Fort Collins police launch outreach program to assist unhoused residents

While many people may associate issues around homelessness with major cities like Denver, the problem of individuals going unhoused is a topic that impacts communities across Colorado. With a growing rate of unhoused individuals in Fort Collins as well, Fort Collins Police Services has launched a new team within its agency to try and establish a better relationship with those experiencing homelessness.   

FCPS has created the HOPE team. HOPE stands for "homeless outreach and proactive engagement." The goal of the new team is to offer up resources and opportunities to those who are living on the streets before something like a sweep is needed to clear out their belongings from a public space.  

"The issues with homelessness and people struggling with finding shelter is nationwide," said Sgt. Annie Hill of FCPS. "Our goal is to be that first line and triage to that because homelessness is not a crime and not an issue that is going to be resolved by the police itself." 

While being unhoused is not a crime in Fort Collins, camping in public spaces in the city is. Hill, who also has a mental health responder background, was selected to lead the new team. She said she hoped the small team of five officers would be able to be proactive in their outreach to the homeless community. By doing so she hoped to either help individuals get to permanent housing, or at least educate them on the outlets to assistance they have for whatever issues have lead to their living situation.  

"A lot of police work is building relationships," Hill said. "We are having the ability to be proactive and get out and meet our community members, and meeting those people experiencing homelessness and offering them help and resources." 

FCPS partners with, and refers people to, local nonprofit organizations that can offer resources to food, shelter, addiction recovery programs and even mental health care.  

FCPS also has a lasting partnership with UCHealth to operate a mental health co-responder team that can make sure individuals are getting the assistance they need, which oftentimes comes from people other than police officers.  

Some in the community expressed concerns that the HOPE team would simply focus their time on pushing those camping in public out and potentially throwing away some of their items. 

Hill noted that such cleanups do not just happen without any warning or outreach prior. She said the HOPE team, which will include four other officers for now, will spend their time reaching out to unhoused individuals to offer them resources before they are moved out. Hill said oftentimes those who are in violation of the camping laws are given around two months to move. That gives officers and other community partners plenty of time to try and work with those individuals and offer them outlets to help.  

 "So if people truly looking for long-term housing we can get them on the right track to finding permanent housing," Hill said.  

Hill said FCPS is working on selecting the four other officers who will join her on the HOPE team, but said she envisions many more officers being trained on the same information and outreach tactics so that those unhoused in the community can always have help in their reach.