HOMELESSNESS

“just go get a job” is a preconception she hears all too often.

Collins said for someone who carries all of their possessions on their back, there are numerous obstacles to getting a job. From not having a place to shower or sleep to clothes to wear to the interview and bus fare to get to their destination.

There’s another mindset that people apply to people facing homelessness that bothers Collins. It’s the idea that the homeless should “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” She said it takes a village to help someone facing homelessness find stability.

“That stigma in and of itself is a fallacy,” Collins said. “No one in homelessness can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Everyone out here, we all had help to become successful in whatever endeavor that we have chosen to pursue.

No one is an themselves.”

While some people experiencing homelessness struggle with drug and alcohol addiction, it doesn’t fit the narrative of every person in that situation, Sueltenfuss said. Even if it does, the issue is more complex. She said some facing homelessness have had basic needs absent in their life since they were just children.

“To put people in this square of you’re a drug dealer and you’re an alcoholic, there are so many people who might have those issues, but there are reasons for it,” Sueltenfuss said. “And, not all of them are doing those behaviors.”

Rakow encouraged people who might have preconceived notions about the homeless to look at them in a new light. He reminded listeners that those experiencing homelessness are suffering from significant island unto trauma and that being without a place to call home is also traumatic.

“If we lead and start with dignity, respect and understanding … then we can look at the next step of how we solve these things,” Rakow said. “It’s a very complex situation.”

He added that external factors are wages and their failure to keep up with the cost of living in Boulder County. Whereas someone in their 50s and up, might have been able to buy a house at two to three times their income, today, he said, the cost is likely 10 times what a person makes. This new reality needs new creative solutions, he said.

Green said she hates the stigma that those experiencing homelessness are lazy. But working every moment to survive is not an easy job.

“They are working every second of the day so much harder than we are on our most taxing day,” Green said. “They are always thinking about ‘Am I safe here? Am I going to have food tonight?'”

Green said a crack in the system is that there aren’t many “low barrier” resources for people experiencing homelessness to access. She said that means resources where those who need it can get all the help they need in one place and not have to take a bus from location to location.

“For us to really be impactful and really move the dial on homelessness, we need to start at the very beginning,” Green said. “We need a one stop shop, so those folks can go into one building and see a medical doctor right there, see a nurse, see a mental health counselor … the same day they walk in.”

Green encouraged people listening to “let go of the stigmas” and come together to “start taking care of each other.”

The parents of a 3-yearold girl who died in a shooting in a Frederick home over Mother’s Day weekend have each been charged with six counts of unlawful storage of a firearm.

In a press release Thursday morning, the Weld County District Attorney’s Office said that Brett and Elaine Eskam have been charged with class 2 misdemeanors in the case.

The Weld County Coroner’s Office identified Avery Elaine Eskam as the child who died.

On May 8, Frederick police officers responded to a 911 call reporting a shooting inside a Frederick home. Officers discovered a 3-year-old girl had been shot. She was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Frederick police Sgt. Robert Bedsaul said since the case has been filed with the district attorney, all information about the incident must be released by them.

Krista Henery, spokesperson for the DA’S office, said no additional details are available at this time, including information about the weapon involved or where in the Eskams’ home the shooting took place.

Brett Eskam is a sergeant in the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.

Last week, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the “entire agency is deeply saddened and joins the community in mourning the loss of the Eskam family’s daughter.”

Adam Sherman, public information officer for the Adam’s County Sheriff’s Office, told the Times-call on Thursday that standard procedure dictates no disciplinary action be taken against Eskam until any criminal investigations are finalized.

“We wait until any criminal action is completed before we do internal action,” Sherman said, adding Eskam is still on active duty.

Eskam is now on bereavement leave, he said. A summons has been issued for the couple; they are due to appear in court on July 18.