Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council.

Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now.

Good morning, and welcome to the July 15th Health and Safety Committee meeting.

My name is Daryl Watson.

I'm honored to serve as the chair of the Health and Safety Committee, as well as a city council member representing all of the fine district nine.

We have one briefing and two consent items today.

But before we jump into those briefings, uh, why don't we start online?

First with introductions.

Council President Pro Tem, are you on?

Uh yes, I am.

Good morning.

Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

And then we'll start on all right.

Uh Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District 2.

Amanda Sawyer, District 5.

Hi, everyone, Sedana Gonzalez Gutierrez.

I'm one of the council members at large.

All right.

Well, thanks everyone for being here.

We're excited to get a briefing from Aaron and Ten CEO from the mayor's office on the street engagement team.

So Aaron, the floor is yours.

Awesome.

Thank you for having me.

My name is Erin Atensioshi, her pronouns, and I work at the mayor's office.

I'm super excited to talk about our citywide street engagement strategy.

Um but before I do, I just want to genuinely thank everyone that has had the opportunity to join us on our coordinating goals.

It's been really nice to see people excited about this work and curious about this work.

And so I know you all are incredibly busy and just wanted to say thank you.

Um to start, we're actually gonna go back to a briefing that was earlier this year around our response system.

In Denver, we have kind of two prongs to how we can get responses to people who are in Denver.

One is what we talked about last time, which is through our Denver 911, that is alternative response, fire, police, um, and paramedics.

So we are not gonna talk about that today with our first responders.

Today we're gonna talk about the left side, which is our 311 portion.

Um, and then specifically the street engagement teams.

311 is used when there is not an immediate crisis or emergency, but there is still a need to get a service delivered to someone or at a location.

Um, so before we do that, uh this is part of our street engagement, or I'm sorry, our all-in-mile high goal, which is to end uncheltered homelessness.

I do want to be clear though that street engagement is not just about homelessness, but it is part of our goal to end uncheltered homelessness.

Um and the part that is uh what we're gonna talk about today is our response time.

It is really important that we are getting responses and being being responsive to people who are asking for our help um through our 311 system.

And so I'm not gonna read everything on here, but we do want to ensure that residents have uh I'm sorry, uh they experience a timely resolution to any concerns they have.

And then again, you're gonna hear me say it probably 50 times today, the right response to the right person to get that need met.

That is really, really important um for our strategy.

Um, and so for 311 street engagement calls, this is a graph over time since 2023.

I apologize for the colors.

I could not change them.

They're incredibly similar.

Um as you can see, the top one, the orange ones, that is from 2023.

We had a lot of 311 calls in 2023.

We are now the red one, which is kind of in the middle.

You do see a spike, which is something that we had anticipated.

We have been asking people and will continue to ask people to use 311 if there is any type of homeless-related call, um, public disorder call that is not an emergency, trash, anything that needs help again that is not an emergency.

Please use 311.

We have a variety of teams that I'll get to in a bit.

Um, and so we do think that that spike is related to our continuous push around use 311.

That is how we're gonna collect all of this information.

Um, and so here are the teams.

This is a multi-agency approach, and we believe this is really critical to getting the work done again in a way that makes sense for the residents, but also the people that we are serving.

And so every morning we have a 9 a.m.

call um where we coordinate on every single call that comes in the night before.

Um so in that call, we go through, as many of you experienced the various teams, and there's a map that will also illustrate this that I'll get to in a second.

Each one of these teams has a specific function.

Most of these are internal to the city, but if you look up at the top right with the street ambassadors, those are partners that we have in the community, such as Denver Dream Center, Block by Block, Downtown Denver Partnership.

They're also critical to the success of this.

Um, and they're across the city.

Not all of these teams has a function every day, but having everyone in the same room allows for us to coordinate in real time.

