Greeley city council discusses efforts to combat homelessness
By Trenton Sperry
Greeley City Council received an update Tuesday on efforts to combat homelessness in Greeley. Interim Deputy City Manager Becky Safarik gave a presentation on the city’s previous efforts to provide context, noting the COVID era brought positive and negative aspects to these efforts. Safarik said the city works closely with United Way of Weld County on homelessness, and that a city-funded collaboration on a Housing Navigation Center and cold weather shelter are coming together quickly. She said the city is asking every department to track how much it spends on homelessness issues so the city has a better idea of the financial impact it faces yearly.
City Manager Raymond Lee III noted the city’s current approach to reaching homeless populations uses police as the face of their efforts. Lee indicated the city wants to move away from that approach by using city staff or perhaps UWWC partners to talk with the homeless and work to get them into housing.
Safarik said the city is in the first stages of putting together a long-term approach on homelessness; it’s working with a consultant to gather input from the community on what’s feasible. Lee said his department’s budget this year includes funding for a human affairs position, which he anticipates would take the lead on the city’s homelessness efforts, among other issues.
Mayor John Gates said he’s been told about a third of the homeless are homeless by choice, and so he’s concerned some city efforts would be fruitless. He said he sympathizes with business owners downtown who arrive to open their shops in the morning to find “some unthinkable things.”
“We’re not going to solve this problem,” Gates said, “but I think we have the right people at the table to impact it.”
Councilman Johnny Olson said he thinks local businesses should work with the city to provide the homeless with jobs so they can get back on their feet. He also inquired about how well Greeley and Weld County collaborate on the issue. City Manager Lee said the county wants to work with the city on homelessness and human affairs in general.
Councilman Ed Clark said he doesn’t want the city to put so much effort into combating homelessness that the homeless begin traveling from other areas to Greeley because they believe the issue has been resolved here. He said he believes a large percentage of homeless populations have mental illness or drug addiction issues, and that providing them with homes isn’t really a solution to their problems. He also said he doesn’t want the city to centralize its efforts to house the homeless with a shelter or facility in a single councilmember’s district, which he believes would be unfair to that councilmember.
Ward II Councilwoman Deb DeBoutez asked if the city can estimate now how much its departments spend per year on issues related to homelessness. Safarik said an estimate is possible and could be presented to council at a later date. DeBoutez also said she would like to see the city put in more public restrooms citywide to reduce cleanup efforts.
Other things council did Tuesday
Indicated unanimous support for the University of Northern Colorado to pursue a school of osteopathic medicine. The state Legislature is considering Senate Bill 22-056, which would create an exception to the University of Colorado’s exclusive authority over teaching medicine in Colorado to allow UNC a specialized degree program. The bill is sponsored in the state Senate by Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, and Senate President Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo. It’s sponsored in the state House by Rep. Mary Young, D-Greeley, and Rep. Perry Will, R-New Castle. State Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley, is a secondary sponsor.
Received a COVID-19 update from Emergency Manager Dan Frazen, who noted the number of city employees unable to work had declined slightly from the previous week. Frazen noted, however, that the testing positivity rates at Greeley’s testing sites are high. At the Aims Community College site, the positivity rate is more than 45%, Frazen said. Greeley’s vaccination rate has lifted slightly to 53%. Frazen also said Omicron is the predominant variant in Greeley, and that modeling indicates a wave resolve wouldn’t arrive until about the end of February. At-large Councilman Ed Clark said city employees don’t like wearing masks, and he asked when that practice would end. He said Omicron is a weak strain of the virus, and that there’s been COVID in his household the past several weeks. Frazen agreed about Omicron and added, “If there’s a good time to get COVID, now is probably a good time.” Ward I Councilman Tommy Butler noted thousands of people are still dying daily from COVID nationwide. City Manager Raymond Lee III said a meeting Wednesday would take place to go over numbers and determine when masking requirements for city employees would end.
Received an update on Greeley’s transportation master plan, which will provide a framework for investments and priorities for spending over the next 20 years. City staff said they’re working to identify priority corridors and areas to focus future efforts, particularly by engaging with the public. Councilman Olson said he believes public transit in cities should be free. That belief was seconded by Ward I Councilman Tommy Butler.
Discussed efforts to pursue funding and a funding strategy to update the U.S. 34 Bypass interchanges at 35th Avenue and 47th Avenue. Councilman Olson said the city can’t wait for the Colorado Department of Transportation to find money for the projects. He said members of the city council should travel to Denver and meet with Governor Jared Polis to stress the importance of the projects in order to free up state funding. Mayor Gates noted the 35th Avenue interchange project is in the design stage, and Public Works Director Paul Trombino said the final design is probably two years away. Olson said he believes the project can be fully designed and built in a year, as long as the funding is available. “If we’ve got to do a bake sale, we’ll do a bake sale,” he said.