from city council for requests for not of to potentially pause occupancy limit enforcement and then we would look to staff for a description of how that might work we and I appreciate that

[87:00] mayor and councel and the thoughtfulness of the ask um I I believe that we can meet that as I have been um checking in with uh Jacob and his team I believe that coming back at the end of November would work um and we can bring back some options for you as we figure out what to do next thanks so much so if that's all right with Council then we'll CAC will work on scheduling that appreciate that thoughtful discussion yes Tera I have a question I'm not sure what the answer is too obviously that's what a question is hopefully so what what does the fact that the bedrooms that the bedrooms uh bedrooms did not pass have to do with how we're going to proceed with discussing occupancy or does it not have anything to do with it I me Steph do you want to take a crack at that or well I'll start here and perhaps others can correct me I'm not quite sure there is a correlation on whether or not it it

[88:00] succeeded or not clearly as we heard um from the council from the comments at open comment that there is an interest in moving forward for a variety of reasons and then it is up to council the council body in terms of policy direction that they want to give staff as we move forward and I suspect that given the amount of um GI the amount of support that the certainly the measure had even though it didn't pass and certainly by the comments that we received that is in your prerogative to bring to staff and ask staff to bring you Alternatives that answer your question okay great uh if nobody has anything else on this matter an open comment I think we'll move on to our consent agenda Alicia is that right that that is correct sir we are moving next to item number four for our consent agenda items a through G so much now there are a few items here that are um pretty substantive did staff

[89:01] want to talk about any of them in advance or just see if Council had any questions about them I believe we were waiting to see if Council had any questions about any particular item but staff certainly is available and I'm happy to jump in and talk about um 3C uh just in terms of procedural matters that it's an mergency measure if uh new council members have any questions or I can provide some background on that for well let's see if we have Council questions anybody have questions on the consent agenda Rachel thanks I I think I do I'm trying to pull up my notes here oh so I yeah um I have some questions under 3A approval of council meeting calendar and I think we may be wanted to have a little discussion on that um but my notes won't pull up here so if I jump in please jump in while I

[90:01] well so uh I believe we've scheduled that for the very end of the meeting tonight to talk about dates for meetings that it Mark well as a procedural matter I have a number of questions regarding um f the um uh regulations regarding oil and gas operations but I'm happy to hold those questions until um second reading or to do it as a hotline whatever is easiest you know putting those out on on hotline would probably be helpful uh for staff to have a chance to answer them before second reading is that that would be perfect it shall be done thank you great um so notes have disappeared I would just uh say to staff they're I know if that's happening to anyone else but bummer so the other question I have though I believe is on um 3G and I don't know if there's going to be a staff

[91:00] presentation or update on that but I had asked for um some just information or presentation on what the next steps are since the referendum passed um what what action items we will need to take as a council and the timing of those things and I think that there is there's a new um agenda item like something in here but it's added after I've seen the agenda so that must be recent believe our Stellar city clerk can answer those questions thank you um this item item number G is to accept the clerk's certification of the validity of the petition and so with that being said the next steps will depend on Council there were three steps that were outlined in your memo as to what the next steps would actually be be um if what we had discussed with the city attorney's office is is to come forth at a later meeting with the actual estimates of the

[92:02] cost for a possible special election if that's what council chose to do because it would take us a little bit of time to put that information together um but again this particular action is just to certify the validity of the petition and then show you exactly what those three steps are that Council has the option to take thanks could you just go over the three steps um for the community who's listening of course and this is sort of a separate we we lumped this in at CAC under um the certification but it was a separate question on just sort of what our next um action items will be of course let me pull that up and Alisha I can jump in if you'd like since you don't have it up and I do um so one of the options would be to repeal ordinance 8483 um the second option would be to submit the referendum to a vote of the electors at the next municipal election or the third option would be to have a special election for that um and that

[93:00] requires u a majority vote two-thirds majority vote and are there deadlines for when we would need to to make that decision so you can't make the decision before December 1st because there's the opportunity for um individuals to protest um the or challenge the sufficiency of the um referendum signatures um but there isn't any other deadline in place okay thanks I think it might make sense before staff researches how much a special election would cost after December 1st to check in with us to see if there's interest in a special election before staff spends time on it great how would we do that in in what format would you like that I think this should probably come back to us after December 1st as as a a quick agenda item y okay you can definitely do that great so see CAC can take that question up

[94:01] okay forward very good anything else so um we will just note that that 4C um is about a grant um for trail building for the gun barrel hillsite management plan that does need to be passed on an emergency to meet a deadline a funding deadline so uh we will have I believe a roll call vote on uh the consent agenda if anyone wants to make a motion I have a question before you make a motion um you mentioned that you wanted to give us a little bit of background just for community members can you do so on on the Grant application yes is that what you mentioned I didn't hear what you said I'm sorry for 3C you mentioned that you could give us a little bit of background on that um I I can give you a little bit of background related to why it's an emergency but the grant itself Dan Burke is available if you have questions about the grant itself so um an ordinance once adopted takes 30

[95:02] days to be effective Charter section 17 uh states that emergency orders can become effective immediately that requires a two-thirds vote of members present um the basis for an emergency is urgency and for preservation of public peace health or property um this particular Grant is coming before you as an ordinance for several reasons um the grant itself requires the city to commit matching funds for the grant uh secondly it commits that it has the ability and intention to finance the operation and maintenance of the properties or facilities acquired or developed with the grant funds so it needs an appropriation clause and then thirdly it commits that the property targeted for the projected or excuse me for proposed project will be under the control of the city for at least 25 years which is why it needs to be an ordinance okay Y and thanks so much all

[96:00] right anybody have a motion or more questions I'll make a motion I move the consent agenda and I just note as I think previously mentioned even though we are on item 4 a uh if if this passes approving the um 2022 meeting calendar I think we reserve the right to amend it as soon as later in the evening tonight um but with that I'll I'll move the consent agenda second okay we have a motion second uh Lea roll call vote I believe yes sir thank you very much council member Brockett mayor Brockett yes council member farts yes friend yes Joseph yes spear I would like to recuse myself from item G given my relationship with the university otherwise yes on all the rest thank

[97:00] you council member wallik I Wier yes and Yates I I believe we have one more Benjamin was coming I was coming and council member Benjamin yes thank you all right sir the consent agenda with the right to amend item 4A has been approved 7 to1 with council member spear recusing herself from item G great although would it not be a 90 with one refusal okay all right 90 with the recusal noted okay I tell you recusals give me an issue every time all right all right thank you very good so I guess we move on we have a call up checkin yes sir weo next item five is

[98:01] our callup checkin 5A is the callup consideration for the landmark alteration certificate for construction of additions and accessory building and swimming pool at 2935 19th Street an individual Landmark very good so do we have any questions or any desire call this up doesn't look like it so I guess we can move right into our first public hearing all right sir next we'll have item six we will move to item 6B the second reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 8490 designating the building and a portion of the property at 3485 Stanford Court as an individual Landmark per section 9-1 11-5 of the boulder Revised Code 1981 setting forth related details thank you and we have James uh huitt on the line and Marcy Gerwin as well to answer to provide a brief

[99:01] presentation and overview hello and good evening um special congratulations to you all and um it's it's kind of a special evening for us to be joining you at at this new city council's first meeting um I would like to uh before we get into the um review of the proposed designations just spend a couple of moments talking to you about Boulder's historic preservation um program and uh just to to acquaint uh take this opportunity to acquaint the new city council members with the fact that we do have a historic preservation program in Boulder and it's been around now for 48 years um it was a c a citizen initiated uh historic preservation ordinance which created the

[100:02] historic preservation Pro program way back in 1974 and today it has matured to really be one of the most um sophisticated I think and and robust uh historic preservation programs in the state and so just a few uh very quick points about what we do in historic preservation on a a daily weekly and annual basis and of course this evening you are looking at a couple of designations and the five member landmarks board whom you appoint uh make recommendations to you uh about individual landmarks and historic districts as well um they review changes to properties in designated historic districts and on Landmark properties there is also a program for the review of non-designated buildings that are

[101:01] over 50 years in age and that is something that continues to increase because just simply the the vast number of buildings that were constructed during the postor War II period Boulder is also a certified local government which means that we are CER ified by the national park services having uh qualified professional staff which gives us also the ability to apply for Grants which we do on an annual basis which helps us with our program activities it also uh gives us the ability to review state tax credit uh applications which we do and we are the second largest um we review the second largest number of State historic preservation tax credit applications after Denver so that's a that's a pretty busy part of what we do as well and then we we also are engaged

[102:00] in development review and cross Department coordination one of the designations that you're looking at this evening is actually a result of a site review recommendation for the landmarking of the property and finally we do community engagement that is to talk about history to tell the story of Boulder of Boulder's history and the places that make it so special next slide [Music] please so as I mentioned before the historic preservation ordinance was passed in 1974 since then uh over 1300 properties have been protected through historic designation and that includes 10 historic districts and over 200 individual landmarks we review between 300 and uh 50 and 400 uh projects a year and that runs the gamut from tax credit reviews to Landmark alteration

[103:01] certificates to demolition applications we're small But Mighty there are two of us and you'll hear from Marcy in a just a couple of moments so Marcy and I um really manage this program next slide [Music] please so so I think you know we really understand what a special place Boulder is and one of the really big aspects that perhaps sometimes gets a little taken for granted is the fact that we really are rich in terms of historic cultural and um environmental places that are recognized through the program and over the course of the last nearly 50 years have been protected and um have been um I guess groomed to make the city as special a place as as it is for visitors and I think one of the other

[104:02] things that perhaps um is sometimes just assumed or or maybe not recognized is the economic impact that historic preservation has in the city of Boulder um it really is an engine for the economy certainly a draw for tourists that come here come to the mall come to the university um come of course to shiaka where over a million visitors um go every year so with that I just uh will conclude and um thank you very much for your attention uh I'll turn it now over to either the mayor or Sandra to walk you through the Quasi judicial procedure for the hearings um before you tonight thank you James I think we'll turn Sandra to walk us through those proceedings great thank you so much um mayor and James um appreciate that so I just want to take the opportunity to

[105:01] review um some of the aspects unique aspects of a quasi judicial hearing um which this matter is and um really just um want to refresh your memory we did go over this in the orientation um but wanted to also give you all an opportunity if you had questions as well so Council often makes two common types of decisions um one is legislative and the other is quasi judicial a legislative action makes new rules or laws and are perspective in nature where whereas uh quasi judicial actions apply existing rules to a case involving particular individuals and facts legislative decisions are often made in a political environment or lobbying being and personal investigation by decision makers are proper however when a local body has to make a quasi judicial decision it's expected that members of the body will

[106:01] act in a manner of impartial judges in a court case in a quasi judicial process decision makers are expected to apply the rules fairly whether or not they agree with them decisions must be based on criteria adopted and applied to the facts in the record um you um if you had an opportunity to look at the agenda memo it lays out all the criteria right there for you um and then uh I'd also like to add that when council members sit as judges and a quasa Judicial hearing it's essential that they have not made up their minds before hearing the evidence they must decide the case based on the evidence that's presented at the hearing and not based upon outside sources um the last piece of this has to do with exp parte contacts they must disclose any outside information that

[107:01] you have about the case and excuse yourselves from the case if you would be personally affected by its outcome or if you feel that you're not able to be impartial and um with that I think I'm supposed to ask if anyone has any expar context that they would like to disclose close great thank you in that case I think we hand it I'm GNA hand it off to Marcy I believe I can't see the slid so I'm not sure think that's right Marcy ready for give us a presentation yes um though I would actually hand it back over to you mayor Brockett um for council members to reveal any exp parte contacts for this first item which is 3485 Stanford Court great I think we cleared that already no X partic great great so Marcy take it away thank you um good evening um the criteria for your decision tonight on this Landmark

[108:01] designation is found in chapter 9111 and 9112 of the boulder Revised Code and that is to preserve protect and enhance historically significant buildings and sites or architectural styles of the past and to develop and maintain appropriate settings to enhance property values stabilize neighborhoods promote tourist trade and interest and Foster knowledge of the city's Heritage the options in front of you tonight are to approve the designation by ordinance to modify and approve the designation by ordinance or deny the designation this Landmark designation application started about a year ago in October 2020 when the landmark designation application was submitted as a condition of site review and um the property owner is is here and can speak a little bit more to uh the project But it includes 60 affordable um units for seniors and um when these site review

