A forum at a home­less shel­ter invited city coun­cil mem­bers of Boul­der, Col­orado to hear their con­cerns. Only four of the 13 coun­cil mem­bers showed up.

Home­less peo­ple in Boul­der and many parts of the U.S. don’t have enough shel­ter beds avail­able to them. So when they have to sleep out­side instead, they often get tick­eted or arrested for “camping”.

From the Boul­der Daily Cam­era, writer Erica Meltzer details the meeting.

Four of the 13 Boul­der City Coun­cil can­di­dates — busi­ness­man and endurance ath­lete Barry Siff, artist and for­mer uni­ver­sity pro­fes­sor Jyot­sna Raj, Land­marks Board chair­man and attor­ney Tim Plass, and care provider and activist Rob Smoke — attended the forum at the Car­riage House Com­mu­nity Table. Car­riage House pro­vides a case man­ager, access to show­ers, laun­dry and com­put­ers, and a day­time shel­ter in down­town Boulder.

Home­less peo­ple and their advo­cates expressed frus­tra­tion and, at times, flashes of anger over what they see as igno­rance, indif­fer­ence and even hos­til­ity from other seg­ments of Boul­der society.

On the one hand, there aren’t enough shel­ter beds to accom­mo­date all the home­less in Boul­der. On the other hand, sleep­ing out­side is ille­gal, and home­less peo­ple can be tick­eted, fined and sen­tenced to com­mu­nity ser­vice for camping.

One man told of being issued a ticket for “camp­ing” because he was sit­ting on a bench under a tree. Another woman told of being made to wait out­side in the snow for over an hour, while other bus pas­sen­gers with­out the large back­pack that marked her as home­less got to wait inside the bus station.

Case man­ager Heather Pauze has seen 26 deaths among her clients over the last 18 months. A home­less man was found dead near Wal­nut and Ninth streets on Wednes­day morn­ing. Though the cause of death has not been deter­mined, police believe the weather may have been a factor.

The home­less peo­ple at the meet­ing urged the city to place a mora­to­rium on enforce­ment of the no-camping rules while changes to the law are con­sid­ered; pro­vide a cen­tral place for peo­ple to store belong­ings, shower and change clothes; and allow the con­struc­tion of cheap, single-resident housing.

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