February 8, 2024 — City Council Study Session

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[5:25] go channel8 is ready all right um my watch just ting to six um looks like we got most everybody like we got everybody we need um and just for those that are just tuning in uh council member ferz will be showing up a little maybe a little late or joining by phone cesy of Nicole giving us that heads up so we look forward to her joining us here in just a little bit um so without further Ado we might as well get started um good evening everybody Welcome to tonight's study session on uh our homeless strategy as well as talking

[6:01] about updates on our high system utilizers work my name's council member Matt Benjamin and appreciate you all joining us from near and far um before we get into our work items um I just want to outline a little bit of how this meeting is going to be conducted um it's pretty standard Affair for us on a study session uh we will review some staff's presentations for each of the items and since we've got two topics tonight they'll be prefaced early on so we see the questions we'll go through the meat of the presentation and then at the end uh those questions will be posed again and then we can uh work on answering those questions so let's try to save questions until the end um we'll make sure that questions are also put in the chats for us to read as well so that they're there um for reference we will be starting tonight um talking about high system utilizers and then we will move into our overall an update on our homelessness strategy um but I do want to give a little bit of of a preface before we get into this work to sort of

[7:00] set expectations um for ourselves staff and really the community at large um especially given the complexity and deep interest and passion um that this subject brings um and has brought for some time and will continue to do so um I first want to just compliment the work of staff for providing a great memo and being prepared for tonight's study session and um it's important for us to remember that you we operate much like a board of directors and our main goal tonight is to offer strategic direction to staff from which to perhaps update our 2017 homelessness strategy from that Revis strategy should come evaluations of our current programs and how they do or do not fit that updated strategy that programmatic deep dive will likely come at a later date as this informs us ahead of the retreat and then we can have a more deeper conversation on those sort of more deep specifics um let's try to stay high level tonight I know there'll be an urge for us to dive deep into specific items um but if we do so that

[8:00] slippery slope will run away and we could likely burn four hours and not have that highle discussion so let's try to um not go down the rabbit hole on on specific programs and if you have questions let's Reserve those ask some highle questions and if we want to go deep Reserve those for staff and then they will call them for a longer context contextual conversation later on uh let's think about things like our buckets and our categories and how programs fit into these um uh to the strategy as a whole and really what is our Lane in this strategy as we discuss it and what should other partners Lanes be and how do we reconcile those differences and where do we find synergies and partnership um so hopefully those will set some of our our expect expectations and we can arrive at a clearer understanding of what we should be doing and and what we shouldn't be doing as we go forth um tonight will require our Collective discipline um to lead a more productive meeting and um hopefully a generation of better outcomes that this study session could provide not only for us for staff

[9:00] but especially for Community as a whole um so without further Ado um let me turn it over to our city manager uh nura Rivera Vander to introduce our first item and Nara take it away thanks so much council member and I um uh you have framed that um well I think tonight we're bringing forward a topic that I know has been on all our minds collectively it is complex and we appreciate Council making time for this sort of in-depth overview of our strategies we wanted to bring it to you in advance of the retreat as we know there is likely interest in discussing this there and I'll say too that there are um as council member Benjamin noted there will be additional times and opportunities um as we as the conversation unfolds today to think about where else would you like to have more conversation with where else would you like to take deeper Dives where else would you like to talk about the work of our partners and I just note that um uh sort of speaking about it um or mentioning it more publicly that

[10:00] hopefully this will um trigger and enable future conversations with some of our regional partners and I mentioned the county Boulder County specifically as they have reached out um to council with their interest in creating a um Boulder County Boulder County Regional conversation on the topic of homelessness with um with us and with other cities in our region and so uh we hope that this would be helpful as uh whenever that meeting it gets scheduled I will note too that I think we're starting a bit in Reverse uh and we hope uh you appreciate and and uh grant us that Indulgence um we have some partner guests joining us for the high utilizer conversation but as we move through the second part of the session that really speaks to um the entirety the comprehensive nature um of our homelessness strategies I I hope you'll see how this is part of one how staff is intending and how our partners are intending for this high izer effort to

[11:00] fit into some of those broader spectrum of strategies and support that we're thinking of to address the VAR and very individual needs of all those that are in our community experiencing homelessness so with that I will um send it over to Carl to kick us off on the first topic thank you thank you very much let me uh get my notes up here um good evening council members um trying to make sure camera is working okay um I am Carl Castillo CH Chief policy adviser with the city of Boulder and I've been involved with the task force for Boulders unhoused High utilizers you know what actually before I go any further if we can pull up the PowerPoint I'll be relying on that so if um thank you thank you so I've been involved with the task force for Boulders unhoused High utilizers since it was first created over a year ago and I'll be mod moderating uh staff's presentation on

[12:01] this topic um but we'll be joined by four members of the task force and our goal this evening will be to describe the work in the history of the task force why this work matters to the city and to describe a comprehensive Criminal Justice System High utilizers program that has been proposed by the task force next slide please so at the end of the presentation We'll be asking Council answer the following two questions does council have questions or need additional information related to the high utilizers program proposal and does council support the continued efforts to formally develop and seek funding for a high utiliz risk program with the city's Regional partners and through philanthropic support next slide so I'd like to frame this conversation with a description of how I've come to understand the challenges of utilizers so we begin with the quite

[13:02] natural tendency to want to help individuals who are most willing to be helped and most receptive to services that makes a lot of sense and in doing so we obviously can maximize the number of people we help and Boulder has um as you'll hear and as you know has has done quite a bit of work in this front and has had some substantial success in exiting many out of homelessness but what we're left with um under this approach is a small but meaningful amount of individuals who are exceptionally challenging to serve and who enter a tragic spiral of involvement in crisis services and so what that results in is what we're referring to is high utilizers high utilizers of the criminal justice Human Service and Health Care Systems so why does this matter well for at least three reasons next slide please first these individuals because

[14:01] of their situation face a serious potential risk of physical harm or even loss of life the risks include harm from extreme weather diseases spread in unhealthy Living Spaces and the real possibility of becoming victims of serious crimes next slide please secondly these individuals often are the ones that draw the most attention in our public spaces they themselves often commit crimes albeit ones that are not serious enough to justify an extended criminal sentence nevertheless this Behavior over time diminishes the safety that our community experiences in our public spaces next slide third but not last these individuals have a significant impact on the budgets of the agencies that serve and respond to them so what you see in this slide here is that on average uh the criminal justice system alone is

[15:00] spending about $48,000 to $67,000 per person per year and responding to the behavior of the of these individuals one example in the green box of an individual that in just one year in 2022 cost the system $67,000 and in Blue on the right hand side of the slide you'll see the kind of Engagement uh that resulted in those expenses so if you look beyond the criminal justice system you can add in additional expenses so for example if you were to look at hospital and ambulance services on average we can add another $177,000 per individual per year um to the cost so quickly we are way above $80,000 so these numbers all go towards answering the question can we afford to create a program to address the needs of those most resistant to health I think said another way we might also ask can

[16:00] we afford not to next slide please so with the challenge we face outline and in recognition that Boulder does not currently have any comprehensive approach to responding the high utilizers Boulder helped create a multi- agency task force over a year ago to identify Solutions it's made up of the organizations that are most closely involved with providing Services The Boulders High utilizers so if you look at the slide on the right side in green bold face you'll see those entities that are part of the task force um if you look on the we you'll see that this task force is broken up into a leadership team that meets once a month and that's composed of the senior most Executives of these entities and also of an operations team that meets twice a month uh so in addition to your city staff we have here this evening uh district attorney Michael dhy and Boulder

[17:01] Community Health healths Grant besser both who will say a few remarks later in this presentation next slide please so this slide here shows the various gools that the task force has charged themselves with addressing and I want to call out three of these categories the the yellow improving data collection reporting and data sharing the uh the dark blue which is identifying how you utilizers basically creating a list by name of individuals that overlap in terms of you know the highest utilizers when you look at all the entities pulled together and then the um the dark red identifying um and immediately filling service gifts we are making progress in coordinating care and exiting some individuals from homelessness uh so we are making some uh progress um but where we're at at now and maybe I should back

[18:00] up the progress that we're making is a result of the collaboration just getting these individuals in the room to discuss uh the high utilizers uh on very specific very specific basis at least in the case of the operations team um and and sharing information has been has been important in itself but where we're at now is the the light blue part of this the goal where we're looking to create a program that will provide more more impactful and systemic changes so on this topic I'll now turn it over to Vicky Ebner from housing and Human Services to describe the program that is being proposed by the task force next slide please good evening Vicky Ebner HHS operations and homelessness strategy senior manager with K Kurt fobber we Rec represent HHS on the leadership team and I also like to mention that the operations team that car mentioned is chiefly facilitated by HHS team members

[19:02] Megan Newton and Nikolai Eldred skip who will also be available to answer any questions you might have so recognizing that there are limits to what we can accomplish currently the operations team developed a methodology for placement on the high utilizer list and those are the characteristics that are shown inside the gray box um these all of these categories do include some activity within the past year um it is also exclusive to people who are unhoused and who have impact across different systems and while each person is unique the team looked at some of the commonalities and why they haven't been able to be successful in traditional Housing Programs essentially those boil down to leasing issues whether that's a lengthy criminal background or substance use disorder or any number of issues there and also the lack of ability to retain their housing without significant Supportive

[20:03] Services from that list they created a baseline list of 45 people and have worked together as a group to expedite solutions that Carl mentioned earlier um next slide please unfortunately as we've mentioned twice now um they they do need to move forward with some unique Solutions and so this multi multi-disciplinary team has already demonstrated the benefit of streamlined processes but um they believe that the proposal that they're making will help us meet some of these challenges um it would cost the community about $4.9 million for the first year that's primarily for property acquisition and then approximately $2 million each year thereafter um this is intended to be a phase one of a multi-pronged approach to this issue um but within phase one um it

[21:00] includes the acquisition of 10 units of scattered site housing um and a lot of specialized Services designed to support the people in their housing and to decrease their returns to homelessness one of the reasons why we're acquiring housing is that ownership is critical to this process it takes us away from landlord dependency and increases the likelihood of us being able to house somebody um the Supportive Services can be obtained through uh vouchers PRI probably through the state of Colorado but also significant mental and Behavioral Health Services provided through case management coordinated staff um includes mental health nursing referrals to particular treatments or Assisted Living uh Behavioral Health Counselors and general peer support and Bridge housing this also includes a landlord Assurance fund to help help uh mitigate

[22:00] any threats to of damage or or um mitigation processes for those that do go into scattered site housing and funding for an evaluation of the program next slide please and I will turn it back over to Carl thank you Vicki um so as you've heard the proposed program is is not simple it's not cheap and because of that we don't think that the city can make it happen alone moreover we've received some preliminary feedback from the private sector that the program could be appropriate for a public private partnership nevertheless before we start pursuing creation of any such partnership we do want to identify the city's interests and its role in this work and I know that Council can't answer those questions completely tonight but we do want to begin that conversation and since this is an inter agency effort we have three additional

[23:01] speakers who wanted to share their perspective so I'd like to first start off by introducing and turning it over to district attorney Michael dhy and if uh the clk's office can please move to the next slide and then bring down the PowerPoint for this portion of the presentation so that we can see Michael and the next two speakers good evening I'm m already have the honor of being the district attorney for the 20th Judicial District which is Boulder County and I really appreciate the opportunity to be with you tonight I recognize and respect that city council is working on the complex and long-term problems associated around homelessness and I know that this is going to be a long-term effort for this city council and for our community going forward in the meantime the city of Boulder faces some serious pressing challenges and I fully endorse and support the high utilizer program because I think it's going to allow us to push more services

[24:02] people as suffer from crisis substance abuse mental health treatment being a part of what is aing them we're going to continue to see them having a disproportionate negative impact on the community so when we talk about the high utilized program a question I'm often asked is what about just consequences through the criminal justice system I think that's a fair question and I would highlight for you that when serious cases come to the District Attorney's office our office thanks to the hardworking outstanding women and men at the DA's office time and time again we secure the right outcome so an individual experiencing homelessness committed a vehicular homicide killed another person with a car that they were sharing and living out of he was sentenced to 25 years last year another individual attempted to kill another person at an encampment he was sentenced to 30 years in state prison last year we had a case that received a fair amount of media attention a woman who recognized her bike as having been stolen and at a

[25:01] campsite uh and she went up and confronted the person I will share with you as a quick aside that I asked the Dy twins my son and daughter how they would handle that situation and my son said I would creep away quietly and call 911 while keeping a close eye on the person my daughter said I'd go right up and tell that guy hey buddy that's my bike which is more of a personality test but uh in this case this woman was horribly assaulted and terrified by what happened and that individual because of was criminal history and because the incident went to state prison for 16 years those are all really long sentences for serious cases but we have low-level cases in municipal court and also in the state court system where time and time again we have a failed cycle of homelessness and jail and then returning to the community and I do believe the high utilizer program will allow us to push resources and services to people who desperately need it and who are having a disproportionate negative impact not only on their own

[26:00] lives but on the community members around them and there's really no current approach that exists in Boulder County to deal with and help with these individuals and also to ensure that they're held fully accountable and that there are appropriate consequences when they do reoffend and I really want to highlight for you as district attorney that although jail and prison are part of the Criminal Justice System they cannot and will not be the only solution to solving this problem if imprisonment and incarceration were all we needed to do to solve crime arising out of people who are suffering through homelessness and it's not everyone of course but jail and prison were the only things that we needed there's really no community in the United States that would be struggling with this crisis right now and yet you all know and the reason we're here tonight is because Boulder is just one of many communities that is struggling to find Solutions I would also highlight for you a couple things first a municipal court which is separate from the District Attorney's

[27:01] Office Municipal offenses are handled by the city attorney's office but there's a whole host of Municipal offenses including Petty offenses where jail is not even a legal option so someone could commit low-level offense after lowlevel offense jail is not a legal option also in the Boulder County jail today there are approximately 70 people sitting in cells who've been ordered to the state hospital by judges and because of the backlog the challenges with the state hospital we have them in the Boulder County Jail where they continue to deteriorate over time but they so also take up bed space so of the 460 people at the jail today 70 of them are actually supposed to be at the state hospital and what we have at the Boulder County Jail is often near the max or at the maximum allowed for the population I would highlight for you something many or all the city council members know but the Boulder County Jail often operates close to maximum capacity and part because when the sh was built it was built for 275 inmates on a regular basis now we're

[28:03] between 450 to 500 inmates and that's important because when the jail was built Boulder County had a much lower population generally so since the building of the JL the Boulder County population has grown by 70% so when a community grows by 70% you'd expect a corresponding growth in the jail population but where we really see the strain on the community is on those lowlevel offense offenses so petty offenses and Municipal offenses being committed over and over and over again I'm going to give you one case example before I wrap up but I want to also turn to mark wallik for some inspiration here because council member wallik wrote a guest opinion in the Daily Camera in the fall saying that people are too often harassed when they use the Boulder Creek path true and that there's Rising frustration in government's inability or unwillingness to address the problem also true the good news is that in this

[29:01] situation you are the government and we have the ability to do something about it because we have the high utilizer program which is a really targeted focused effort and I'll give you one case example then I'll stop and I'll remain on screen to take any questions you have after the other speakers but we had a individual his name is Anthony he really is one of the success stories currently of the high utilized program he grew up in the force to care system he really struggled and then entered the Juvenile Justice System he became homeless and made his way to Colorado uh where his father was also living homeless at the time and he became he cycled in and out of the justice system over and over and over again and ended up on the high utilizer list based on the information sharing we have we knew that when he was arrested for a theft that what the appropriate sentence would be and our staff at the DA's office was able to secure six-month jail sentence and that was the right outcome based on all the circumstan es and I'm going through it very quickly so let me know if you want more detail but

[30:01] the point of the story is he goes to jail for six months and at six months in one day he is back at the boulder hom shelter that was the only option available to him and I'm proud to live in this community but I'm also shocked that that's the only option we had for him coming out of the Boulder County jail and given his challenges with substance abuse he reoffended after getting out and the next thing I heard about Anthony was an email I got from the downtown Boulder Business Partnership thanking me for another successful Pro uh prosecution of Anthony but that thank you to me just highlighted that he was once again caught up in the criminal justice system but due to the collaboration across government agencies and nonprofits including together and focus re-entry he's now been able to successfully re-enter the community and be in stable housing with the continuing support of the partners in involved in this initiative so stability and Recovery is

[31:00] going to be a long journey for him but the teamwork that got him to this point is really incredible it's my hope that if we had additional resources to help people on the high utilizer list we would Push Services to them limit the negative impact they're having on in their own lives in their community and what I really want to highlight with the story about Anthony is jail had a role jail was important in protecting the community but at six months in one day he was back homeless in our community so building program where we're not only having consequences through the justice system that's that is has to be a part of it but also services to help people like Anthony get back on a better track and stop having a disproportionate negative impact on the community while you continue to do the great work of solving homelessness long term this effort will have an immediate positive impact on the city of Boulder and I really appreciate your time so thank you for having me tonight thank you Michael and and Council will have an opportunity to ask some questions on Michael and our other speakers but at this point I'd like to turn it over to U Grant besser who's the

[32:02] president of Boulder Community Health Foundation hi everybody and good evening um Grant besser as Carl said um president of B Community Health Foundation as well as vice president of community engagement for Boulder Community Health um excited to be here and honored to be here tonight representing bch as well as the other healthc Care organizations that are participating on task force including Mental Health Partners and Clinica so um yeah I believe they may be attending later on for questions but representing Healthcare right now to provide a bit of context I think most of you know that bch is a independent nonprofit you know Community government local hospital you know we've been serving the community for I think 102 years now we're actually the last Independent Health System on the Front Range in Colorado think about that one for a little bit gu in terms of the challenges there within we have a long history you

[33:00] know as a community system of evolving our care to meet the needs of the community I think a good example of that from recent years is around Behavioral Health we're starting with the um building the delic hoba Family Medical Pavilion that introduced 70,000 square feet of new Behavioral Health space on our campus as well as a number of other Investments that we have made across the Continuum care from primary care to emergency department to Dava to make sure we're taking that on a relevant current illustration of where we kind of meet the needs of the community is our expansion of Investments supporting complex patients and that includes individuals that are experiencing homelessness whose care is clearly impacted by a variety of social determins of Health including clearly you know housing substance use disorder Behavioral Health you know as well as kind of the needed ongoing medical intervention post discharge probably none of this comes as a surprise at a high level at bch you know

[34:01] there's a notable correlation between High utilizers experiencing homelessness and increase in avoidable health care cost this includes unnecessary emergency medical interventions long-term impatient stays and hospital readmissions so gu a few stats to kind of ground that point you know our top 18 homeless High utilizers you know averaged 16 visits to the emergency department last year that's 16 each that costs us typically around $300 loss per visit um so that adds up very quickly the average length of stays for this population is six and a half days for impatient hospitalization that's two and a half times the average of our house population and then in terms of medically unnecessary Hospital days the cost to us as organization is around $1,400 per day the reason I'm pointing that out kind of back to our Independents and local you know locally serving the needs we operate on