[109:01] projects come in and have potentially eligible buildings we typically hold the designation application until it moves through the review process which included uh review and approval by the planning board and then a call up by city council those were both approved and so now here we are um in November and in uh October 6 the landmarks board unan unanimously recommended to designate the building and a portion of the property on October 19th this item was on the city council consent agenda for first reading and then um Here We Are Tonight November 16th so this property is located in South Boulder on the west side of Broadway um near Table Mesa on Stanford Court here's um two photos of the building um on the left is uh in 1965 in the right a current view it is a eonian building

[110:00] it's a mid-century modern Church um its character defining features include its low horizontal form this Ro uh dominant roof shape and then also um the organic inspired elements in the the geometry of the building and then also this use of the same materials on the inside and out here's just a neat aerial photograph um from the applicant showing the long um building of the sanctuary built u in 1957 initially and then the um 2001 edition that's located on the the left hand side is being demolished um to make way for the new construction around the building uh we look at Landmark designations in terms of its historic environmental and Architectural C Al significance and so this building is historically significant for its three dates of construction starting in 1957 with the initial construction of

[111:00] the sanctuary this building was planned in three different phases with additions in 1961 in 1964 It's associated with uh Thomas and Nixon or Thomas Nixon and Lincoln Jones who were prominent mid-century modern Architects here in Boulder um probably their most uh iconic design is the First Christian Church which is located on 28th as you come into town um from Denver with that very expressive prow um reaching up and Nixon and Jones were both very influenced by Frankl Wright if anyone's been to U Madison Wisconsin you'd feel very at home in the Unitarian Church uh there and so you can also see those elements pulled into the design of this um Lutheran Church as well the buildings also significant for the development of the community and the growth of South Boulder in the post-war era the congregation was originally located at 17th in Mapleton in a 1890s

[112:02] um building and as the congregation grew they chose to locate um their new building in South Boulder which was uh which was booming in the postwar era and then it's also representative of this um very distinct period of modern architecture where you're seeing the The Works of Charles harling and Hobart Wagner um Gail Ables and Nixon and Jones really pushing the boundaries in terms of what design uh could be and the expressiveness of this congregation in what they wanted their next Church to be in terms of their architectural significance I've touched on this modern eonian design which is influenced by Frank lyd Wright um with the window pattern the use of materials and the um iconic roof forms um and in terms of uh and I've covered Nixon and Jones as well so that brings us to the environmental significance it was very um purposefully cited on the

[113:01] crust of a hill I think what's really surprising is that even though it's um situated so close to Broadway it's not visible from Broadway or at least not prominently but it is um situated so that the uh prow of the sanctuary looks towards the flat irons um and was very int in that uh decision it's compatible with its residential context and it is integrated into its site so with that staff in the landmarks board recommend that um the name be the Mount Calvary Calvary Lutheran Church which has been its name um since the congregation located there in 1957 and that the landmark boundary provide a five- foot buffer around the um footprint of the building and uh in these site review or Redevelopment projects um this is a recommendation from staff which would provide a buffer around the building um without then uh

[114:03] covering the the new and non-historic um buildings on the site so um staff recommends that the landmark or that the city council um designate the property at 3485 Stanford port to be known as the mount Calvary Lutheran church and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have thanks so much Marcy do we have uh questions for Marcy see I'm not I'm not seeing any um do we uh I believe oh wait we got one over here laen so um you mentioned that the intention is just to protect the existing historic structure but when I look at the map the 5- foot boundary includes part of sort of a Breezeway to the um new construction I just want to make sure that that's clarified that that is not part of what is being protected oh yeah thank you for um

[115:01] pointing that out and so the portion of the Breezeway that's in the Shaded area would be reviewed and um that's important so that we're looking at what the historic material um modification would be at that connection Point without then also encompassing the the building and I will commend The Architects on this um project for doing a very sensitive L link between the old building and the new building very good anything else I do believe we have a representative of the property owner here Ian swallow from Boulder housing Partners uh Ian did you want to say anything yeah thanks mayor Brockett uh Ian swallow Boulder housing Partners I'm also have Laura shine bomb our director of real estate development on and JV dusa the project architect um no formal presentation from us this evening but just want to thank Marcy for her help with us uh navigating this this process um we're very excited to preserve that

[116:01] existing sanctuary and also be providing 60 units of new um affordable senior housing at the site um The Sanctuary is going to be renovated I'll have community space on the upper level and then we'll also be renovating the child care that's on the lower level so they can continue operating out of that space so um excited to move the project forward we just received an award of competitive state tax credits about a week and a half ago so that was very exciting and um yeah any questions I'm happy happy to answer great thanks again questions for him I don't see any so I believe that would take us to our public hearing is that right Alicia yes sir and I believe we have one person signed up that is correct okay well um Lyn seagull I think you're up up to speak to us you have three minutes um I support the landmarking I had mostly comment about this as it's come up before um either in planning

[117:01] board or Council about the community park in the area and and its um relevance to keeping that open to to that neighborhood to have some Community benefit but um since this is just approved of the landmark I support it um ironically 1957 was the year that my family lived in Denver for a year and the year that my mom breathed in plutonium to which she would die 12 years later in Mercer Island ironically that year and in 58 to 60 we bought a place just a few blocks from this church um so yeah um I like the eonian architecture and and the fact that of course it should be preserved and thank you thank you Lynn

[118:00] all right I believe that closes our public hearing so we can bring it back to council for discussion or a motion yes Taran is it possible for me to get a copy of that wonderful initial PowerPoint that explained um the landmarking so well absolutely we can send it good anyone else pivoting a lot here if there's no discussion perhaps someone would like to put a motion on the table all right Mark yeah I'd like to uh move that we adopt ordinance 8490 designating the building and a portion of the property at 3485 Stanford Court as an individual Landmark per section 9-11 -5 of the boulder Revised Code 1981

[119:02] second thanks for that Mark would you like to speak to the motion i' I've seen this building as as part of the boulder housing Partners project uh for that site I I think uh it's a magnificent building I think it's a worthy uh landmark and it will be integrated uh I think quite beautifully with the rest of the housing on the site and I think it will be a spectacular project when completed so I I think the landmark designation here is uh entirely appropriate and uh uh I urge us all to support it h yeah I I amum several of us have had an opportunity to serve as cila on Boulder housing partners and so this has been I was on Boulder housing Partners when this came forward a few years ago so this has been kicking around for a while I do want to observe that this is really kind of a de facto part partnership between Boulder housing partners and uh Frasier uh Meadows retirement committee which was an initial funer here and of course the church itself and um I'm so happy for the congregation that their church

[120:00] building that the congregation's moved on but the church building will be preserved and and will be housing for seniors for many many years to come thanks for that and I'll just chime in here I agree with everything that's been said this is a wonderful building to Landmark um and then just separate from the landmarking criteria It's a Wonderful project for the community as a whole to preserve the church while moving forward with desperately needed affordable housing for our seniors so uh kudos to Boulder housing partners for moving all of this forward anything else seeing none I guess we can call for a vote Yes sir and this is a roll call and we will start the vote with council member farts uh in favor yes thank you I or yes Council a mayor protim friend yes council member Joseph yes spear yes wallik I Winer

[121:04] yes Yates yes Benjamin yes and Brocket yes so ordinance 8490 is hereby adopted unanimously right thank you so much Alicia and congratulations to housing partners and thanks again uh and let's see I guess that moves us straight into our next landmarking Alicia all right thank you sir we have item 6 C which is the second reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 8513 designating the property at 963 7th Street as an individual Landmark per section 9-1 11-5 of the boulder Revised Code 1981 and setting forth related details Marcy do we turn right back to to you yes we do yes thank you um the procedure is the same um as the one you reviewed uh just a couple minutes ago but I would turn it

[122:01] over to Sandra then um to ask for experte contacts sorry about that I wasn't ready um so are there any council members that wish to disclose any expart contacts with respect to 9637 Street see none we're ready to proceed okay thank you and I I will note that the owners are not in attendance tonight here so there won't be an owner presentation the criteria for your decision is the same and found in um section 9111 and 9112 of the boulder revised code and your options are also the same where you can approve the ordinance modify and approve it or deny it this Landmark application started in June of this year when it was submitted by the longtime property owners in September the landmarks board voted unanimously to recommend um designation

[123:02] of the building and property it was on the city council's October 19th um consent agenda and here we are in November for the public hearing this property is located at the end of 7th Street in the Rose Hill subdivision on University Hill um just north of Aurora Avenue the um individually landmarked Krueger Cunningham house is located just north of the property and the um Carpenter House is located at the South End of the block this uh rustic masonry House was built in 1930 um and uh it is associated with um three pretty interesting owners for its historic significance it's significant for its 1930 dat of construction and it um the first family that uh designed and built it were the mingers which you'll recognize their

[124:00] name because the munzinger psychology building was at the University of Colorado is named after Dr Carl muninger he was born in Germany and taught at CU in the psychology department for uh 29 years and chaired the department for six um he authored textbooks and papers and uh when the new building was constructed it was named in his honor his wife was um also remarkable Dr Florence Weaver munzinger um earned a medical degree from the Women's Medical College in of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1911 and she uh was a missionary in India in um the 19 teens and then she also um was involved D here associated with the uh the medical operations at the University of Colorado the next owners were Jim and K Jagger who purchased the property and um

[125:02] were very very um active in the community Jim joerger had a business down on Pearl Street called Faber in Brooks or Brooks Faber which was a women's clothing um business he served on city council as well as the boulder counter commissioner um and K jger was involved in the library the current owners John and Marsha joerger um uh had the property in the 1970s as and have lived there ever since um they both received law degrees and Marshall jger was the first um female judge in Boulder County in terms of the development of the community the house is significant uh for its construction in University Hill The Rose Hill subdivision was platted in 1899 so this house isn't one of the earliest ones but it was one of the earliest ones on this block and then um this house was featured in this great book the 76

[126:00] historic homes of Boulder by Jane Barker in the 1970s there is a feature on it in the Daily Camera in the 1970s as well and then the Front Range research Associates found it eligible for listing at the local state and National level in terms of its architectural significance it is um indicative of The Rustic masonry style um I will say when I got to make a site visit to this property the moment I stepped foot it felt like Boulder and I think there are specific properties that bring you to a very specific time and a very specific place and the use of the local stone that um that was qued nearby the trees are incredible the munzinger new someone with the CSU forestry program in the early 20th century or mid mid 20th century and he would bring saplings each year and they would plant one so the entire property is um surrounded by

[127:03] these incredible trees so munzinger is credited with the design of the house it has a study for both he and his wife and he Incorporated Austrian Elements which it's described as having very thick walls intricate woodwork on the interior and these in um internally opening Windows and so um it's significant for um his contribution and then CG and Burl House were the Masons that constructed the house there's a skillful integration of the design and um is significant for its use of Lo local Stone and then finally for its environmental significance I've mentioned the mature trees are also incredible Gardens and it's compatible with its residential context and so um the proposed name is the munzinger Jagger house with a landmark boundary that would follow the property lines and with that staff in the

[128:01] landmarks board recommend that city council adopt the ordinance to designate the property at 9637 Street to be known as the munzing or Jagger house and I'm happy to answer questions you may have thanks so much Marcy do we have a questions for Marcy on this I not seeing any questions so I think Alicia we go to our public hearing yes sir all right that is correct and I believe we also have one person signed up for this public hearing so uh Lyn seagull you're up you have three minutes to speak yeah um rustic masonry uh reminds me a lot Marcy of um Dan McCarthy's place at the termination of Alpine is it and third that's my favorite house in Boulder it's just like classical feeling of of you know the masonry

[129:02] and the setting there is also really nice this is beautiful the trees and um it's just really nice and I love that the idea of the thick walls is very energy efficient too um and um the joers I wonder if it's related to the Jaggers at all from Shanahan Ridge um um that's the same as the flyer I think um y AE g r um anyway yeah um it's a great place I wonder why it wasn't land landmarked a long time ago um but beautiful beautiful job of pres presenting it Marcy and thanks yeah go for it thank you Lynn all right I think that ends the public hearing then and so we come back to council uh any comments or

[130:04] motion okay Matt I'd like to make a motion to adopt ordinance 8513 designating the property at 963 7th Street to be known as the munzinger Jagger house as an individ ual Landmark under the city of Boulders historic preservation ordinance have second second all right Tera got the second uh Matt you want to speak to that yeah I I mean for one uh it's interesting actually as a candidate I was knocking on doors in that neighborhood and knocked on this um door unfortunately no one was home um but I it struck me when I when I walked by it was just it it was gorgeous and um Mar Marcy when you said that it felt like Boulder that that was exactly the right description I used certainly when I was walking on there so interesting that at unbeknownst to me that was going to show up um here as a new council person a