Something that I think you all probably experience on the call is that even like an abandoned building that might get called in, but there might be people there, and we want to make sure that host is I'm sorry, the office of housing stability is able to go, or Denver Police Department needs to go and check the building.

Or is it actually environmental factor and we need Denver Department of Public Health and Environment?

And so having everyone on that call super focused and going through each call one by one to ensure again we get the right person, the right service.

Um, this is how we go about doing that.

And in the middle, um, someone pointed out mayor's office is not on here.

We're that coordination in the middle to ensure that we have that timely response.

So here's an example of what our uh map looks like.

And so every morning we go through this map.

It is populated through 311 calls, um, and it is divided into police district.

You'll see different colors on the map.

One of them is a blue color.

That is our priority engagement zone.

This is where we have had um majority of the uh when we did house 1000, when we did the encampment resolutions, that's why it's blue.

We've had a huge surge since 2023 of services in that location.

Um then the rest of it is the rest of the city, so we do have priority enforcement locations or I'm sorry, priority engagement locations, um, which tickets will go to that queue automatically if the ticket is um in that blue area.

That queue then has generally um police or Dottie on there because that's usually what those calls will entail, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they can always tap in another person.

Um, and then the rest of city goes to host the Office of Housing Stability to parse out those tickets.

Again, it does not mean those are the teams that are gonna be responding.

It means those are the teams that are responsible for reading through every single one of those tickets and then sending the right team to that location.

Um, and then on the right, you'll see that there is a different map, but it has some of the similar dots.

Those have been flagged as places that have um substance misuse at those locations.

Those are also red, and the right team is dispatched.

Generally, those go to our um behavioral health team to go and work with that group if there is substance use.

But sometimes it is a crime, and that might go to Denver police.

Sometimes there's you know, more nuance to that, and so we will talk about that at our 9 a.m.

call.

So those are the two maps we review every single day.

Like I said, every ticket is read and triaged to ensure that we are getting the right response there.

Um, this is the goal that we had going back to our all-in-mile high slide at the beginning.

Um, our goal is to close every ticket within one business day.

Um, and there's a lot to dig into here.

So the same day is obviously pink.

Um, that is always our goal is to get there.

There is some kind of nuance in the data that we have with this slide.

Um of the things we have we have noticed is that when we get to the location, there's not always people there, and actually, most of the time when we get to the location, people are not.

And so it's really hard, um, I think for the teams because we want to get there and work with the people who are, you know, maybe needing services.

But I think this is also where the residents sometimes are having a hard time being like, but the person left and they came back.

And so that's something that we're working on.

How do we figure out how to operationalize that in a different way?

We really want our teams to be able to make connection.

So some of those are resolutions.

We were able to clean the location.

We were able to connect with that person.

Some of them is it was closed because when we got there, the complaint that was there, or the ticket that had been opened actually is not there any longer.

All right.

Um, and the only thing of note I would say too is you can also see that when people are at the location versus when our Vs are, our time of closure is much longer.

Our Vs are incredibly complicated.

Um, mostly legally to figure out a resolution for, and so those tickets generally have more teams included on them and definitely have more time.

Sometimes they leave voluntarily, sometimes we're able to find a positive resolution, and sometimes there is um, you know, we might need a warrant or someone to come in, and we had a semi, for example, recently that was on the street.

It was a massive semi that was abandoned.

That took us, you know, I don't remember, but multiple days to be able to ensure that we had the right warrant, and then we had fire come out and assess, and then we had to have the public health department come and make sure it was environmentally sound for us to disassemble that on the street and then be able to clean it after.

And so there is some complexity with some of those tickets in that sense.

Um, something else that's really important to us is hearing the voice of the community.

This is on here mostly to say that we would welcome more people to give us responses about how we're doing.

We've had almost, you know, 2,000 almost 500 uh calls that we've been able to respond to and only 38 responses.

This is really, you know, what is it, 1.5% response rate from the tickets.

But I do want to say that I read every single one of these.