[35:00] incredibly thin margin so whether you're approaching this tonight from an access and moral imperative point of view or financial sustainability you know both of those elements are very critical to bch and something that we are factoring into this as part of our work to introduce solutions for complex cases of individuals experiencing homelessness we've launched a number of initiatives in recent years including creating a pathway to rest here that's through a partnership with car Coalition for the homeless um out of Denver and we also are working with um B the shelter Boulder shelter in terms of direct communication between our case management team and a case manager that we help to underrate at the shelter that also has led to housing for a number of our complex patients over time these programs have actually allowed for patients to access the appropriate and recommended you know postacute care services that are needed you know with that we're seeing great results in terms of reduction in

[36:01] emergency room visits lower hospitalization ratees shorter length of stays lower emission rates you know this these Partnerships have given us the tools The Leverage the pull you know to actually identify the right path you know at the right time related you know for the high utilizer initiative being discussed today the same potential for Meaningful outcomes apply it has all the critical elements to be successful one the multi- agency approach yeah these individuals require a comprehensive and holistic multi-agent resource intensive approach to care that extend extends well beyond the immediate service that any one of us can provide um this approach also lines with a broader understanding of healthc care that extends Beyond clinical interventions so to really take on the social determines of health and influencing individual's health and quality of life I also point out and you know um the district attorney you know referenc this this has incredible leadership commitment there

[37:02] have been a number of you know from government officials to nonprofit leaders across the community from City staff that have been sitting in this room for a year you know dedicated to really diving in and thinking through what are the best solutions that we collectively can put forward recognizing the weight of that is happening to the individuals that are being impacted and also the weight to the community I I feel very confident that the solutions being put forth by this group are rooted in the belief that addressing the unique needs of high utilizers will not only enhance the health and wellbeing of the individuals that we're talking about but it also will contribute to the overall well-being of our community thank you for your time thank you grant much appreciated um and our final speaker is our our own intern police chief Steve Redford St if you're ready I am ready um good evening

[38:00] mayor mayor protm and members of council my name is Steven Redford I have the honor of being your interim police chief I want to briefly discuss Boulder PD's involvement with I utilizer program early last year BPD executive team was discussing the problem with officers writing the same individuals multiple tickets for lower level offenses and seeing little impact we were hearing that overwhelming frustration from our officers that they were issuing some high utilizers dozens of tickets a month and seeing no change many of these people were dealing with substance abuse issues and mental health challenges aside from my our High utilizer group committing a large number of offenses we noted that they were also the victims of many crimes on a regular basis Our concern was that every time our officers had interactions with the high utilizer even for lower level offenses that there is always the risk that the contact does not go well and could end in a use of force or other issue especially for people who truly need to to have mental health or addiction issues resolved our assertion

[39:00] was that writing repeated tickets was not working and did not appear to be the most compassionate way to handle the issues thus we brainstormed on how to better uh how better we as a community and as a city can serve this population to reduce the number of contacts our officers were forced to have to be clear there are some people on our high utilizer list that were identified as having felonies or propensity for violence they would be dealt with and continue to be dealt with through the normal forces in the criminal justice system our experience with high utilizers was that they would almost always failed to appear in court which would end up potentially with multiple failures to appear warrants and sometimes uh when those warrants occurred folks would be sentenced to the county jail as alluded to by our district attorney earlier when this occurred we knew that if there was no intervention they would likely end up back in the same environment that they were arrested in in the first place with potentially easy access again to narcotics and that cycle of ticket

[40:00] warrant uh would start all over again by bringing in Partners to help evaluate the high utilizer our hope is our hope and goal is that when someone is in jail and presumably sober we can meet them when they are released and have a plan to get them into treatment or other paths to keep them from going right back into the same negative environment this has worked on more than one occasion and we are learning each time how the system can be better while our job is to hold those who harm our community accountable along with our criminal justice Partners as well as assisting those who pose a danger to themselves or others we know that there are many low-level problems that we can't ticket or arrest our way out of thus the need for specific Solutions through a holistic approach is what is needed with this High utilizer group I talk with police leaders all the time from all over the country and many cities are dealing with similar issues and are often at a loss of what to do I've shared this initiative that we're currently engaged in with many of my partners and they're interested in figuring out ways to do something

[41:01] similar in their jurisdictions what we have seen so far although it's in its infancy this High utilizer program can save lives reduce Community harm and find non-traditional solutions to help some of our most vulnerable populations while non-traditional this program is also a form of police reform by reducing the number of potentially contentious interactions between our police officers and our high utilizers we lessen the risk that one of those interactions turns out negatively this also allows for officers to focus on more serious offenders and on our mission of preventing crime and Community harm thank you thank you Chief um much appreciated um if we can bring up the PowerPoint slide again very quickly we're going to be wrapping up um thank you Emily and if we can go to the next slide thank you so recognizing that you've got

[42:00] to hear from from three of our task force members and a lot of them were not able to be here we thought that it would be useful to just quickly flash onto your screen um excerpts of some endorsements um that uh many of these other entities the Sheriff's Office Focus re-entry Boulder shelter for homeless the 20th district probation Mental Health Partners and Boulder County Commissioners all who were represented represented on the task force in fact I see that at least some of these individuals are on the call as well um so this is this is to say they are engaged they are supportive and um and we can certainly have you answers ask them some questions if they're here uh if we can go to the next slide and then we we will wrap up so I'll close with um the slide which shows the two questions staff is asking Council to discuss and council member Benjamin uh let me know if you prefer that we take down the

[43:00] PowerPoint as Council begins its conversation oh one more thing I like to just mention that um uh Michael Dy does have some plans later this evening and so if there are questions for him it'd be preferable if he could prioritize those uh be before the others um thank you thank you Carl yeah if we could uh put bring the slides down so we can see each other if we can pose those questions in chat that'd be greatly appreciated for everybody to see um I I thought da dhy would want to join us for the four plus hours and so uh just just to you know join us in the Battle of attrition that that we go through on a weekly basis but no we definitely want to respect his time um and maybe we can prioritize some questions for uh for our da um as well as as Grant uh you know Chief Redfern uh tends to always stay with us for the Long Haul but also want to respect his schedule as well um so if we can fire off questions for them early that would be great um and so we'll lead with sort of that uh first question you know does council support the continue

[44:00] effort first question does council have questions or need additional information related to the high utilizers program proposal um and so let's uh fire away some questions um let's keep really informational questions and then maybe we can save some comments uh for later um but let's let's get those questions up and going uh Mark take it away okay um has this program or something like it been tried elsewhere and and if it has uh do we have results in terms of the financial benefits to the various departments and how has it performed with respect to the individuals who've entered the program or alternatively are we sort of um in an entirely experimental regime um doing something that has not been done elsewhere um I don't know who wants to take that but yeah thank thank you Council m w I'm gonna try to to take each question that is given and try to give it to the people that are best able

[45:00] to answer it um I believe that might be Nicolia ELD um Nikolai if you're able to I know that you have a lot of information on the data I guess I'll just start off by saying this is not new there are certainly other cities that have experimented with this um and we also have a um a best practice that has been established by one of the NA national one U organizations but ncas is this something you can perhaps speak to us yes good evening um thank you for the question um yeah we did a bit of research it's definitely not a new model the the fuse concept has been implemented by a lot of cities across the United States and some internationally as well um kind of concept of permanent Supportive Housing um so I did pull some cost estimates and benefits reductions in utilization um for that um generally reductions with these kind of supportive programs with housing reductions in um criminal justice interactions um in these larger um studies that have been

[46:01] done um increased time housed and um like reductions in mental health um issues and substance use um so kind of a variety I don't know um Megan if you wanted to jump in and add anything kind of on the program side of that sure good evening Megan Newton housing and human services policy adviser on homelessness um no I think Nicolia covered it I think the only piece this is the fuse model is done largely started in New York um Denver has what they call a social impact Bond CIB model where they've done something similar um and so those pieces have been brought into this concept as well and we have a couple unique I would say that property acquisition is relatively unique um as well as the um landlord Assurance fund is relatively unique but the overall project is replicated from other successful

[47:01] models if I may simply request and this will be my last um question um at the convenience of staff could some of this information be forwarded to us um just so we'll we can understand the context in which this proposal is being presented to us happy to do so thank you i' appreciate here and I don't know if my colleagues would be interested in that but I know I would be so thank you thanks for your questions mark I see Nicole then Lauren and Tina I saw your hand up for a minute did you intend to take that down I just want to make sure okay no PO popped y Mark asked my question okay awesome just verifying all right Nicole then Lauren thanks and um thanks everyone for the presentation um I just have one one really specific question um there is a note in the memo that the proposed program is considering

[48:01] applying additional criteria of length of time an individual has been unhoused in the Boulder area to ensure that participants are truly long-term high utilizers of Boulder services and it seems to me that the length of time that someone has been unhoused here must have a pretty strong correlation to long-term high utilizers so just wondering why we would uh need to consider having an additional Criterion based on the length of time in area yeah thank you mayor Pro here let me give it a shot then someone can can correct me if I'm wrong um so first of all I think there's um you are correct being on the huti this list is usually correlated and overlaps with you have been here for a while um that being said there is also a natural response that people ask for any program uh which is um are we going to encourage more individuals to come here by if we were to create this program so the reason we suggested that there might

[49:00] be a need for a um uh a description or a criteria of how long somebody's been in the community is partly to respond to that concern is that enough I can we ask someone else they answer more thoroughly it looks like our district attorney has a response I would just add to uh answer mayor protm Spear's question we have not looked at information criminal history or medical visits the homeless shelters from outside of our jurisdiction so to be on the high utilizer list we're looking within the city of Boulder specifically at this point and Boulder County more widely but not beyond that so I think to your question I'm not sure we'd see any difference if we set a time limit for personone to be in Boulder because it be on the high utilizer list it's someone who's had that length of time to have that kind of impact on the community and on their own lives to get on the list thank you thanks Nicole Lauren then mayor

[50:08] Brock thanks um so kind of along the lines of what Nicole was asking but a little bit differently I see that there are only 19 names that have an overlap on the 2022 and 2023 lists and so I was wondering sort of what is happening there how are people um you know if it's so hard to connect people with Services sort of why aren't we seeing all the names repeated from year to year thank you Council f um I might allow somebody from housing and Human Services to answer that and the first one that unmutes would be the one that I imagine is best situated to answer that um I can take that one since I I

[51:00] worked on the list um that's a great question the Baseline list that we Ed those 45 individuals um at the time of developing the proposed program and doing some additional analyses um it went back further in time and so when we were working through the list um some of those individuals were no longer in the area um a handful of them were kind of primarily located in like lions or Longmont um so not as well known to our core team of operation staff doing the case conferencing um so when we reran the list with a shorter time period of um when they needed to be high utilizers and one of the criteria was some interaction with the given entity like interaction with police or interaction with municipal court within the last year um it was a smaller list um it is worth noting that there were a couple individuals who didn't make the kind of criteria for how utilize it the second time but we're actively working on in the case conferencing um so we continue kind of discuss them in the wider group

[52:01] um to get resources for them so if you had to make a guess as to how many of those people would be likely to appear on a 2024 list is it likely to be the majority of people from the 2023 list or would you kind of expect an aim a similar changing of H what is that a little bit more than half of the names on the list um that's a great question I I would think that it would be more similar to the current list given that we've kind of refined the criteria um there were a couple individuals in the Baseline list who were ended up in the Department of Corrections for like a five year so we marked them as inactive so there are a handful of cases like that um Megan I hate to call on you again but you kind of know the individuals a little bit better than me is there anything else you would add no I would think they be as similar obviously we're working through the list and prioritizing folks with the resources we already have um and we have

[53:01] seen some sex success housing folks um a handful of them and so those folks we would suspect to fall off as well um but in general I think there would be a higher overlap thank you um I also noticed that I think it was saying that we were going to set aside about 403 housing vouchers um um but of that group of people only a quarter of them are currently uh on a housing pathway and so I was curious what why we think that um all of those individuals would be likely to go through the process necessary to be approved for housing vouchers perhaps Megan or Vicki could answer them I can answer I think when we were discussing The Proposal at the operations group it was a conversation of wanting access to the

[54:01] resources in case we needed them but there is a realization that not everyone will need every service that's proposed there so they may be attached to an already existing resource and we have had a number move into Bluebird or other existing projects um and so those resources wouldn't necessarily be needed for that individual um so we asked for it just kind of if we needed it the resources there but also wanting to tap existing resources um if we could thank you um and then my final question is around um capturing cost savings from this program so it seems like largely bch and through the reduction in emergency services in the county through reduced criminal justice system costs would be likely to see the largest cost savings from this program although the city would see some um related to potentially

[55:03] reduced enforcement um why why should the city take on um the majority of the costs for this program when other entities would see the majority of cost reductions related to this program um thank you council member fits um to begin with we're not even proposing that the city take the majority of the cost so we're certainly open to the fact that um the costs perhaps can be divided up in different ways that correlate with the expenses that are saved um so that is very much open for consideration um I think I think I'll leave it with that there any more information you need on that I appreciate that thank you awesome is that is that all for you Lauren awesome and and question you posed I think we'll wrap nicely into the next question we have with regards to funding so I appreciate you sort of teeing that Costa question there Lauren

[56:02] um Aaron take it away yeah well thanks so much everybody for being here tonight and for the discussion uh very promising so uh just wanted to think about okay let's say we implement this and we get U Everybody by name on that list into this program um well some months later I'm sure we'll have additional individuals who become high utilizers right this is a continuing problem can you describe what the kind of graduation process would be like how people would move on from this program into other less intensive interventions and like how long they might be expected to stay in the program and what how many people might turn over per year kind of a rough vision of what we're envisioning there that'd be very helpful thanks thank you mayor Brocket I believe that either Vicki or Megan might be best situated they answer that question I could go with this one as well um I think we're always looking in these programs to see if folks have the opportunity to step down in Services um

[57:01] so I think part of the robust services that we've proposed is a team setting um of support so I think the conversations between that team um around individuals and where their level of need is and if there's the opportunity to step down and to maybe you know hopefully put them into a permanent Supportive Housing or maybe we have um that does come with case management and so that case management is sufficient and they don't need the supports of the full team um the numbers of folks that we would expect that to happen with um would be an estimate but I would say every year maybe like 10% 15 um I'm not sure I have not done this uh specifically in Nikolai I don't know if they're G me data on turnover um and other programs but I think we're always looking in even permanent Supportive Housing for opportunities to step down into um Community Care thanks for that Megan well I guess I just might say as we move into the next

[58:00] phase on this to think a little bit more about what that would look like and because of course the problem will continue in future years and hopefully we wouldn't have to five years from now do another high utilizer program with a similar scope hopefully that this program could manage the ongoing population needs that's all I got thank you thanks aarin Tara so just one question is this going to be a pilot program and how long are we going to take before we look at to see if it's doing what we want it to do just to make it clear I'm excited about this program I just want to make sure that it does do what we needed to do or partially at least yeah thank you councilman rewi very good question first of all there is no guarantee that this is even going forward that's part of what we're seeking tonight is is is is an expression of your interest which will take us in the next step but in terms of um how long it would be I think you could imagine it being a two or three

[59:00] year program I think we would very quickly want to measure what our success is and we've already discussed and some of it's been identified in memo some of the metrics we would use to determine how effective the program is uh we have some level of confidence that this would be effective but until we until we see the the measurements we shouldn't commit ourselves to this being the permanent solution it's something we think is worth the try um but other than that I think we're we're looking at some sort of of um a pilot program p is that it and then Erin I still see your hand up is that a relic of before all right um I appreciate a lot of those questions and certainly responses I I had a follow-up question to aon's line of inquiry um kind of about those graduation the graduation rate and outcomes and it kind of comes down really to what Carl how you answered in terms of pilot and it's kind of about the scale and I'm wondering why

[60:00] 10 individuals was chosen here um because I think to some s there's a my question really centers around when we're building infrastructure and and looking at $5 million that's a that's a big investment for a pilot but the question is are we attacking the right scale to make sure we've got enough throughput of graduating people through and bringing new people in so we could get to see those result results more rapidly and so I'm just sort of curious why that scale was picked and how does that uh maybe play into how we move people through the program thank you I might ask Vicki ater to answer that question so the reason 10 one is for scale and scope right we we want to start somewhere um but if we prioritize the people that have the most challenges and the most need for really intensive owner occupi well not un occupied sorry housing background is coming back to haunt me um but non-

[61:00] landlord dependent type of housing we can then work with them and some of those people would stay there for a considerable amount of time but there are cases where people could move up or move on to a less intensive type of setting like Megan talked about then would free up a space we're hoping to be able to support these units through uh vouchers from the state those vouchers would go with that individual would transfer to a tenant based voucher that would move with the individual leaving a program voucher for that unit so we in in essence would be helping two people when we do that kind of move on I hope that answers your question yeah a little bit I appreciate that we'll get to the funding side of it as well but but thanks thanks Vicki um all right any other question questions on that initial question all right moving on to question number two here uh does council support

[62:02] the continued efforts to formally develop and seek funding for a high utilizer program with the city's Regional partners and through philanthropic support um so we'll go ahead and ask questions I see da dhy camera off uh but I hope he's still with us um to May field some questions but I see Tina uh taking on the first question go for it yeah thanks and I mean and just specifically I think this program is a really good idea for a really presistent problem that we're experiencing in Boulder and hope that we do look at funding to move it forward um I looked over our our policy statement and just thinking about advocacy we can do now to put more pressure on the legislator to provide funding for this it might be worth a shot um and I Know Carl since that's your work I'm sure that comes up all the time um the other piece is when we were looking over some of the data with the downtown ambassadors today

[63:02] there were 53 fires that they um handled in the downtown area and I sometimes wonder if there's an opportunity for other people whether the fire department or whether insurance companies are interested in helping us reduce fire risk that that could if there's a correlation between fires and high utilizers there might be some opportunity there probably a a a long shot but just one thing that comes to mind because of the fire risk in our community and that's all I have but I would support moving forward wonderful thanks Tina Aaron go for yeah absolutely I think this is very very promising so uh and I'm really just so impressed by how many people have come together to make this happen the the task force is just a Who's Who uh people trying to make a difference in in the space in our community and then the number of letters that we got from local organizations and

[64:01] support was really impressive as well um you only have to walk around town for a few days to see uh the scope of the high utilizer problem in our community and there's a lot of people suffering out there on our streets so this provides an amazing potential way of getting folks into a safer place and reducing impacts on our community so yes let's try to get some funding for this and see if we can move this forward and thanks again to everybody participating thanks Aon Lauren then Nicole thank you yeah while my questions have a lot of skepticism in them um and feel like there are some unanswered questions yet around this program I do think that it is a good program that would be really beneficial to the city um a lot of my concerns have to do with knowing that uh we are in a pretty constrained budget environment and so while I strongly support us looking for funding for this program you know I

