The city of Colorado Springs’ first homelessness prevention specialist has been tapped to become the first to fill a similar position in the governor’s office.

Andy Phelps will leave his job of nearly five years on June 3 as the homelessness prevention and response coordinator for Mayor John Suthers and start June 6 as special adviser on homelessness and housing to Gov. Jared Polis.

In the same way that Phelps has acted as the city’s liaison with homeless shelters, soup kitchens, housing agencies and other service organizations that help move people from homelessness back into housing and stability in life, Phelps will work as the state’s liaison with local communities, Polis said in a phone interview.

One reason Phelps was selected for the post, the governor said, is that Colorado Springs is one of the few cities in the state where homelessness has decreased in recent years.

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“Homelessness has become a much bigger issue across the state, and we wanted to learn from cities like Colorado Springs,” Polis said.

One of Colorado Springs’ biggest accomplishments is that the number of chronically unsheltered people living outside, in cars or empty buildings has dropped by nearly half since Phelps joined the city staff in 2017.

“That goes to show when a community comes together and is focused on working on a problem, great things can happen,” Phelps said. “Without the leadership of Mayor Suthers and former City Council President Richard Skorman, we would not have seen the success of our homeless initiative.”

Former Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach created a plan in 2014 to reduce homelessness, and Phelps rolled out a new initiative in 2019, which he said has met every goal. 

New programs such as a community housing fund for homeless veterans, street outreach by the city’s fire department, giving homeless people jobs cleaning street medians through the city’s Public Works Operations and Maintenance department, and providing regular video court sessions for homeless who have minor legal cases are among the new projects.

Colorado Springs also in recent years has added more low-barrier shelter beds for a total of nearly 750; streamlined and expanded assistance programs; created more transitional and affordable housing units; fortified the Police Department’s street outreach; enacted ordinances banning camping on public property and along rivers; coordinated continual cleanups of illegal camps; enforced a no-loitering policy; and ticketed people panhandling on medians, which is considered a safety hazard.

City leaders think the steps have helped decrease the count of unsheltered people who sleep outside, in cars or empty buildings, which dropped by 19% to 358 in 2020 over 2019, the most recent statistic available for that population. 

The unsheltered, or what are considered chronically homeless people, also decreased by 13% in 2019 over 2018.

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People staying in emergency shelters or transitional housing units in El Paso County also is declining. During an annual head count for Department of Housing and Urban Development funding purposes, the city saw a decrease of 14% in January 2021 over 2020 for a total of 1,156 people. 

Conversely, the number of first-time homeless people in metro Denver nearly doubled last year over 2020, the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative reported in January.

Results from this year’s homeless count that was conducted in February in Colorado Springs have not yet been released, but Suthers alluded to the city’s downward trend continuing, particularly of chronic homelessness, during a recent tour of an affordable housing complex under construction.

“I think Colorado Springs has had a more successful approach to reducing homelessness than Denver and other cities, having someone familiar with best practices,” Polis said.

That’s not to say Colorado Springs has solved homelessness, by any means, he said.

“It has a long way to go,” Polis said. “But it hasn’t gotten any worse, and we want other cities to emulate that.”

Concerns related to homeless people remain one of the top complaints Colorado Springs receives from residents, according to the reduction plan.

While city and county leaders set policies on issues of homelessness in their communities, “the state can play a role” in helping decrease its prevalence, Polis said.

Colorado ranked poorly in the nation in the 2021 Annual Report on Homeless Assessment Report to Congress.

Colorado had the largest percentage increase in the nation of chronically homeless people since 2007, according to the report, and also registered the second-largest increase in homelessness among families with children between 2020 and 2021.

Polis said he wants to see more drug and alcohol treatment programs across the state, along with more beds for homeless residents and “not allowing unsafe conditions on streets.”

State lawmakers passed a three-bill package Polis announced in April to allocate $200 million of federal pandemic relief funds to create a statewide grant program for homeless services and build two homeless recovery campuses in the metro Denver area.

Phelps will work on those projects, Polis said.

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The governor said he decided to add the new position that Phelps is filling in his office because of the availability of COVID-relief money.

“We want to reduce homelessness and make Colorado safe,” Polis said, adding that his goal is for Colorado to become one of the 10 safest states in the nation over the next 10 years.

Phelps said it’s time for a change in his life.

“After five years at the city and the progress we’ve made, I am ready for a new challenge and excited to work with the team at the governor’s office,” he said.

At a May 20 membership meeting of Pikes Peak Continuum of Care, a consortium focused on homelessness, Phelps thanked local leaders who work in the field for their assistance and support in helping Colorado Springs achieve its goals.

“He’s done a lot of great things and assisted the city with many homeless initiatives,” said Alison Gerbig, Colorado Springs program manager for Rocky Mountain Human Services’ Homes for All Veterans and the continuum of care’s board chair.

“A big shout out to him for serving us and now moving on to work with the governor,” she said.