How 2011 New Years weekend in Boulder almost became a deadly weekend for the homeless:
How New years weekend in Boulder almost became a deadly weekend for the homeless: It started on Thursday December 30th when we received reports that Boulder was the first city to go on acident alert on the front range at 10:30. This snow storm was proving trouble early on.
By the afternoon Jann Scott and David Degraw headed out to video the roads and catch scenes of this storm . Thats when they came accross cadres of Homeless men and women wondering the streets in what had now become a raging windy cold snow storm. What they learned was there was no emergency shelter for them during the day.
The next day Friday new years Eve the temperatures were bitterly cold approximately 2 degrees. We started making phone calls early on to see what was open for the homeless. What we found was astounding. The city, county, homeless shelter nor any agency had a plan in place for emrgency sheltering of the homeless. They were left on there own to freeze to death during the day time hours in sub freezing weather.
Boulder Channel 1 finally called every city council member at home. Only two of them responded. But they were enough. Mayor Osborne and Crystal Gray took it upon themselves to get the wheels of government turning and make sure the so called church warming centers opened up. By one O:clock in the afternoon they were open.
Both Gray and Osborne did not conceal there displeasure with the Boulder Homeless shelter for having staff in the building , yet letting people freeze out side their doors. ” they have their rules, but not rules I would abide by” said Gray. Mayor Osborne said ” the homeless shelter should be helping these people”
The city and county of Boulder had complete lack of co ordination in this crisis. They have no plan in place. The police didn’t know who was opened or closed. Turned out they were all closed. No one was in charge. There was no plan. We at Boulder Channel one initiated a response.
But now the Boulder city council must take this issue up on retreat and make damn sure the city has a plan and response in place for daytime hours when the temperature drop below a critical mark. The story as it unfolded is below in reverse date order.:
UPDATE 10 1:00pm January1 2011 With temperatures at 7 degrees in Boulder today the city contracted with all of the warming shelters to have at least one church open. Cornerstone church at 1190 Lashley is open until 4:00pm Then Crestview Church at 3665 Madison opens from 4:00pm til 10:00 am. The boulder shelter opens tonight, but will be at capacity. The city will immediately look at why people were left out in the cold by the warming centers and Boulder Shelter and make sure it does not happen again. We shall see.
UPDATE 9 3:00pm December 31 2010 A phone call from Mayor Susan Osborne tells the story of the city handing this emergency. No one in the county or city had planned for cold days and how to shelter the Homeless in daytime hours. The Mayor had to call city manager Jane Brautigam who is on a ski vacation to get her to do something before we had frozen dead guys all over the city. At 1:00 oclock today 1 day shelter opened and will remain open through out the weekend. At the same time councilwoman Crystal Gray stayed on top of the crisis . Below is her email thread which she sent to Boulder Channel 1.
Sent: Friday, December 31, 2010 11:46 AM To: Brautigam, Jane; Fetherston, Paul Cc: Beckner, Mark; Rahn, Karen; Susan OsborneSubject : Warming areas during day for homeless
Hello Jane and Paul: I received a call asking about warming (from Boulder channel 1 news) facilities for homeless today. The concern was there is a lack of warming areas during the day for homeless with the libraries closed today and Saturday and many other city facilities also closed at noon. The message said the Homeless Shelter is not open during the day and the Carriage House is only open for women and children. I have no idea if that is true but I am concerned about the cold weather and availability of shelter for the homeless during the day until the evening shelters are open.