[65:01] would be really reluctant to commit on the city Side to funding um without understanding how that interacts with other needs that we have in the community right now thanks thanks Lauren Nicole then Mark yeah um I think I'm kind of feeling similarly to Lauren I mean this this seems like it's a um good idea I think you know we're seeing some good results I appreciate as Erin did just the degree of collaboration and working together that's going on here to try to um find more supports and appropriate supports for the people who are really struggling um I think one of the things that I would be very interested in is you know whatever city funding we're going to be using to put toward a program like this that we're also looking at how we are increasing um funding similarly for prevention um for keeping the folks who are living on the edge of falling into homelessness and and getting into a

[66:02] potential pattern of long-term homelessness um how are we keeping them from doing that because we can keep putting more and more resources into these um really costly High system utilizers but it's the folks today who are living on the edge of um economic precarity who are at risk of falling into homelessness those are the high utilizers of tomorrow so as we're Focus f using on addressing this acute need right now I really want to see us putting um that much effort and resources into prevention um too because that's going to help the future versions of us who are dealing with high utilizers in 20 or 30 years um and then you know I think I think I heard that we're probably not going to do this but really anything that is tying um use of of uh services or access to resources to how long somebody has has been here um that that is something that I am very strongly uh opposed to you know we don't set limits on you know when somebody

[67:01] moves to the area we're not saying you have to wait six months or a year before you can go out and use our multi-use paths or Parks or something like that um I don't think we can tie it to time I think that's that is a a way that we um kind of perpetuate discrimination and bias within our community so I would really like to um us to just sort of stop thinking that there is a length of time that someone needs to be in our community to be worthy of receiving um city services thank you thanks to call I see Mark then TAA yeah you know we have this enormous problem and and we really don't have a solution to it so as an experiment as a an effort to try something new I think there's there's good promise to this program um but I I think it's important that we do do treat it uh as what it is it is an experiment I think in a couple of years we need to look

[68:00] back on it and analyze it and and see whether it is working and whether it is worth the investment um and and so it would be on that basis that that I would want to uh uh support it um and I would the memo indicated this would not be a call for general fund revenues to fund it and I would like that to be clear as well obviously if if we needed to fund some last small increment of it I would I would want to reconsider that but I'm assuming at least in this first goor round we're looking at other funds um so that we don't have to take away from existing programs in order to uh to con to implement this program to stand it up and to and to conduct the experiment um I think if we're not going to be open to this sort of thing and and and be open to innovation of this kind we're simply going to be going around and around in in the same old Circle um and I think we

[69:01] need to do a little better so I I I think this is an Innovative approach um and if we do it eyes wide open uh with funding from other sources and a determination to look at it uh as what it is an experiment that may or may not succeed um I'm I'm all for and if it doesn't succeed we'll move on and figure out something else out but you know as I said this is a big problem and we don't have an answer and we need to try to answer it in some fashion or another and this is as good as any in my view appreciate it uh thank you Mark Carl I see your hand up did you want to address a comment or or question that was brought up I do I didn't want to Mis represent um what we're trying to convey um while we're certainly not saying the city should pay for all of this or nor nor most of it um we do think there is a an important role for the city to put some money in it um in fact towards that

[70:02] if you don't mind I'd like for Grant besser who's had some experience and has had some conversations in this area but perhaps weigh in um yeah absolutely I do think there is a unique opportunity here to explore as a public private partnership yeah this is clearly a top issue one of many top issues but it it's got a lot of heat around it right now across a lot of various stakeholder groups so I think a you know complexity of issues warrants cross community support on that you know and talking to members of the business Community um talking to the chamber talking to some you know um individual philanthropists in the community looking at various foundations I'll be honest with you the first question that everybody asks is what is the city or county you know committee as it relates to funding on this and I think everybody I feel like that spoken to today sees the

[71:00] possibility of a multi-stake stakeholder group investing in this and we've actually done a pretty deep dive across government across foundations across individuals across companies to start identify where that would come from but the reality is you know I'm a fundraiser at heart with a fundraising campaign you need a major gift you know to drive a campaign and I think the major gift in this case is going to be city or county to help drive that other support that's my personal opinion on it but happy for others to jump in on that as well I don't want to take away from tesa's time but I just want to say that in the staff memo on this program it was represented that you were that it was not looking for general fund contributions and if that is not the case I'd like to understand what exactly is the case because that that's a a um uh we have not been given an accurate description of what is expected of us uh

[72:00] as a funding source yeah Council wall um and I apologize to ISA very quickly um don't know exactly how we conveyed it but to the extent that it was misrepresented let me just clarify that we are not asking tonight um for a general fund request of course it's a study session that wouldn't be appropriate um but we nor are we for closing that that might be necessary to leverage additional funds from outside so certainly would welcome any different perspectives that you might have uh given given that information and Carl if I may maybe um put another way is that tonight we are certainly and I appreciate I it's music to my ears when I hear constrained right um so I appreciate Lauren for that um we are not here today we don't asking for um approval of a funding source it will help as we move forward and that is the support we want to do is to know that we have full Council support to continue on

[73:01] in seeking um additional uh funding Partners um other areas of Revenue there will likely at some point when we know what that looks like and as we get closer there will be the inevitable question of does the city have skin in the game and frankly does the county have skin in the game and are others but we do not know what that looks like at the moment and we mostly just want to make sure that if this was not something Council as a whole wanted to even consider then we need to know that now before we start talking to our um doing some of that fundraising that Grant was talking about talking about um if people would be willing to invest and certainly we will get those questions and field them but whatever happens as we move forward if this is supported by Council and I I really hope it is please know that we will come back and we will have a different kind of conversation but right now that is not the question on the table thanks naria um I saw judge Khan's hand up I want to see if he had he hasn't said much tonight but I want to give him an opportunity to speak I saw his hand up so it's all yours judge

[74:02] thank you counselor I just wanted to to emphasize Nua really hit it was I was trying to was gonna suggest is that we really are in this position where as a group we need to have some city council uh in agreement that hey this is a great idea let's look to the next step but also to engage our County Commissioners and as you all are looking at your your planning for your your next meetings and for your retreat the idea of perhaps engaging counties so that there can be some collaborative effort that that can work with the county and the city and then you can you can go from there if you've got the city and county both agreeing to yes we're willing to put some skin in the game then we can go out and start to seek some resources from community members from in a philanthropic effort even from our business community so that's I think what the group has talked about as a whole and we still are in a stage although we're a year year and a half in these discussions we're still really developing how this is going to move forward so it's a it's a multi-stage process that I think everybody's

[75:01] envisioning here thanks your honor appreciate that um all right um Taisha then Tara aome thank you so much and thank you for this very uh robust um presentation and and information so um I just want to um Echo the comments right off the top um requesting more information of those um cities that have implemented this more comprehensive strategy um not just um that they're doing it but what are their the reporting and uh Milestones that they've been achieving and what was the costs and really just um you know I would love to see more case study type work around that um though this is innovative people have tried it in a variety of different ways and so the more we can get some of that data I think it will be very helpful um um I also wanted to um lift up and and Echo the comments um that Mark made around just the investment in

[76:00] general and and the willingness to take the risk so I am very much interested in supporting some type of program um I also Echo the concerns around the financial constraints and so in order for for me to feel comfortable saying yeah let's go um I still would need more performance data of what we are currently doing um and the effectiveness of what we are currently doing in each of those areas you know and I started to try and crosswalk and create my own dashboard and I realized no that's probably not what I should be doing so I stopped myself from doing that um and and I'm excited because I think we do have a lot of data points to inform how we want to move forward so I I don't feel like it's a lack of data it's more just how the information is compiled so um and and again just also wanted to coign the idea of you know how long have they been here and are they worthy the worthiness question um cuz I also want to honor that there are there are probably again an assumption but I'm sure I'm happy to quantify if needed um but I'm sure there

[77:00] are other cities that are also um providing services to former city of Boulder residents so I also want to honor um the relationship that we have across the arbitrary lines that we've created for ourselves called cities um and then lastly just in general if there was one area that I thought you know would love to see more support around and that's the mental health services so again I know that we have housing first strategy and I know this has an intersection with the high utilization risk but High uh you know housing first is not um housing only and so um we know that the mental health needs are not meeting the needs right now and so how do the proposals that we are presenting forward um really address that versus what we think we can afford so thank you so much and looking forward to others comments thanks Taisha uh Tara then Ryan I agree with Taisha on what she says I do want to say that when I first read this proposal it was counterintuitive

[78:01] for me to be excited about it but the more I thought about it I remembered that in the two years that we've been working on this and I was we were here those of us that were on the previous Council when this idea started um the beginnings of it I think since you said it was a year and a half ago and I remember people talking about it is we've had a big problem the things that have been on my mind have been are great really big recidivism rate of I guess 50% and also when people do their time and they get out of jail then what happens to them there's not a chance that they are going to give better have a better life be better you know it's not going to be better for Society for our city unless we can figure out how people could succeed so this is in a sense in essence that the group that we really do want to affect the most because they have such a big impact also on our businesses and economy as well as um you know their impact on their own selves so for that

[79:00] reason between the recidivism raid and people not having a place to go after jail I think this is a really great proposal that I normally would have you know be like I don't know but if I think about these past two years I have to say that uh I really am excited to try something new I want to give a shout out to trying something new because often cities don't do that and so since we've seen very little work I am excited about I have to say judge Khan that I agree through I'm actually excited about this possibility of this working even on some level and helping us out of some uh solving some of these issues I think that's everything I want to say except the last thing I will say is it has such widespread support from so many people we've been working with for two years who I respect and who became friends of mine so even for that reason alone I support this um this

[80:03] initiative thanks terara uh Ryan and then Mark and then I'll I'll uh I'll dip in uh on the back end council member Benjamin I am sorry but I was not quick enough on the question portion and I had two questions would that be permissible oh from the from the initi question that we asked yeah uh go for it thank you um two questions my first one is um I am am thinking about the programs objectives and I'm trying to locate it in where it sits Visa our wider homelessness program objectives or outcomes I know we have the six outcomes um that that are listed in the memo that come from the 2016 strategy could um Carl or anybody just help me understand is uh how does it how does it support our homelessness

[81:01] objectives um well first of all I will say that the objective is to exit these individuals from homeless from homelessness but in terms of how it fits into the existing structure I don't know if um Vicki or Megan are able to answer that I didn't see Megan come on up quickly so um yeah and Megan's going to discuss a lot of this in the next presentation but it's definitely housing Focus it's definitely um supporting people for Pathways to exits from housing um and so there's of course all the supports that go in with that too but that's the niche that it fits into okay thank you uh so it's the may think that's the first that's objective number one on the on the list if I'm reading it right okay great thanks um my second question is um this I appreciate that this is presented as a as an

[82:00] investment opportunity in the sense that it um is expected to save money and resources and I heard I think that part of the story there is saving money and resources for other departments I know criminal justice and health were on were on there um and I'm just wondering to what extent have we um approached any others who I guess outside of the hhns department who uh would represent programs or entities that would stand to benefit from this financially or just you know from a mission standpoint and would be you know they identified as co- co-investors or um you know part of the the the the coalition to um you know supporting this and forgive me if I missed that before um yeah so I think this goes back

[83:00] to the partnership that we're looking to build reaching out to each entity that is currently providing services and is currently incurring expenses and it's not necessarily a question of like one for one this is how much it would save you th this is how much we would expect from you but there certainly is a reason to go to those agencies to go to the Departments and and to have that be part of the consideration when we build a partnership model thanks Carl oh go ahead I'm sorry I saw that the district attorney dordy had his hand up as well I appreciate that question so I just wanted to share a couple Thoughts with you very quickly one of the high utilizers that we had on the list from the very beginning had 60 Municipal violations in one year so the Boulder Police Department had responded to calls from community members and business owners in the downtown Boulder business area on 60 occasions and written 60 Municipal tickets so if you think about the drain on resources from that and

[84:02] also 60 is probably some fraction of what impact he's actually having on a regular basis in the community and so many of the high utilizers are struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues so housing is a priority but the mental health treatment and substance abuse treatment that is so lacking throughout Colorado and here in Boulder County has to be a part of this and helping people exit homelessness it's also helping them deal with their underlying needs so I just wanted to share to your earlier question uh we have a mental health diversion program that we stood up in the DA's office where we had one gentleman who had been arrested a hundred times in one year a hundred times in one year those are all obviously low-level offenses because he's not getting out of the jail to commit number 36 37 38 if it's a serious offense but nonetheless think about the impact on the city law enforcement the impact on the community members his own life prosecutors public defenders judges and so on so there's really a shared responsibility in burden on so many

[85:01] different agencies we got him in our mental health diversion program a couple years ago he's been arrested once since that's it and it's about reallocating the resources to the front end to have more long-term peace stability and Community for everybody involved uh and I and I just want to finish this point with what Grant was saying earlier when I've talked about the high utilizer program it's solely focused on the city of Boulder at this point but it has the county commissioner at the table it has the sheriff at the table I'm involved from the very beginning as well uh and I think it has to be a shared effort even though the high utilizers themselves or within the city of Boulder but the first question I get when I talk to the Chamber of Commerce or business owners then ask them to think about supporting this program is is the city going to support it so I know we're not asking you to commit to a dollar figure tonight but just having your support goes a long way to building trust and confidence and

[86:00] support in others in both private and public agencies uh so I just wanted to share all that with you in response to the last couple questions thank you thanks Di dhy really appreciate that Ryan you still going council member Benjamin I see Nu has her hand up I I did I apologize and mostly I just I wanted to clarify I think I heard you Ryan talk about HHS and I just wanted to point out that we've got broader departments and I think you were asking about what other City departments as we think about it um muni court has been a participant um and uh utilities fire police Parks Community Vitality in all one way or another um they would be impacted in the city attorney's office as I see Teresa's and um they would all be impacted by uh some of this work as they often have to um or have interventions and interactions with some of our high utilizers so just wanted to share that out thanks n okay great so I just just to summarize I heard a list of uh um quite a few uh department and entity leaders to to approach as

[87:01] investors for this County courts um uh police uh Municipal Court um other uh criminal justice system so okay thank you for that counc from our perspective we would be looking that as City dollars and we would look at all the Departments so we try not to siphon out these are City monies not Department Monies I'm just only saying that out loud because I keep saying that to department heads thank you for that I will say that in in the context of our what we have to put put to uh to figure out is budgets in within our this budget we're looking at so I guess I'm looking at this budget and the decision decisions that we're gonna have to make so but I thank you um council member Ben I had a few comments but i' I'd be very happy to defer to my senior colleagues who spent more time with this and um do comments at the end if you're happy with that uh yeah I mean I think people are peppering in their comments as they ask their questions so that we can kind of sum up um I have some but I see Mark and taer looking at a second bite of the app which is fine but listen okay all right I appreciate

[88:01] you you deferring to uh Mark Mark let me let me throw off my my initial comments and then we'll go back to Mark and Taisha um these are really helpful context things but I think there's there's kind of an elephant in the room is where's the county on this and I think that's something that we've been struggling with as a city and I think we just need to give it oxygen that that you know we have good Partnerships in a lot of areas with the county and this is one we're struggling with and I think we just have to kind of own that that's the case own why we're struggling from our own purposes as a city you know we're not perfect Partners but also recognizing that the count is not meeting our meeting those needs acutely as as we need them and so given the nature of this what have we heard from the county in terms of their interest in this uh because I you know last last thing you want to do is play uh play play a game of musical chairs and be the last one um and and I and I and I want to make sure that when we do this that we're hearing that there's interest from the county to do this as well obviously

[89:00] someone's got to move first but I'm just curious for those of you that are in that room on this team what are you hearing uh from the county uh with regards to their interest and perhaps timing and desire to to fund this at the weight and magnitude that's required uh judge Khan I see your hand up and then nura yeah just just in response to that question you just raised uh commissioner Levy is at the table she joined us for the last couple of sessions she she's listening and participating it's it's a new entry point for her but we do have a commissioner at the table now and engaging and she's in support of what we're generally doing you we're at the same stage I think with the county as we are with the city is that we're educating folks telling them what the opportunities are and then trying to get and I agree with you a collaborative effort with with the county because it's going to take a collaborative effort but I I think it's that's why I was raising the issue earlier as you plan for Retreats perhaps if you can engage

[90:00] County Commissioners to participate in some way with you to have this overarching decision or conversation I think that's a Next Step from your perspective and from from ours as well thanks your honor um I see uh da Dy go for it thank you I would just add to what judge Khan said and say the County's been a willing engaged partner thus far I think part of it has been we've only focused on a city of Boulder population we have not looked at other municipalities and part because uh the crisis and the community safety implications have not been as severe in other parts of Boulder County but certainly this is more than just a Citywide effort in my opinion so I think if if you as a city council tonight said yes please put more energy into this more time into it and keep pushing forward and we're generally supportive we would then be in a position to go to the county and also our private partners and talk more about uh actually actual details and what the funding would look like so I think part of it to your point

[91:01] council member Benjamin is just someone saying first like yes we're willing to continue investing in this effort even if we're not talking about a specific dollar amount but we started with the city of Boulder because of the serious issues within the city and I think it can be and should be expanded to other jurisdictions but uh just moving forward county has been willing partner up to this point I appreciate that context and I mean I'll so I'll just lead I'll just start out by saying like I really support this program I I think it's the it's the direction we need to go and we've been trying to crack this nut and I think there's a plan to to at least make a serious attempt to do so and get folks the support that they most desperately need and relief in our community as a whole um so so I really appreciate those efforts um I just hope that there's an opportunity to quickly schedule the same type of conversation that the team is having with city council with our County counterparts um I I'd hate for this to be left um un unattended for six nine months or so um because of this the the urgency here um

[92:01] it is also an election cycle so so we have those uh pressures and and and uh interesting dynamics that could work to our benefit um but but I think that would be key and I'm all for seed money I think you know uh going back to Grants perspective I've do a lot of philanthropic and and and fundraising work and so having that seed is key and I don't mind if the city is a part of that seed from which we can um uh generate um other other funds um but but I really would like to see the county lead on something that is for the most part jurisdictionally in that lane of health and uh Behavioral Health and addiction which is very much the County Lane and that's going to set up our next conversation which which where where's our lane what's their Lane and where's the vent diagram overlap and so I'd love to see them start to to really take the initiative and lead on this but um that's something that we can press on and if we know that you've got a meeting with them then we can start to really prime the pump ahead of that dialogue and really kind of lean into the need that that is that is critical here in our committee help them along so I I

[93:01] appreciate that and thanks for all your great work all right um we're g to go back to Mark then Taisha yeah just two comments um uh I am very supportive of council member Benjamin's comments with respect to the county I do think it's time for them to uh stand up and and work closely with us and and make the commitments that we need to get this off the ground and now that I have a clearer understanding of what the financial expectations might be of the city of Boulder I remain very very supportive of the concept with one caveat uh I do not want to see this fund see this funded at the cost of um stripping our current effective programs uh of funding in order to make this happen um we do have a number of other programs some of them are very very good um and there are other subclasses of the unhoused community that we need to address not simply the high utilizers and I want us