[131:00] place that I had knocked on doors and felt that same feeling so I think it's just it is so so Bolder um in that sense um so I think you know nothing better to Landmark than a place that just sort of carries that that character um from long ago and and well into the future thanks Tara did you want to speak at all no okay any other comments right seeing none we can go to a vote all right sir thank you we'll start this vote with mayor protim friend yes council member Joseph yes spear yes wallik I Wier yes Yates I Benjamin yes rocket yes vrs yes ordinance 8513 is hereby adopted unanimously great well Marcy thanks for

[132:02] all your wonderful presentations tonight have a good evening we'll talk again soon I'm sure thank you all right so I believe that brings us to our matter from the city manager that is correct sir item 7A is the severe weather shelter update I'm appreciate that mayor uh and council members and I'll ask Kurt FR uh fobber to come and present and I'll say that as uh he's getting ready that this is an issue obviously that is of concern to many in our community to many of you to many in staff as the cold uh winter and weather approaches um and I will note that this builds upon a previous information packet that we sent to council but it is so fitting now with a new Council body to bring this forward and um remind folks and give an update on where we are so Kurt I'll leave it up to you uh good evening Council um I'm hoping you can see me and hear me I don't yes on both counts great

[133:00] this new format's a little bit different um but and I'll ask for my presentation thank you so last uh uh last Monday at CAC um there was a request uh to have this presentation um to the new Council and I would also um like to welcome all the new uh your volume cut out there um yeah you're back would you like me to start over or yeah maybe take it from the top thank you okay let me let me put my headset on and see if that works any better I believe it was on our end you Kirk yeah it wasn't you Kirk you're good it was up um okay Council can you hear me now it's great cool thank you um yeah so I'll start off also by by uh welcoming all the new council members and I look

[134:01] forward to working with you um over the next few years um on these uh challenging issues in our community so last last Monday at CAC there was a request made um to have this presentation uh um um regard ing severe weather shelter and um it's based on information packet item that was sent to the previous Council um a couple months ago in questions that had come uh from that IP um so we're going to cover um uh severe weather shelter what it looked like last year what the plans are for this year any any policy changes um that have occurred but we can't look at severe weather shelter in isolation so we will be looking at um a few other um areas that relate to um severe weather shelter as well and I'll be doing the first half of the

[135:00] presentation um Vicki Ebner who works uh in my department and whom I support uh we'll be doing the second half of the presentation and we will also be having a section in there um which was requested on the uh on the coroner's Report with which comes out um I think it's about June or July uh each year so next slide so first I um I I have um a bit of information on the covid recovery center um The coover Recovery Center relates to severe weather shelter because it houses um some of the same people that would access that service so the covid recovery uh CER Center started in March uh 2020 and um I I think the ironic thing about about this evening is the building the first building that you landmarked

[136:00] uh tonight M calary Lutheran Church is actually actually houses the the covid recovery center and um the uh the the pie chart on the left um indicates um where individuals have come from um over the last uh um 18 months or so um who have used the covid recovery center so most have come from shelters in Boulder and as well as Longmont um and then a number of Hospitals and Clinics when they receive um patients who um are unhoused and who have tested positive um also use the The covid Recovery Center um but interestingly enough uh 9% of the residents also come from homes and many individuals in houses don't have a place to isolate from the other residents um when they test positive for covid so it has also worked well for those

[137:01] individuals so in uh in June of this year we uh actually had a a a formal closing of the covid recovery center because we all knew that covid was behind us um it was a great celebration of the hard work over that time uh two months later um we opened it back up as a result of uh Delta we had used uh hotels on in long months on an interim basis um they were not able to handle the type of capacity and services needed um so um the co Recovery Center is staffed by a city employee uh I'm sorry it's managed by a city employe and it's staffed by um me staff members from Boulder County it's a part partnership with Boulder County and in the city of Longmont so you'll see it's served a number of individuals over this period 381 Unique Individuals 2300 bed nights um the average census um has been four

[138:02] individuals over the whole period um but um I looked at it today and it's it's it's averaging up to about nine um right now and we've been very consistent um um in that number over the last couple of months and um I think we'll go to the next slide so there's two sort of definitions for severe weather shelter that we've used for several years uh in the city of Boulder um the first one severe weather shelter um that's uh that's when we're having either a winter storm uh whether it's uh the temperature reaches 32 Dees or below or if it's as low as 38° but we also have precipitation so that's the definition that we would we've used in the past for severe weather shelter on those nights in the past up through uh the 2021 2022 season um we would open

[139:01] additional shelter beds when those uh when when that temperature uh was triggered however one of the changes in the policy that we've made for this winter that was uh implemented a couple months ago is that we're actually not using this criteria simply just opening the sphere weather shelter every single night and um so there's no need for the trigger the shelter is always open whether it's 32 degrees or uh 70 degrees um it creates um uh a simpler process less communication uh with the community um and uh and really um uh creates a an easier process for the shelter to manage and plan for Staffing as well so there's another uh trigger called critical weather conditions so this is the only one that currently still exists and this is also been in place for many years um and this is when the temperature gets um extremely low so

[140:02] temperatures of 10 degrees um or a likelihood of six Ines um of snowfall when this occurs currently we add an additional uh 20 beds um to the system and if conditions um continue uh during the day or um that's considered 20 degrees um then the day shelter would be open as well next slide so the question we receive every year um and it wasn't a surprise for the new Council to be asking these questions is how many beds do you have how does it how does it uh shape up with last year so um as I mentioned earlier we do not look at severe weather shelter in isolation we look at the whole system and I'm happy to say that we have an additional 176 more beds than we had last year at

[141:03] this time so let me tell you what that means um but first I'll mention we have 140 beds at the boulder shelter we have um an additional 20 um Hotel Beds um they opened up on the 15 they're um available every evening and then on the critical B weather nights we have 20 beds so a total of 180 so the 176 those are beds that have come on into our system um since last year those are individuals and apartments that have been opened up um to individuals experiencing homelessness so they're actually not staying in the shelter um any longer they're staying in an apartment with a with a kitchen you'll see later on that many of them are receiving um wraparound Services as well so for um for many years um communities around the US took the strategy of

[142:01] trying to um address homelessness by building shelters they built more shelters and more shelters and um they didn't actually solve the problem so over the last few years there's been a shift and it's a shift that we've taken seriously in the city of Boulder um and that's to actually work on programs to help individuals um exit homelessness so there's um there's uh two types of beds um at the shelter there's Reserve there's the reserve bed program which you'll hear about um that has unlimited use and basically um to have a reserve bed you simply have to sign up for it and then um you have to begin the process of engaging um in Services um that will um uh where where you will work with a case manager um towards a housing solution um and then the standby beds um

[143:03] those are um open to anyone um uh they have 90 nights that they can stay there and um without engaging in any services but at some point along the way if they do de side to engage in Services they can also sign up for a reserve bed uh program and um the other thing I'll mention which Vicki will be talking about later um is that uh that individuals um who say a second night need to go through coordinated entry next [Music] slide so this is a a graph and um if for those of you who look at our our our dashboard on the city website you'll you'll recognize this um so I'll I'll just point out a couple of key things here this this graph shows um the beds

[144:01] per usage type um since June 2020 up until um yesterday uh in November and um so it has the various programs there of navigation standby critical weather hotels that's sort of thing but as you can see as we simplified our policies it also simplified the graph um So currently we have the reserve beds we have the standby beds um uh we have the CRC um and then you'll begin to see the Hotel Beds as they're as they're used but in comparison to last year and that was one of the questions I received from uh from Nicole yesterday um in comparison to last year um we did see an increase both in coordinated entry and in use of the shelter when um a couple of policies changed one was the

[145:00] elimination of a a six-month policy um uh that happened I believe on August 1 um and the second was um a couple weeks later um through direction from Council there was uh uh enforcement of the uh the tent ban um in public spaces what we saw from that I think um at least from this uh uh vantage point is positive because we saw more individuals using the shelter and the services at the shelter and creating more opportunities um to interface with uh with services so it's it sort of spiked in September and October if you look at last year um it it spiked um about a month or so earlier than it did the the previous year um we also haven't had any really any cold weather this year and we did um uh last year both in September and

[146:02] October um and then lastly if you look at November November this year at least halfway through the month is basically identical to um the usage of the shelter for November of 2020 next slide so this uh this graph shows uh some of the turnaways and then this also goes back to to June 1st 2020 and typically what we see in in any um uh winter season is that um most turnaways happen um towards the beginning of the Season typically in in October or November you'll see that that occurred um last year um in November we had a total of um I think it's three individuals that were turned away over two or a total of two nights um all of last season um related to capacity and

[147:02] capacity is represented in the color blue um this year we've had we've had three nights where we hit capacity um one four individuals were turned away the other night one individual um and and the third night two individuals were turned away um that was uh I think about three weeks ago we haven't had any capacity turnaways since then um and the other squiggly lines there that you'll see um those those are individuals that are turned away because they um decided not to go through coordinated entry um the second night um but sometimes will come back um on the third night and go through coordinated entry then um and have access I I will note the coordinated entry is offered to every individual um the morning before they leave it's also offered um downtown

[148:02] Boulder um and then at the top the uh the table at the top um one of the questions I believe Rachel asked was you know how many individuals looking back over our history um had used 90 nights um of severe weather sh shelter so we looked at 2019 2020 season and then we looked at this last year um and you'll see that that no individuals used 90 kns there was um a handful of individuals that used um eight and nine Knights um over the year and then there was uh and then the me the average person has a median usage of severe weather shelter of four nights and two years ago and this last year the median was five so the the majority of individuals do not use sever weather shelter for many nights but there's a a small number of individuals that use it on a very regular basis um next

[149:01] slide and with this slide I will turn it over to Vicki good evening I'm Vicki Abner the homelessness policy advisor in the human housing and Human Services Department one of the questions that we get asked is um around people who are in our unhoused community who died in the prior year uh the corner puts out a report every year and from that report we can surmise certain things one important detail is the fact that our unhoused information within the coroners report is on a countywide level to the most part um typically the question that comes up the most is around the type of death that was sustain ained by a person who is unhoused um typically the ones that we are are look at are what is termed accidental um that includes a drowning

[150:00] um overdoses hypothermia um in the case of last year blunt force trauma um so as you can see about 46% of the deaths that um occurred in the unhoused community were considered accidental that is countywide um as you can the at the bottom of this chart you can see that uh the city of Boulder actually had 13 of the total number of deaths among the unhoused community last year slightly down from the prior year um and some of our other neighboring cities actually saw a slight increases to that total next slide please so are we get a lot of questions about coordinated entry what is it what is different from coordinated entry that is mentioned in National documents our local coordinated entry is a screening process and that screening process is used to connect people to Diversion services or Sheltering programs it's slightly

[151:00] different than what HUD deems coordinated entry in a Continuum of Care setting which is uh the regional select uh select group of homelessness providers that uh work on housing and exiting people from home is under Community Care Grants and in the greater Denver area that is metro Denver homeless initiative uh the CE numbers that we can see uh since we established in October 2017 um you the very first chart you'll see that there was a very strong Spike at the very beginning uh which is natural when you set up a program you you backload people into the system um and then it is state stabilized out that being said we did see a significant increase in September of this year compared to the prior September and what we saw in with that group of people that were coming through was that almost all of them had

[152:01] disabling conditions which would screen them to housing Focus shelter which I'll talk about in a minute um and this is overall a 65% increase in in that category from the prior year next slide please uh one of the things that uh Kurt mentioned earlier is that we have a lot more availability at the shelter for helping people who need that temporary shelter and mostly that is due to the boulder shelter for the homelesses efforts in exiting people from homelessness as you can see it has um been steadily Rising we had a really good placement month in September and we are expecting our October totals when they come through to be about as good um this is a portion of the people that are exiting from homelessness and I will go into a little bit more detail about

[153:00] that on the next slide so next slide please so when I say that we exit people from homelessness um these pieces of data are limited to exits from Boulder Shelter From the homeless that's who's reporting this information and so that 176 exits can be over three different categories the first one is housing and housing is more than something called permanent support of housing it could be everything from onetime assistance to Rapid rehousing um helping people with creative Housing Solutions um or any combination thereof um the permanent Supportive Housing category is the one you hear about the most because it is our most intensive service it is provided to the people who have have the greatest vulnerability typically lengthy times of homelessness um very episodic in nature living

[154:01] outside for time periods of time in and out of the shelter and that they have some sort of disabling condition or very likely multiple types of uh disabling conditions reunification and diversion um this is really connecting people to support systems elsewhere so there is an idea that sometimes this is considered a ticket out of town and that's not necessarily true our coordinating entry and diversion staff work very closely with clients and with their end destination to make sure that it is a safe and stable environment for somebody to go back into most of the time this is with family and friend family members and Friends some times it is connecting somebody back to a long-term treatment program or uh a Housing Opportunity in another Community um the last category is uh