Um, and TS also has sends me this at the end of every month to make sure that it's top of mind for me.

Um, we very much value it.

If you were to like, so if I were to break it down of what are the positive responses and what are responses of areas for us to improve, the the areas to improve is it was not actually resolved.

The person came back, they're still trash.

Um, or I never saw the team.

That's generally what we're seeing there, and overwhelmingly, the RV is still there, and that doesn't necessarily mean that we don't care, but like I said, there's a lot of complexities to that.

With the positive ones, it's thank you for responding, this was so great.

And so kind of to be expected, but again, 37 or 38 responses is not that much for us to figure out how do we improve this process at this time.

But definitely care about the voice of community in this.

And with that, I wanted to leave as much time for questions.

Like I said, this is incredibly complicated, and we can double-click on any of this content, but wanted to make sure you all had the information and answers to whatever you need.

That was the quickest briefing I've ever been through, Aaron.

So much for being thorough and quick.

Wanna welcome uh councilmember Torres to our meeting.

And in the queue, we have starting first with Councilmember Torres and then Councilmember Sawyer.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Erin.

Um I have some initial questions, but I might jump in if folks trigger something else.

On slide seven, um, what's the time frame that this is reflecting the daily operations map?

Is it this one?

Yeah.

Um, this is within 24 hours.

Yeah.

What 24 hour period?

Is this supposed to be telling us something about like how many we've gotten, or it's just a reflection of what you look at?

Yes, so it's look at something.

Yes, so it is within the 24 hours.

So at 6 a.m.

it updates.

6 a.m.

Is that right?

Team, I'm gonna phone a friend.

Um, this is from the calls from the previous 24 hours.

So this was a day after that.

And so this is our task for that day is to be able to get these assigned.

Okay.

That's an average day of what your your teams will be looking at.

Yes, it but with a caveat that when these tickets come in, they go directly into Salesforce into the queue.

And so teams could be able to pull these before we're able to direct them.

That is a benefit in the sense that some of these responses come before, like we'll get on the 9 a.m.

and people will be like, I already addressed that call.

That's wonderful.

It is also an efficiency that we need to work through that if this was already addressed, we actually don't need to spend time on the 9 a.m.

Um, and so that's something that we're trying to work through currently.

Okay.

So um, I guess that leads me to my next question.

The next slide, which is slide eight, and you referenced it a little bit, but I'm a little unclear.

Um, how long does it take to get to the location?

Do you know that for the calls that come in that you're tracking?

For a team to get out to that location.

Because um closing a case isn't the same as how long did it take us to respond, and then how long is it taking us to resolve it?

If they're not there, I'm assuming that's a closed case, but that doesn't mean anything to me.

Um, is the question that if there's a ticket, how long does it take for the team to physically get out there?

Um, so it depends.

We have some teams that are 24-7, like police, like parks.

Um, Dottie has a pretty uh enhanced schedule, I would say they start early in the morning.

Um, and so it kind of depends on the team.

This is another opportunity for us to be able to expand.

It's crazy that we don't know that.

Like that we have a call that comes in and we don't know based on who's responding, how long it's taking them to get there.

And and Aaron, if you need a call a friend, there's lots of space at tables instead of yelling across the the pond.

If folks want to come over and sit with Aaron, and if you have data that you can share, and if you don't, that's fine.

But I know we have some really smart people in the audience, and if you don't mind introducing yourself, I think it's a valid question from council member Torres.

Good morning, council members.

Megan Rore, mayor's office.

Uh, you want me to jump in on this?

Yeah, if you want.

So just to give us a it's a great question, and I think we agree with you.

Um, to give a little bit of background on where we are in Salesforce, took about 10 months to deliver or to develop last year.

We started beta testing it in January.

We started using the data really robustly um March 1st.

And now we're going back and saying, okay, what are all the data points that we needed that we didn't know we needed?