[94:00] to continue to address that um so if if we are going to put money towards this um my only reservation is I don't want it to be coming out of the budgets of other programs in this space that are successful um and are working and we I don't know how you're going to find those funds but uh that's that's the only basis on which I would have any opposition to this program at all otherwise I think it's a great experiment I applaud everybody for the hard work they put into it and I'd like to move forward uh as uh expeditiously as we can the need is there the problem is there and the community is looking for some relief thank you thanks Mark and we'll go to Taisha and then I'll uh maybe close up and sort of sum what I've heard here for for staff and our and our partners um throughout the community go for TAA thank you so much um echoing a lot supporting a lot of the comments both um yours uh Matt as well as Mark's latest

[95:02] comment um also wanted to Circle back to Tara's comment around that Continuum of Care and so just in general it would be helpful to see a port more of a portfolio model in our work as opposed to isolated strategies right um so that we can really see that Continuum of Care and also to be able to to Lauren's hotline comment to be able to assess across programs very easily what are the costs what are the impacts who's exiting who's not um that would be incredible incredibly useful in order for for me myself to be able to to not only just be supportive but but to vote Yes for something like this um having that qualitative and quantitative data organized in a way um that we can make uh data driven decisions with would be incredibly helpful I also also just wanted to clarify something that I heard um somebody say about what are we trying to accomplish and I really am hopeful both in our Retreat and in our work

[96:01] moving forward as a council that we we work to clarify what what are those outcomes because because when I heard housing I thought well I don't just want them to you know exit homelessness I want them to stay housed right we know we have a real issue with retention so if I only focus on getting you in knowing this significant retention issues and I'm just talk and that's not even talking about people with um with the added component of of drug or mental um so you know issues and challenges that they're facing many of whom in this category do have as the evidence provides so I also would love to lift up in addition to staying housed other key performance indicators that I'm hopeful that we can discuss and again is also something that I'll be bringing up in our next conversation which is including housing uh met measures and metrics I also am hopeful that we can um also look at what the evidence base is is saying that we should look at for any kind of housing first policy which is also

[97:00] inclusive of employment earnings and health outcomes uh both mental and physical so again um you know a myopic we we have tried a myopic focus on housing and it has gotten us to where we are right now so I am actually imploring us and I'm happy to hear that uh my Council colleagues feel similarly around um ensuring that we are actually aligning with what the evidence base says um and really responding to the information and work that is already putting put in both at the city and county level thank you so much thank you TAA um so as we close off this bit on high system utilizers I I first just want to thank da dhy uh Grant besser um certainly um uh Chief Redfern and all of our partners um both here on on our staff in the city and those that our count County for for doing this work and thank you Carl for doing sort of our city lead on this effort um it's it's it's a Monumental lift to bring all of

[98:01] these different groups who have different stress points on this issue to actually coales around a common uh plan that seems to work for all parties involved that is not a common thing we see especially in government um if we look to dysfunction at other levels around so I want to really just congratulate coalescing on a plan that seems to work for everybody a tremendous job and and thank you for um putting the common interest ahead of maybe one's department or one's entity that means a lot to us and it certainly means a lot to community we saw that in the community survey we saw an overwhelming majority of people say that they want this type of support and help um and they want to see our those that are hurting in our community get that extra support they need to help themselves but also help our community so this is all checking a lot of the great boxes and so what I've heard is is virtually ubiquitous support uh for moving forward with this and so I hope that gives um you all on the team clear direction to continue to do that great work and continue to work with our partners um certainly at the county and Boulder

[99:01] Community Health and and certainly our other nonprofits so so that was pretty clear and also as we move forward better identifying um these outcomes so that we feel better about how we measure success when we move forward with this and certainly uh you know as we talked about where the county is here they're the other big partner and it seems clear that we know that um based on grants discussion that Boulder Community Health is clearly going to be an Engaged partner here and we love to hear that um we just want to make sure that that that that other part of the vend diagram the county is coming in with equal commitment and and passion and desire to see this come to fruition um so that's something we can work on and do let us know how we can uh uh make that happen so I hope that gives uh our staff but also the greater high high system utilizer team um the answers but also the context that they need to go forth and continue to make this make progress on here and continue the great work they're doing so uh again credit to everybody and thanks a lot for taking the time in your busy schedules to join us

[100:00] tonight alrighty um and also I really appreciate uh Council for uh having really good concise questions on that that's a meaty thing that could have leaked two and a half hours but here we are an hour and 34 minutes in we're doing pretty well um so so I appreciate that that's good discipline um so we're moving on to our uh next subject here and then I will so with that I will turn it back to Nua to introduce the next subject um and we'll go forward with that thanks so much and frankly um a I appreciate the conversation we have remained convening lead if you will on this but we know that we have our partners at the table for that and for some of the conversation we're about to have um and while I know that we continue to um want to have conversations with our County and I know that is of great interest um to council members um I know we have great relationships particularly with staff on some of the work and you going to see some of that highlighted in today's conversation um and I couldn't have

[101:00] transitioned better than where um Taisha you were speaking to um in your comments and your remarks you really talked about a holistic approach and a Continuum services and while we started out of order a little bit to talk about this because of our guest I hope that the next presentation will will show you a little bit of the overarching umbrella of some of the services that we're bringing that includes things like housing but also mental health supports addiction supports peer supports um because simply placing as we heard from staff as we heard from that Regional Housing Symposium um if we do not set up conditions that help support those who find housing then we will often see um a lack of of success in that and so peer support is an important model of that as well so you're going to get a lot of information and again we know that there are a lot of questions out there um and more conversation to have on this but with that I will uh send it over to Kurt

[102:00] to get us started on what really is a more holistic comprehensive view of our overall homelessness strategies Kurt uh thank you so I'm Kurt Fern hobber and I support the Department of Housing and Human Services um I I it was great to to to witness and for you to see um what our works work looks like on almost a daily basis around collaboration and that same collaboration that you saw in this first session um occurs um around our other areas of homelessness as well so tonight there's going to be um a focus on the homeless strategy which was um defined by Council in 2017 and at that time uh we were sort of starting with somewhat of a of a clean slate um over that time we have built um um through our partners of

[103:01] course many many programs um maybe many new initiatives really working towards the implementation of that strategy it's taken us five years to get to a a program that is matured um to the way it is now um when we start started off in 2017 you know we were spending a couple hundred thousand on on homelessness now we're spending um upwards of 10 and 12 million per year and a big part of that is funding that we've also been able to um raise from other sources outside of the the city's general fund I'd also mention that this strategy that's been guiding our work since 2017 has also been um integrated into the um and in the same path of the city of longm as well as Boulder County and that

[104:04] Boulder Boulder County solution for homelessness really um uh came out of that work and collaborated with that work in 2017 so part of what we'll be showing tonight is the um the grow of that strategy um and where we are today an enormous number of new programs have been started with new money um over the last couple of years and often when we are in these conversations we we talk at a high level um but the stories are actually about um and the effort is really about assisting individuals in our community and I think we want to start with a very short video of program that started um about a year ago which I think has been incredibly uh impactful um it's our peer support

[105:00] program and it's really um leaning into those with lived experience um to work with individuals and assisting them their their uh their peers and their Partners um through the transition um into housing so I believe um that's coming up next um I'll hand it over to to Megan Newton I'm not sure if the slides come up next Megan's going to be doing the presentation uh after the uh after this short clip so Emily that may be your cue on that video earlier this spring we launched building home a program to support newly housed community members with peer support and services that help them remain successful in housing the pathway

[106:01] from chronic homelessness to stable housing has many barriers including feelings of isolation and loneliness a lack of community and complicated lease requirements services that help them remain successful in housing the pathway from chronic homelessness to stable housing has many barriers including feelings of isolation and loneliness a lack of community and complicated lease requirements building home aims to address these challenges by building confidence for people we may be having buffering issues is by building confidence for people and

[107:00] fostering a supportive environment where we are bringing services to them there are two comp this seem we've had this issue before with a number of videos in our uh streaming portal is there a chance maybe um that that video could be resent to council or at least hotlined out to community so everyone has a chance to to view it um because um Megan's skills with the teleprompter are impeccable and we all need to Bear witness um did a great job no it's a good video but let's get it shared around um and and then we can uh Move Along there so bum we don't get to see that full three and a half minutes um um but we'll fix that buffering stuff I'm sure sure but uh Megan Kurt continue to carry on uh outside that video if you guys want sure bring up the slides I'm never

[108:02] gonna be a movie star my the teleprompter is not my friend all right good evening Council again my name is Megan Newton I'm the policy adviser on homelessness for housing and Human Services and I'm going to take tonight to go through the services or the programs that we have um these all the services that programs that I'm going to talk about are supported by the city in some way um financially and also try to talk to them in context of our overall strategy we talk a lot about the strategy and how it's implemented um so I started I try to structure the presentation tonight kind of in that way and I also will try to take into account some of the questions that I saw through hotline and see if I can leave them in but if I leave them out um please feel free to um ask them when we're done next slide so these are the questions that we have posed um for Council does council have questions or feedback on the

[109:01] overall homelessness strategy Andor system gaps as outlined in the memo um when the second question that we'll bring up at the end as well is after considering the overall approach to homelessness including high utilizers does counil have questions or input on the funding priorities to address the identified gaps next slide please all right so this slide you all have seen before um and but I again I want to talk to the programs in context of our strategy so our strategy does cover a whole Continuum of services um starting with prevention and then going to basic Services housing and then public information and data are kind of more of our coordinated efforts um and so I'll speak to those as well at the end um there was a question about things that have and I'll work it through it the presentation but things that have changed during covid and I think the thing I would point out on this slide as

[110:00] far as the the strategy goes is there has been a he heavier um focus on prevention um there was a lot of money in arpa dollars that were focus on were focused on prevention and keeping people house um so just in context of the overall I'll I'll point out other places as I go through the slides but overall strategy um from both the federal government the state government and some local um dollars have been put into the prevention piece of the strategy next slide please so I wanted to start by giving a little like setting the stage um as far as the homelessness Nationwide regionally locally um oftentimes we measure that with the point in time count um but I also wanted to point out there are some very um large limitations to using just that number or that one point in time count number or in our case two point in time count numbers um

[111:00] to to make too many decisions um some of the benefits of the point in time count um is that it's required by Hud to be done in every Community across the country so everyone at the end of January is doing account um part of the account is survey information and so this is our opportunity we're very sensitive um not to go out and ask folks questions over and over again so this is the opportunity to kind of learn more about the people who are experiencing homelessness um I'll point out that in the count we count of folks that are sheltered folks that are unsheltered and folks that are in transitional housing um so that includes single adults families um and youth and so we often use the number as the basic Trend analysis um we added the summer count at council's request just for the first time last year to kind of start trying to track that Trend analysis um from winter to summer as well but some of the limitations of point in time count are the meth methodology different communities do it in different ways and

[112:01] different same communities do it differently over time um so it's really hard sometimes to do apples to apples um the count also takes place strategically at the end of January because the thought is that folks will be utilizing um shelter services and it's easier to count folks in shelters than to find them unsheltered but the other piece is when you get Seasons or Winters where it's very very cold folks tend to find options just for that period of time maybe they can stay with a friend for a night or maybe they pull their money to get a hotel room um and so that makes it difficult depending on the weather that we did just did a count um the January count a few weeks ago and it was relatively nice um so we'll see if those numbers had some impact or the weather had some impact on those numbers um and then also the invisibility specific groups it's very hard to determine folks who are living in their car um to count folks who are living in their car as well as um predominantly youth typically find places to be and AR as visible as

[113:02] other groups and so there is some families as well um we'll find places to be and aren't as visible as other groups so just things to take into consideration as we look at the picture as a whole and the numbers we use to determine um success and knowing that I'm sure you guys have seen um that the homelessness number overall the nation has gone up 12% um with a very steep Rise regionally um and some rise locally as well um another thing that I'll point out as far as the limitations um is in those numbers specifically this happened um in last year's January count is in Denver and in New York and Chicago folks that were seeking Asylum were counted in the number and so that has a um as impact on the numbers going up and then what was interesting is Louisiana actually had a significant Decline and when asked if they had any um thoughts on that it was the year prior folks had been staying in transitional housing

[114:00] specifically for Hurricane um impacts and then the next year they had gotten those people out of transitional housing into their own housing and so their number had significantly decreased so it's just important to kind of look at these numbers and context um next slide please so these are the numbers on both we've looked at the last six years because those are the numbers um that we have in all three places um both nationally at the Metro level and Boulder County and so you see the Gap is 2021 in 2021 that was during covid and we did a an unofficial shelter count but there was no unsheltered count that year so that's where you see the Gap but you see the growth um both on the national level and the significant increase um between 2022 and 2023 um that's also mirrored in metro Denver as well as Boulder County the numbers from that I'm showing you here for Boulder County um had a steep we had a

[115:02] decrease you'll see in 2022 that we don't know if that was an error in data then the number popped back up in 2023 so I don't know if it we're gonna we're hoping to see this year where that TR goes um to determine uh what the the number might be closer to next slide please so as I just said we did add and you guys have seen this slide before but we did add a summer point in time count um with the thought being that anecdotally we often get asked um wow it's July there feels like there are a lot of people um but it's hard you know when you go year to year you're like yeah a lot of people but is that a lot of people can compare to January or a lot of per people compared to last July um so we've we've added the city of Boulder point and time count um it's done countywide but it's not done across the country so this one is a local count that we've added um and we just started doing this past year and intend to continue on um but you could see the bar

[116:00] chart on the left that the numbers from winter to summer were almost identical um just with the reverse of of course in the winter most PE more people are sheltered and the summer more people are unsheltered um but those are the numbers then again a hard to draw on one one year summer point time count but hopefully when as we move forward um ongoing Summers we'll be able to identify Trends through this next slide please a lot of communities solely rely on their point in time numbers um we do had the added benefit of the collaboration at a county level with HSBC to have numbers through coordinated entry which are a little bit more accurate um to see Trends on a long-going basis and so this number number shows inflows into the system as well as outflows from the system um just to kind of keep with my Trend and comparing um the inflow is up 18% from

[117:00] 2022 um our number of folks that were housing is by number is up as well but by percentage is down one% so was 30% um in 2023 or 2022 and 29% in 2023 but keeping in mind that the number of folks that we've been able to exit from the system um has been going up just not as quickly as the folks entering the system has been going up next slide please all right so now I'll kind of work my way around the homeless strategic goals um gear puzzle piece here and we'll start I kind of debated on what order I go but I I decided to start with access to basic Services um so some of the programming we're highlighting there again this all these things are supported by the city and some some way um is be there Sheltering da service center rest health and Boulder shelter partnership um that

[118:00] Grant actually highlighted earlier as well um we fund a piece of that as well um I will fold in here that some of the trends that we've seen change in covid around basic Services um 24-hour Sheltering is new since Co historically Sheltering has happened overnight and then there were places where there are day centers um but when covid started shelters decided to keep people safe they would start um keeping allowing people to stay in 24 hours a day um the interesting piece on that is when we were taking tours day centers when we were looking to stand up we looking to stand up the day service center um we heard in in multiple communities that had decreased the use of the day service center because folks were accessing their regular overnight shelter 24 hours a day um I would also say a big change since covid in basic Services is the non- congregate Sheltering approach so many communities have purchased or um gotten Partnerships with hotels and

[119:01] they're using hotels as temporary shelters while folks work their way into housing and so that had a very real impact with covid when they were trying to keep people not in communal settings um but that has continued to grow um since after covid as well next slide please so I'll start our basic services with a look at be there um be there is the Outreach partnership that we have with Boulder shelter that that's as well something that got expanded during covid is Outreach Services again when folks became fearful of congregate settings um and more folks we started to see more unsheltered homelessness um the decision was to invest in an outreach program where folks could be connected to services without entering the shelter um and so these are some of the outputs and outcomes that that team has been able to accomplish I will always I will also note um that they had 12 folks this team spe was specifically ingal in housing TW

[120:02] 12 folks in the month of January some of those through diversion because they're able to do coordinated entry in the field a couple of those were tenant based housing and a handful directly into the bluebird project which I will be talking about later um but we're growing our ability to um to track those things um as in the system to be able to compare exits from the shelter versus exits from um Outreach programming next slide please so Boulder Shelter From the homeless is the largest single adult shelter um in Boulder and so these are just some of their outputs but I would also like to point out some of their outcomes um around some of the work maybe not specific specifically but they work in connecting people to Services they are by far the largest provider just because they're the largest point of entry for folks um with coordinated entry and exit into housing um they also

[121:01] connect people they have a mental health professional that comes in regularly to provide service medical professionals who engage folks there they have a pharmacist that comes in to the shelter that um helps folks with their medications um and so there's a lot of work on being done not only in meeting the basic needs with the basic services but through case management and connecting people to a larger bit of the community into Services um that are available next slide please we do have our shelter that that serve um specific populations that I've talked about my previous um presentation but Haven Ridge which was formerly mother house in the lodge um is a alter that serves women trans and non-binary um they recently moved into a larger location expand some of their services

[122:02] they located both mother to expand um services to both of those populations um together which is a youth surveying program they have the source which is the shelter um and a DAT Center that serves specifically youth um and they also have permanent housing Pine Street as well but they're they're in plans they've got they've secured funding to renovate um and expand the source so the picture I'm not I haven't seen the plans but the picture on the left I suspect will be different um when we do this presentation in the future um I also wanted to highlight Bridge house is a program that we support um not we don't support directly any emergency Sheltering through them we we support their housing and exits from the ready to work program um but as the agency that has provided services in Boulder for a long time they're expanding the work that they've historically done here around navigation services and ready to work um they they've been in Aurora but they are also

[123:02] expanding now to the tri cities um in their navigation Center next slide please so resfit is one of our new programs it has not started yet the hope is that it will start um in the next couple months but that was born out of a gap in service um that we saw from the hospital where folks were were repeatedly going to the hospital and being discharged um for things that they didn't need to necessarily go to the hospital for and they needed a 24-hour facility to just basically Rec recuperate um and so if they had oftentimes the PL in so the C Center sorry is meant to meet those goals and provide um 24hour Sheltering as well as additional Support Services to to coordinate

[124:00] services in the community um I was having a conversation with bch about this program and um it was interesting to to see that we do have gaps in the system but in this conversation she was saying that we do have a lot of services to serve this population they're just challenging to navigate sometimes and so when you're going to an emergency shelter and then you're going somewhere else and then you're going it's really hard for those services to access you um even if they're available so through this programming we're hopeful um that it'll it'll improve that situation and give people people a stable place to be um while they're recover recuperating sorry next slide please and then of course the day service center I like to talk about this as kind of like a full Continuum on Under One Roof um um and I think that is really what the the intention of it is it's it's to meet folks basic needs of course um to get them out of the weather to give them a place to just be um to

[125:00] give them a place to store their belongings to use a phone um to charge a phone um and just engagement opportunities but we also been able through some state grants to really supplement that to make it a full Continuum of services so we're going to be supplement supplementing with medical and mental health care um Treatment Services as well as counseling um we will be using existing services with some supplementation around navigation again another point of service that folks can access the system um it you know it's really best practice to try to house things all in one location so folks don't have to navigate not only the system figuratively but the system um like an actual go place to place and you know talk to this person over here no you need to go down the street talk to that person over there so this is a real intentional way to you know not only bring all the Services Under One Roof but also Foster the collaboration between the services they have