[155:01] long-term treatment uh long-term programming or some other type of service that doesn't fall into the housing or the reunification sections um for example if somebody was going to enter into a long-term substance use disorder treatment program they would be classified under this position you can see that the majority of the people that we serve through homelessness exits are actually housing related um and that is really our overall goal um we we Champion all types of exits and we certainly don't want to create situations where we're only addressing people who have the highest level of vulnerability because if we don't address people who are newer to homelessness or new or have fewer barriers to uh housing then we're going to end up with a a larger group of people who have reached long-term homelessness which then um is requires a

[156:02] significant intervention to help exit their homelessness next slide please since the program was established in October of 2017 uh the city of Boulder has seen 1,151 exits from homelessness um this does not include uh the people who are exited from homelessness within the city of Longmont when you add those two numbers together our countywide efforts um really show the benefit of collaboration because that's averaging one person exiting homelessness per day since since October 2017 as I mentioned before the largest category continues to be finding Housing Solutions for people and we saw 569 people receive housing assistance 439

[157:00] people were reunited with support systems either through navigation which is our short ter shorter term programming for people who are less acute or diversion diversion is an immediate response it is meant to solve somebody's problem when they come through the CE door um and then there's long-term program treatment which I spoke about earlier and that was 143 people um of that 143 people not all of that is substance abused um type of treatment it can also be connections to other programs such as ready to work next slide please um I I won't read through this whole slide for you but a big section of our housing response is around permanent Supportive Housing and as a county collaborative we work very hard to ensure that we have a growing number of opportunities for people who are at high

[158:02] vulnerability to obtain housing the majority of that work is done through HSBC or Homeless Solutions for Boulder County work groups there's two key work groups that go into this one is the housing exits Group which is made up of housing authorities governmental entities and some of the main providers of permanent supportive housing assistance they meet regularly and uh plot out strategies action plans goals um and and set all of the the pieces that are needed to move this forward in this limited resource environment the other group is our case conferencing group and that is where members from metro Denver homeless initiative um our local shelters are uh groups such as focused re-entry um me Mental Health Partners

[159:02] and a number of other people our Municipal Court homeless Navigators a number of people who come in contact with and work closely with people experiencing homelessness and they work to match people at certain priority listings to available resources um we've seen a huge amount of efficiency created through these case conferencing programs um with the emergency housing vouchers that recently came into play which brought in a significant number of vouchers into our community recently our area was one of the very first areas to be able in the region to be able to mobilize and get people matched to resources so to show you the value of taking this tapestry of different resources and leveraging them effectively we had a goal that was established of 200 units countywide um to be accomplished by 2023 and Boulder share of that was 159

[160:01] units or vouchers um we exceeded that within a year um and so there are current and approved projects of 463 housing permanent Supportive Housing opportunities that are either already in place and people are living in their apartments or are imminent such as the Mount Calvary project that was discussed earlier next slide please so uh this is really a summary of some of our big items that we're working on either at the city of Boulder level or in collaboration with uh the county and the city of Longmont through Homeless Solutions for Boulder County one of the big uh imminent task that we're working on is around acquiring property for Recovery housing that is a program that will be used to assist people who are experiencing chronic homelessness but also have either active

[161:00] or significant histories of methamphetamin use uh there are a couple of challenges that go into um having this meth addiction in that um not only do they need the treatment that is associated with it but they have um a real barrier to being able to obtain housing in a landlord based uh structure um this also um follows with the next thing which is our uh Bridge housing program that is established in partnership with Boulder shelter for the homeless um to really address um how we can get people with very lengthy the criminal histories into their own Apartments um again with certain uh criminal backgrounds people who would otherwise be high priority for permanent Supportive Housing um wouldn't be able

[162:00] to find units necessarily that could rent to them so um the city is assisting the shelter with purchases of units so that they can be the landlords of those properties and be able to control who goes in there um as always we are very involved with providing covid responses and assisting the county with running the CRC um so that we can really save um as many people from getting covid in the unhoused population which is extremely vulnerable for covid um as possible one thing I would note is on the chart I showed you with the um with the corers report um you'll notice that there were no deaths among the unhoused population due to covid and we feel that that is that is based on three things one is the CRC and the dedicated staff that works very closely with um with

[163:02] people who are sick with covid the uh consistent testing that happens at key locations and quite frankly the safety of our various shelters uh they've they've taken guidance from public health and other entities and really done a great job on trying to make sure that our our shelters and congregate Living Spaces are as safe as possible uh we continue to work with eviction and prevention activities um and we are looking to set up a peer support and day programming uh for people who are matched to resources through their first two years of placement into permanent Supportive Housing um in order to uh build community within um this particular population and to have them be able to maintain their housing there's a a long history of people who have spent significant time living

[164:01] unsheltered that get placed into Apartments it's very isolating and we want to make sure that we can help support them in every way that we can we also feel that people with live experience can really provide excellent peer support in order to help us with those goals um I mentioned the emergency housing vouchers earlier this is implementing a strategy that is called move on and move up so if people voluntarily feel that they have um been able to stabilize enough to where they don't necessarily need as much intensive case management we can move them to an emergency housing voucher which has limited case management and that frees up a voucher on the other end that we can then put somebody who is very vulnerable into it um as always the house Homeless Solutions for Boulder County um and our role within that is we're constantly looking at ways to increase those vouchers and available housing units we're extremely excited about the 55 units that will be coming

[165:01] online um and of course we want to reduce the time between prioritization and placement in when somebody can turn their key in their apartment next slide please as you can see we're staying pretty busy um we're also in partnership with Boulder Community Health and Boulder County Public Health to add some sharp containers in public spaces uh as Kurt mentioned we moved uh 18 people to the hotels last night and we'll add the extra two very very shortly um the Homeless Solutions for Wilder county is uh evaluating data and policy alignment um as we've made these changes and weathered through the first first year of covid we continue to work with our neighboring communities and metro Denver homeless initiative to improve Regional efforts um we have also been working with our family homelessness subcommittee uh the family homelessness subcommittee is working on

[166:01] developing um a little bit more structure to the way that they uh they collect data and um provide some sort of initial screening process so we're helping um support that effort um and then as be there has finished its pilot time period we want to be able to enh evaluate what worked what didn't and enhance that program next slide please with that I will turn it back over to Kurt um thank you Vicki and um I think we can take the uh the presentation down now and um uh see if there's any uh question questions um that Council would have right well Kurt and Vicki thanks so much for that very thorough presentation I know it's helpful for all of us but particularly for the new council members to get up to speed to all of our various efforts and thanks for all of your efforts um in this area so questions

[167:01] I've got Nicole and Mark and juny I just want to Echo the thanks for the very thorough presentation um my question is just around the churn rate um for folks who are um exited out of homelessness um what does it look like for you know how many how many people who are housed for example are still housed um a year later two years later um those who are um who go through diversion or reunification um how many of those end up back um in a position of homelessness in our community I'm just wondering if you have some of that uh data and what that looks like um sure that's a that's a great question thank thank you um so some of that information some of that data we do have and some of that data we do not have and probably won't be likely to have um so the the psh program which is where the the majority

[168:00] of our residents going into housing locally would be supported um we do have information on that um and and we have information because there's there's continual um uh contact with those individuals through Services um and typically um um the the rate is in the 70 to 75% um that are of individuals that are still currently housed um who have been housed um since we started the strategy um and that's typical for similar programs um in other um cities in the US um and you'll see that one of the the work items um that Vicki talked about um there there's actually two things one is the peer support program um and the other is um uh day programming for both of those are targeted for individuals

[169:01] either entering housing or who are currently in housing and I think one of the challenges that we're having um if is that um because we've we've um we've gone past our our goals um we we've actually housed in my mind um we've housed individuals beyond our our capacity um to support them in some cases we need to put more resources and programming into ensuring that not only people and I think that staying in a in a house um is a good goal but I think it's too low of a bar we need actually help individuals Thrive um in housing as well so one of the things we'll be bringing back to Council in um um in in next quarter early next year are some arpa programs um that can help support that um for individuals that go through um diversion we don't have information

[170:01] on that um we um we don't have um we're not able to we don't have the capacity to call all the individuals um that have been um gone into a diversion situation um and um so we don't really have data on that um and that's also similar to other programs um in other cities the diversion type programs they're often out of the community sometimes they're in the community but they're often in a different community and um so besides a phone we don't really have a a contact with either them or the person that we originally worked with um to coordinate with them I just wanted um to follow up on that uh last Point um with that would it be the case that if they were um diverted they came back um into Services would that come through coordinated entry I mean

[171:00] would you see it there or is really just not we're not tracking at that level yeah so that that does occur um it occurs both for diversion clients reunification clients as well as as housed clients um sometimes we um have individuals that have been housed for a year or so um they leave their housing we'll see them back six months later or a year later um and we actually try to um the case managers that come across those individuals actually prioritize those individuals and um really try to get them back into um um housing and try to figure out you know kind of what went wrong or why they weren't weren't successful um or if different Services um are required to assist assist them okay we'll come back to you Mark and then

[172:00] Jenny Kurt Vicki thank you so much for that presentation um it was really quite thorough um can you clarify something for me um Kurt you made reference to I believe an additional 176 beds can you speak closer to the mic Mark did you make reference to an additional 76 uh beds on top of the 180 or did I misar that yes um but they're not shelter beds um those are the 160 76 individuals who we have housed since a year ago um and um so they don't need to stay in a shelter um any longer um they're now staying um in in housing um either within our city or in other situations and and my last question is there's always great concern um when there was a death from hypothermia were any of the deaths um due to insufficient

[173:01] capacity um for last year this previous year we do not know the answer to that um however you'll notice last year there was only two nights when there was insufficient capacity and those were both in November um the previous year we actually were able to um work with the coroner's office to get the um the dates of those deaths um so the previous year we were able to compare that um to nights that there was um capacity and none of those deaths in the previous year um related to hypothermia occurred on um nights where there wasn't capacity so if it did occur um in in last year um those cases would have happen would have had to have happened um on one of those um two nights in November and and my

[174:01] last question is given the small number of people who we have turned away on any given night um is there no standby um or opportunistic solution that we can come up with to deal with when if you're talking about three to five or six people isn't there some way to deal with that other than simply to turn them away yeah so I think that's a challenge that that um that every Community faces um and you know we we've taken the approach to um try to maximize you know the resources we have and our main resource in our community is the is the boulder shelter a huge investment was made in that um opening up add additional um shelters is very expensive so we've we've taken the approach um of adding hotel rooms and that's been um so you'll you would have noticed that we've

[175:00] added 20 hotel rooms from the 15th of no November to the 15th of March so those are open every night so those are meant to add cap add capacity and then on the extreme cold WN weather night we're we're adding an additional um 20 beds um through hotels so that's been our approach to sort of meet that additional capacity um I I think the challenge is um is is how many layers um do you add on and if we add on another layer do we need another layer on top of that um the purpose of tonight is really to present to you um what we we have in place and what we've been able to to put in place thank you Kurt appreciate it got juny but Bob did you have a call Qui thank you jie um I just want to uh Kurt thanks for that I just want to follow up on Mark's question though you mentioned layers um but um you know if

[176:00] we're I mean 20 is kind of a round number right and um if if we're doing 20 and on some nights we're missing three or four people why not just make it 25 in other words I know there's an incremental cost for every hotel room but it's only the rooms we you actually use and so why not bump that number up to 25 or 30 it's not not additional layer it's just it's a quantitative difference and so we would we would not have as many people slipping through the cracks so what what's the reason for that um so the the the reason for that is the the 20 and the 20 those are that's what we were that's what the shelter was able to negotiate um with the hotel that they use um for this service um I must say during during covid um particularly at the time of opening the CRC and then also when we were looking for addition looking for additional capacity if we needed it um there aren't it's a very short list of hotels

[177:01] in our community um that are willing to to take that Arrangement um we're very fortunate to have the hotel that we we we have um the i i my understanding is the shelter took the approach um not from a cost standpoint but from um how many beds can we get um on a regular basis um certainly there's potential um if Council desired for us to go back and see if that could be increased but the at the time of negotiating that last year and again this year um those were the numbers um that were um that we committed to and those are numbers that the hotel can commit to as well okay well I guess I for one would be I mean we seem like we're really really really close if we're only having a small number of people being turned away and uh there's not a big difference between 20 and 25 I mean if the hotel just doesn't have a capacity but 20 seems