Some of them are timestamps where we actually don't have the timestamps on parts of this in the back end for us to be able to say when did they get there for that?

We have a timestamp right now that says when did the call come in and when was it assigned?

And that's what we've been tracking so far is how many hours from the moment that somebody called in, did somebody go in, look at this queue and give it to Megan Rohr on the set team.

We can do that now.

We don't have what you would need for that, really, is like a timestamp for when did that person open that work order in the field.

We do not have a timestamp for that.

We have a timestamp for when they move the status, either to on hold complete, given to somebody else, but we do not have the timestamp for when they get there.

And so totally recognize we should be able to say that we agree with you on it.

That is a data limitation that we have right now that we're working on iterating with with TS.

What does that look like in addressing that time-wise?

We actually have a laundry list, and I'm sure you're going to ask more questions for which I will say great question.

We have a data limitation on this.

We have a laundry list right now that I'm tracking of about 11 different items that we want to want to change about the process that we have because we wanted to give it 90 to 100 days of being in this new process because we had never used this data before before we made any changes.

We just hit that and started asking the teams hey, what's working about this and what's not working about this, both from a data collection perspective, and then our ability to analyze it.

So I've got about 11 things.

We will add this.

I actually didn't have this as one.

We will add this as one.

My guess, given some of the capacity limitations that TS has right now, it will take us through the summer or two, but happy to come back and give updates on that.

Okay.

Um I'd love to understand that a little bit more as you try to figure it out.

Um you talk about, I think it was the next slide three one constituent feedback.

38 people responded to uh the survey for improvement.

Um what are we doing?

Like it's a pretty large percentage that say it's unacceptable response.

What does that mean?

Yeah, so at the end, so when a ticket is closed out, there is an email that gets sent to the person that says your ticket has been closed.

Please take a survey and let us know how we did.

This isn't absolutely notable, um, which is why I wanted to bring it forward to everyone is that we want to be able to say that we are serving the people in a way that makes sense and is making them feel heard and supported and has a resolution attached to it.

Um what it means is that I think two things is one, we need to be more clear about how we're getting teams there.

One of the the things we've been thinking about too is like not everyone knows what our our teams look like or what they wear.

Is that something we need to think about?

Is that a lot of our teams just wear black or blue, and so they don't always know if a team has been out there or if they're coming back, or they you know just drive a regular car.

Is that part of it?

Is part of it the education around here's some limitations we have around working with RVs.

Most of this has to do with RVs, and so is there also a component of educating around, it's not that we don't care, but they are actually moving every day, which is what they're need to do, and and we're a little bit stuck.

Um, and so I I think it's kind of both.

It's how can we actually improve the process to ensure we're getting the needs met, but also where do we need to educate and say our hands are a little bit tied?

We will continue to try.

Okay.

Um, thank you.

Um, just one more um request, I guess.

I know with West Colfax and Law Malin Park, part of my district and a lot of the territory that your teams are covering.

Um, I know we have residents that are making 311 calls daily.

Yeah.

Um, and sometimes that's helpful and sometimes it's not.

In the areas where it's not helpful, they're reporting things about other vulnerable residents, um, like a senior person with a disability property owner or homeowner that hasn't been able to get to their weeds, um, that just isn't able to do it themselves, and it's going to neighborhood inspection.

Um how and when does your team refer to Office on Aging, Office of Financial Empowerment, like to try to keep like a different kind of problem from manifesting from maybe a legitimate 311 complaint, right?

Um, but uh uh it's just going through I think a city process and seniors are getting fined for things that can probably be resolved in ways that um some of our other city departments have been building the preparedness to deal with.

So I just don't know if your teams work with other city departments at all.

Um we do, but I this is an example that we have not seen, and so I think it's worth calling out what we I'm happy to jump in here too, because I used to work for CPD and the neighborhood inspections team.

Um, James Hicks, who is exceptional on that team, sits in our 9 a.m.

