Homeless and Housing Solutions

In 2020, a small group of stakeholders including City representatives and local non-profits began meeting to discuss ideas for addressing homelessness and affordable housing issues facing the community. Through their conversations, they began to envision a long-term community solution to housing our community’s most vulnerable through the development of a service-based campus within the cities of Greeley and Evans. The group toured the area's current Housing Navigation Center and Cold Weather Shelter located in Evans and managed through United Way of Weld County, brainstormed potential housing campus models, and toured the Arroyo Village campus in Denver. As a result, the City of Greeley created a scope of services to solicit a 3rd party consultant to assist with gathering and evaluating housing data, examining demand drivers, determining market and financial viability and feasibility, and estimating capital and operating costs for possible sheltering and housing alternatives.

Progress

In August 2021, the City released a Request for Proposal for further consideration of possible sheltering and housing alternatives. The request for proposal includes a detailed index of supplemental resources including a resource partners list, comparative campus models, additional shelter/services/projects in the Northern Colorado Region, and additional documents.

In November 2021, the City finalized a contract with Urbanity Advisors to complete this work. The anticipated timeline for scoping and assessment of possible sheltering and housing alternatives is approximately 6 months with consultant work beginning in December 2021. The contract includes:

• Evaluating existing sources of information;
• Analyzing what might be driving demand locally and regionally;
• Evaluating best practices, project size and possible locations;
• Providing opportunities for engagement and public involvement;
• Estimating development and ongoing operating costs;
• Outline financial feasibility, funding options and key next steps.

At the June 14 work session, Greeley City Council heard a report from the consulting firm Urbanity Advisors providing six recommendations to address homelessness and housing alternatives in Greeley. The report is the result of several community conversations with residents, stakeholder interviews, and survey feedback over the first 6 months in 2022. The recommendations include:

1. Utilize the collective impact framework to coordinate cross-organizational collaboration.
2. Conduct a housing needs assessment.
3. Pursue pre-development research for a service-based campus model approach.
4. Establish a clear understanding of homelessness's risk & protective factors (with collective impact).
5. Establish a user-friendly resource guide for organizations, housed, and un-housed community members (with collective impact).
6. Explore creative temporary solutions. 

Based on the recommendations, City staff suggested that a Housing Advisory Council be created to address the collective impact framework and further collaboration efforts. This would include the necessary staffing/resources to support the City’s efforts. Additional action would include:

• Further consideration of a service-based campus model that can offer several homeless services, sheltering and permanent supportive housing all on one site.
• Exploration of temporary solutions to fill gaps in services such as safe parking and safe camping.

The City is already working to conduct a housing needs assessment, has begun work with providers to address homelessness's risk and protective factors, and is collaborating on a comprehensive and user-friendly resource guide.

Council members provided feedback on the recommendations and instructed staff to supply further timelines and action steps for implementation at future City Council meetings and in concert with the Strategic Plan update.

Watch the June 14 Council worksession:

Council Work Session | City of Greeley Colorado Meetings