[178:01] like an oddly round number so why not 22 or 23 um so I guess that's just where I would be thanks thanks thanks for that Bob we got uh juny and I know Matt has one and then we'll come back to Nicole here in a minute thank you Ain and I just want to applaud hert for uh the CRC um and I've seen the progress so juny I can't quite hear you if you could be a little closer to the microphone thank you thank you no I just want to say that I want to applaud you for the success of the CRC I've seen it throughout uh 2020 and the great work that you've done to protect people and ensuring no one died from covid and ensuring that they're able to use the CRC I want to go back and look at your slide number seven you talked about the severe weather shelter and in 2019 to 2020 you

[179:03] H you served 558 people in 2020 and 2021 you served only 281 and I was wondering what is the c cause of the drop in services or people using sure sure it's actually an an increase in services and we we increased the number of people that were coming into the other programs and um the uh the diversion program was a new program that was started that year um as well as the reunification um and it's really an expansion of services um and it it shifts people from sort of one to the other we also had a shift in um in severe weather sh shelter capacity um and I can't remember how that aligns with that um when we had the 30th Street um location as well some of those

[180:00] clients were also in um uh programs that were um focused on getting them into to housing so it's it's really those those two components um but um last year we basically had the same um sort of capacity that we have um this year also I have another question I have a few questions actually my next question is you on the slide you mentioned uh the median number of knights used are four to five and I'm wondering is it because of diversion how is it only the median is three four to five nights yeah yeah so it it has nothing uh it probably has nothing to do with the version um because typically the people who are in severe weather shelter um are are typically um not engaged in Services um particular on Housing Services um and um

[181:03] uh so um I think another statistic that might may help you um understand this so when when we started this this program three and a half years ago or this strategy um um since since that time almost 7,000 individuals have gone through coordinated entry we also know that a number of uh individuals experiencing homelessness come into our community that don't go through coordinated entry um we don't know if that's 10% or 30% um but we probably have somewhere you know between 8 and 10,000 individuals uh experiencing homelessness that have come through our community during that time um some individuals stay for a period of time um and move on within a few days or a week or a month um and some stay um individuals stay much longer um many individuals as you know um uh particularly those who use

[182:03] severe weather shelter are comfortable staying outside and severe weather shelter um is used um um as as an alternative to that but it's um for many it's not their um their first choice um for shelter thank you um one last question and a comment as well on slide number seven I'm looking at the data from 2011 and 2020 and somehow Boulder contributed more to the death the coronus report from 2011 N Out of the 13 and in 2020 13 out of the 29 and for a community that provides so much service to me that's very alarming that we contribute such a great number to the number of uh deaths in the

[183:00] countywide data that you showed us and my comment as well as I've mentioned to you before it's so important that we have our own data and I can see in this report that you did try but I wonder as well with the hyperthermia you have five deaths of course as someone who's on Council I have some of that information but I don't think community members know exactly what does that mean when you have 2019 we had 15 deaths and what percentage or how many of our community members died from hypothermia in 2015 and 2013 we don't have that number based on that particular slide so to me I think it's very alarming again to see that report that as a community that provides so much to you know contribute so much to getting people hous that we contribute that much to so many people dying in some way so thank you so so juny thank

[184:01] you for that yes we we we certainly share the the concerns um you know every time we see a report like this of the number of deaths that that do occur um I will say that that um um the the deaths that are represented on the coroner's report are people that passed away um um often not in services and you know living on the street it's really a relation of the of the number of people who are living um and and sleeping outside on a nightly basis um I know when we look back in 2019 at the when we had a bit more information on those deaths at at that time um it was typically people who weren't engaged in services and um were were deciding to live primarily um um out in the open um at night um and that's concerning um sort of another data point as a

[185:02] comparison is that roughly 75% of the individuals experiencing homelessness in Boulder County are in the city of Boulder um and um if you if you look at the the coroners reports um um you know it's they're actually um more spread out throughout the community than they are um according to that um Matrix I would also add that of the 75% of people who are um at in the city of Boulder City of Boulder also has a disproportionately large percentage of people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness and significant physical and uh substance use disorder situations so that put makes them particularly frail Outdoors

[186:00] um and so does increase the risk level there too ji did that answer all your questions yes thank you and also I support uh Bob's idea of providing more Hotel Beds if that would help ensuring that or homeless population are protected thank you Matt thanks Kurt and Vicki for your presentation and the information um I know it's certainly helpful for some of us that are a little uh newer to council so thank you for a bit of that primer my question is really focused around what triggers the critical weather shelter and and where 10° comes from um to me that that's really Beyond hypothermic and so I'm just wondering what's the driver for that one of the reasons is that I ask is because when you look at sort of historical weather data you know on average we only get about 14 days per year that are at or below 10° but if you

[187:02] look at 20° we're at about 45 days a year um that are at or below that number and so in terms of just creating service that has greater capacity and is open more I'm wondering where does 10 differentiate from 20 versus even 30 I know we got rid of severe weather shuttles so I'm just trying to wonder why that trigger and where you see that headed yeah so it's it's um thanks for that Matt so it's it's both about capacity as well as the the weather um so it's related to um sort of what the need is and um what we see and what we saw last year um I don't have the numbers in front of me but I think you're you're you're correct it's it's only it's a handful of knights um that that meet that threshold um and what we found that is that there was enough capacity um at the at the 32 on on the days that it was 32 degrees um and

[188:04] um uh so it's it's it's it's a policy that was put in place um before I joined the city um it was a policy that was put in place by the shelter um and um I I know that they looked at the sort of the the weather data and the capacity data at the time um and um so it's it's really related to the number of beds um previous councils um have been most concerned about the the trigger at at at 32 degrees because that's where we actually saw or or saw the potential for turnaways um because we hit those those temperature thresholds on a very regular basis um and so that that actually got a lot of discussion and so in part that was the reason for taking that weather trigger completely away um and um just

[189:02] creating um you know severe weather shelter that's open every day it's even open in the summer um and um so I I don't have the answer for the justification if ation of of the actual uh uh temperature but that's the the process or the thinking that they use to establish it I I can also add that uh last year when we were sort of codifying some of this we looked at the last six years of data uh related to weather and looked at the average low temperatures or the basically the 30 lowest average nights of the year and those corresponded to 10° um so that helped support this need for an additional trigger for when it is truly truly cold um that was already put

[190:00] in place by Boulder shelter but we did go back and double check and and looked at how how that number would correlate with uh what we actually see on average it's really hard to look year toe because weather pattern change so you have to look at multiple years in order to try to establish some sort of Norm well well thank you for that again you know for me I think where where I'm maybe a little what I maybe what I'd like to just see is is where you know looking at the data that you have on on page five you know you compare it to last year when we had more of maybe normal weather although I don't know if September 6 snow is considered normal um but we haven't had that yet and yet we're already seeing it looks like the usage already up 20 beds um and that's as you point out sort of critical criteria changing and so once the weather goes south more or less I I think is it fair to assume that then we're going to see the numbers sort of exceed the 2020 numbers based on the weather triggering things and so for me it's about just do we have the capacity built in given

[191:01] those changes so we're not reacting we're already maybe already ahead of the game by maybe thinking about moving that trigger up a bit so that they're already available for maybe 45 days a year um rather than having react to it when we start to see our numbers perhaps climb due to weather or other circumstances so a couple notes I would make as as the person who looks at the national weather service numbers every single day um I I I can tell you that um there's a couple things to keep into into the consideration when when you're when you're looking at Weather policy um one is that um those turnaways that we did have already um that was prior to Hotel placements so that automatically gives us 20 more beds once those people get placed into hotels um and we would not have turned away anybody if it was bad weather after the hotel placements um the second thing to to really consider is if you look at um a a comparison of

[192:05] actual shelter and severe weather shelter usage compared to low temperatures there is a relationship but it's not a direct relationship and what we see are as C mentioned earlier in the presentation um there tends to be a a a skewing of our uh turnaways at the earlier part of the Season as opposed to say March where the weather is actually worse and so yes we do know that there are going to be nights where we're going to have a lot of traffic at the shelter um because it's just so cold that uh even the people who are are comfortable staying outside they they say no I need to be inside and that's why we have those critical weather triggers established but it I it it becomes really difficult if you try to put a onetoone correlation between a low temperature and capacity

[193:01] at or usage because they are not a onefor one relationship richel did you have a call qu on that and then we'll get back to Nicole thanks um and I would like to get in the cue for questions as well but just for this one on a cqu I'm struggling a little bit to have like a almost a Redline version of what we've done over the last three years um it it seems to me that in 2019 we did a like 2019 into 2020 we did a pilot where we were going to leave severe weather shelter open every night and so that's kind of when the change happened and then that last year um we did that for the full season we had like 30 or and then up to 60 days max Max so at some point we um started shuffling you know temperature triggers as a result of that so I think 2019 we kept the 32 38 degrees but then last year I thought it was something higher than 10 degrees so that's my first question on Matt or coling on Matt is did what was

[194:02] the number for the uh critical weather conditions last year yeah so those these temperature thresholds have been in place for many years they haven't changed um one of the things that we did last year um we changed it um as uh because of covid um concerns and and that's why we um um sort of increased um the consistency of um severe weather shelter didn't we have like a 20 degree threshold for something last year so 20 degrees relates to the daytime temperature um and if it's 20° um during the day um then the the the daytime um shelter is is also open okay um I guess I can I can reserve the rest for for later but it it's it feels like we're not quite doing apples to oranges with the the temperatures and and and

[195:00] the trigger points here because it it was we were still using the the 30s for something in 2019 and and down to 10 and as Matt said like I I don't I don't know the exact number where hypo hypothermia sets in I think it it depends on other conditions like whether there's wetness but um 10° seems awfully low okay why don't we get back to Nicole and then Lauren I think has some and R will come back to you thank you and Kurt and Vicki I just want to thank you for sticking with us um I think what you're seeing is that for especially those of us who were campaigning recently um homelessness was the single biggest issue that we heard about so I just really appreciate your time and I appreciate that you are thinking about um some next steps to bring back to us uh as well um I just had a question around um some of the uh use of hotel rooms and thank you for explaining as well that um it really is

[196:00] dependent on the hotels being willing to do this as well um but my question is you know we're already seeing um a couple of folks turned away now already as I understand it due to capacity it's not really cold yet so you know I could see this um increasing you know and and so my question around this idea of having you know a few more hotel room beds available is that realistic as we get to a point where there may be more people um requesting shelter Services um would that be sufficient to meet that need um and sort of a a side note to that as I understand it last year um and I think this may still be going on the federal government was making available some um funding for municipalities to um to get hotel rooms for people experiencing homelessness due to covid and I'm just wondering if that's still available and if that's something that we are um still seeking as a city uh yes thank you Nicole um yeah that that's those are actually the resources we used for that and we used

[197:01] for that last year um as you may have remembered we had a very tight budget last year um we didn't have um um all the all the new things that we did last year the CRC um the the Hotel Beds um a lot of the covid responses we didn't pay for any of that out of out of City funds um we were incredibly fortunate to have those resources um to cover those things um and um as far as hotel rooms um I know that our our city in HSBC was the first community in line to get those um um the reimbursement for those hotel rooms um and I can thank Vicki for her efforts in actually accomplishing that as being one of the first communities um your your SEC your second question was um how how realistic um is it to get more um additional hotel rooms um I don't know the answer to that right

[198:01] now um I do know that um there was um um negotiations that went on to get as many beds as we could um and that's how it exists now um but certainly ourselves or the shelter or HSBC um could could look at that again and we'd be glad to do that I I had another question around um you mentioned uh day Services as something that you all are looking um into and we'll come back to us with some information about um and I'm just wondering you know in the interim um what options are available for folks for day shelter cu because as I understand it the shelter right now is primarily for overnight Sheltering um but as the temperatures get colder which they will we've been sort of um in a terrifying way blessed with a very long fall here um that's that's been a little warm but you know what do we have available for uh day Sheltering options for folks as

[199:00] it gets colder um so what we'll be bringing back to you our day services and not day Sheltering um so day services are um we need to find a facility for that um but that would be um programs and services um to assist individuals who have been housed um where they can go and and go through different classes or supports um around various things that they're that they're facing um the um the city of Boulder had a a day Shel day shelter um I think I think it closed I I think it was around 2015 2016 if I recall um and um there was um a lot of complaints from the community around that as well at that time um I wasn't here so I don't know the details um of