Yeah, he's great, he's incredible.

He sits in our 9 a.m.

call, and so we have he he is hearing all of the conversations we're having.

I can't point to what you just said, uh, which is an example where it has come up because of the way it's categorized in 311.

I don't actually think we're getting a lot of those that are something else.

Um, but we can go back to James and see is he seeing that?

Yeah, I think most of it the time.

Um people are living in, so it may not hit James's um kind of portfolio at all.

So um happy to follow up just on some of the examples that we're experiencing right now.

Um, the other is whether or not there can be um properties.

This is one for James probably.

I have another one in Westwood that is a um a vacant building.

He's been trying to get a demo permit.

Um, and it's been taking a really long time to get meanwhile, the house has been set on fire, it's constantly getting broken into.

Like, what are other ways to um almost like um uh PI locations that are magnets uh for folks to just create new and additional problems and and we see we're seeing that in Westwood, um, and I can think of a couple other locations that we notice it.

So um I'd love that kind of tailored conversation if we could.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um we should definitely have a further conversation, but I do want to talk about your neighborhood because you have an interesting dynamic actually in your neighborhood.

Um so we have West Colfax, we have La Alma, and we have Eighth and Le Pan that we are calling ongoing hotspots.

There's not a lot that we can do other than disrupt what is happening because that group is just cycling through those different locations.

West uh West Colfax, we have people coming over from Lakewood, getting services and then heading back over.

So it's an incredibly transient group, but it's the same group, and so we have like an ambassador team that's there every other day, including Saturdays to build relationships with them and say, like, how can we how can we help?

What is this traffic and how can we maybe disrupt that and get you the services you need?

Um La Alma, we also have three teams that are on a rotation that go from La Alma from Colfax all the way down to Santa Fe.

Um, because what we found is that when we have them at the 7th and Louis area, because that's that where that alleyway is, that alleyway has been incredibly tricky.

Um people stopped going there, but then we found that they were actually going in other alleyways, and so we created our kind of our own problem.

And so what we're trying to do is still have teams that are there saying, Hey, what can we do?

You also can't be here, but then having the ambassadors go around, build that relationship with them and see how we can get them connected to services, or or what is it that they're looking for as a community, we can help get you to a community setting and stuff like that.

But but your your neighborhood is tricky in the sense that they are quite mobile.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, I'll jump back in Q if I please.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember Torres.

Uh, what would I like to welcome Council President Sandoval and Councilmember Cashman?

Thank you both for joining.

And next in queue, we have Councilmember Sawyer and Councilmember Flynn.

Thanks, Mr.

Chair.

Um Councilwoman Torres and I have a little bit of the same experience on the two different sides of the city, and so um that's why we worked really closely together with Councilmember Cashman on um the vacant and derelict properties ordinance because um we see the same things in district five.

And I was actually gonna ask a different question, but first let's just go back to this because I think it's really important.

I also am not sure it's your wheelhouse to be the ones to fix it.

So um I think you know what we see is RVs, and they're on Fairmont.

Um, and they're on Valentia, and they are on uh Geneva, which is the border with Aurora, right?

And depending on like legitimately which corner of Geneva and you know you're standing on, you're either in Denver or Aurora, so it's very, very confusing.

And what we find is that everyone just does this.

It's not our problem, it's their problem.

Well, it is our problem because it's our resident's problem.

Um, and our residents are calling us to manage it, right?

So I think that there's um when we're talking about repeated offenders when it comes to RVs, that is your lane.

That is something that we I have made the request in briefings and will continue to make the request.

We have to do something different and better when it comes to RVs because the solutions that we have come up with for all of the other um types of kind of camping and homelessness that we see across our city um does not work for RVs based on the current laws that exist.

Um so there's that piece, and I will tell you guys, we literally had a resident come to office hours and tell us that she went and knocked on the door of an RV and got in an argument with the camper because she wanted him to leave because she was watching him go to the bathroom on the side of the road in front of her house, right?

