Homelessness FAQs
The City of Longmont supports a diverse range of programming to assist people experiencing homelessness. Details can be found on the “What is Longmont doing about homelessness?” webpage.
The answer is complicated. Individuals often face multiple and varied barriers to access services. The City continues to attempt to engage these individuals, in different ways, to find solutions that work for them.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness lists many causes. Visit their What Causes Homelessness page.
No. While all Boulder County programs prohibit the use of drugs and alcohol on their premises, individuals who are intoxicated can receive most services, provided they follow behavioral expectations. The exceptions are services focused on recovery models, like the Recovery Café Longmont.
While everyone is welcome to enjoy Longmont City parks during regular hours of operation, the following activities are illegal and prohibited for all residents (regardless of housing status) in all City parks:
- Participation in any illegal drug use
- Littering
- Vandalizing or damaging park property (includes graffiti)
- Occupying the park bathroom as living quarters
- Causing a disturbance
- Defecating, urinating, or exposing one’s genitals in public
- Remaining in the park after hours
If you witness any of the above crimes in progress, please call (303) 651-8501 (for non-emergencies) or 9-1-1 (for emergencies). Additional public safety contacts include (303) 651-8555 for police and (303) 651-8437 for fire.
While panhandling is not illegal, related activities that unsafely impede traffic or risk personal safety – like standing median of a street or road – can be. The City’s Resources for People Experiencing Homelessness webpage lists area nonprofit services. To ensure everyone’s safety, the City of Longmont encourages those in need to seek support through these services – and suggests that those who wish to help consider supporting these services. Working together we can keep everyone safe in a kind, compassionate and responsible manner.
The City’s ultimate goal is to connect people experiencing homelessness with permanent, stable housing—and supportive services as necessary. Securing, preparing, supervising and maintaining a camping area would divert significant resources from increasing permanent housing units that meet that goal.
From January 1 through October 31, 2021, 60% (151) of individuals completing coordinated entry screening in the City of Longmont reported having been in Boulder County for six months or longer.
Homelessness is not illegal. People experiencing homelessness have the same rights as anyone else. Unless someone is committing an illegal act or has life-threatening injuries, they have the right to refuse treatment and to frequent public spaces.
The City of Longmont’s Public Safety division has several programs that can assist people experiencing homelessness.
- The Angel Initiative assists individuals suffering with a substance use disorder.
- The LEAD program can redirect those suspected of crime associated with substance use to intensive case management services instead of jail.
- CORE teams bring together a specially trained police officer, a behavioral health clinician, and a paramedic. Together, the CORE team responds to 911 calls for service that indicate a mental health crisis.
Learn more about these and other community programs on the Public Safety Community Health page.
In Boulder County, people experiencing homelessness access services and housing resources through the Coordinated Entry system. Coordinated Entry is a screening tool, aligned with best practices, to determine each individual’s needs and to best match them with housing-focused services.
In Longmont, Coordinated Entry can be conducted by phone or in person. Call 720-453-6096 Mon–Fri, noon-7pm or walk in:
- Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, noon–5pm at HOPE, 804 S. Lincoln St. (basic needs, meals and clothing are also available)
- Wed, noon–5pm at 1335 Francis St.
Learn more about Coordinated Entry and available services at Resources for People Experiencing Homelessness.
Navigation is a program that provides short-term support for lower-needs individuals who require limited assistance to get back into permanent housing. An individual works with a case manager to develop a housing plan and can receive conflict resolution support, financial assistance, legal assistance, assistance reunifying with support networks, and links to county and other community programs as needed. Overnight sleeping space is also available to qualified Navigation participants who need a place to stay in the short term. Participants are referred to Navigation services through the Coordinated Entry screening.
HOPE operates Coordinated Entry and Navigation (short term shelter) in Longmont. As space is available, they will provide temporary overnight shelter in bad weather and continue to encourage individuals to get screened through Coordinated Entry.
From January 1 through October 31, 2021, 252 individuals were screened through Coordinated Entry in Longmont.
Visit the Homeless Solutions for Boulder County website for the most up-to-date data.
Street outreach is a best practice model of engaging individuals who are experiencing homelessness. These individuals may be sheltered or may be experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Engaging individuals on the streets is a crucial piece to the continuum of housing.