[200:02] of why that that wasn't um continued um we um um uh I think when the strategy was put in place and it was approved by the council three and a half years ago the approach that was taken is that we have limited resources as a community we had limited resources coming from federal and state governments um so the strategy was that all resources um should be used um uh towards exiting people out of homelessness and so that's the approach that we've taken um at that time um uh the the system if I can call it that was probably exiting you know 5 to 10 people a year um out of homelessness through through housing um so we've obviously been able to significantly impact that um however with that said um we've also put resources into what I would say our

[201:00] emergency services or or services to meet um the basic needs of individuals so you know that's that's the balance that we've taken um and the approach um of where resources get focused Nicole do you mind if I follow up on that so that was the answer about day shelter how about the question about what options do folks who are experiencing homelessness have to get out of the cold uh on a during the day so not about shelter but a place to stay warm sure so um what we actually see in the community um uh the library gets used um quite a bit and and um the um my my my hat is off to the staff who work at the library who are very um accomodating and helpful for for individuals who use the library um the rec centers are another location um that is sometimes sometimes use um is and th

[202:01] those are sort of the public um locations um and then um um there's other there's other areas I mean there's other programs um that people go to um there things like the Deacon's closet and that sort of thing which are sort of a temporary um time period during the day um and then um individuals go to other um public areas thank you thank you um and I just want to clarify this was something that I actually didn't understand as a community member until I started looking into this um but this uh idea of targeting a lot of resources toward housing um is as I understand and please correct me if I'm wrong um is really coming from federal policy in that we we cannot get as much funding um unless we are uh kind of focusing on this housing first approach and I'll give you a moment you look confused so let me give you a moment to correct me for for um

[203:00] for folks who are listening um I I don't think the decision M was made because we wanted to chase money um I think the decision was made is because um we believed um that that was the direction to go um however with that said um there's um and it's I must say it's grown significantly over the last year and I think it will continue to grow there are more resources available um around housing yeah and that slide that that Vicki showed with all the little boxes of all the little vouchers that slide looked a lot different three years ago um and um so we're we're quite thankful for that yeah and I apologize I didn't I didn't mean to um imply that you all are chasing money um just more more to clarify that there is a lot more money available um for cities to use uh for living for housing um practices and so this this question is is more General and um it's really around whether we

[204:02] have a metric of some sort that we use um that can give us an indication of for the amount of money in FTE that are being invested Ed in different um strategies and programs what is the return in terms of people who are um exiting homelessness who are served by um permanent housing or basically who are transitioning out of homelessness I'm just I'm curious if we have anything that can give us some sort of metric on that yeah I I wish we did have a metric like that um there are um National studies um that have um been done um I wish we had a university or a research organization that could help us with those types of questions but the research that has been done from other communities um shows that it's it's it's money well spent um getting individuals into housing um and it saves resources overall for the community um they'll

[205:00] spend more on Emergency Services um and um incarceration and that sort of thing um and we we have we've been able to show the indiv idual who have gotten into housing um have had significant reductions in um um interactions with with the criminal justice system and that that's a great outcome um that we see um but we don't we don't we don't have those metrics to that detail um locally or at least recently um I know part of the strategy and this also predates me but um part of the strategy development program they did look at the community costs um very consistent with a lot of the national studies that CT was referencing it typically cost the community about $50,000 per person per year to not do anything to help somebody um whereas if you put somebody in a permanent Supportive Housing we can do that for

[206:00] approximately $20,000 per year per person um it's actually slightly lower depending on which type of permanent Supportive Housing program they're in um the thank you for mentioning housing first I think that that's a big priority um not only nationally but locally BEC and why it is part of our strategy is because it is the only proven method of actually exiting people from homelessness is to provide home housing and all of the peer R peer reviewed studies show that um we do have reductions in those Community costs we have more stability for the people who are in those programs and um so there is multiple layers of return on investment that you can really apply to that question I just want to thank you again for sticking with us and answering all of our questions thanks Nicole uh Lauren you

[207:00] want to go thank you and I agree with what everyone's been saying you know some of the data you showed especially regarding um and the uh housing options you've created are is really um great work that you've been doing for our community so thank you so much for that um I just had you know as a new person on Council I have some questions um one of the first is why don't we follow the HUD standards for coordinated entry and how do our standards differ from those kind of national standards so I'm G let Vicki uh answer that one so I don't think it's it's necessarily necessarily accurate to say that we don't follow coordinated entry standards um as I was explaining earlier they're two different things when we're talking about local unfortunately I if it was up

[208:00] to me we would have called our local program something besides coordinated entry because it does create this confusion um but our local program is merely about screening into Sheltering and then their subsequent programs that they offer case management wise um coordinated entry when you're talking about HUD is specific to coordinate uh Continuum of Care and so um the continua of care have established um basically this idea of no wrong door so when somebody's looking for a way to get prioritized into housing they have this mechanism that's set up and HSBC very much works with that program in order to place people into permanent Supportive Housing I mentioned earlier the uh case conferencing sessions that we do with metro Denver homeless initiative that's part of the cordinated entry process and we're working off of something they call a

[209:01] oneome list which is their um their priority list that's ranked throughout the region but specific to Boulder for our conferencing um and with some pre-established priority criteria um and they uh they maintain the homeless management information system which is a requirement for coordinated entry and so we feed into that but we're we're very lucky locally that we have our own separate coordinating entity that can then dovetail into that and we can have handle a a wider variety of needs but C screening the the local program helps collect data it's self-reported data but it gives us a a better window into what a person's needs are so that the case manager on the shelter end can then work with them then to get them into that priority list and work with a broader coordinated entry and I know that was

[210:01] super confusing so um if you need further detail I'm certainly happy to to provide that offline so so Lauren the other just the other thing that I would add is that um uh while we use both systems um there was there was a decision made at the beginning of HSBC um to create this system partly because we couldn't get the were're not able to get the information and the data that we need um as a community um and the majority of data that you will receive um over your tenure as a council member um will come from the inform from the system that was developed by HSBC it really helps us understand what's going on locally and I think you you may have seen on your campaign trail that a lot of individuals in our community are asking for information and um and and why policy decisions are made and that sort of

[211:01] thing we we wouldn't be able to do any of that or answer any of those questions really um with without the system um under HSBC yeah I I get that and I think that um you know it's great that we're trying to collect that data I think one of my concerns comes from just that you know when you showing the turnaways that we're seeing fairly consistently you know one or two people turned away um pretty regularly it was like almost I mean it seemed like every other day at least due to not wanting to participate or you know what you you had up there is because they weren't going through coordinated entry um and so I guess assuming that it's not the same people who are coming back 3 days later and you know getting turned away again that that adds up to a sizable number of people that were ultimately not serving

[212:03] and that when you combine that with the fact that a lot of the a you know your average shelter stay is four to five days it just makes me wonder you know is one day really the right or one night's day without going through coordinated entry the right marker or if we shifted it to three nights or something could we essentially have a better balance between the information that we needed to collect and you know serving people who just need the shelter for a couple of nights um but one thing to note on on C screening is that it's it's fairly quick it's uh a pretty basic screening mechanism it's not um it's not particularly honorous on the person that's going through that and as Kurt mentioned the shelter makes it pretty readily available um either by

[213:01] phone or at um 909 arapo or even um in the conversations that they're having with people who are actually at the shelter um and so there's a lot of communication that happens through our Outreach groups um where they're talking through what CE is why it's important um how it's basically painless um but it helps us tailor the needs to the person who's coming to our system for help and so that's why we feel like it's a critical need to get people processed through that c screening because it does help us in those Endeavors yeah and I I absolutely understand that for me it's just a question of balance and where that balance is um but we can talk more about that maybe offline I'd love to see what the questions actually are um let's see my next question in oh you

[214:01] had um some information about um housing for people with lengthy criminal records um and uh drug addiction and I was just wondering um sort of what the what the timeline is that you guys have that we're looking at in terms of when those new house that new housing will be operational or what your closest guess yeah we just closed on our first unit I think two weeks ago um and we're we're um I think we have allocated to create um eight units um over the next six months and is that for both of those programs or was that okay that's for those who um with a with a lengthy criminal history um but I'll I'll Al also note that there's a a parallel

[215:01] program um and and they also work together um uh under judge Cook's um Direction and um they also have um Navigators that are working with with similar individuals um so it's really it's really to add on in onto that program and and strengthen that and create more opportunities um that's something that we've already been doing um for the last couple of years um but um it's it's an area where um um you know the need is the number of individuals are higher than we're really able to serve and um we really see that as an area that we need to strengthen um and increased capacity so that's the approach that we've taken with that um so the the the second program um if I understand you correctly um is a program or or an idea um that we started about a

[216:01] year ago um we're currently in the process of drafting an IGA between ourselves and Boulder County um that IGA will will be coming to council probably in the next um eight weeks or so um and um that will that IG will cover the relationship that how Boulder and Boulder County will will work together to provide residential meth um treatment thank you um and then here's another data question that's probably going to be hard to answer but do we have the ability to track frostbite um and other injuries related to Exposure One of the thing like in construction sometimes uh contractors are required to keep really low injury and death rates to qualify for particular kinds of

[217:00] projects and typically the way they go about that is by trying to understand record and fix lower level injuries and so I'm just curious if we try and do or could try and do anything along those lines so we could we could um we could inquire with Clinica and um Boulder Community Health um to see how they track that and they I I don't know if they would have that information or not um yeah that's it for the moment thank you did you have a followup match okay I think let's let Rachel go next and then come back to you thanks those great questions so far tonight um and I will Echo thank you to Kurt and Vicki for sticking with this I I did suggest at CAC that it was going to be longer than 30 minutes just a

[218:00] little bit no one has it already been 30 minutes uh the council clock is off by an hour so we're all sitting here 30 and I think it's 30 so it's a big win okay um my question first one's for nuura actually just a um kind of an aside um Vicki mentioned that we were increasing the number of Sharps Containers available and we had talked a couple months ago about increasing trash containers available did we um make any movement there I think it is one of the thing sorry I apologize it's one of the things the new sort of uh encampment cleanup team is thinking about as we're looking at what other Services we can offer we're actually working with our it Department to actually figure out metrics on what are we doing to provide safer and cleaner places and that clean up and those containers are happening so we'll we'll Circle back and give you specific answers to that in a in a soon update I hope okay thanks um for Kurt I

[219:01] think you had answered that or maybe it was Vicki you know there's not like one temperature to um shelter utilization rate because we kind of frontload it like people come earlier in the season have we thought about at least increasing the number of available beds on the front end then like if we know that more people are coming in in you know the first couple snowstorms can we increase that yeah so I think the um uh I think the U the timing of the the hotel Hotel Beds was somewhat initially based on um the resources that we had had um but it was also based at looking at the data of the the usage of of the shelter um but I think if you look back several years um regardless of the number of beds um and it's worth noting for the new council members that the the B Boulder shelter for the homeless is actually designed

[220:01] for 160 beds um but that has been reduced um as a result of Public Health guidance so it's been had 140 beds for um I think since the summer of summer spring of 2020 um so hopefully we'll be able to go up to 160 beds at at Boulder shelter at some point um in the future if the whole world gets a vaccine and that will make our life easier as well um the [Music] um um remind me what I was wondering if we could Hotel bed num yeah so I think the it was based on what we were seeing um as the numbers um but what I wanted to mention is every year in the fall regardless if it's um cold or not we have capacity turnaways regardless of what even when we had the 30th Street Shelter in fact we had more turnaways

[221:01] when we had the 30th Street Shelter um but um we always have um turnaways in the fall and what Greg har had told me a few years ago which seems to be correct is that U many people in our community are are trying to understand what the capacity is um and where they're going to settle for the winter um and often that is according to what his experience was is that that's triggered by those turnaways um in the fall um and um it's um for for a number of individuals are sort of testing you know is this a place where they can spend the winter or not and the fall is a time where that sort of occurs um we we could have front loaded them uh another couple of weeks and we may not have had the turnaways um I don't know what the other results of that would have been though okay I'll I'll ponder that um thank you um following up on Mark Wall's question about 176 kind of additional

[222:02] beds because um it's definitely awesome that we got 176 people housed last year um and and applaud you and your staff and everyone who worked on that do we know how many uh I mean I understand that homelessness is up Nationwide do we know how many people are newly unhoused in the last year uh in our community or yeah I mean you know if we 176 fewer beds are needed because we housed I assume there are some people who now need housing who didn't a year ago or who continue to need it yeah yeah that's that's a hard question to answer um I think for the one of the other um initiatives that was started in February um of this year which you're aware of is the um evictions work um that our department is doing and I know they're preventing a lot of evictions um within our community that's that's been a a very successful program

