The Colorado Springs Fire Department’s homeless outreach staff helped get 33 people into housing last year, probably saving thousands in emergency services.

In 2023, the program could go away. 

The grant funding for the outreach program, started in 2019, is set to expire in June. The pending deadline sparked pleas by Colorado Springs City Council members in meetings last week for the city administration to find money to preserve it and similar proactive programs that save money and staff time in the long term.

City Councilwoman Nancy Henjum said the homeless outreach program helps ensure other fire and police staff can respond to other emergencies quickly. It also helps take pressure off other systems that work with the homeless such as, such as the El Paso County jail, area emergency rooms and Municipal Court. 

“I am proud of our Fire Department for seeing the need and saying ‘How do we help?'” she said. 

The five members of the homeless outreach team have behavior health and crisis training and work to build trust with homeless residents and get them prepared to move into permanent housing or into the appropriate mental health treatment. The Fire Department staff can do field assessment and make direct referrals to needed care, which is unique, nonprofit representatives said. 

“We don’t have a provider to fill that, to have that health care focus,” said Evan Caster, senior manager of homeless initiatives with the Community Health Partnership. 

Preserving just the homeless outreach team would require $403,000 annually, a city presentation showed. A similar initiative that works with those exiting the jail who might have a slew of needs including homelessness, addiction issues, chronic mental health problems and mental illness is also running out in November. It would require $300,000 annually.

Grant funding for a program that serves those who constantly call 911 has already run out. Last year, the program served 26 people who had visited the emergency room 423 times in a year, said Steve Johnson, community and public health administrator for the Fire Department. The program decreased their visits by 55%. It would cost $300,000 annually. 

The city’s proposed 2023 budget is more than $1 billion. 

Henjum would like see a long-range plan for the grant-funded Fire Department programs. But she is particularly concerned about homeless outreach, because it seems that concern among the public about homelessness has been rising recently. 

Mayor John Suthers said Thursday in an interview the Fire Department did not prioritize sustaining the programs with general fund dollars, largely from city sales taxes, during the budget process earlier this year. The Fire Department asked for and is expected to receive funding for 32 new positions to staff new fire stations.

At this point, Suthers said he is open to finding funding to sustain the homeless outreach program, but he could not say yet where that funding might come from.

Councilman Bill Murray suggested in meetings last week moving funding from the Police Department to sustain grant-funded Fire Department programs, because the police chief does not expect to fill all his funded positions until 2024. Suthers said he would veto such a move. 

The homeless outreach program is likely a net savings for emergency services because homeless people can be regular users of emergency and criminal justice services, such as ambulance trips to the emergency room and overnights stays in jail, said Beth Hall Roalstad, executive director of Homeward Pikes Peak, a group with its own homeless street outreach. Before the pandemic, she estimated that it costs $65,000-$70,000 for an individual to spend a year outside. 

Once a person is housed, the annual cost drops down to about $20,000-$22,000 to provide rental assistance and a case manager, she said. 

Working with someone on housing can be quite a long process. In one case, reported by The Gazette, Fire Department staff worked for eight months to get a homeless man into substance abuse treatment. 

“There is a lot of mistrust and trauma that has really led to them being where they’re at,” Caster said.

Once someone wants help, the Fire Department staff can help them track down documents such as birth certificates and Social Security cards. 

The homeless outreach “team does a great deal to make individuals housing ready, quite often in partnership with other agencies in the community,” Johnson said. The team helped 33 homeless people transition into housing last year and delivered 1,281 COVID tests and provided 80 vaccinations to homeless people, he said. 

The team also attends Municipal Court with homeless residents and staffs an outreach booth, where Presiding Judge HayDen Kane said they are making a huge difference. He would like to see their work expanded. 

“CSFD is a great home for an outreach program because, as good as our CSPD outreach team is, they are still seen by this population as the cops, where CSFD is perceived as being there just to help,” he said. 

Johnson said his division is largely grant-funded, and he is preparing to apply for additional grants.

He could not provide Fire Department estimates for how much money the homeless outreach program saves, but he is working on it. He also said some of the benefits cannot be calculated.

“The value of a life saved, the value of a life that is in recovery and able to engage life fully, the value of a family restored – how do you measure these things?” he said.