[126:00] conversations I had a conversation with the faith community last week and they're really interested in bringing some of the stuff that they're um that they love to do closed closet serving food that kind of thing into the space and really being a partner in the in the entire system um through the state Grant we're also able to in some local some of our local funds to increase exits into housing um we're doing some tenant Supportive Services but the state is providing um 30 vouchers for folks connected to this program as a way to access the services I think one of the things I would highlight about basic Services is they're really only as successful as the exits that we're able to provide so if you're if you do one without the other it it doesn't have the best impact whereas if you provide there is a and the shelter is a great example on when we open Bluebird I I haven't seen our January numbers but our January numbers will be exceptional I'm sure um because both programs were able to

[127:00] connect people to housing um and so I think it's important to look at the context that both meeting folks where they're at um as well as as helping them to exit homelessness Alto together next slide please the final piece that I'll talk to under this is the same one that Grant spoke to so it's kind of our pilot pilot of a High utilizer um and the shelter supports a bit of it bch um not the shelter shelter of the city and bch supports a bit of it um but these are some of the outcomes they've seen um and just that so what happens is folks who are high utilizers of the emergency room are connected with the case manager at Boulder shelter to navigate the homeless system um and so they they've done the study after having done it for a year it's an 84% reduction in emergency department visits um and they engage with 39 clients during that time period next slide

[128:00] please all right moving around my dial we'll now stock we I'll now talk to some of the housing programs um that are in place and directly supported um by the city of Boulder we have a local Voucher Program um we supported Boulder shelter in acquiring some units um we part of the a myriad of funding that helped with Bluebird and then part of our retention piece is around building home next slide please so the local voucher started in 2018 we support 48 permanent supportive housing vouchers so that means that we fund um Boulder housing Partners to provide the housing piece and they partner with Boulder shelter to provide the case manage case management fees um we typically like to Target these resources for folks that may not be coming up high on the list for the regional resources or the federal resources and so we're very intentional on trying to use these resources for

[129:00] folks that don't have access to other programs um we've also seen in this project um you know and this one has been around for a few years or yeah since 2018 so a very good retention rate only 5% returns to homelessness um out of that program um also in the last couple years and you'll notice and I'll note that a lot of these programs are new so as we build in the capacity of the system to track the outcomes of each individual and that as they kind of move forward um there'll be a lot more comparison we're able to do um but that this program began in 2022 they've acquired um 12 units serve 13 people one person um unfortunately passed away um and so but everyone else has remained housed um in in that program and this program is intended to serve folks who are unable to access housing because their lengthly criminal history and so there were the landlord pieces has been the barrier in getting them housing um

[130:02] and so this is one of the pieces that we put into place to try to meet that need and as I kind of pointed out in the high utilizer conversation this piece is a little bit unique like the state the sh the shelter recently got these 12 units um they apply for vouchers from the state to cover these units and the state has approved it they're very interested in this program excited about it so the folks that we had originally moved in on other vouchers will now be transitioned into the state vouchers and then the 12 vouchers that we had um kind of cobbled together back into the system next slide please so this is a picture of bluebird as I'm sure you've heard me multiple times talk about this a few weeks ago permanent support of housing um dedicated permit Supportive Housing in the city of Boulder there's this project in Lee Hill

[131:01] um they're also developing a project similar to Bluebird in Longmont that will have 55 units of permanent Supportive Housing um that's int that it's supposed to open at the end of this year and Boulder housing Partners also add is um developing Hilltop down in South Boulder that will have some vouchers for for folks um or some permanent Supportive Housing units tied into those as well and so this is one of the the main metric we use um to to determine impact is the total exits from homelessness um we also calculate the average monthly exits from homelessness um we also calculate retention rates um primarily in the programs that we fund overall um HSBC does some additional um data collecting around retention rates but and that that typically varies from program to program not just permanent support of housing versus rapid rehousing versus a

[132:00] different transitional housing intervention um but really program to program quite literally um and oftentimes that is also highly impacted by the the clients they serve right um we encourage housing partners and Service Partners to take big swings on with folks right and so there isn't that easy win necessarily and so we take that into account um with retention rates next slide please so building home is our locally our Prof funded program that we implemented just to meet the needs of retention rates again that was identified as a gap in the system is that permanent support of housing is by far the most effective um tool in a toolbox to exit folks from homelessness um but it sometimes doesn't meet the whole need and even with this like we see the little subsection of high

[133:00] utilizers where it doesn't me so I take this as progress in that we have done the easy stuff and we are moving on to the hard stuff and building home is a part of that um it is two-prong program that works closely together um supported by two organizations one is focus re-entry and the other is Boulder shelter for the homeless um the peer support comes from Focus re-entry and I will also add peers is another piece of changes since covid peers existed in programs um surely before covid but they have expanded into almost every facet since covid you know implementing into homelessness into substance use recovery into Behavioral Health recovery um Piers is is a growing uh intervention that that and I wouldn't say just peers but even incorporating folks with lived experience in the work in general in the policy discussions in general has been growing significantly

[134:00] um in the last couple years um but we folks are identified as likely needing a high higher care both at the match process so when they get matched to housing um as well as when they're already housed and red flags start going up um that they may need additional support um this is where building home comes into play and so they they partner the or they pair the client with a peer as well as what is a housing retention team which includes Clinical Services um in an effort to maintain the housing of folks who may have greater challenges than others in permanent Supportive Housing so far again this program is relatively new we should be getting the annual um data in the next month and we be happy to update when we do but in just conversations I've had with both um focus re-entry and Boulder shelter for the homeless they've been very successful um with actually very high levels of retention to the point that I got cautioned of you might want

[135:01] to not get too excited just because it's it's been very high so far and so um my response to that is the standard we'd like it to be high and if it beat it um wonderful next slide please and so now we'll go to the prevention piece um as I noted earlier this has been another um intervention that has grown significantly since covid is you know I think the conversation has been asked and had it is much more affordable to prevent folks from becoming homeless then once they're there it's really hard and expensive for folks to get out um so prevention and it also speaks to my slide at the beginning too um where we're improving our exits but when more more people enter the system um it feels a little bit like we're spinning their wheels and so the prevention pce piece is um very important um in the

[136:06] work I'm GNA speak to both epis and some of the family homelessness because that's the two city um supported prevention programs next slide so epis is the eviction prevention and rental assistance it is the program run through HHS in the city um that you know interacts with folks who are facing eviction and also um interacts with them at eviction court so you'll see some of the outcomes that they've experienced um since they start 2021 um with close to a million dollars in rental assist assistance provided um 3,000 court case 448 unique families um we were in a meeting just yesterday where um the program man of this program

[137:04] said from 2022 to 2023 had increased by 50% um so it was a significant increase in um Megan Megan can you turn your video off oh sorry oh am I glitching yeah sorry better can you hear me we we can we'll see how it goes okay yeah just St me I'm sorry um next slide please family homelessness is a piece where we're also heavily reliant on prevention and is also seen as incredibly important to prevent families from entering into homelessness the disruption that happens in a family um when folks become homeless is significant and so prevention is where we like to put a lot of our um resources around families although unfortunately

[138:00] some families do fall into homelessness and so that that is a component of the system um prevention um is very important in the family homelessness sector these are some just some data points that were shared at the um affordable housing conference last week and so some of you may have already seen these but some of the state the stats that are happening around Boulder County as it relates to families um are significant and jarring when you look at them um and you hear them put into in a whole in a whole way next slide this was also presented at that um conference and I think it is very very interesting and you know can lead to the further in the the groups in our Center and sister Carman made a point day that their resources you know spiked during covid and you them M spent um to help

[139:01] families in 2022 those resources have started to decline since the end of covid but the need definitely hasn't they they're serving far more families now with less resources and so I do think it points to a growing need um around family homelessness in the in in the investment in prevention dollars next slide please and so these last two pieces um around data and public information is kind of where we come into play around the coordination of the system and our partnership in HSBC um and the access to public information um we try to work together to share the data on we have our local dashboard as the city that shows a lot of stats um and the county is is coming online with their own dashboard around public information and data and we also use the you know the Strategic group as a whole

[140:01] to to Really analyze best ref excuse me analyze best practices um and to try to push some of that programming forward that's how building home was born um that's how some of the the local vouchers are born that those kind of programs that we work together on next slide please so this is just some of the coordinating work um slide is very busy kind of intentionally so to illustrate all of the coordination that I think the high utilizers absolutely shows as well there are a lot of people at the table quite literally every day um trying to coordinate services for folks um a lot of the best practices around buy name lists and doing Staffing around Outreach um case conferencing um and the system coordination um is done at a very high level and a very day-to-day level

[141:02] the Outreach team meets weekly talking about folks that they're interacting with in an effort not to duplicate services in an effort not to duplicate services but rather support each other um in working with folks experiencing unsheltered homelessness uh but this slide is just kind of all the partners in a in a city the size of folder which isn't very big um having all of these Partners at the table is definitely remarkable next slide please and so we've also trying to use a slide to kind of draw buckets but maybe at least start the conversation in the buckets and that um where where programs and specific spefic interventions receive funding either at the state or federal level at the city of Boulder level and or at the Boulder County level and often times These funds are leveraged one for the other like the state like I the day Center is a perfect

[142:01] example state says we'll give you um housing vouchers if you put money into this piece of it um similar things happen at the federal level there's always a matching component to that those funds um so this kind of puts the services that I'm talking about into two categories and it kind of shows you where folks are invested um but I think the conversation likely will lead on how much each each is invested in each but um this just kind of gives a jumping off point um on where folks are are investing in a different programs so different interventions I guess with not specific programs next slide please so this shows are housing and Human Services plan expenditures and Investments um for 2024 and it covers all those bucket where we're current investing money um I will highlight that the day service center and breast fit um

[143:03] our state money that that we applied for and are using for those programs um and are part as part of our budget but this kind of gives a breakdown um on where currently our funding is being spent um within the bucket that we've been talking about tonight and so some of the things that I've already talked through or all the things I've already talked through um with these different programs with a total of just over um $9 million next slide please um I we spoke to this in our last presentation but I thought it would be helpful to bring it into this one as well we have a number of projects that we started with either local arpa or some of the State arpa dollars um that will sunset either at the end of this year or the end of 2025 that will be that we're currently looking at um and we continue to look at ways to fund ongoing um but that that goes on the

[144:01] building home the building home with both the peer support and the housing retention um the day service center some of the components that we're building into there with the State arpa dollars um the resfit services that over State arpa dollars um the winter shelter expansion the hotel um and the the family Hotel assistance as well was was supplemented with arpa dollars over the last couple years um and also uh growing population in the homelessness um the Older Adult Services also has invested some in prevention money um for those for that population as well but so we'll be looking to one determine the value of each of these programs and then decide if we'd like to go forward which I think early results are showing yes um obviously we haven't open the day service center but I imagine will be definite ads to um that program but those unfunded initiatives are just at about $2.5

[145:02] million next slide please so when we're looking at system gaps and recommended funding priorities um and I think council person fuler also put in the question if we had talk with folks with lived experience about what their priorities are I do relatively regularly co-facilitate um a lived experience um Advisory board with the community court and we often talk about things that they see as gaps in the services and so I will highlight that there are some overlaps here um some of the things that they've highlighted in those conversations are lack of housing access um lack of mental health substance use treatment lack of Health Care access um difficult system navigation um and prevention have all been brought up in those contexts as well um but these are the things that that we see as gaps in the system um as well and that's the mental health and

[146:00] Behavioral Health um the variety of housing options again back to my basic Services basic Services definitely meets the the immediate need and helps people to connect to services but if the services aren't there to connect to to um the impact is limiting um also the expansion like I said with Co the expansion of peer support and housing retention services and then kind of going full circle back to the prevention around family homelessness as well as we're seeing as a grow a growing need um in gap in service next slide please so we are back around the dial to the two questions um and thank you for your time thank you Megan and uh if we could go ahead and uh put those questions and oh look at that Elicia is a mind reader and a head of the game pardon me while

[147:00] my kids are going to work there we go um so let's uh let's let's sort of uh dive into this I think this is kind of the meat and potatoes of a lot of what we were um looking to discuss and sort of a long time coming to discuss the strategy um I just want to sort of put out there that there there will be a temptation to get into programmatic details well now us I don't know if my airpods are working or not but either way you can probably hear me one way or the other I'll see if I hear you um let's try to stay out of the programmatic weeds because if we do we'll be here till Rapture and and I don't think any of us want to live that long um so um any event uh let let's stay high level and let's focus on those buckets because I think staff did a good job talking about the the buckets and the categories from which the programs reside remembering that the strategy we

[148:00] set will Al will inform the programs that we do also knowing um that if you have really detailed programmatic questions outside of maybe highle uh ones uh do save those and then uh submit them to staff because as nura brought up we're going to have other bites at this apple where we can dive into those uh those deeper questions um and then that way we can really stay with the Strategic conversation that is in front of us um so with that um let's go ahead and address uh question one uh which is does council have questions or feedback on the overall homelessness strategy Andor system gaps as outlined in the memo who's going to kick us off here ah Aon go for it seeing no other hands I can get it started um so Megan thank you for that extremely detailed and well-informed presentation and uh for all the amazing work that you and the rest of the department are doing this area it is extraordinary how many different programs we have going in many of them really Innovative and groundbreaking so

[149:01] appreciate all that um so my question is um we had talked previously about looking at a revision to our homelessness strategy so because we adopted that back in 2017 and we were going to take a fresh look at that and say you know what's working what's not working you know what are some updates that we might want to do that what's the status of that looking at that revision of that that strategy so uh Megan I can respond if you'd like and you can add in um so the uh uh Homeless Solutions for Boulder County um is Contracting a um consultant to do an an um overview of the of the program um we decided to do it at a higher level than the city um particularly since the work is so coordinated uh between particularly between ourselves and longm through HSBC um uh I understand that that um

[150:03] assessment will be done um probably the end of the summer or uh beginning of fall um and that will uh inform uh um the gaps or um identify things that are working or areas that need to be strengthened and um is is really a good uh kickoff for um assessing our strategy we haven't actually identified a process um at this point and I think we would look to council to get input on that on um how that strategy would be um updated once we get closer to um that assessment being completed great well that'll be very helpful so uh please do keep us posted and happy to weigh in on anything that might be useful as we get closer thanks that's all I have thanks

[151:00] Nicole oh oh go you got to say the magic word can I cqu on that yes there it is so in that assessment are like I understand that it's mostly HSBC that is doing the assessment are we going to specifically get an assessment of pro um programs and services related to Boulder or is it all going to be sort of with a overarching lens um absolutely um in fact um uh I I like to say we are HSBC as well um Devon um kissak Kelly from the municipal court and myself sit on the um executive committee of that and uh Megan and Vicky um work with some of the um operational and subgroups of that as well um I would say that um well what we do know from a data standpoint is about 75% of the

[152:00] individuals experiencing homelessness under sort of the HSBC umbrella um uh flow through Boulder in some way or through services or Sheltering um in our city so the uh assessment um if you if you look at it from that lens will be highly um um uh emphasi the city of B will be highly emphasized in that work um and so I I it will be an excellent um uh way of looking at the the the work within the city of Boulder and oh did you have a followup there Lauren you good yeah all right uh Nicole then Tina thanks um and thanks so much for for the presentation um Megan and Kurt um I have a couple of questions and then

[153:00] uh feedbacks I think feedback was also included here so for questions um you know we know there's uh folks coming to and leaving the community with regularity and so my question is around how we're coordinating with groups across the Front Range to address this inflow and outflow I think Megan can tackle that one sure um so we participate at multiple levels we participate in the metro Denver homeless initiative we're part of that um counties of Continuum care um a lot of our strategic prioritization of resources comes through that um but we also participate in meetings that are with staff um from the different communities and what what trends are happening in different communities and what Supportive Services um folks are bringing online or the needs are and so that work is done at a a Metro level as well as a regional level um and I know that this County

[154:00] staff also participates in a metro area County Commissioners group um that also is looking at homelessness as one of their big issues as well in coordinating those Services across the the different counties from that L as well and just to kind of follow up on that um seems like a big part of that is the ability to track people right and figure out if they're getting this service in Boulder what service are they getting in Denver sort of knowing where they are in the process and do we I know I think we were working on setting this up so that we would be able to track across counties a year or two ago have we made progress on that yes so there the system it's called hmis or homeless manur information system um that has we we do at a county or at a metro level but it's the same system used Statewide and so you can see you can track folks through the system um you can see the movement along the Front Range when we're doing the care coordination you can oftentimes see oh that person is accessing care in Fort

[155:00] Collins or whatever that might be um so yes that system is currently in place and being used great thank you then another question you know we have some information on how many people say are turned away from the shelter um due to lack of capacity that sort of thing do we have anything equivalent for um families experiencing homelessness I mean do we know where where we're running into into issues where families aren't getting the support that they need due to capacity limitations either like shortage of you know hotel vouchers or there's not enough um of the kind of transitional housing that um some folks are providing do we have a way of of just sort of seeing where we are in terms of hitting limits so I'm not sure if I'm able to answer that um or if Vicky is um if we don't have that information we will um be able to um get it for you though um I would add that it the family

[156:02] system sometimes somewhat by Design is a little less robust um domestic violence for example plays a large role in family homelessness and that information is very much protected um families that enter into the housing prioritization rapid rehousing programs for example go through the hmis system and they're trackable that way the uh Family Resource Network subcommittee on family homelessness um has been working on ways that we can coordinate screening and intake form so that they can move towards a better data sharing um I can tell you that maybe not from a data point by name list but there is a high high level of collaboration between the different service providers um in meeting the needs of families and they work very closely together particularly around hotels bridging uh working towards case management um you

[157:00] know f is working with our Center is working with um some of the other agencies that are out there um and there's a high level of County involvement in homelessness prevention on the family side as is there a city response to um our keep families House program which is a partnership between um the schools EA and the city um that because there's a high degree of City participation in that program does have a little bit of information but again it is still somewhat siloed um but there is an attachment to the mckin vento programming in the school district okay thank you yeah I think what I was thinking about was just a story that I heard about uh last fall about a woman um who a mom was basically living in her car with her 12 and 13 year-old um children because they had you know reached out they had gotten a voucher for four nights at a hotel but that you know was not enough for them to

[158:00] kind of get get stable you know find additional housing and so I'm just wondering if we have any sense of you know how many folks are out there in that situation where they've sort of Hit the limits of whatever supports we have available right in that moment where they're experiencing some sort of acute homelessness uh episode and you know if if there's any way we can figure that out and it sounds like maybe may maybe something we can you know look at or think about how we could do right it's a little hard to report but I I guarantee that those connections are going I would also say that our um HHS Family Resource Group um does a another large reach of connecting people to the resources they need um and as Megan mentioned in the presentation sometimes family homelessness gets a little invisible um because if you are living in the car with your kids you may be very scared about making yourself known