[223:00] and we'll be able to give an update to Council on that um if if uh if you would like um particular after we've completed the first year so I um I think one of the challenges that we're in right now is that um we have a a point in time count that's a count that's um um that's run under HUD it's run Nationwide where the number of individuals experiencing homelessness are counted on one particular day in January every year um that didn't happen um this year because of covid um and so any um any information we would have on that would really be um you know opinions and it really wouldn't be based on data we do know that um in Denver there's been a pretty significant increase um in homelessness and um we we haven't experienced it um to the degree that

[224:01] Denver has um and in some weeks it feels like it's a lot more than it was a year ago and for some weeks it feels like it's the same um but I don't have any data to um say whether it's 170 more individuals or not and it's also difficult because there's so many individuals that come and go throughout our community um which which makes it challenging to track that okay and as Kurt mentioned you know some of it is very nebulous it's very difficult to get some of this information so one of our best proxies is actually that CE data um it doesn't capture everybody who's experiencing homelessness in our community because as you mentioned there are certain people who do not choose to engage with CE however it does give us some indication of the flow of people who are coming who are either new to homelessness or new to our community um

[225:00] and what we saw what at the beginning of covid was um a pretty rapid increase in people who were experiencing unsheltered home lessness in the community coming from other locations such as Denver um and which makes sense if you're worried about um Contracting a disease and and your other option is a a more tightly compact higher population you're going to go somewhere where they're feels a little bit safer um then we saw sort of a leveling out and actually probably a little bit of a reduction um we're starting to see it kind of uptick again uh right now um but so that can kind of give you an idea of the trending that we have going um the other piece of that of course is around um the impact of the economy on homelessness um one thing to keep in mind when you're talking about single adult homelessness um is that there's usually a significant lag time between the time

[226:02] somebody is evicted and they actually end up experiencing homelessness um and so because people are going to use all of their support systems before they actually hit um actual unchild homelessness or sheltered for that matter um so that we haven't really seen the impact of that and we think a lot of that has to do with the the number of prevention programs that were established um either through the county or the city um and and so building up that safety net hopefully then does keep us from seeing what some of the other communities in the nation are seeing okay um thanks for that um let's see this is sort of a a grim question I apologize but on slides 10 and 11 I think you talked about um people exiting homelessness and and you had a graph and um you know the different types do

[227:00] people that do people that die who are unhoused are they considered an exit and if so where is that captured no that's not an exit um an exit is a um is a is a program where people arrive somewhere okay um thanks and then I guess I I noted when we were looking at the the bar graph on deaths um I think that since my tenure in 2019 started deaths in the coroner's report have have trended up I think maybe 15 and 13 and we're up higher than seven out of the eight other years that were presented in there so it it in that way it feels like we're moving in the wrong direction in terms of deaths of unhoused people during my at least my time on Counsel and just wondered um is there a hypothesis I understand that it is a um it's a a hard on a body to be unhoused

[228:02] um and and that that explains some of these deaths but I don't know why it's trending up there's there's a number of factors that go into that um the uh increasing National age of people experiencing homelessness can impact Rising numbers um I think you cannot discount the growth of uh meth usage um there are um just as you mentioned earlier homelessness in general is going up these are typically people who are living in a situation that have a significantly lower lifespan um and so all of those factors kind of go together that could help um explain some of that increase um but again it it's very difficult to get actual

[229:01] causation okay um well it it just didn't look like it was hitting all of the cities to the same degree as as city of Boulder so um I was just wondering if there was any explanation for that um and then just a couple more things I I wanted to I guess plus one Bob's idea about more um Hotel nights potentially and not capping it at 20 um I I would I guess agree with Matt that 10 degrees feels a little bit arbitrary and would like more information on how that number is arrived at and you know if there's a number that's more um Tethered to like one hypothermia sets in or something that that makes sense for why we would choose that as the number um and then I'm intrigued by Lauren's you know questioning around how we got to one night for coordinated entry because again if we're looking back a couple years ago you could go to severe weather shelter any night it was cold and not need to do coordinated entry so by shifting to Limitless nights but it's really Limitless nights as long as you

[230:01] do coordinated entry after one night it there's there is something a bit lost in the translation and I understand um your goals of wanting to you know kind of nudge people into um services and and it's a a helpful goal but if there are as Lauren suggested you know an average of four nights for for most people and there are people who are resistant to sharing that data for even though it's a a a light lift and low barrier it sounds like it is still a barrier and on the the cold nights if we're limiting people to one that feels a little bit like a well that's that's worse than than we had with severe weather shelter on the limit lied nights for people who don't want to do coordinated entry that's all my questions thank you both I think Matt you had a followup um so my followup actually has to pertain to wind um and in particular you know two nights ago we had uh regular gusts to 60 occasional gusts over 80 uh for reference that's a

[231:00] category one hurricane um and so I'm curious has wind at any point fit into what is considered a critical weather trigger uh for people to be able to seek services and and get sheltered out of what is effectively a you know category one hurricane which we get roughly about a dozen to 15 of those events per year for reference um it has not it was a factor for the original severe weather shelter criteria when we were on weather trigger richel did you have another one just one more uh one request or or maybe a request for not a five I I find these discussions really helpful and we had this I think in 2019 maybe we got the Corner's report a a verbal presentation and update and then um or maybe maybe it was last year but this came initially as an informational packet and I find this more helpful so just wanted to make a request that we continue with the

[232:00] presentation rather than the IP which allows us in back and forth so if if maybe we could do a notify for that for future years I would like it great thanks for that Rachel I I certainly would find that valuable I find this very valuable do people generally feel like this kind of interaction is important okay looks like we got a lot of nutting head so we'll maybe consider that for a a maybe a little less than a year from now maybe we can um plan on on having another discussion update I I I that's yeah great thank you um so I just have one comment um these have been fantastic questions and points I'm very impressed with you all we've got a great group of people up here on this dice very knowledgeable and curious and uh with great um compassion for our unhoused community so I've learned a lot so thanks everyone my my one my one comment that I want to make is just about the the need to have some kind of overflow

[233:00] capacity uh during the Sheltering season so you know we uh last year we had very few turnaways for capacity which was great I would just like to make sure that we do everything that we can to minimize or eliminate hopefully eliminate capacity turnaways so that uh folks have a place to get out of the cold um during this uh during this winter so um I really appreciate the the hotel strategy that you're utilizing and I I thought the comments um you know Mark asked a question and made a point and Bob did as well and then other folks chimed in I I'll agree I if we can expand that hotel room program somewhat to to avoid those turnaways I think that's very worth doing whether that's I don't know if it's adding five or if it's saying well let's let's start with um 30 and only have you know and then maybe 10 or 15 reserved for the the severe the critical weather threshold I'm not sure but I feel like if we should do whatever we can to prevent

[234:00] those turnaways and hopefully the hotel strategy is sufficient for that um but if it seems like it's not going to be that we um be keeping in our head the the looking at other options uh for to give folks away to to get out of the cold this winter so I'll just put that out there as a comment and feel free to respond to it if you'd like yeah thank you um Erin I would be glad to look into that further okay great I appreciate that any final thoughts yes eron if I could say one more thing um which which I wanted to mention um um often when we're in a conversation like this um council members and community members um uh think that um we're the people behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz and um we we all of these decisions and policy things are made um um actually through Homeless Solutions for Boulder County it's a collection of a number of individuals

[235:01] who work um in this every day um and they work in different aspects um of homelessness and um it's really a collaborative approach um we have an executive meeting um every month it's a public meeting I would invite um any of you to to join one of those those meetings we look at the data we look at our policies we look at the new initiatives that are going on and we're always wanting to refine and improve um the services that we provide and um um we know that there's um shortfalls in the services that we do have now we know there's areas that need to be strengthened um we also know that our programs are much better than they were a year ago and they're they're better than they were two years ago um and it's our um it's it's the U the efforts of HSBC that really um drives this work which Vicki and I are are obviously part of um but it's really um a collaboration

[236:04] with the county and with the city of WM thanks for that reminder and we uh very much value those Partnerships um with the folks around the county and yes I just wanted to make one comment um Aon to your kind of summary of our conversation um which is that I think that sorry I think the hotel rooms you know it's it's a good strategy for us to think about my concern with that is that at the point where we start realizing we don't have enough capacity to get people out of the cold and save lives um it's not as if you know Kurt and Vicky can kind of go and coordinate Solutions really quickly especially county level solutions to address that issue and so I'm just um I'm feeling a lot of urgency particularly given that we had a death um just a few weeks ago um and I'm just wondering you know what is our what is our approach there given that things cannot turn on overnight great question Kurt can can

[237:01] you respond to that yeah um I I think that's a that's a question that we receive year at this time um from Council and community members um and um uh sometimes we do move on a dime um but it is as you mentioned it's very difficult particularly finding additional additional beds um The covid Recovery Center um started um with five days effort um it was a it was a huge uh lift to do that um that's not something that we can do on a regular basis so our approach has really been to um create as much emergency shelter as we can um but then get as many people as possible um out of the shelter um to create rooms for for um other other individuals to stay there um and so one one data point

[238:01] um and I appreciate all the questions about data tonight um our Focus has been for the last three years particularly around those who have been chronically homeless for a long time and getting them exited um into a better solution or into housing those individuals typically use a lot of shelter nights they're not the ones that use four to five nights a year they're the ones that use you know 60 to 100 to 150 nights um a year or more and when we get one of those individuals into housing it frees up a significant number of beds for the individuals that are using four to five nights um per season yeah thanks for that I and I'll just reinforce Nicole's point that I think that is to have a something in the back pocket maybe in an emergency that could be stood up you know hopefully

[239:02] that you can keep that in mind and work on that we've heard that thank you eron yeah y thanks so much so Vicki and Kurt uh this fantastic presentation uh both the substance of it and then of course all the work behind it that you and your team and your partners are doing so uh enormous thanks for all of that and for all the um uh great answers to the searching questions tonight thank you right and with that are we good on this item okay great so I believe we have one more thing Alicia is that right that is correct sir I seven I'm sorry my apologies got stuff everywhere item 8 a which is M from mayor and members of council it will be discussion on future in-person meetings and 2022 meeting day nor who's talking this one over uh I believe that this is one where

[240:02] um Council wanted to speak to it but we I can certainly start and um talk a little bit about uh inperson meetings or not um and share with you a little bit about um where we have been as a staff on that so so far um we remain you might move your mic oh sorry I apologize so far we remain um in high transmission across the county we are very cautious and I think have been very successful uh as a city in taking precautions so as we move forward um the previous Council body had agreed to um sort of a certain Cadence of meetings uh at the time we were thinking of continuing study sessions virtually to uh keep CAC virtually um and we are not yet uh in our estimation ready to open our doors to the public because of the high transmission rate we have tried I think and I hope and we'll hear feedback uh uh and improvements always open to

[241:00] improvements but our last two meetings this one included um have been in a hybrid format um and that has been interesting for all of us I think um we offer that we can continue in that hybrid format but uh out of I would say difference to our staff concerns who have many small children they are very concerned as children are now getting vaccines um we are remaining as a skeletal crew here in Council and we uh defer to you all on whether you want to continue to meet in person whether you want to do hybrid meetings or whether we go back to having virtual meetings until our Co numbers um get better great so I guess we'd put it out to council to see how you all feel about that question Bob um I think it's the will of council as to whether we meet in person or virtually the one thing I do feel so you I'm I'm find either way one thing I do feel somewhat strongly about is I wouldn't want us to be in a situation where some council members were um

[242:02] virtual and some council members were in person I think we we I would suggest that we all either need one way or the other because I think it puts those um who are on the screen at a disadvantage that's exceptions for traveling or Vacations or whatever but I'm talking about during Co so I think we should make a decision to either all be in person or all be virtual um I would hope that we all would support that but I'll leave it to to those of you who have some some concerns about whether you want to go to Virtual or person thoughts other thoughts mark youing um I'm a little hardpressed to see the the benefits of an in-person council meeting when we don't have the public and we're still getting uh requiring members of the public to testify virtually um you know we all have our own situations with respect to that um I

[243:02] have a family member who's immune compromised and is very concerned um also as a as a message to the community it seems a little in congruous for us to be coming together when to some extent we're telling the rest of the community stay apart um and and be careful uh and you know it seems to me as if we are ignoring the fact of the matter which is that we're in a high transmission environment um and I'm not sure we're sending the right message by saying you know everyone else should should be careful but we're going to come here for dinner and and and chat for about 4 hours I I I think in for me um I would probably prefer to return to a virtual meeting until you know not beyond the the time when we can return um but until it is you know the facts on the ground are