Thanks for your response. Crystal
From: Rahn, Karen Director Housing and Human Services, City of BoulderSent: Friday, December 31, 2010 12:17 PM To: Rahn, Karen; ‘Crystal Gray’; Brautigam, Jane; Fetherston, Paul Cc: Beckner, Mark; ‘Susan Osborne’; Ageton, Suzy Subject: RE: Warming areas during day for homeless
I talked with Chris Mitchell at BOHO. He confirmed that Carriage House is at capacity. He will try and arrange an opening this afternoon at Crestview Church and tomorrow at Crestview or Cornerstone. He will call back and confirm the locations. We will cover the additional cost for them of @ 500.00 I will email to confirm and let the shelter and Carriage House know where to refer folks. Chris will get the openings out through the network. I will follow up to confirm with you. Karen RahnOn Dec 31, 2010, at 12:42 PM, “Rahn, Karen” <RahnK@bouldercolorado.gov> wrote:
BOHO will open at 1:00 at Crestview Church on Madison and be open there until 10:00 a.m.Saturday morning. BOHO will determine another location for tomorrow from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. BOHO is contacting Carriage House, the Shelter and their other contacts to let them know where to refer people. I will let you know where the location for tomorrow will be.Karen Rahn Director Housing and Human ServicesCity of Boulder(303) 441-3161
UPDATE 8 December 31 2010UPDATE 7 December 31 2010 11:44 Mayor Susan Osborne started making phone calls at 11:40 this morning to try to get a shelter open during daytime hours for the 100′s of homeless men, women and children wondering boulder’s streets..
UPDATE 6 December 31 2010 10:30 am. There are NO WARMING SHELTERS OPEN FOR THE HOMELESS today in Boulder. Only the Carriage house is open until 3:00 and it has way overflowed and turning people away. What has happened.!!!??? How could this be?? It is 3 degrees in Boulder . “None of the churches are open” according to Robbie, daytime on staff at Boulder homeless Shelter. “We are not open either” he said. Even though the Boulder shelter has two staff people in the building right this minute , they won’t open the doors to the freezing homeless people. This is an out rage.! An absolute human rights violation. Robbie said that he was instructed by Shelter upper management not to let freezing people in. What the hell is the matter with Greg harms. He should have his sorry ass down at that shelter and work a shift himself and let the people in. Right God Damn now, Greg!! Bill at Boulder Police dispatch said ” we just don’t have anyplace unless a church opens its doors. ” Didn’t Jesus call on us all to offer first Shelter, clothing and food ” to all of gods children. Apparently not in Boulder. The Carriage House phone was busy, but their voice mail said that their” first priority are “women and child” That lease hundreds of men n freezing on our streets. Dave a homeless guy told us ” I don’t know if I’ll make it through today with out freezing to death before the shelter opens” Boulder County cares only looks for homeless between 6pm and 10pm. Boulder PD, thankfully has their eye out for them” 24/7 during this bitter cold”. said dispatcher Bill Boulder Over flow churches are not open during the day and only shelters the homeless at night. So all of those so called warming centers you hear about are not open! Where are the Christians when we need them?? They are not open . People are freezing to death on our streets and the entire city staff and council are vacation. Shame on them all
UPDATE 5: December 31 2010 HOMELESS LEFT OUT IN COLD VIDEO:
City of Boulder announced an official accident alert at 10:20 am this morning. UPDATE 11:45 AM ” The city of boulder closes it’s offices today at noon” according to city PIO Patrick Von Kieserling,” butthe transportation department is in full swing with all snow plow trucks out.”UPDATE 11:11 AM ” The streets have been unusually slippery this morning even with thew temperatures above freezing” according to Traffic Sargent Jim MacPherson of Boulder Police department. ” We go on accident alert when we run out of resources and that’s what happened” Sargent MacPherson said. We’ve had over a dozen accidents already since this morning and it is only going to get worse.” he said. This is the kind of slippery snow where people really need to slow down, not text and be careful. People often mistake their all wheel drive vehicles as billet proof , but when the streets are “very slippery” everyone is prone to wreck. Bicyclers need to be especially cautious today. Cars cannot stop and your chances of getting run over are heightened. 10:20 AM ACCIDENT ALERT MEANS THAT BOULDER POLICE DEPARTMENT DISPATCH IS ALREADY INUNDATED WITH more calls than the department can handle. So minor accidents with out injuries will not get a police or fire response. Those involved should exchange insurance information, call a tow truck themselves and deal with it. Police and fire will respond to serious accidents only” or where there is a dispute, drugs, alcohol, hit and run, dissabled vehicles or intersection blocked” according to Sargent Jim MacPherson Boulder PD Traffic. This means , however, that Boulder is getting smacked pretty good by this storm , the roads are slippery and people are driving into one another according to Boulder PD dispatch.
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