[159:01] as in need so that's another challenge that the family group faces yeah yep absolutely well um just to thank you for that and um just to get to the the feedback part of it I just really appreciate the focus on um increasing support for families experiencing homelessness uh I think that family homelessness wasn't um even included in some of these updates when I first arrived on Council and I just I so appreciate this this kind of bringing this into our homelessness discussions I think it's really um critical right we know family homelessness is a massive risk factor for adult homelessness um so just thank you for you know the awareness of how crucial the support for family is to our overall homelessness strategy straty um and I just want to make sure that that we're thinking about family homelessness and how it fits into this broader homelessness um perspective as we're doing some of the strategy work and assessment work on our um homelessness plan uh this year and yeah

[160:03] anyway thank you all pause there thanks thanks Nicole really appreciate that um let's see I see Tina then Lauren yeah this was all great and I appreciated the memo that we were provided in advance as well and all the thought that was put into that was really helpful I have a few questions um the first is what is the timeline for the data dashboard that you mentioned is being developed by the county do we know what that might look like Vicki you might know better I feel like it's any day now they were just working out some of the quirks um but I my understanding is that it's very soon Nicolia did you sorry yeah um our cter report at the county mentioned is a couple weeks away as the last update we heard oh that's great um so I'll just look for that if if anyone could send a link when it's available that would be

[161:00] great um my other question is um going back to the you know the prevention as we see with the cost of the High utilizers um prevention is a lot less expensive than after someone is homeless and when we in the memo it spoke to how about half of the people who are homeless or more don't become homeless and Boulder which means we can't affect we can't prevent that homelessness as well and this is following up to Nicole's comment how can we work with the places where people are coming from to help prevention there or advocate for prevention so that we're not dealing with it at the more expensive point when we're trying to get people the services in the homeless and rehomes well I'll I'll add in a little bit to that and uh Carl may even um have some input um into the advocacy at the at the state level what you've highlighted is a

[162:00] real um concern of ours as well um I think Megan may have um it was one of the times when she was maybe Frozen during her presentation but we we know the the number of um uh um students in the bbsd school district um you know who are experiencing homelessness doubled um our um eviction prevention team um the the percentage of individuals that they served um which are often families um from 20202 from 2022 to 2023 doubled and then if we look at January this year to January a year ago um that's that's up uh 50% so the the prevention um uh I I think there's there's two two points to that one is we need to keep track of the uh needs within our own

[163:00] community and you're correct that it's well more than half are coming from outside at least the city of Boulder and often Boulder County um but we still have work to do in our in our local community to prevent um uh homelessness and um we're concerned generally because uh there's been so much federal dollars and that have flown down through the state and US locally to provide that additional support and that is gradually going away and so that's a a concern um in every community and um it's going to take a much bigger effort than we can make locally but I'll let Carl um talk about that from um his perspective as well yeah thank you Kurt um so next Thursday Council will have an opportunity to approve its um revisions to the policy statement one of the positions that will'll be including is explicit support for rental assistant

[164:00] and renters rights knowing that of course preventing people from entering homelessness is is should be a huge priority um I will mention that there are some bills that are introduced that have unintended consequences that could very well deter people from renting uh units to begin with but there are good bills that are being introduced in fact just one that I probably will update Council on next week was one that was introduced today that um would provide a tax credit for lowincome renters um so it's a state tax credit that would help take the um the buite off of um what people have to pay for rent so I think that's an example of the kind of U State support we would like to see to help um communities outside of Boulder where we have no control um help people stay in their in their their rental units or least uh not be evicted okay thank you um and then my next question is just um I I wanted to

[165:02] thank you for bringing up the implementation of the safe zones ballot measure which was talked about a lot in the Fallen past and um just wondering what the communication strategy is to the community just so they know um how it's being implemented even though it's a subtle change but just to so that the community is aware of of what happened sort of um after that passed want me to jump in um I'll say that's been a topic of conversation of late particularly this week um we have uh certainly changed uh the criteria to reflect um what the voters have uh voted on and what we do we are thinking about a variety of communication strategy putting that up on the website thinking about how we how we share um that we have in fact uh done something with it and trying frankly to also keep expectations appropriate as um

[166:00] there are still requirements of notice that we need to do there are still um some of the work but we are working on how to do that and we should be pushing something out in one shape or another soon and we will be happy to let Council know and then another question I had is um really going back to that slide Megan showed with all the different agencies and groups and advocacy um how is alignment going and how um Can council help with alignment or are there is or is there strong alignment or do you find yourself sometimes being in conflict and and how could we change that if that's the case so I'll I'll uh I'll speak at the um uh sort of the the leadership level that I'm involved with and then Megan is very involved in the operational at the operational level particularly with organizations that are um doing the

[167:01] day-to-day work in our community um uh so on the uh executive uh Team of HSBC I think the collaboration is very strong um I I've I've mentioned this um in in meetings in the past um you know the first couple years I was in my position with the city um I would occasionally have a conversation with with someone from the county um and it's it's uh almost rare to have a day um where I where I where I'm not in communication with someone from the county um we're also in close collaboration with uh with the city of Longmont so we have more structure to our coll collaboration than we probably had a few years ago and um so the I think the collaboration is more intentional um I believe that our collaboration has increased also around family homelessness there's been more of

[168:00] an effort there um and in including those those Partners in in that work um there's also been you know there's been a number of changes in how we're doing things and there's been uh new program prams there's been new funding and through that it's actually required collaboration and part of that collaboration exists because of of the partners that are actually doing the work we as the city of Boulder um at least around homelessness are not service providers so the the collaboration with service providers has increased um uh both in a structural way and as well uh through the funding collaborations but I'll let me Megan speak on sort of the other aspects of that no I think it it's very similar on the operations level I think it's even easier on the operations level because you're actually working with specific individuals and so the you know everyone

[169:00] having the the best interest of that person in mind um I don't think there's much that they're not aligned with um on helping those individuals and I think a certain level at the family homelessness as well um that staff is aligned through the Family Resource Network and the family homelessness subcommittees trying to coordinate the effort and the conversations are almost always helpful and productive I I would just add I think one of the barriers to collaboration is that the organizations that do this work are very stretched um and when you're stretched in the work sometimes collaboration is you know can be something that falls off so that's why I think it's been important for to create those structures to to ensure that it continues and as Megan mentioned there's you know there's weekly collaborations um at an individual level and that that helps uh maintain that

[170:01] approach okay that's all I have for now thank you so much thanks CA uh Lauren then Tasia thank you Matt um so I've heard this system sort of eloquently described as a system that is set up for people who are well and housed um sort of due to the bureaucracy and the paperwork and just navigating these systems they're very difficult a lot of that is not on is not our doing right there's we're interfacing with regulations and things that um have been determined by other entities so I really appreciate the amount of work that you all are doing to try and help people navigate those systems um right because our they are Prim primarily serving people who are not

[171:00] necessarily both well and housed and have the transportation everything to to effectively um navigate these systems easily so but I did kind of want to check in on because I've heard a little bit that on the paperwork kind of assistant side just anecdotal stories of um people getting close to but not being able to complete paperwork regard to get vouchers in time and just sort of understanding is that a common thing or are we Staffing up on that side or um yeah just a little bit in more more information on um kind of that how that typically looks for us I'll let Megan start with that and then I'll then I'll have a followup sure um thank you for that question this certainly is a good question yes it can

[172:01] be very challenging to navigate the systems um I think in just the last couple years that that we have not only us investing but other partners coming to the table um around like uni Court Navigators Focus re-entry Navigators fer um Behavioral Health assistance program Navigators trying to navigate it's unfortunate that so many professionals are needed to navigate the system but I do think we've been building up with that I think we struggle sometimes the process from my perspective can be the barrier right and just the time that it takes um so it's not necessarily navigating the paperwork but it's you must meet these three appointments before you get to appointment four um and that's and that's difficult with folks who um they're just living day-to-day and so that can be challenging and then I think to add on to that the other piece is if they are when they are successful about getting the voucher locating a landlord that will um rent to them is the next challenge and so some of these um

[173:01] Project based Bluebird those kind of things we've been able to streamline really well on the vouchers that are tenant based where they're more reliant on the community and the landlords that's where the the piece of the pie gets a little bit harder or than the system gets a lot a little bit harder to navigate um I think our partners do a wonderful very impressive job um in attempting that but at times it is is very challenging so uh I'll just add to that uh two things um so so one of one of the reasons it's it's difficult to navigate the process into housing is um because we have a shortage of housing units um we've had that challenge since the beginning I think we've made tremendous progress um in that direction um but that's that's always in the background and um it uh it prevents um us from

[174:00] exiting further individuals out of homelessness the second thing that I'll add um is once you get into housing um it doesn't end there um so there's um um on a a periodic basis every couple years um um you'll you'll have to go through an an annual process um it's part of um uh part of is is related to the federal tax credit um requirements some are related to you know the the the HUD funding um and so um that can become um a challenge for individuals even once they're in um housing and so there's there's actually a lot of effort that's that's put forward um by our housing Partners um to um support that um there there are efforts to um streamline

[175:00] that the the second thing I'll I'll mention is that and this is a like I think a failure of our whole whole social net system uh is that um there there's not one process you go through for assistance there's there's one process for SNAP there's one for housing there's one for Health Care um and so they're they're not interconnected enough and um that's something that uh we need to make as much progress as we can on on a local level um but we're also um it's also difficult to do with um the regulations that we don't have control of thank you for that um I look forward to seeing the HSBC sort of assessment of the systems and gaps and how that all fits together

[176:00] I assume they'll take things like that into account um I know you mentioned that HSBC is us and we are HSBC um but I have to say that I don't NE necessarily feel like HSV like I am part of HSBC um and I know that that sentiment is shared you know the fact that we don't have any um direct input on policy directives except through you but one vote on the board um it doesn't make it feel like there is sort of this responsiveness necessarily to our community needs or our um desires and it's also really un hard to understand with tradeoffs um and how they're making decisions around what to fund or what direction to go and those decisions do have large

[177:01] impacts on the kinds of services that we can offer um so I would like to see a way for us to be more involved with HSBC or to kind of tighten up that relationship on the um sort of policy directive and deeper understanding of how that process moves so if I could just make um one short comment to that so um I I think HSBC needs to be seen probably more as a um a a a Regional body to collaborate and um uh HSBC does not set policy for uh programs in the city of Boulder um we HSBC uh city of Longmont city of Boulder

[178:00] all pretty much use we we all have adopted the same homeless strategy a lot of our programs are integrated there are both programs and partners that work in different communities and um I think the policy component of HSBC is really related to the implementation of the of the actual programs um uh HSBC does not um guide or direct um policies of the city of Boulder or the city of Longmont um it's really meant to collaborate the efforts um of sort of all three bodies um I I do know that um uh you received a letter from the County Commissioners wanting to get together um to to uh have a meeting with other municipalities that niia mentioned at the beginning of this meeting um and I hope that that can also be a place um

[179:01] to to have that conversation with them I appreciate that I um look forward to that conversation with the Commissioners I will say that in the memo it says the commission set policy directives for HSBC so clearly there is a policy directive aspect um and I would say that in my research of other organizations similar to HSBC that are funded by a collaboration of municipalities and counties that typically um the cities also appoint Representatives themselves and so this is not the only way this can be done and I do think that there are um aspects that feel unsatisfying to me about the way it is currently being done thanks thank you Lauren uh I see Taisha

[180:03] and then if no one else pipes in I'll I'll take a crack at it though oh then Ryan all right Taisha then Ryan and we want to hear from Tara before I uh close in go ahead Taisha all right thank you everybody um I want to Echo the um memo and just the amount of information that was available um and crosswalking that with the uh presentation uh was just really helpful and and very grounding so thank you for that um I also just wanted to lift up some of the um just things that got me excited and that was the prevention work um and efforts to really um continue to to strengthen and and recognize that as a part of a critical part of the Continuum um of course in addition to that the other side the retention side and so again seeing additional Investments and and would be a proponent for even a more um again the data is

[181:00] very clear that you can get people in a program eventually but it's get keeping them in and keeping them housed and healthy and I I love that um well in well in housed as well um Lauren but uh I also really appreciated the family housing component and I Echo Nicole's comments around that and if anything I'm excited to see more partner alignment similar to some of the other areas um of the strategy um so that was something else that I was really excited about in the presentation um as far as some feedback that I think um you know to the questions that were asked um you know what I would love to see more of is or rather what I'm noticing is that there's a lot of point in time data not just taking the day but you know this is what happened in this year or just a couple of years but mostly it's what's happened in this in this previous year and lots of it um and so although that's um useful information I think one of the

[182:00] things can that can help in in making um um Dynamic data informed decisions is having that information um in that more um you know moving from that point of time to having this more um kind of key performance indicator type way where we're really getting clear on what it is we're trying to do and what data do we need to inform that um and so going back to Best Practices which is one of the elements you know I really went back into what the data Bas what the evidence base is around this and you know I was reminded of the process and the outcomes elements that we can indicators that we can be looking at and as I was doing that and then crosswalking with the memo I realize oh wait you have exit data and you have retention data and you have re-entry data and so again it's not for a lack of data but it's just um how can we present that data um in a couple of different grain sizes that allow us to um not only see in the weeds which is great but also to see able to see that

[183:02] larger picture um and also from a finance side as well as to the specific strategies themselves um I noticed there's a lot of access type strategies um and so again I just I want to make sure that that's also balanced with um you know the the quality of what's being offered and this goes back to like how do we improve um you know the services that are being provided reducing the number of um you know homelessness and and really having some some clearer metrics around that would really be wonderful and I'm excited to work with my colleagues around that um another area again I speak spoke to that housing first piece and so just just wanted to reiterate you know an appreciation for stronger investment in our Mental Health Services um and other things that we know are starving and we know our partner organizations are starving so this is the area where I feel like our cities need to invest and really need to fill those gaps um because we know that

[184:02] our uh partner organizations are already um overextended um and so that's definitely an area that I would love to to have some some stronger uh information around um I only have two more one is around um Finance so it was really great to get some of that Finance data in the slides but I would love to see like the whole sheet with like the you know what you know what is the prog you know what is the programmatic cost across over years um and you know again I think that level of transparency is something that would really help um you know make the case even for our partners to get more funding right everybody is struggling so um and again that information is already publicly available so how do we again how do we repurpose existing data um that would be helpful to inform our conversations um and then lastly the stakeholder um component and again you know a big proponent of continuing to strengthen the relationship with the county honor the work that they are doing um which is significant um uh

[185:03] considering that you know they have a almost you know a similar budget with way more people um that they have to to work with and so I want to honor the work that they are doing um and see ways that we can can support each other um but also again with just the stakeholder groups that we're working with and so I heard somebody talk about people with lived experience at the table and so you know I'm wondering where the folks at streetscape are right um you know we know that Jen livic has a new shop and and is already he heavily invested in this work along with many others and so I would love to hear from them directly just as I hear from the boulder housing partners and others um you know their voice is as valid as those other folks and and I would love to hear them um in this kind of setting as well um but in general again very grateful for the robustness of what is being offered again um where the Gap is for me is um having the data in a way that um you know I can see both the financial costs

[186:00] um and outcomes as well as the programmatic um outcomes and um process indicators so you know numbers retention um you know some kind of dashboard is is something that would also just be um absolutely fantastic but again um absolute Kudos and again the information is absolutely there um it's I think just a matter of brain size and um application and and consensus around what types of information do we really need to inform these types of decisions so thank you so much thank you Taisha Ryan then Tara uh thank you I have three questions and some comments council member Benjamin should I just do all those in one shot here yeah I mean if they're as long as they're all focused on the question at hand about sort of um you know what's your feedback about the overall homeless strategy so ask away and then provide some feedback on those pieces then we'll move then we'll move to question two thanks okay first question um on I'm

[187:00] just trying to make sense of the budget numbers and I think I saw on an earlier slide that our um budget is $9 million for expenditures Investments of these programs in 2024 I also understand that the HHS budget is is bigger than that it's $43 million 9% of the city's budget um Kurt can you explain the relationship or if I've got that any of that wrong yeah the rest go to salaries and bonuses um no I'm just kidding um so uh probably on on average um somewhere between between um uh8 and10 million a year sometimes upwards as much as12 million a year is going into affordable housing um developments and um actually many of those or at least a portion of those uh Investments go into uh creating homes

[188:03] for individuals who are coming out of homelessness as well um okay so so in um I believe it was two years ago um we made our investment or maybe it was last year uh into Bluebird so that number was totally focused on on uh on homeless um the uh the Ridgetop uh project in South Boulder um I believe it has 12 units um for individuals coming out of homelessness so there's a there's a percentage of our housing budget that's also um supporting that um then there's other Investments there's um uh five or6 million do that we're supporting um um other programs and um nonprofits um with um all sorts of other um Social Services okay thank you so I think I heard the 43 million 9 million

[189:00] is for expenditures and Investments we just talked about 8 to 10ish million is um for for housing then you had a couple of other categories and something like that that's correct thanks um second question it do we have an account account of the Investments that are under consideration but not funded that we might be considering as candidate Investments any kind of a rough add up or what what that all is up to so in in the memo and what we presented tonight are some of the some of the gaps and um one one of the largest gaps is certainly around um creating more housing units um and currently um with the uh uh developments that are in our pipeline which is about 1100 units of affordable housing over the next um five or six years um we have

[190:00] a we have a shortfall of probably anywhere from um four to5 million do per year um over the next few years um and so will be looking for um outside um resources to try to fill that okay so 45 million is is the number if we if we we we get everything we're asking for that that's been considered by proposed with for four to five million so that's just for the housing component um there's also um more Investments that are needed in Behavioral Health and our community and um that the city doesn't uh um they're not the main investor in that um so I wouldn't want to respond to the needs there but we know that they're um uh that's an area that needs to be strengthened generally um in our community um okay and then the other

[191:01] thing that I would add um is as individuals um exit into homelessness the the services that they need also grows so that's what we've seen um over the last two or three years as we've grown the number of individuals that have gone into housing we've also had to um at the same percentage or even a higher percentage um increase the um the funding that goes into the support services to ensure they're successful in housing got it okay thank you for that um my my third and final question it's it's changing gears and it's more um in the weeds um hopefully bounds and feel free to defer if needed but um council member wallik had a memo um that you responded to and and he had a question about samps and you posted a link to the dashboard for out for um reports of unsanctioned camping over the last couple of years and it's kind of a a

[192:01] noisy line that to me looks like it's going up it looks like it's going up if I compare year or month on month from the year before with this kind of exception of this just this one most recent month in January when we had this cold spell and um what I thought I saw in the memo was um you your response was that the trend line was going in in the right direction um it seemed like but wasn't sure about that but um this might be two in the weeds for the conversation now but um it did seem um maybe it was important to to to making the case so I don't know does that ring any bells are you willing to respond to that so that is a that is a third section of the memo but I'm going to ask asked Joe um tauchi to reply to that and he helped us uh uh respond to Mark Wallock um uh question as well can I just offer we are this is getting a little technical on a particular program so we can try to lift a little bit back up into some higher level I I'd

