Councilors planning a path forward
Costs for camping ban continue to grow
In a bid to provide clearer direction to city staff, Loveland City Council on Tuesday agreed to hold a facilitated discussion about the city’s ongoing challenges related to homelessness, and the best path forward for addressing them.
“We haven’t provided reasonable input on this issue as far as our role and our expectations, or how our city staff should be allocating resources and time,” Councilor Don Overcash said while calling for the discussion during new business. “Said (agenda) item will be focused on the City Council’s direction, including the preparation of the policy statement to city staff and our citizens concerning homelessness, transient behavioral challenges and associated expenditures.”
Though there was some bickering among councilors along the way, Overcash eventually got the rest of council to go along with his motion, and the session was scheduled for Sept. 12. Overcash was also successful with his nominations of Councilors Andrea Samson and Steve Olson to a homelessness task force convened by Homeward Alliance, the city’s lead agency on the issue. Staff members from Homeward Alliance oversee operations at the Loveland Resource Center and the South Railroad Avenue shelter, among other responsibilities.
The 30-member task force is composed of representatives from downtown businesses, local nonprofits, faith organizations, Thompson Valley EMS, the Loveland Police Department and other city departments. The goal of the task force is to find longterm solutions “sustainable” solutions that will lessen the impacts of homelessness.
At the same time, Samson, Olson and Councilor John Fogle are also working with a city-based team to find new legal and logistical strategies for dealing with the issue, which Fogle has argued has become an urgent public safety concern. He hopes to see new ordinances addressing panhandling and unlawful behavior for council to consider within the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, the city’s costs for enforcing its 2022 unauthorized
camping ban are continuing to climb, and that also has City Council’s attention. Later in Tuesday’s meeting, Chief Financial Officer Brian Waldes requested a supplemental budget appropriation of $1.5 million, bringing the total 2023 allocation for the camping ban to $2.75 million, about 33% higher than anticipated.
At $1 million, capital expenditures to build the South Railroad shelter account for the largest share of the spending, followed by payroll for shelter employees and then motel rooms, an alternative when the other city shelters are over capacity.
In 2022, the city spent a total of $1.1 million to enforce the ban, bringing the total appropriation for the effort to $3.8 million. In 2024, capital expenses are expected to decrease sharply, Waldes told council, but the total appropriation is expected to be $1.9 million.
During discussion of the item, several council members said that they wanted to see more detail about the expenses for the city’s two facilities, especially now that the LRC has been operating for a full year.
City Council will get more detail about the finances and other strategies the city is investigating when Alison Hade from the city’s Community Partnership office returns to chambers on Tuesday for a discussion of the Northern Colorado continuum of care and a potential regional shelter in partnership with Weld County.