Feed meters, homeless
City officials hope people soon will be able to help the homeless by putting money into meters instead of giving to panhandlers
It may look like parking enforcement run amok: bright red meters at schools, in front of strip malls, or even inside the corner Starbucks.
But people may actually be eager to feed these meters.
Come January, the Colorado Springs City Council wants to install dozens of meters around town as collection boxes for spare change to help the homeless. The meters would serve as an alternative to giving pocket change to panhandlers. Instead of buying time in a parking space, the money would go to local programs for the homeless.
Mayor Lionel Rivera announced the city’s plan Wednesday at a forum on the state of homelessness in Colorado Springs. The idea came from Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who started a program there earlier this year. There are 36 red meters in downtown Denver.
Local advocates for the homeless say nearly all the money handed out to people on the streets ends up spent on booze or drugs rather than food. They discourage giving money to panhandlers, whom they characterize as the chronically homeless.
Although this group makes up about 10 percent of the city’s 1,300 homeless people, it consumes about 80 percent of the public resources for the homeless, said Jeannine Holt, executive director of Harbor House, which helps provide shelter and treatment for the homeless.
Colorado Springs City Councilman Jerry Heimlicher, whose downtown district includes virtually all of the city’s homeless population, will spearhead the new city program. He said he plans to ask local businesses, schools and other participants to allow a meter in front of or inside their buildings. Their name would be listed on the meter with the words “A better alternative for helping the homeless.”
He hopes to see 50 to 100 retired meters placed across the city, from areas the homeless frequent — Old Colorado City and downtown — to the suburban northeast like the First & Main Town Center.
It’s difficult to leave a downtown restaurant, Heimlicher said, “fat, happy and fed” and turn down people who say they’re hungry, and he hopes the meter will be a more productive way to respond. “I think we all feel guilty when we don’t give money to somebody that asks us for money,” he said.
There’s at least one problem. The city has only one unused parking meter. Heimlicher plans to solicit other cities in the next several weeks for unwanted meters. If that doesn’t work, the city may ask businesses to donate money to pay for the meter they agree to sponsor, which might cost $50 to $75, he said.
The city must also decide how to efficiently collect the money. The effort will be entirely volunteer, Heimlicher said, with every dime and quarter going to homeless programs.
The collections would go to Homeward Pikes Peak, a group that coordinates the region’s homeless services, including the Salvation Army shelter and the Marian House Soup Kitchen. Heimlicher also sits on that group’s board.
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0198 or bnewsome@gazette.com
MEETING NEWS
Wednesday, city and police officials and homeless advocates gathered to discuss the state of homelessness in Colorado Springs. Here are some highlights from that meeting:
- The New Hope Center homeless shelter now stays about 66 percent full, compared with overflow numbers a few years ago, a sign that there are fewer people who are chronically homeless.
- Since 2001, the city’s Housing and Community Development Division added 1,316 new affordable housing units.
- A first-year program to provide housing with no strings attached, based on a program in New York City and Washington, D.C., was successful. Called Housing First, it’s taken 23 people off the streets and helped them connect with mental and physical health care.
- The Colorado Springs Police Department has trained 132 of its 318 patrol officers in crisis management, giving them skills to recognize and deal with people with mental illnesses.