So, and I bet I was like, you can't please.

We don't know, like for many, many of these people, they are just fallen on hard times and um this is their place to live, but for some of these people, they are dangerous, and we don't know which is which, so please do not engage.

Call 311, we will have someone come and respond.

Um, this is a true story.

This happened last maybe about six months ago in office hours.

Um the challenge is like councilwoman Torres said if we can't report back to our residents and say it was reported in 311 and someone was out there in 18 hours or two days or three months as it has been sometimes.

Um that's not helpful for us, and it's not helpful for them.

So that piece of data we have to have, but it's not just the piece of data that is useful, it's the actual action that has to happen that's not happening right now.

Um and if I hear one more person say, Well, that's Aurora, I'm gonna lose my mind because it's not Aurora, it's Denver.

So there's that piece.

Um, and then I think the second my second kind of follow-up question for you is that we see places where p where it might not be the same person, it is the place where it is attractive.

So my kids go to school in South Denver.

I now they have their driver's licenses.

But before I had to drive them every morning and every morning, I would pass Evans and uh I-25.

And every this is Cashman's district, but every day on Evans and I-25, there is someone camping.

At least one person.

It is rarely the same person.

And I know that they get cleaned up and that they got offered services because I have seen our people out there offering them services.

And then someone else comes.

So it's not about the people, it's about the location.

So, what are we doing about those locations that are particularly attractive?

And therefore, even if it's not the same people going over and over and over again, that place is constantly being um utilized by people who are um homeless and who are either refusing services or um or who just haven't been offered contacted and offered services yet.

Can I take RVs and then you take focus?

Yeah.

Um totally hear you on RVs, and I do want to come back to the data piece because I'm not sure I explain myself clearly.

The data shows us that we are closing these cases in 1.8 days.

So I I can well, I cannot tell you when Megan Rohr set person goes and like talks to somebody, and I do need to get that.

I do think I could go back and get the data on.

We are we are interacting with these people within 24 hours almost all the time.

Um, and we know that because of the way that we're closing cases, even if we don't know when the first contact is happening.

Again, that's not satisfactory, and I will get that, but I do want to say right now, we a hundred percent of the time we are getting assigned within one business day, and then we are talking about everything that has not been closed within three business days, very specifically, and at that point people are already reporting out what they've already tried to do.

And so I couldn't answer that specific question, but I I think except for the Friday to Monday where we have a really hard time with our we we don't have outreach staff right now, 24-7, except for that gap, that I feel very confident that within 24 to 36 hours we are at least making contact.

That does not mean we're answering the residents' concern.

But I I do want to say like we we can prove that pretty pretty clearly now in the data on how we're closing tickets.

So sorry for not saying that clearly.

I just I don't mean to interrupt, but I just want to like let you know.

I think we all hear you.

I also think the 311 system in general is broken, right?

And it is a major problem within our system that residents when when things get closed out to get moved into a cellar for further work, the resident gets an email saying that um that the case has been closed when nothing has been done and it has not in fact been closed.

So we have all like been burned by the 311 case closed system.

So I think part of it is that when you say the case is closed, we don't trust you.

And it's not you, it's a Salesforce issue.

And uh please hear me, that's not meant to be a defense.

I think we are receiving emails every day from residents that are saying you went out and you didn't do anything.

I think I think we recognize that.

That's not meant to be a defense.

I just didn't think I explained that well about what we can report on and what we can't right now.

Um on RVs, I think what would be really helpful next time because again, uh you mentioned this earlier.

If the RV is working, that is a much different problem for us than if the RV is not working.

And I think what we can do the next time that we're in front of committee and and happy to send this around, is get the data on what um how many impounds are we doing quarterly and how many times are we taking action on the ones that we for sure legally can take action on.

