'Handouts don't help': How a Colorado county reduced homelessness by 86% in 2 years
denvergazette.com
Amid a homeless crisis plaguing Colorado’s most populated city, a county just south of Denver claims to have found an effective solution to curbing homelessness in its communities.

I hate this news story. If I wasn’t living in this community (Douglas county) I would think it’s a good story. However, Douglas county has massive NIMBY policies, including outlawing everything that would allow someone experiencing homelessness anywhere near here. No homeless shelters are legal, no sleeping outside is legal, hell even weed stores are illegal in this massive county, despite it being legal in the majority of the state. Douglas county also created its own health department in protest of mask and vaccine mandates. It’s a very affluent deeply conservative pocket in Colorado that makes me sick.

  • DeceasedPassenger@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    Did you read the article? The actual details of the program are pretty far from what you say here. Don’t have time to bullet point at the moment but please trust me and just take a full look. As someone with deep personal experience around this issue, their method might be a genuine answer to the problem, when properly scaled. Not the first time a plan like theirs has been tried either; Olympia, WA has a similar program for direct outreach.

    • exanime@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      2 months ago

      Did you?

      They spent almost $3 million in helping 37 people in 2 years (that’s $81,000 a pop) with very vague “getting them help”. Very much looks like most of what they do is ship them to out of county

      • DeceasedPassenger@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        2 months ago

        I think you’re being intentionally obtuse. The article is anything but vague. Are they supposed to name the exact agencies and businesses involved, or can we reasonably assume that Laydon is referring to state funded assistance? Here’s some select bits of the article since you don’t want to read.

        Douglas County had created a team of experts, known as the “Homeless Engagement, Assistance and Resource Team," to help tackle the issue.  The HEART team, as county officials call it, is made up of experts in behavioral health and who are deployed in branded vehicles to help people living on the streets.

        Here’s how the county handles it. When a report is made about a panhandler or a homeless person, a  HEART vehicle is deployed to the area and make an assessment.

        Laydon called Douglas County’s approach “housing plus,” which, he said, is a balanced approach to “trauma-informed practices.”

        “For us,” Laydon added, “‘housing plus’ means wraparound. So, it is housing, but it is also food, shelter, job counseling, mental health counseling. It’s treating those substance abuse issues that we know often come hand in hand with a lot of the issues that the unhoused face.”

        Edit: Additionally, I fail to see the relevance of money spent if it actually results in less people unhoused. Denver spent way more money and ended up with a higher unhoused population than before.

        • exanime@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          2 months ago

          Are they supposed to name the exact agencies and businesses involved

          Yes, it’s called transparency. Maybe they didn’t have to mention them all but a single concrete example would have definitely helped.

          But you know what they did repeat in the article? the fact that they are pushing for people not to give money to the homeless directly

          Douglas County had created a team of experts, known as the “Homeless Engagement, Assistance and Resource Team," to help tackle the issue. The HEART team, as county officials call it, is made up of experts in behavioral health and who are deployed in branded vehicles to help people living on the streets.

          Ok, that sounds like a great start… let’s see what they actually do… <insert crickets here, not a single follow up>

          Here’s how the county handles it. When a report is made about a panhandler or a homeless person, a HEART vehicle is deployed to the area and make an assessment.

          Yes, they are basically making panhandling illegal… they are very quick to dispatch police (yes the “HEART” team is also the police) as soon as homeless are reported

          Laydon called Douglas County’s approach “housing plus,” which, he said, is a balanced approach to “trauma-informed practices.”

          Cool, what does that mean? how it is balanced? how is it different?. Zero details = Vague

          “For us,” Laydon added, “‘housing plus’ means wraparound. So, it is housing, but it is also food, shelter, job counseling, mental health counseling. It’s treating those substance abuse issues that we know often come hand in hand with a lot of the issues that the unhoused face.”

          This one is actually the first sentence from the article that addresses the real question… yet no mention as to where any of these services are done. They are just shipping people off county The entire $3+ million budget was spent on the “HEART” team to basically find and ship homeless out of county… out of sight out of mind!

          Edit: Additionally, I fail to see the relevance of money spent if it actually results in less people unhoused. Denver spent way more money and ended up with a higher unhoused population than before.

          So if a county spends $3 million to move 37 homeless people out of county or $10 million to move 1 it’s all the same to you? A basic definition of the effectiveness of a social program is to measure that #1 it accomplishes the goal it set out to do and #2 at what cost…

          Look, if they are indeed helping the homeless, KUDOS to them. But I’m far past the point to give any public service, specially so the Police, the benefit of doubt. Show me actual measures, concrete examples, verifiable information and I will happily eat my words and applaud. Even the title making it 86% when they meant 37 people in 2 years seems to be a gimmick to make the whole thing look better than it is

    • jonne@infosec.pubEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Since HEART has launched, the county has engaged with roughly 215 people on the street, according to the commissioner.

      So in 2 years they spent $3 million dollars to “help” 215 people. And the article is very vague and full of euphemisms that make me suspect they’re just pushing them out to Denver.

      • exanime@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        engaged with roughly 215 people on the street

        Key word being “engaged”, later they slipped in there that 80% end up not getting “helped”

        • jonne@infosec.pubEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Yep, handing out a flyer, or even just talking is an engagement. This means nothing.