[193:00] appreciate that but yeah Joe go ahead and answer that question but we just want to sort of say a little higher level on that yeah I I can be brief and good evening Council I'm Joe tat Uchi I'm the director of the utilities department our our department um as the the cleanup team portion of ss and we've been working with the data team for a few years to capture the reports I think part of the trends that you're seeing have to do with just changes in the way we're we're capturing and quantifying things like for example considering a a a single tent being a report versus a cluster of them together so it it can it can be a little misleading in that way in terms of looking like it's going up so I would say we're trying to be more consistent now with the way we're capturing the data so we'll see better Trends going forward and I would just um anecdotally in the way we've updated our

[194:00] procedures and been approaching the cleanups and just what we see on the Boulder Creek Corridor and around around Boulder High School um there are way less less tents and in idents of of camping in 2024 here and much of 2023 than there was previously so I may just leave it at that for now but happy to follow up all right thanks Joe uh councilman Benjamin can I should I move to my my comments now yeah go for okay thank you um okay thank you first of all to Kurt and your team for such care and dedication um you've done just just looking over the last like three or four weeks such an incredible amount of and range of work um that's first thing second thing is um Boulder I just want to acknowledge that Boulder the city Boulder spends a lot money on this on this problem um and I'm on I learned in my most well myi my briefing for the financial strategies committee that I'm on that we spend 9% of our budget and

[195:01] this is relatively high for a city it's unusually high um this is not a statement of of our impact but just an acknowledgement that we're spending a lot of money on it um and in that respect I would like to agree with council member ad Adams on the the idea of thinking about our work as managing an Investment Portfolio or making making portfolio decisions doing that in a way that's data driven um I think that's exactly right and I think that as a as as a as meaning us need to make investments across this portfolio I think one of our biggest challenges is having a good way to consider decisions against one another that we can kind of quick quickly do that and in a way where we can you know understand what the a good way to compare them one so I have a few points of feedback that I'd ask um the team to consider um these aren't really

[196:00] immediate but more just um as we consider engaging with the consultant working towards the next stage of making investment allocations um these would be some things I would certainly benefit from seeing and I think others would and the public would would too um okay so I think there's I've got six or seven things I'll try to be first is um success criteria Upfront for the programs and um Council M wall talked about um in the high utilizer conversation about this would be a good thing to look and see if we're successful I think the appropriate time to determine Su what success looks like is is is upfront and I think that that'll be that'll make things a lot clearer when we get down the road that's my my first point be great to know what those look like ahead on on at the individual investment level that we're making that's the first the second thing is um in going along with this idea that we have to allocate Investments across the

[197:01] portfolio I I would love to um see have this discuss a little bit or just see see what staff would like to do as far as um investment um I guess a investment strategy in a sense and I'm thinking about the the hot line that I sent Kurt and you responded to um and I guess what I take from this is to me it feels like one thing we should consider as as part of an investment strategy is having some allocation of Investments that that are intended to go address unknown unknowns um beginner's mind maybe to think think of in which we are doing structured experimentation and Innovation uh on things that are not necessarily obviously connected to what our primary you know thesis is or or change model um council member Adams talked about some opportunities for that um just just a moment ago and I would love to for us to um think about what is what is overall

[198:00] the Investment Portfolio what what should it look like and this is not the only category and there's maybe other ways that's the second thing the third thing is um also referencing council member Adams great comments is this idea of a I think I think she said a dashboard invesment dashboard I have um been thinking about this too and I feel like I'm I'm really hungry with with all of this um information to see in a single place a list of all of the investment um programs and measures uh both those that we've committed to and and those that are candidates for us to to consider and in a way that's organized by the the um the six strategies assuming our six strategies are stable and then with reference to the sorry six goals or six outcomes which have 12 strategies I believe according to the 2016 plan maybe there's an updated version of those strategies

[199:01] but something that that has a a log frame I guess is one term of art for it from the goals to those strategies to to these Investments that we're making we can see it all in one place with dollars against them um and there could be some more information like which of those are opportunities to find money elsewhere um just essentially one one place to see all of it at once so that we can we can sort of compare and contrast to see orders of magnitude where where dollars are going um okay that's the third one and then I guess just to add one little thing to that um at the oh no I I already said that so um just two more I think oh okay I am a big fan of of organizing Investments around a change model and having strategic Frameworks to help us just structure our thinking and and what we believe to be true I also have learned that having too

[200:01] many Frameworks together can can be confusing and um I I'm still learning but um I'm having a hard time keeping track of our various Frameworks for example we have the homelessness framework the six goals um samps we learned about it relates to homelessness but it's not exactly a home underneath homelessness and it has its own kind of different goals um there's probably a couple of other examples um so I'm just thinking um you know ideally we would have a more integrated framework and I think it would help us to um I guess just be able to decide things way um okay actually two more quick things um oh so the memo I was really just blown away by how much detail and information and and how how much you're doing on this and I think one um one Topic in just as we go forward in the

[201:00] future this isn't criticism of our initial Memo from today but just as we go forward and we think about this this issue I would appreciate even more of a forward look um to what are the D that we expect to be um causing problems for us at at a regional and a national basis I certainly think some of that is migration and some of that is climate migration and um and other issues and I think you know we're making needing to make investments on a big problem that is not necessarily diminishing at these larger scales and so having some um kind of forward-looking view that gives advice on what how to think about that would be helpful and my final my final thing on the on the subject of um kind of just structuring how the information that that comes to council more in the future um see here oh okay so the final one is that um this is this is a very difficult issue it's we have it's it's complex

[202:01] meaning there's multiple goals with multiple kinds of problems things are interacting um the issue is emerging and our understanding of it isn't clear then there's a lot changing on the ground so this is like a super hard issue to work on and um I am reflecting on on the one hand it's an incredible amount of information I have to manage but on the other hand we we have to tighten I think tighten the cycle of of our um of our of our learning and our sort of strategic assessment I mean there's there's management frams like the the pdca plan du check act cycle that's one way to think about it um but we've got is we've got to shorten it Beyond less than six years from more than that from 2016 to today we this is going to require some Innovative thinking but we need to get somewhere on a path I think where we're we have structured learning that's happening feedback is coming um to to to your team but also to council at the Strategic level and we're able to iterate and and all kind of come together on the things that we we believe to be true so not an

[203:00] easy challeng or not an easy task um but I just think this this issue is so complex and fast moving that um I would love to I don't know for us to inate on that so that's all I have thank you for for listening to my long winded um strategy framework but I do think that this is the level of information that we're going to need um to be able to make the best decisions and probably have this nowes thank you again thanks Ryan I see n's hand up yep thanks so much uh and I I just wanted to comment um I really appreciate the feedback that you're giving us and particularly the emphasis on um how do we make sure that all our strategies all the work that we're doing actually feel like they are woven together that there is um intentional thought so that things are connected and that we're not um so siloed in what we do because there's so many departments that are doing work that impact community in so many different ways and um and that impacts the Investments or how we spend our resources right and so I just as I hear

[204:01] that and even the shortening frankly of the time frame we have lived with a lot of what will soon hopefully never be called more Master plans that go out into a 10 and 15E time frame we are shortening that and what I hope you will see in the middle of March when we come forward with a March Retreat is our first it will be iterative but we as staff have created out of that very necessity kind of a strategic plan we hope we get feedback you hope we hope you'll see how our work plan is um is driving into that strategic plan because that then also um is butress and supported with the budgeting for resilience and sort of the outcome um based look that we are putting to budget so we are actually hoping and working on that uh and have been to bring that all together those Department strategic plans will now be in a three to five year time frame precisely because the world is moving fast and Innovation is happening fast and if we're not keeping

[205:02] up with that then we are not doing the right things about Innovation and so I just wanted to highlight that that I actually I'm so heartened to hear you say that and Hope hope that when we come to you in March that you'll see some of that thinking and we look forward to that feedback then as well thanks Nia uh Tara you're up I forgot what I was gonna say no I'm just kidding fig it out um first I want to give a shout out to Rachel friend Rachel if you're still listening you've done such great work in the previous Council that we've seen building home is one of my most exciting that's one of the things I'm most excited about that we worked so hard on working on our retention rate and pure support and um the whole loneliness aspect of leaving your community and you know moving into housing and so this is an exciting night for me not literally exciting but

[206:03] somewhat exciting um but I do want to say that there is one thing that I'm concerned about you know me I'm Warrior and I'm thinking that I was recently at one of our I like to make these visits and I know a lot of us Council people do to go to our various um partners and see how things are going and in one of these places they the person told me that um the director told me that there was recently somebody who like had a mental health um breakdown and they couldn't get into to see um Mental Health Partners they couldn't get me Mental Health Partners to come for like three months well you know know that doesn't work for mental health breakdown so I guess my question is is seg going on to Mental Health Partners and how they're doing and whatever happened to that building in Lewisville that's a no-go it and we're a we from there and have they caught up with their backlog in Mental Health Partners um just what's a little

[207:01] bit of an update on them as they're one of our major providers that's my question so um I'll answer what I can of that um they are um I think I last spoke with them I don't know maybe three weeks ago um about their property in Lewisville they are still moving forward with that I know they're working through some um land use um uh questions on that but um I I understand that's still moving forward about the other how do you think what about an update on how during their doing as as a provider in terms of timeliness and um I I think that we've had um uh good experience with them I think they are um stretched like a lot of the organizations um they're also challenged

[208:01] with um like other behavioral health organizations um being able to uh hire the staff they need and M main them and both the you know the funding related to that also um that's a a shortage in behavior health workers um is not just about Mental Health Partners and um so um uh you know that's that's something that um they can explain better than I can as far as the details of that what I can say from a collaboration standpoint though we have a a monthly meeting with um Mental Health Partners to collaborate on our work um we've also been uh meeting regularly with them about um one particular um property where um some of the individuals are having challenges um I I think they're really

[209:01] leaning into the work um in an environment where it's difficult to um hire um the number of staff that that's really needed so we have all these new programs that are fantastic but they do rely heavily on Mental Health um workers so do you are you worried about the challenges that we're going to have with that or you you think we're in a good place so I think that's that's been a um a challenge that we've experienced with other programs as well I know when when the be there program started off I think it took us at at least a year or 18 months um to get inst stride on that um it was a challenge um bringing on um the uh the staff to run that program it's become more stable over time um as we expand well I I can talk to our certain care

[210:01] programs um they are um uh both you know fully staffed now um some of them are going through training um uh so it it um it depends somewhat on the program and the type of work as well um but I think for every program even you know even for organizations like the boulder shelter when they're when they're asked to do more you know they're always considering how do they how do they staff up for that um so many of our organizations um look at that as a a constraint a constraint to some of the growth that we're expecting so have we seen any movement at um Pueblo in the amount of uh beds that are open and uh have we seen any good movement there at that yeah I don't have an update on that okay and Matt this next one is for you are we G to

[211:00] talk about Sams or um any of the issues tonight or is this the last section what are we up to after this uh well we have one more question to address uh which is sort of you know uh the overall approach to harmlessness including High system utilizers and sort of where do we talk about funding and and those pots and buckets and lanes and jurisdiction those kinds of questions that's kind of the next question U the goal tonight was not to get into a pro uh program specific questions I mean if it's like a general qu general question about uh about something I think we're okay doing that but I don't want to dive we we shouldn't dive deep into any particular thing we'll have time to come back to uh these programs uh at a later date um but a lot of this is just to set up the The Retreat conversation and and build up a a strategy conversation so if it's a high level Sam's question yes but if we're going deep then maybe steer clear or write that question for staff to follow up with okay so then my last thing I'm gonna say is Nua you're here

[212:03] right somewhere I am here I'm getting tired um so we've had a lot of letters in the this is off subject but I just want to ask quickly when it can be a subject is uh we've had a lot of discussion from the North Boulder Community about the new day shelter that's coming and we have issues at the Rosewood underpass which is also right by the new library that's being built and I think that it would be good for us to get ahead of some of these issues to make beforehand so that we can ensure that our day shelter has as much success as as as possible let's just say so I'm wondering when we will have an opportunity to discuss that um I hear you Tara and I will um and I see Joe Joe is happy to come up quickly but mostly Joe and unless there's something more I will say I hear the question of when do we come back to council when can we talk about that

[213:00] holistically happy to talk offline uh with you I know that there was a recent Cleanup in Rosewood um um recently and and um but I know it's a it's a conversation that will continue and it's a conversation that will continue as we think of um as a day Services Center and we come back uh to continue to talk to you about a management plan and what we're doing to support um those um the shelter and the community there so we can um we will be thinking about that I want to perhaps talk to you more about what you're hearing although we know that it is a subject that the SS Ops Team team has been talking about it has been on their radar they have a plan but I believe what you're getting to is beyond that that there is more about how do we support the day Services Center as we moved on and I know that the team has been working and thinking about that and talking to community about that we'll find a moment okay that's it for me thanks Tara ta I see your hand up you

[214:03] you following up or got got got some more you want to add I'll follow you I want to thank Tara for bringing up the um the well the Sam's program but more specifically the uh North Boulder um and and um raising again the feedback that we heard from Community um and I also want to thank her for going to uh a community meeting in addition to that virtual meeting that we both were able to attend um and so um it was my understanding and hopefully I think you may have encouraged um them to host other uh th those communities that are neighboring that in particular to host other opportunities and so I would I certainly was um sadden that I wasn't able to attend but I would like to attend um other sessions and I would encourage our uh my colleagues to do the same it was really disheartening um to to know and again I came into this as a strong advocate for the day Center and I I still am in increasing the services even in the North Boulder site um

[215:00] however um to hear that there are issues that have gone unaddressed for just the evening Services um has given me pause and I am interested in having more information about the efforts that we have done um both from a a public safety perspective um as well as some of the other issues that Community brought up and again um you know I was on that call that virtual call and and I also want to just lift up so another thing that I didn't mention in my first offerings which was just Community engagement in general and how we want to engage um community and and just the level of respect um that I'm hopeful that we can continue to extend to community and so you know when things are high stakes and and and intense you know being online and not being able to know who else is is online with you in your community is very isolating and so you know I'm hopeful that when we have those kinds of high stakes and and contentious meeting that we're willing to have them in person um you know I I come to this from Colorado Parks and Wildlife I have a year and a half of high stakes meetings

[216:02] and um it's not easy but it's necessary um and it's it's about you know having the people talk in in one-on-one and again I understand the virtual context allows for more accessibility so I'm not saying that's not necessary but I am saying um or rather I'm hopeful um that we can get back to more face-to-face conversations when things um when we're talking to our community about critical issues so thank you Tara for raising that and um thank you uh Matt for letting me double dip no problem it's almost Super Bowl so double dippings uh almost completely allowed um so no no problem here um all right uh so I I appreciate a lot of the the feedback I've heard from Council colleagues and lot of lot of questions were asked I was going to ask um but I want to follow up on a couple things uh before we maybe sum up this question for staffs who we're all on the same page and move to question number two um I want to the the county consultant piece kind of pulls a thread that kind of

[217:02] untangles a number of things for me um and and it's kind of a chicken in the egg issue that I think we need to reconcile which is you know we have a county consultant looking at a holistic strategy which yes I I wholeheartedly endorse that we have a regional strategy but my problem with that is we don't have a seat at the table from which to talk about and place that strategy into place because we don't have a seat at the table with with regards to HSBC so I'm a little worried that a strategy like that gets created kind of in a vacuum without our direct input and then I then the revers is well if we make our own strategy then we're kind of making it in a silo without the context of those Regional inputs so I I I I think we've got to come at this maybe a little bit differently where we sort of appreciate that the countyy is going to do that but until we have greater um influence and a more equal stake in how we uh move

[218:02] regionally uh with regards to the county working equally with County and partners not in a subsidiary fashion um I think we have to Continue to update our strategy um because that's the thing we have control over we we we don't seem to have much influence or control on a county one and so until we do I think we're left with our own piece and and so you know when we come to our own strategy I think we need to give it an update because there's a a number of things in there that are we're good in 2017 and leading up but Co has kind of changed so much of that um for instance like in Figure 8 it says you know we spend $5 million on our homelessness strategy well well now you know just five years later we're we're nearly you know n um you know another one it in it talks about prevention it doesn't show any data at all in prevention and we just learned from the Regional Housing uh meeting that in uh 2018 the uh rent assistance needed across the county was $900,000 and in 2023 that increased to 14 million a 15-fold increase like that's the kind of stuff that I think

[219:01] really has to be a part of an update to give Council give staff but also give Community confidence that we are adapting to the current conditions in a meaning way and that also sets up the programs that we want to put in place um a great example also is like with Substance Abuse and Mental Health on page 26 it just it's two sentences and yet it's the it's like the defining issue within our homeless strategy right now so so I think there's a number of things that need that update and it's not to say that that strategy wasn't good and didn't have great robust input to get it where we are I think it's just to say that it needs an update and and we want to work to achieve that and work with you Kurt and and Megan and Vicky and our all Partners to give it that update but I think we need to F we do need to focus on that until we have some confidence that the countywide uh work is done so with our input being valued equally uh among Partners um and until we get there I think we need to work sort of on our own side um uh another piece I wanted to touch on

[220:01] um is really Lauren hit I think again not to dip the same metaphor twice but the elephant in the room here which is everything I see with regards to how we have HSBC and you know the kind of the idea that we are HSBC I appreciate the staff being exceptionally well integrated at a staff level I think that's fantastic um but we're not at the table of that policy um and so that concerns me with regards to Resource allocation and and I think we need to figure out how do we get into that seat um so that it's working I mean for instance you know it was sort of mentioned and I thought that was kind of HS HSBC directs programming but if it's directing programming without policy input it's effectively reverse engineering policy by funding programs without policy input then we're married to those programs and the policies created uh uh in in in the

[221:01] inverse so there's a lot of challenges there and I think we need to be clear in terms of what we want um and how we want to seat at that table and I think that's going to really address so many of our concerns and why we're in this disconnect and feeling also a little helpless um because we don't feel like we're at the wheel um but the car is moving um so I think those are some big ticket items a part of our that's part of our homeless strategy that fundamentally needs to be addressed before we get into the details of anything else I just don't think if if we don't address those then I think we're we're uh throwing stuff into the wind and not knowing where it's going to land um so so I'd really hope that we can get to that place um we're we're going to certainly get to the next oh I see Taisha is that still your hand up from is it a new hand or an old hand not to say your hands are old I was just referring to the meeting itself uh Tara I see your hand up did you want to cqu before I sum up this question I just want to say to our mental health partners

[222:02] partners that I hope I didn't sound like I was complaining about you guys I appreciate you I also am a Ware that you having a lot of you know issues with Staffing and so many other people um other organizations are as well so I just wanted to say that just to make sure that you knew I appreciated you awesome thanks Sarah and I just looked at my list I had sadly I had one more thing I want to touch on I I want to pull back a recollection I think from last year I I thought that we voted and had gave pretty clear Direction on having our own independent study for Boulders gaps and I and I'm and I didn't know if that I I remember hearing about the consultation with the county but I thought we were pretty clear that we still wanted to retain our own understanding for ourselves exactly because of this uh uh managerial or executive