Um, that at least will give us a sense of for the hundred times that that happens, 40% of the time we are able to remove that RF that RV off the street versus the 60% of the time that they've moved it the regulated amount and that it's not satisfactory to the residents, and we need a new answer for that.

But I think at least being able to come back to this ordin uh this body and say this is what's happening on that uh in a more granular way is something that I think we can't do today, um, but can work on the data side of the house to be able to explain that because I think it at least helps tell the story of let's hone in on the thing we can solve today.

We can solve if it is not operating, we have a series of tools for that.

Council member, you're right.

If it is operating, we don't have a great set of tools for that.

Um, and would at least like to be able to come back to this body and say, what is the proportion on that?

And so happy to report back on the RV side of the house and hear that that's a real frustration.

Well, and I will just say it turns out you're talking to the people who write the laws in the city of Denver.

So if you have identified a gap where you do not have a tool that works in order to be able to like help support our city goals and the needs and wants of our residents, like that's a conversation we are capable of having to absolutely close that gap.

But like you gotta tell us about it and you know, and be able to kind of give us a real world background pieces on it so that as we formulate a law, we formulate a law that makes sense and is balanced and takes all perspectives into approach and all the things.

That feels really fair, and I think I I we'll hand over to you to talk about focus areas, but I am I wrong in saying we don't have a lot of tools right now for an RV that works.

For an RV that doesn't work, we have some tools, and again, we tried it really hard to connect those people with an all-in-house all-in-mile high site before we're removing the place that they're living.

Like we we've we have officers on the ground that are exceptional at this around uh recognizing that it is a place that somebody has been living, maybe sometimes for years, and how do we honor that and get them into a space that's not as traumatic and make sure that that move's not traumatic.

But on a if it's a moving RV, we don't we don't have a whole lot of tools right now.

Am I am I wrong?

No, you're absolutely right, and I I appreciate the partnership opportunity there.

I think that would be something we should definitely continue to talk about because I it is a point of frustration for everyone.

Um, in terms of the place locations, um, we do have a plan for this, and I will start by saying that we know it's not enough.

There are places in everyone's districts.

Um I could name in everyone's district at least like three hot spots that I am aware of that we are trying to address.

But when it comes to a larger area, we have what we call a focus area.

Um I built a slide just to case.

Um, and so a focus area is a space that we're getting an enormous amount of complaints through 311, but also through council districts, through um people just calling us through DPD, through you know, re whatever, being like this is a problem, but it's not just a bunch of RVs.

It's like, okay, this is super complex, it's gonna take more than five agencies, it might actually take more jurisdictions to be able to come together and really try and find a solution for that.

And so we've done a couple of these.

We have an active one going right now, and so what we do is we look at the location and figure out a couple things.

What is the draw to this location?

Um, and generally it's it's not mine, it's yours, is like always one of the things we come across.

Um, yeah, exactly.

Um, you know, or like there's a bunch of, you know, whatever.

It's gonna be incredibly and it's gonna take a lot of different thought partners and a lot of innovation because if we had a tool that worked, these would not exist.

And so what we do is we say, all right, this has come up on our radar enough that we need to pull together a group, and so it's a multi-agency group of leaders that come together and we really look at that location.

Um, because at this point, we've had so many teams go out that we do have a pretty good idea of what is the behavior that's happening and what is already on the ground.

Like, is this actually we've you know had one where um it was next to a river, so it was really hard to get to, for example, or La Lincoln was one of the examples that we had.

Um, and so what we do is we come together and say, Yep, this really is something that we need to pull some resources, frankly, from some other parts of the city, really focus on how we're gonna get this under control in maybe a way that we have not been able to.

We do an assessment, and this includes everything from what is the behavior that's happening, um, what is the environmental issue that we're experiencing on 10th and Broadway.

Something that happened is that there was also a bunch of just like area that had just a nice place to lay, frankly.

Um, and so it's like, well, this is Circle K, but they were and they were already in the process of putting some rocks there to not be so inviting.