While some outreach efforts can be more focused on housing than other efforts, engagement is key to build rapport and relationships with people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, with the goal that additional services and resources can be identified and provided. Street outreach and engagement also includes providing basic needs: cold weather supplies, food, resource and housing navigation.
A new program started in Longmont in 2021. Longmont Targeted Homelessness Engagement and Referral Effort (LTHERE) is a partnership between Boulder County, the City of Longmont and local partners TGHTR (formerly Attention Homes). LTHERE’s goal is to connect people to the homeless service system. The LTHERE team will follow best practices in harm reduction, trauma-informed care, and motivational interviewing.
HOPE’s navigation shelter facilities (Faith Point Gymnasium and Journey Church) can each shelter up to 49 individuals based on code. HOPE’s sheltering facilities are primarily meant for individuals experiencing homelessness who have gone through the Coordinated Entry system and have been assigned to Navigation (see “What is Navigation?” for more details). However, due to a continued trend of individuals assigned to the Housing-Focused Sheltering (HFS) program refusing to travel to the Boulder Shelter for their reserved bed, HOPE has allowed HFS participants to remain at the Navigation shelter if they meet certain criteria.
In December of 2021 the average number of beds used during the month was 29. Of course, during inclement weather the shelter was near or at capacity.
A person in Navigation or an approved HFS participants can continue access the Navigation shelter as long as needed while they are working towards housing resolution.
Working toward housing may mean finding full-time employment or accessing disability benefits. It may include registering for subsidized housing or other permanent housing solutions. As long as participants continue to work in tandem with their case manager and are moving forward, the Navigation shelter is available to them.
If there comes a point when participants cease to work on their plans they are given time to restart their work and if they choose not to do so, then they are exited from the program. Of course, as long as person is not banned for behavior, they are always welcomed back during inclement weather.
Homeless Solutions for Boulder County (HSBC) is an innovative approach to homelessness that includes multiple government entities (Boulder County and the Cities of Boulder and Longmont), the nonprofits working to impact homelessness, and the faith community. This regional, integrated service system combines a coordinated entry process with the provision of timely and appropriate supportive and housing services to assist people in moving out of homelessness and into permanent, stable housing.
The Housing First model is a philosophy that centers on providing people with permanent housing quickly and supporting them with services as needed. Housing First recognizes that people can more successfully address other aspects of one’s well-being (i.e., employment, health, mental health, education, addiction) once they are stably housed. These programs do not require sobriety or completion of other programs prior to securing housing. Housing First programs share critical elements:
- A focus on placing and sustaining people experiencing homelessness in permanent housing as quickly as possible without time limits;
- A variety of services delivered following housing to promote housing stability and individual well-being on an as-needed and as-desired basis; and
- A standard lease agreement to housing as opposed to mandated therapy or services compliance
“Chronically homeless” refers to an individual with a disabling condition who has been homelessness for a long period of time. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines chronic homelessness as having a disabling condition and living either in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, an emergency shelter, or in an institutional care facility continuously for at least 12-months, or on at least four separate occasions in the last three-years, where the combined occasions total at least 12 months. Each period separating occasions must include at least seven nights.
Permanent Supportive Housing uses the Housing First approach to place people in housing quickly and provide supportive services. PSH is designed to meet the long-term housing and service needs of chronically homeless individuals and families. The type of services depends on the needs of the residents and may be provided on a short-term, sporadic, ongoing, or indefinite basis. The housing is usually “affordable” or intended to serve persons on a Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
In February 2016 the Boulder County Consortium of Cities engaged the Community Strategies Institute to provide an assessment of the need for Permanent Supportive Housing throughout Boulder County, focused on chronically homeless individuals. The assessment was to identify the number of chronically homeless individuals in Boulder County and provide a profile of their needs, identify current resources available to these individuals, identify barriers and challenges to development of permanent housing solutions for these residents and identify the types of properties and projects that could be developed in Boulder County to meet housing needs.
The Continuum of Care (CoC) is sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to:
- Promote communitywide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness
- Provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers and state and local governments to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused by homelessness
- Promote access to and effect utilization of mainstream programs by homeless individuals and families, and
- Optimize self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing homelessness
The Metro Denver Homelessness Initiative (MDHI) is the CoC serving the seven-county Denver Metro region, Boulder County included.
MDHI works closely with each county in the CoC (Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson), building a homeless crisis response system aimed at getting people stably housed as quickly as possible. Learn more on the MDHI website.
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