A new action plan for the city’s response to homelessness — which Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade has called “one of Colorado Springs’ top public safety issues” — will be ready by the time Mobolade delivers his State of the City address on Sept. 10, according to city employees.

While Mobolade has identified six key focus areas for addressing homelessness, residents have two chances to air their views for the next step of specifying how those will be accomplished.

Both public meetings will be held on Thursday, Aug. 15. An in-person session will be from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the City Administration Building, 30 S. Nevada Ave., in room 102.

A virtual meeting will happen that night, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., accessible at this online link: ColoradoSprings.gov/2024HomelessnessResponse.

The mayor developed the key areas based on feedback he’s received from residents since he took office last June, said Katie Sunderlin, the city’s acting housing and community vitality officer.

Internal emails and phone calls, the mayor’s listening tours and other group meetings produced the comments to date, she said.

“What we are doing now is we will go through those high-level points with the public with more depth and give people an opportunity to respond to what is going to be most impactful and what are we missing in our homelessness response,” Sunderlin said Wednesday.

Mobolade’s defined areas are:

• Increase street outreach and availability of need-based shelter options;

• Enforce and protect people, property and the environment;

• Expand employment opportunities, such as the WorkCOS program, which provides jobs; 

• Prioritize prevention of homelessness through mental health care;

• Increase the number of housing units for very low-income residents and housing that provides supportive services for people exiting homelessness;

• Provide transparent, proactive and accessible communications to the public.

While the goals will cost money, it is not yet known how much.

“Our plan is more like a strategic plan — not just these are the six things with this price tag associated,” Sunderlin said. “These are long-term goals.’

For example, increasing affordable housing units “requires partnerships and tax credit awards and many people, so it’s not cut-and-dried,” she said. “This is not like a capital project.”

The document will help prioritize funding requests, said Max D’Onofrio, a city spokesman. 

Departments are scheduled to begin presenting budget requests to City Council for the coming year on Oct. 1.

The city’s commitment to support local homeless shelter operations with about half a million dollars annually will continue as usual, Sunderlin noted.

This year, three organizations received a cut of the line-item funding: Springs Rescue Mission, which operates the city’s largest shelter for homeless adults and related programs; the El Paso County Corps of the Salvation Army, which runs the largest family shelter; and The Place, which provides the only shelter for independent teens and young adults.

“This administration is taking a very forward stance in response to both to homelessness and housing,” Sunderlin said.

“The mayor is prioritizing both highly, and our department is working with him and community partners to make sure our piece to the response is beneficial and impactful,” she said.

A housing-needs assessment is underway, Sunderlin said, to “help us do a deep dive into the housing landscape to come up with a new roadmap for housing solutions, a blueprint to move forward on affordable and attainable housing.”

The previous administration under former Mayor John Suthers met accomplishments of its five-year plan, such as starting the WorkCOS employment program in conjunction with Springs Rescue Mission, adding 1,000 affordable housing units to the market yearly, reducing the homeless population and attaining other objectives.

“Here, we have a new strategic plan with smaller plans for individual departments with clearly defined goals based on input from the community,” D’Onofrio said.

During a media briefing on July 23, Mobolade said the strategic plan for 2024-28 that he released in June prioritizes public safety, economic vitality, infrastructure, housing solutions and community activation. 

“With homelessness, we’ve made a lot of progress over the last year (and) there’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said. “

He’s also met with nonprofit providers, and a public session with business owners has been scheduled for further input.

Meanwhile, the mayor said, the city’s fire and police departments will continue with their street outreach and safety and law enforcement programs, camp cleanups are ongoing through the Neighborhood Services department, a new Urban Trail Rangers program is active, and local organizations are meeting employment, health and shelter needs.

“This will continue to be an all-out effort to ensure homelessness will be brief, rare and non-recurring,” Mobolade said.