[223:02] decision-making gap between us and County so I just wanted to just re refresh our memory as to how we got there and what happened with that study that mean that need to be answered now but but uh I just want to flag that because I do recall that we voted on an independent study for ourselves um and if not if that was roped into the county that means that we should have a seat at that table as well um so anyway I just wanted to follow up with that um yeah can I respond to that Matt or yeah go um that actually is correct um and the assessment will be um looking at those specifically for the city of Boulder um the city a boulder is actually act um it's it's actually piding for a part of that study as well and it gives us the ability to um um provide that direction I appreciate that um wouldn't we I think we we'd love an idea of what that is so that we can be aligned on

[224:00] what the expectations are of that study um so I think that'd be a good update for for all of us to have all right let me see if I can sum up this question we can move to question two um so what I heard pretty clearly was sort of you know with regards to you know General feedback of our overall homeless strategy um I Heard uh you know focusing on on family homelessness was was key um that that there's a desire to update our strategy I think Aaron even LED with that um and then you know measuring our outcomes uh streamlining the navigation process um more direct policy Direction within HSBC again Lauren knocked that out of the par Park um greater partnership alignments uh with our partners uh better contextualization of the data that we have and really filling in uh with the gaps with some of that mental health work um that's there and I think that mental health will sort of uh dovetail into the next question uh as we get into sort of what we should be uh focusing on and what buckets we should be uh lifting up or or or funding or or

[225:02] focusing on um all right so moving on to the second question um after considering all uh considering the overall approaches to homelessness including high utilizers does council have questions or input on the funding priorities to address identified program gaps um this could be a little bit of a bait for us to want to get into programs I'm GNA try to have us uh resist that temptation but thinking about what uh staff had put in terms of overall those program gaps those unfunded needs of roughly two and a half million so thinking about that as a bucket and how we want to approach um that as as funding is running out for those items and we'll have to figure out what we lift up and what we don't um but then also thinking about those General overlies buckets and what's really our jurisdiction if you remember there was that slide it seemed like the state the city and the county checked every single bucks on everything single thing is that a sustainable path forward where we're all doing and funding all the same work

[226:02] or do we need to decide what our lanes are so that the VIN diagram isn't just a bunch of circles completely on top of each other that we actually get some Divergence and separation maybe some overlap but what does that look like and how do we parse our strategy out um and and have that jurisdictional Clarity um from ourselves versus County and other partners so I think that's the framework of this question so um we'll sort of tee that up for questions and feedback on uh guidance for staff on on those uh issues of funding and prioritization so um have at it Tina go for it yeah I mean I'll just recognize first this is a really broad question um but what I do appreciate about this presentation is that the staff recommendations are clear on where they think based on their work um we should be funding um that we should be

[227:01] continuing the programs that they started um I'm also going to recognize that the programs very new and the so that our community may not be excited about how things are today but with all the work that's being done I'm hopeful that we'll see fewer impacts in the community and be able to help more people um achieve stable housing so my inclination um at this point in time is to both um try to find a way to continue the programs that staff is recommending as well as look into the high utilizer programming um especially using other friending sources and also with appreciation that staff does from what I can tell a tremendous job in conjunction with the county and our nonprofit agencies finding sources of funding that don't come from our taxpayers directly out of our city budget so um you know to the extent that we expand it I'm not sure I'm there yet I don't have enough

[228:00] information to know why I would go in a different direction based on what I'm hearing and what the origin the um initial outcomes are that seem to be really positive so um you know and and so it's not that helpful I'm saying fund everything uh but that would be my ideal outcome thanks thanks Tina appreciate the fund everything and hope we can get find that money treat um Lauren and then any other takers but yeah Lauren go for it yeah I think um it's it would be hard to come up with a sentiment other than fund everything especially sort of given the information that we have in this packet I just want to um sort of reiterate what Taisha was saying around um kind of having deeper information to allow us to come to a decision-making point because I you know I'm not sure that funding everything is a realistic option for us

[229:01] I maybe it is that would be great um but my guess is that at some point we're going to have to make some more difficult decisions and I with the information that I don't that I have now I don't feel comfortable doing that thank you appreciate it Lauren Ain then Taisha yeah I think you all did an excellent job of laying out of course the many programs that we've got underway and then about uh next priorities and so just one thing I'll I'll just put a plus one on is just the deep need deep need for better mental health and substance abuse treatment particularly beds residential beds we all know that we have a huge lack in that area so just to the extent that we're able to do new things um you know things like the tribe Recovery Home are really beneficial have a deep need so love to see us do more in that area in particular

[230:03] thanks thank you eron Taisha then uh I'm gonna go with Tara since Tina already got a bite at the app but then I'll Circle back but uh but Taisha then Tara go for it awesome thank you um yes to this question I would I would just say that I don't have the data to be able to make a decision about priorities I would really need to see how much we are spending on each program and then cross that walk with that with the um Effectiveness both from a process and an outcomes perspective and so again I think that we have the data points it's just kind of compiling in a way that we can we can use it and um and so again I I definitely want to Echo all of the work um but I only really want to fund things that are effective and are showing prom and or are showing promise right because to Dina's earlier Point um some things are new and so you need to give them some stretch time but to do the same things over and over again for marginal impacts um and knowing that we have

[231:01] those constraints I would prefer to really invest in those things that um are showing promise and or um um have a strong evidence base to take that risk so um thank you so much for the opportunity to provide feedback thanks F uh Tara go for it and then I'll Circle then I'll let some others get a a first bite Tina I I'll save you for a second bite at the Apple but uh go Tera then Nicole this putting me in the mood to eat an apple you used that metaphor wi three times at least tonight anyway good for you um I support your metaphors um I would I would say that we had a win-win when we found out that the pilot program that we spent $80,000 on remember that one uh that we read about in the packet that we found out it wasn't working we now have 80,000 extra dolls that we can use for our program so I thought I'd mention that as a win now

[232:01] and all seriously we might as well be like take it as a win that we had a pilot program that we found out didn't work out and that gave us some extra money to use in other areas that we are desperately needing so that's something that we can think about that's all I have to say and also I want to fund everything but I know we can't thanks Tara Nicole yeah I just um kind of have some general principles I mean obviously we want to find what is uh effective and what is leading us to the outcomes we're looking for um but also you know what I've heard in so many of these prog programs that have emerged in the last year or two and really the last six or seven years um is the the collaboration the coming together across different levels different um you know that the city collaborating with the county um taking advantage of state and federal resources I think the programs that we can continue that are strengthening these collaborations and really taking

[233:01] advantage of the broader pool of resources that are that are out there um leveraging uh shared funding and resources that to me feels like the right sort of General approach um to to be headed for and you know one of the things that comes to mind I'm still stuck on how you know for $3 million we were able to get 40 people into permanent Supportive Housing and I'm just thinking about the county tax that passed last fall how some of that was targeted toward permanent Supportive Housing and so I'm really looking forward to some more of those collaborations to take advantage of the resources the shared resources that exist so just thank you um Kurt you're team um for all that that we've been doing to build up those collaborations and relationships um with with Folks at the county level um and in in other cities and across the state I think it's it really will start paying off in the next five to 10 years so thank you thanks Nicole Ryan I'll let you get a a first a first dip there I know

[234:02] Tina's patiently waiting we'll get to we'll get to Tina thanks excuse me I'm having a hard time par ing um the subject of question one which is about strategy and gaps uh versus question two on financing to me they seem kind of the same thing um that we're needing to answer for the same thing what commitments are we G to make um my expansive comments on the first question therefore covered this um this one too but I I just I'm kind of reflecting I've heard a couple of people say I I don't I don't know what to do fund at all you know I just like with we don't have a way to go forward and I I find find this a little troubling that we don't have decision criteria to to even use to to move this forward and I think um we we uh it makes sense to me that my colleagues don't know what to do because we don't we don't have a system of of decision- making established um I

[235:00] offered one principle before which would be that we think about we have an overall portfolio of Investments those Investments are designed to do different thing towards the towards goals like maximizing the overall good we can do over multile time scales and that and therefore part of that probably includes some kind of innov structured Innovation or experimentation things that we uh don't know how they meet our current stated thesis but we we want to invest in them that's just one example and we could have some other categories but I feel like in order to move this forward in a more um I guess just sort of coherent Direction we we need something like investment or or at least discussion about what are the investment criteria that staff thinks we should be looking at make these these decisions so um I apologize that the answer is a is a little bit not really answering the direct question but thank you so much thanks Ryan Tina go for it and then

[236:01] I'll close it up well I should just be really careful saying funding everything and clarify that I'm just talking about Contin in the programs that are I think $2.4 million not everything that ever comes along um and then doing our best to find funding for the high utilizer program um I think those were pretty um compelling reasons and I'm I I believe staff lifted them up for a reason uh based on their work that they're they're showing promise um but to Ryan's point you know we probably need to come on agreement and make sure that the outcomes that are being described in the memo and there's a lot of outcomes are the same ones the council is looking to do um however we get there might be part of the retreat conversation thanks Tina Mark we hadn't heard from you I want to just check in and see if you got some thoughts before I close it out no I have no thoughts whatsoever so

[237:00] go ahead all right thank so I I'll just I'll add a few my thoughts and we'll just close out on on what sort of summing things up um it's interesting to sort of hear uh my colleagues not be not feel like there's Clarity on where to pick our lanes I feel quite different I I think we have absolute Clarity on what Lanes to be picking because it's the areas that we ultimately have jurisdiction and the resources and the work that we do well and that is we we can do housing and we do housing Kurt's team does a great job with housing and housing is needed in our community within the city limits um we need Sheltering with near the people who need it most and if we have people who are unhoused in Boulder then we need to build and support shelters um but one thing that is not jurisdictionally in our lane are is is through the health department and that is mental and Behavioral Health that is that is strictly where the Cy's jurisdiction but

[238:02] it's access to resources that we don't have access to squarely puts that ball in their Court and I think we can quick we can start to move and throttle things around to say look we need to get out of the if we want to use the analogy get out of the Investment Portfolio of mental and Behavioral Health and put those eggs in other baskets when we look at the unfunded needs it's there's an there's quite a few items in there that are clearly behavioral mental health and addiction related programs just as our CARE program is that our CT program so so when we add those up without much Deep dive we've probably got a couple million dollar of of programs that are squarely in that sort of jurisdictional bucket that the county should be leading on and having the appropriate resources to meet those needs on the ground and not just what currently doing expand with the expanding need so so I I I kind of differ from from a lot of what I've heard if we just don't know no I think we know clearly we just have to pick the

[239:00] lane for ourselves and be clear what that should be we can get into the programmatic details and outcomes and I want that but at a high level I think we know where or we should know and the idea of funding everything only propagates the problem we're kind of already in which is this sort of sprinkler method of we got to do all the things because we have all these needs but I think we have to really clearly dig in and make tough decisions and say no County we we we need you to do this because we need to get out of that and move those resources to the things we're better suited to do as a city um and that's the decision point that I think we need to get to and we should get to um because we're in we're a scarce resources uh uh and we will be for quite some time um and this fund everything thing is is is it won't it won't work and we're going to then come to a point where we can't fund much of it at all um and so I think that's going to be the the biggest thing for us so um we need to pick that lane and we need to kind of pick it uh quickly so that we know what we need to do and what we need to advocate for um as the Dynamics continue

[240:01] to change um oh I I see two hands that popped up uh let's uh Circle back to Mark Taisha and we can wrap this uh wrap this thing up so Mark go for it I wouldn't I wouldn't characterize this as a thought um that would be too aggressive but I um the the only issue I take with you uh Matt uh and and question is uh when we pick our lane what happens if the county doesn't step up to fill the lanes we have abandon to some extent we're spreading ourselves thin over a number of programs because the county is is is perhaps not being as aggressive as they ought to be uh in some of these areas but if we decide that we're going to abandon the field uh unless the county unless we have a commitment from the county to step in um that we won't be helping anybody in in those areas and that's just a

[241:01] concern fa Point Taisha thank you so much um I think it's really important um that we honor all of the feedback that was provided so when we say you know things like you know well we have the information that we need well you have the information that you need and that's okay right we have different um time on the council so you have additional information that some of us who are new may not have um you also have Intel on different committees that we don't serve on regionally so so there's those data points um and so again I can appreciate that you feel like you have what you need but I also want to honor that the majority of the people um on Council on this call ask for more information and so um perhaps we actually do need more information to make that in to make those decisions and I just want to honor um that I also want to lift up what uh Mark shared around

[242:02] just the relationship with the county and so again another data point that's missing is what exactly is the county doing what is our investments what are our Partnerships um looking like and so again um if that's information that was previously provided before the new council members were seated I apologize um but I would love to see that information again in order to really be able you know again I'm I'm very transparent even on the campaign Trail about being a systems thinker and really loving to see the big picture and how all these pieces fit together and um it sounds like that's a direction that this agency was already going in in our orientation and the conversations that we've had since then and so again this all goes along with the efforts around that County uh Citywide um plan and again I I do respect Matt the reminder of we do need to prioritize those things that we do have control over um and I I I definitely want to continue those Focus but I also recognize that the problems and dynamic challenges and

[243:00] unprecedented challenges that we're facing require significant and deeper levels of inter intergovernmental cooperation that we' never even seen uh between the city and the county and I'm excited to do that work with all of you thank you thanks T Nicole yeah I just wanted to um follow up a little bit on that as well it seems to me like uh what all the programs that we've heard about tonight staff is really showing us how we can do these collaborations um to create new programs by leveraging the state the uh strengths that we have at the city level at the county level um with some of the service providers and you know I just kind of want to remind us too we can't dictate what the county does and so for us just to sort of decide you know this is what we're going to do we're not really emulating the partnership that I see staff um doing working at the county and City level um and and I you know I really appreciate n what you said at the start of the meeting that we um are

[244:02] moving toward having a meeting with the county to really have some of these conversations and I just I think it's so important that we approach it as a partnership of really you know as as we would do if we were say two businesses working together right we're each looking at what are our strengths what can we do um what are your strengths what can you do and really thinking about how we can blend together because we don't have enough resources at the county level or the city level or the state level or the national level to be able to address some of these issues and the only way we're going to be able to move forward and do the best we can is really by partnering so so um I just I hope as we move forward you know we we can really honor that um that partnership that I see staff starting to uh set up and and really working regionally um I I don't think any of us is sort of slacking off or not doing our part we just haven't ever really had a conversation about you know who's doing what and who's going to own which um

[245:00] pieces of this work where are we going to collaborate where are we going to try to um work together as elected officials I mean it's clear you know staff has been doing some of this work and so anyway just want to lift up that idea of collaboration um once again thank you appreciate that um and uh for record we we have tried to collaborate we had a meeting that didn't go so well with the county so so it's important for us to um continue to hold accountability and continue to move that fall forward um so um appreciate those thoughts um let's try to close out here um for one great job with Kurt Megan Vicki the whole team a lot of great information and really appreciate you guys helping us navigate some of these diffic as always um but also trying to find some clarity in an incredibly complex situation that is exceptionally Dynamic and has uh involvement from a ton of different levels um so thank you guys for

[246:01] that you're grateful for the work you have and will continue to do and help us understand what we need to do going forward and continue to work on that and we look forward to another deeper conversation on some of these particular project issues I know a number of us want to get into some specifics and and and held up um uh but we will have a time to dive deep be it's SS or SOS or or you name it uh we we look for an opportunity to dive a little deeper in there and uh gain better understanding of those outcomes and measurables and um and metrics and all of that good stuff um so without further Ado um just want to again be really appreciative of the great feedback from every everybody and also for our partners that came in earlier tonight I don't think any of them are still sticking around oh I see uh Chief Redfern still on uh but certainly um our folks at Boulder County Health and uh district attorney Michael dhy so big thanks to all of them so without any other any other comments or thoughts or feedback before we close out I'm looking I look at Kurt and I didn't looking at nuur if they have anything they want to add Kurt go for

[247:01] it uh so first of all I think um we we heard some very um constructive and productive um feedback on how we can present information uh in the future um as far as the uh the conversation around funding um obviously we don't have um a bucket of funding that that's unspent um it's your your conversation uh helped us um and provided input into are we uh investing in the right areas um knowing that we have these gaps coming forward as well uh I think the this the structure that um that Ryan provided um as a um as a framework for uh uh displaying this information and from the information from uh uh Tisha Adams is also helpful

[248:03] in understanding how we bring that forward next time I think that's um that will help us have these further discussions um from the from the beginning um of our strategy when we started back in 2017 Investments were really based on the most costeffective way to really help as many individuals out of homelessness so that's why there's been such a strong housing approach prevention approach and the services needed to be successful the uh our programs have um uh evolved significantly over the last um couple of years um in relation to the impacts of of covid and um I'm glad we were able to share um uh that Evolution with you your feedback um around those things um also has been um very helpful and um I I also look forward to um further

[249:03] collaboration with um the leadership of Boulder Boulder County and and how you navigate that um and the the last thing I'll say around the the behavioral health piece um that has touched conversations in our Council um several times over the last um year and um that's something that I think we can also discuss at the retreat in how we as um staff um can help you as Council and our community to understand um who plays what roles in the behavioral health work um in our community and I I think that would be a helpful conversation going forward and then as we talk about the um some of the unfunded um uh programs that will be coming along over the next the end of this year and the end of

[250:01] 2025 um it's it's wider than HHS many of the um Investments that were made in arpa uh with local funds were one-time Investments but some of them were pilots and they were programs to really help our community but I believe there'll be a chance to have a wider conversation and naria may want to speak to that as well um but um thank you very much for um your inputs um that will help us greatly thanks Kurt Maria yeah I did and I just again uh Kurt and the team just extraordinary work the memo itself was um I thought super comprehensive and I know there's more data that folks are wanting to see and we're hoping to continue on that conversation but it was an extraordinary presentation um but to the arpa point I wanted to say I know we've talked a lot about unfunded needs and Kurt touched on it there are um there are other areas not just HHS where we have this we want to bring that to

[251:01] you holistically we were just talking to our budget team today about how to carve out time to bring that forward Bo in advance of some of those programs expiring so we really get a sense from you all um what do we move forward and and how have we been tracking um those outcomes how have we been measuring success do we have enough information to measure success at this point but it is a conversation that we need to have across the portfolio um because there are a lot of programs that were supported by those ARA funds and those are going away uh soon so just keep that on the horizon that they we we will be coming to you with a larger conversation about arpa and frankly other grant-funded things it's not just arpa we also get grants from a variety of other um needs and sources and those always start as one time and we need to make hard decisions about whether those one time whether it's a pilot or whether it's a grant those move

[252:00] forward thanks naria um and in closing I just want to recognize judge Khan for sticking with us till 10 o'clock thank you so much your honor appreciate that um and uh we will see you all soon so again everyone have a wonderful night uh thank you so much for all the great work and thoughtfulness for this evening and uh we will see you soon take care