Glenwood Springs tackles Colorado wildfire and criminal risk with unhoused residents

In a Colorado mountain community, a growing crisis is testing the limits of public resources and resident patience. Law enforcement with Glenwood Springs report being inundated with calls related to unhoused individuals, while city leaders find themselves balancing a town's compassionate identity with rising safety concerns. Couple that with a recent wildfire scare tied back to unhoused people living on a hillside near the local Walmart and you have residents of Glenwood Springs looking for answers.

The scale of the issue is significant, according to Joseph Deras, the local Chief of Public Safety, covering both police and fire & EMS duties for the city.

"Anecdotally, I think about 60% of our calls for service in the daytime for law enforcement revolve around unhoused individuals," Deras said. "Crimes associated with that kind of thing."

He said while other municipalities have similar call volume, it's "absolutely disproportionate" for the size of the community in Glenwood Springs.

One of his officers, he noted, was able to list 70 "repeat offenders" off the top of his head that the department deals with "day in and day out."

Law enforcement facing "a revolving interaction"

A significant source of that strain, according to Deras, is a justice system within Colorado, specifically, that he said fails to break the cycle of repeat offenses. He said when the public expects a crime will lead to that personal being incarcerated, that expectation is often unmet.

"We just don't haul people off to jail anymore," Deras said. "They're given a citation, and they're allowed to remain at that scene unless it's a violent felony ... so these individuals that are responsible for this behavior remain in that environment. Then we see that they continue to be involved in that exact same pattern of behavior, pattern of conduct, over the course of many years."

"It's a revolving interaction that is extraordinarily frustrating."

Encampments pose fire risk

The city of Glenwood Springs felt that cycle has now escalated from a quality-of-life issue to a direct public safety threat, and because of that, hosted a webinar to address concerns from the public. The risk of fires from encampments, often used for cooking or warmth, has become a primary concern for officials, especially as they encroach homes and businesses.

"It's significant," Deras said when asked about the fire risk. "When we had that fire up there adjacent to the Walmart property, that's a significant risk."

He added that nearby homeowners have a right to be concerned.

"These fires have come right up adjacent to their property line," Deras said.

City Manager Steve Boyd confirmed the severity of the situation, placing homelessness among the top four challenges facing the town, alongside transportation, parking and the high cost of living.

"This is a real problem," Boyd said, admitting the issue can feel intractable.

"This feels like it is never going to go away."

Community organizations focused on intervention

While officials grapple with enforcement, community organizations are focused on intervention. Cristina Gair, Executive Director of the West Mountain Regional Health Alliance, is part of a coalition of groups working to connect people with support systems. Their guiding philosophy is "Housing First."

"A better situation is someone receives food, other services to start connecting them to the possibility of employment and ultimately to get them a house," Gair explained.

However, the path to stability is complex. Gair notes that many chronically unhoused individuals are dealing with "co-occurring disorders," including physical and mental health issues, that require intensive services to overcome. That challenge is magnified when individuals refuse help, a reality both law enforcement and city leaders said they confront regularly.

"The challenge there becomes when those people who we encounter daily tell us this is the lifestyle I'm choosing ... 'I want to live free and live on my own and do what I choose to do,'" Deras said.

In those cases, he believes the court system needs to change its approach, as what's currently happening doesn't seem to be working. Deras also added that jailing criminal unhoused residents not only provides a relief for a wrongdoer, but is more costly than other options, like requiring public service.

Glenwood Springs continues difficult balancing act

Boyd believes Glenwood Springs is now facing this issue because of the town's compassion, and the beneficial weather most of the year, along with plentiful services for unhoused citizens. Gair believes building strong, trusting relationships is the only way to reach individuals who the city identified as "choosing an unhoused lifestyle," but acknowledges the difficulty in the situation. She said implementing programs that have worked in large cities is a struggle in the mountain region, and a looming scarcity of funding from the federal government presents another hurdle.

"I think the more we're going to have to collaborate and really think about other solutions and get creative, because also with some of the challenges of funding drying up, this is going to be an interesting time," Gair said.

For now, the city said it will continue its difficult balancing act: striving to treat every person with dignity, while ensuring the town remains safe for the residents and for the tourists who support it.