Community has its say in solutions to homeless camping

After leading a two-day community forum on how to address homeless camping in Colorado Springs, Steve Saint of Pikes Peak Justice & Peace Commission has his hands full.

Saint’s organization facilitated the “Come Out of the Cold” forum, and he walked away after Wednesday’s session with a list of about three dozen ideas to combat homelessness, plus some 230 surveys filled out by an enthusiastic and sometimes raucous crowd of social service agency representatives, church leaders, concerned citizens and campers.

His next step? Culling through the list and the surveys, where people prioritized the ideas that came out of the meetings, and figuring out which ones have are viable. Several of the ideas, such as turning a warehouse into a shelter or using churches for shelter, are already in the works, Saint noted.

“What we want to do is bring the community into that and brainstorm what needs to happen more, and what gaps need to be filled, and bring them into existing efforts,” he said Thursday.

After paring the list, he plans to get together with agencies that work with the homeless and go from there.

Despite the energy coming from the group, one person who attended the forum is skeptical that any real strides will be made. Matt Parkhouse, a nurse by training who has worked with the homeless population since about 1980, said Thursday that he’s seen similar surges in community involvement that eventually peter out.

“It’s deja vu all over again,” Parkhouse said. “They’re all good ideas, but none address the chronic homeless people camping in the city. Some of the ideas might help people escape, but none will help push the people into healthy lifestyles.”

Saint said Parkhouse’s frustration is understandable.

“Matt, quite frankly, he’s seen a lot of citizen energy come and go, and we still have people camping by the creeks,” Saint said.

But Saint hopes this effort will be different because it will address crisis issues first, including shelter capacity and safety, then tackle the more difficult long-term problems — jobs and affordable housing — later.

“Once we get out of crisis mode and get out all the people who want to get out of the camps, maybe by the end of the year, when winter rolls around again, we’ll have a fraction of the people out there and can address long-term issues.

Parkhouse said any solution needs to have a component of “tough love” to make it less easy to be homeless, and he endorses an ID card system that would limit a person’s access to community resources without going through a case manager. Colorado Springs has too much enabling from good Samaritans and even the agencies themselves, he said. He calls it a two-track system: a “get off the street track,” and a “stay on the street track.”

“What I saw last night, it’s not going to address the two tracks. If we start throwing toilets and telephones along the trail, it will make it even easier to be homeless. We need to start thinning down this ‘help you stay on the street’ track. We need to pull in the welcome mat."

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS TO DIMINISHING HOMELESS CAMPING
These are just a few of the ideas that came out of a two-day community forum on homelessness:

SAFETY
• Train volunteers to police camps
• Create a community watch programs for the camps
• Increase funding for the Colorado Springs Police Department Homeless Outreach Team
• Set up day shelters

HEATH CARE
• Increase mental health services
• Provide better emergency care for campers
• Get doctors to volunteer two free operations a year
• Set up a needle exchange program

SHELTER CAPACITY
 • Provide a shelter where campers can bring pets
• Set up a managed tent city, with rules
• Secure hotel rooms
• Use public areas in churches
• Use more rooms at The Express Inn, which already houses some homeless and provides case management and other services
• Find a warehouse to house all different groups (one group is trying to do this now)

JOBS
• Create a network of skilled homeless people
• Create a version of Denver’s Step 13 program, which takes in addicted homeless people and creates a labor pool using its clients with painting, carpentry and similar skills
• Form a community of business owners to hire/train homeless workers

SANITATION
Showers at Marian House
A creek wide clean up, getting the stuff out of the water (like shopping carts)
Toilets, in the parks and along the trails
More trash pick up and pick up points

AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Use vacant buildings
Work with landlords.