Guest Post from Joan from Lakewood

Week of June 1 – personal update on homelessness and immigration housing.

So this week I was invited to two different meetings with two different perspectives on homelessness, immigration, and affordable housing. This is my perception of both meetings.

Meeting number one 6/4 was the Common Sense Institute (CSI) meeting, titled Egg and the Economy. The CSI is a non-partisan issues researching group that has been on the scene of Colorado politics for the last year. Their breakfast was held at the AMG Dome in Greenwood Village. There was a presentation on CSI latest research on migrants and homelessness by CSI’s Director of Policy & Research, DJ Summers and then he moderated a fascinating panel with Adam Paul (Denver Mayors Office), Paul Scudo (Step Denver) & Heidi Williams with (Metro Mayors Caucus). The panel presented two diffing views on homelessness. Step Denver stated that 70 percent of homeless are substance addiction victims. There were other  fun facts from a report that CSI had released. You can see this report at Common Sense Institutehttps://commonsenseinstituteco.orgCommon Sense Institute and then go to the menu and choose local issues. Look for the report “A Snapshot of the Metro Denver Homeless Ecosystem in 2023”. and the fact that stood out to me was that between 2021 and 2023 the amount spent on a homeless person grew from $30,000 per year to $60,000 per year. And that in fall of 2023, Denver was ranked #5 in the nation with fifth largest homeless population.

The panel was quite lively and one point that came out was Adam Paul statement that there was a plan to house 3000 more homeless within the next year and half.  And because the funding for Housing First came from the Federal Government there can not be any stipulations on the housing like job training, or chores like bed making which is the accountability piece of the Step Denver program. 

The Breakfast Wrap was the worst part of the meeting but the very real question and answer session after the panel and presentation was exceptional. I can recommend following this group and attending their next meeting Thursday June 27 on the Fentanyl crisis. 

The second meeting 6/6 was the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners and Municipalities’ Quarterly Breakfast. This meeting was the County Commissioners, Mayors, and City Council members. There was no interaction with the public and we were asked to move to seats next to wall and I suspect we were not supposed to eat breakfast. But we did anyway. The bagel sandwich was much better fare than what I had at the CSI meeting. 

The main topic of the meeting was the JeffCo Housing Advocacy Blueprint. Although Sara Reynolds did not share the plan there was a presentation by the Colorado Gives Foundation about how they had done a survey (most people contacted were in favor of affordable housing), created jeffcoadvocacynetwork.org, and training a group of 15 advocates. They also requested if anyone was running for an office that they contact them for education on affordable housing as there was a lot misunderstanding on this issue. It appears that the City of Lakewood donated to this foundation. 

They had homeless updates, ballot initiatives, and individual city reports. I am sorry that I do not have names with all the reports but no introductions were   made at the beginning of the meeting. 

Arvada is still looking at building a navigation center similar to the center in Lakewood. 

WheatRidge the opening of a 50 units facility on June 14 with mental health services for youth. 

There is a new project Lutheran Campus Renovation. And with this is a ballot initiative in November to raise the building height  levels that can be constructed (not exactly sure what this was about)

Lakewood had the largest number of city council members and City Manager Kathy Hodgson present. Wendy Strom gave a few sentences about the Navigation Center and mentioned that Prop 123 would be on the ballot as Lakewood was trying to DeBruce TABOR. There was a 20 million dollar grant given to the City of Lakewood to do a restructuring of the Highway at 6th and Wadsworth. There is a housing advocacy committee and Wendy Strom and Kathy Hodgson are on the committee. And the City of Lakewood is a finalist for the All American City Contest. Congratulations. 

Westminster noted they had a pothole Palooza and filed 3000 potholes. 

Golden talked about the new dorm Colorado Mines was building and all the construction that is going on with Golden. 

Mountain View is having a proposition on the November ballot to make the city a strong manager model over the strong mayor model that they have now. 

Edgewater bragged about last weekend’s annual Pride Month parade. 

Littleton was absent. 

The last report was an update from the county commissioners. They were grateful for the regional outlook and called for more cooperation within the county on housing. There was a mention that they are still up in the air about asking for keeping the Tabor refund to fill the holes in the budget. They are talking about what they would have to do to have a balanced budget next year. Raise taxes. Cut services. This is still up in the air as it is rumored the survey shows the win on this is too close to call. 

The next quarterly breakfast is September 5, 2023. Check the calendar for details closer to the event.