[244:00] such that it's appropriate for us to return and actually be able to sit here without a mask on and talk to each other not that I don't really enjoy wearing a mask it's delightful but uh I I you know I mean we we look like a group of uh of criminals other thoughts Rachel I like Bob's idea um of sort of all or none either we're all here or we're all not here um I I found last week a little bit awkward from from this Vantage Point too for that and I'm sure it was awkward from the other side um and and probably weird for the community as well so um to Mark's Point yeah it's going to be better when when members of the public can be here I do though see value in this it's a um it's much easier to have hard discussions when we can look each other in the eyes and read body language and um the last two weeks I've I've definitely seen

[245:01] um high value I think in being together and I think that um there's also value to I mean I had my mask up and down dur while everybody was eating but um you know to to um communing around a meal as as uh a members of of the same Council so I I would lean towards continuing to do what we're doing and I think that um in terms of I think you were maybe saying hypocrisy being here and asking the community you know to to not do what we're doing um I think we we are we all checked our vaccine status to be eligible to come in here we're all wearing masks you know I I assume we're all wearing them you know appropriately and covering all of our uh you know nose and mouth and and to that to the extent that we're doing that I think that we are actually role modeling what the community is supposed to be doing and I think that um we may be wearing masks for a while so i' I'd come back stay back maybe I'll

[246:01] call on myself if people don't mind um just that I do feel like there is a value to the in person I just I think the the back and forth where we're seeing each other physically um benefits I think we all benefit from that in terms of the discussion so I appreciate that aspect of it I think by being a vaccine verified um event I think you know we're within Public Health guidelines and I'm okay with that but that being said I would say that if any one of us does not feel comfortable from their own health for their own health the health of their family um or feel like we're doing anything inappropriate from a public health standpoint I'm perfectly fine going back to to virtual and and nobody should feel bad about saying that so I just put that out there it looks like Nicole you and juny from last July I believe when we're trying to get back in person I still hold the same perspective that because of what we hear

[247:02] the cases are going up and it just we're not modeling the right thing to the community and I understand Rachel's perspective it's good to see you today and I hope to see you again and I hope I can look into your eyes many more times but I just don't think you know we should be back in person right away and also I I think it would be the to the detriment of some of our members here if we were to go to come here in person knowing that some some of us have family members who are imun compromised so I I think we either need to go back virtual or have a hybrid process but as far as coming back in person and just seeing all of us are back here knowing that it's not good for the health of some of our council member it just sends the wrong message Nicole and Matt yeah I would just say as somebody

[248:01] who does have a child at home who's too young to be fully vaccinated um and uh also deals with some conditions that make him a little more susceptible than the regular population this makes me nervous it makes my husband even more nervous so um that you know I I just from that perspective of trying to you know keep our families safe um and the other thing that I will say is you know I know I'm not alone in um you know up here as having children who are too young to be fully vaccinated but you know our staff as well um and you know for me I think about that too it's not just a risk that I'm you know putting on my family but it's also what we're doing to the staff who are here as well um and that that just doesn't feel great and it also you know to jun's point um doesn't feel like we're modeling appropriate behavior for the community um and the other thing I think about is you know we all have relatively quick commutes to get home um after these meetings that's not true for uh everybody else who's here in the room um and you know one of the things that we know about health is

[249:00] sleep is really important for keeping your immune system strong and things like that so that's just another thing that I'm thinking about um as we're having this conversation is just what what it is that we're doing when we're asking people to stay here late commute home and then you know they're they're back up early in the morning for work um is that you know adequately keeping folks protected to the degree that we could thank you Matt um well I I just Echo what Nicole said and others have sort of said as another parent who has um an unvaccinated child who just doesn't even qualify for the protections um it it for me it's also thinking Beyond just just my my children and the fact that um they're at an age where um if anybody gets Co that impacts uh two or three dozen other families in the in the community and so just thinking about the impact of other working parents who then have to take PTO or sick time who probably maybe don't already have it because of previous quarantines you know that spillover impact for me is not

[250:00] worth the risk not just to my family but that collateral impact to so many others um and so I think we need to also in term a modeling Behavior I think that's one of the things that is just thinking beyond our own personal direct impacts but those that that spill out into the community in those capacities as well especially with young kids who can't keep their hands out of their mouths that's great well if I can join in this is not something that I think that we should vote on by a majority vote I think with the the concerns that we're hearing I think it's pretty clear we should go virtual uh go go back and be completely virtual for the time being um I know we only have a handful of meetings until uh the winter break so I don't know nor what what's your thought should we go virtual through December and then see how things are going I think that would be wise I know that our Public Health uh partners are forecasting perhaps some increases now with the holidays and so with the break revisiting the issue in January uh when we see what the impact of that has been and whether or not our hospital bed capacity has also gone down so we can

[251:00] revisit this and bring it back in January it are people comfortable with that okay great see lots of nods next excellent and then um we got a thing about um the meeting days maybe I'll talk about this one um so uh for years now um I have felt that uh Council would be a more manageable um commitment for the city councilors and for City staff and potentially for community members if it were on Thursday night uh instead of Tuesday night um just because of I mean 00 and you know everybody has to go home and go to bed and then tomorrow tomorrow is Wednesday and then you have the kind of whole rest of the week to to get through um before you get to the the weekend um but also just for the rhythms of it's right after the weekend we have CAC first thing Monday morning uh I think it forces City staff members to work over the weekend to prepare for CAC um and so it's it's just kind of a tough Rhythm for everyone involved so I I felt for a while and now if we could shift them to Thursday

[252:00] nights with CAC potentially Tuesday afternoon something like that that um I think our whole flow as an organization could work better so wanted to see what people thought about that idea both on Council and um from staff perspective so I don't maybe we could start from a staff perspective and then see what council thinks sure and I I appreciate it I I think it's something that um perhaps on staff many would welcome as well it there is a lot there are lot of logistics we have to figure out right there are meetings on Thursday that are already standing meetings there are boards and commission meetings that we'll have to look at but certainly if that is the will of council we will go back and put a a plan together and make some recommendations thank you for that flexibility and I see Mark did you [Laughter] want I support it as well I wanted to ask Nia just maybe a followup question um I know you probably can't predict

[253:00] right now when we could implement this but when do you think you'd be able to come back with the plan to implement it um let me get back to you so that I don't push staff in a way that's not inappropriate but let me um Circle back before the end of the week and let you know okay uh mostly it's just it's a it's a heavy look at what meetings are standing and then contacting particularly boards and commission members because we're going to have to shift them over to a different day Alto together so let me just circle back with you and give you sort of the preliminary estimate of when we'd come back before the end of the week thank you you can I just add one more thing some from a procedural perspective it actually does require an ordinance change so and and changes to the rules of procedure as well but so it would take some time to do that jie and then thank you Erin I just want to add I fully support moving council meeting to Thursdays my only

[254:02] worry or concern might be the boards and the commissions that we have community members who have already decided they are serving on this date which are let's say Thursdays and I wonder what will be the impact of that on them so I think that might be something we might want to make sure that we consider for the next appointment for boards and commissions because for those people who are already in their terms we want to make sure that it's something that is okay with them you know what I mean it doesn't add any more pressure because we on Council have already we know it's Tuesday and we sign up for that but I think for fors and commission members we need to really consider their thoughts and and the impact of uh moving to Thursday on them Point La not sure how many of us oh you me me I'm not sure how many of us work full-time maybe not a lot anymore but for those that do Thursday would be

[255:06] awesome I think so my question related to when would relate to when the packet comes out um just because if that ended up being like Monday I think we're going to still have the same pressure on staff in terms of the amount of effort that goes in over the weekend if not more it would probably great point that that's one of those things that have to be worked out but I think speaking as a council member we need we probably need a weekend between the packet and the meeting so I appreciate that and what we would do is go back and work backwards if this was is happening on Thursday then what needs to happen when as we think about it and so we'll certainly bring you the whole um the whole recommendation that includes what to expect uh are there any objections to the idea or or further thoughts it's not exactly on this but the uh consent agenda 4A where I couldn't find my notes that have disappeared um on the 2022 council

[256:01] meeting calendar was actually a different point so we want to get through this and then I'll Circle back to that well just so far I'm hearing support does anybody have an objection or are there further thoughts okay sounds like people like the idea so good yay make a suggestion y to Sandra point about um requiring ordinance rules changes um I I I wonder if we could get back going you know we don't have to fill in the blank on the effective day but maybe we could go ahead and do the first reading second reading you know get that legislation out of the way in December and then in the meantime n can come up with a plan about when that could actually kick in if if folks want to go ahead and get that business out of the way yeah I mean if you're you're saying in December well I'm just thinking um what I wouldn't want to do is have a situation where area puts together this really great plan and says here's the effective date and then we say oh guess we have to pass some some rule changes and some ordinances I guess because the ordinances take us you know first read

[257:01] second read takes us a few weeks I just wonder if we can go ahead and get well we could certainly coordinate together um so that doesn't happen but um I just don't want to commit to a date okay this as long as it's coordinated y thanks and I'll make sure to do that to to make sure that we're coordinating because we do already really well um but I'll just say too that I I don't imagine that this is as quick as a two or three week turnaround I know planning board for example I know you all know meets on Thursdays twice a month and that will be a lift to shift around and making identifying and making sure we've got all of that covered so while I don't think it takes a year for God's sake I I don't think it uh it'll be as quick as two or three weeks so we'll have time to coordinate with legal and bring that forward um Rich what was your other point so it was on um when we looked at the calendars there's three days set aside for boards and commissions um and the engagement subcommittee has been talking about whether we might be able to um do that a little differently this

[258:00] year so wanted to lift that up now before it's kind of too late um our observation is that it's a lot of Staff time it's a lot of council time to be in person three day three evenings uh within a week um and and it doesn't seem like a great process from the applicants perspective so I would probably turn to a couple of our new um council members to weigh in on that but like one thing we had thought of was you know we're basically asking people live to answer the same question and then they go down and a line of five people and listen to the other four answers and then answer in groups of three um could we instead ask those three questions questions like in video format and just say you know take two minutes and answer them and watch that on our own time I think it might be better for staff council members and applicants so I'm sure that we could um there are probably other ideas as well and you know we would have to make sure that there's a way for people who don't have access to um a computer at home who could still come here and tape their interviews or whatever but just wanted to see if there

[259:00] might be interest in um taking those three days and and doing something different with them so yeah go ahead Bob yeah so Rachel and L are the on the engagement committee and we're going to be bringing back to Council in December I think isn't that right Sarah um some engagement recommendations this is kind of like a subp part of that um and this is but this is something we wanted to bring forward pretty soon because we're going into boarding commission applications in a few weeks and we didn't want to like suddenly in February saying oh we're not going to do interviews so we wanted to start to get a sense from you we can talk about it again in in December I get a sense from from Council whether they would be receptive to to idea that Rachel mentioned of Rec recording answers to questions by video and we would make sure that's it's Equitable so that people didn't have recording devices the city would provide those as well um as in lie of live interviews there's other board and commission reforms I think that we'd like to bring forward as well but we wanted to maybe bring this one forward this year which means we probably need to make a decision on this next month can I make a process suggestion so this is a really intriguing idea I think very much worth

[260:02] talking through but rather than maybe getting everybody's responses to it right now when we've just heard it maybe we could put it under a matters item you know in a in a meeting sometime in the next few weeks we actually have it on we just want to give you a preview great it's coming December 14 December 14th we just want to give you early early warning thanks for thinking about that good and then I think uh one last thing coming back to the CAC question I think that's just a scheduling I we heard from the well maybe nor you could say sent me something but about in terms of getting Rachel's CAC spot field oh I did my understanding and and I'll look to Chris our resident historian to make sure I'm saying the right thing um is that really if someone couldn't come to CAC they could really ask for call for a replacement it is something that um certainly you can do uh if you know it now and then Alicia was uh suggesting as well who is uh Queen of All Things clerk Dum um that she could certainly uh work

[261:02] that out and send a notice to folks as we move forward so we can handle it in a variety of ways we'll be looking for the CAC rotation sign up as well so we could do it at the same time that would be my thought for Emily to send out the notice and it would include the next few weeks because we don't have a CAC next week so we do have time to get a substitute for you know either the next few meetings till the end of the year or if you want to volunteer for just one and then we work it out that way but whatever works for everyone's schedule but we do have a little bit of time to work it out great all right Alicia do we have anything else no sir this is the end of your first meeting is May all right well welcome everyone it's fantastic to have such phenomenal new colleagues on Council and um very excited to all work together any any final comments before we yeah will close

[262:02] mark thank you wait a minute [Music] [Music] app [Music]