Um, is there lighting that we can take into account is you know, whatever.

What is the environmental issue that maybe we could remedy or have an idea for?

Um, after that, we do a very focused push of resources, and this is not set, we call them team one, two, and three, but basically we want to go and offer everyone services as appropriate.

Um and so, for example, right now we have a focus area at 14th and Pearl running, and so we have our behavioral health team through DDPHE there.

We have our housing stability team host that is out there.

Um, we have an ambassador team that is there, and then we have other teams that are able to tap in as needed.

But having different teams with different skill sets going there throughout the day.

So we have a team from eight until 8:30, Denver Dream Center can work later in the day to be able to really saturate that block to say what is it that you need?

Hey, this is not gonna, you can't just hang out here and openly use drugs anymore.

Can we get you a service or where can we help get you in?

Do you want a housing placement, so on and so forth.

Um, after that, we do have clinicians that go out through DPD and through the roads recovery team to encourage um placement, also do some mental health assessments if that's what that would need.

And then after that, we do have an enforcement strategy.

Um that has become very clear at all these locations is that not only is there people who are using substances, but there is quite a lot of dealing of substances, which is a law enforcement issue.

Um, and so we want to be supportive of people using substances and people who are in need, and we also believe in enforcing when people are dealing drugs.

And so that is a very quick overview of kind of how that focus area would go, and then at the end we do an after-action review to see what did we miss, what did we learn, where did we totally miss like an opportunity to do something, or what did we do really well to be able to do that next time.

Those are a little bit larger scale.

For you, the example you offered, those are so hard because they are so small.

Um, one person, though that is incredibly impactful, and we want to be able to not have you, you know, experience that every day.

We have other locations where there is, you know, 50 people at any given time congregating, and so something that we're trying to figure out too is how do we make sure that we are spreading this around the city so that everyone feels heard and supported, and also how do we use our resources best because the work that we are doing is incredibly resource-intensive, and again, we're pretty limited on the amount of staff that we have to do this work, and so I totally hear you, council member.

Um, and we will continue to monitor when those locations come in.

It does help having the 311 data because we do look at it, and I know it's frustrating, and I totally hear it, but that is a lot of how we make these decisions.

Um we also are work with our partners at CDOT to um see if we are able to go on their property and what that would look like for us to be able to clean, what it looks like for us to be able to enforce and so on.

And so Evans is fine, we have a good relationship there, but there's other places in the city um where we don't have as good of a collaboration, and so we are actively working with CDOT on that as well.

Okay, I I I really appreciate that.

I think it's a little concerning um because I think the biggest challenge we all have is when people refuse services, there's nothing we can do.

And so um that is resource intensive and time intensive, and for them to to just continue is incredibly frustrating.

I can't imagine how difficult it is for our staff members who have to walk away from that when they you know, when they are refused, and that is got has got to be incredibly uh stressful and frustrating for them.

But it is it we are not going to be able to solve that that has to be solved on a state or federal level, and um it's that's not happening, so there's that piece.

Um I think in terms of hearing you say um like well, we have 50 people in some places and we have two people in some places, and so we're gonna go to the 50 places and we're gonna just walk away from the repeat issues at two places, like that's not okay.

That is not okay.

And I understand that you're resource constrained, we are all resource constrained, and also that's not okay.

Yes, and so I I should clarify that's for a focus area to pull that amount of resources.

The Evans and I25 example, we will send a team there every single time.

It is not that we would walk away, it is that we would not do a focus area at a location like that.

So I just want to be really clear about the distinction that we will not walk away, we will certainly send a team.

We would not send a focus area team at that point.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilmember Sawyer.

That's certain if I introduce Council President Sandoval and Council Member Cashman.

If I did, I'll repeat it again.

Thanks y'all for joining.

Could we do that one more time?

One more time for the illustrious gentleman for let's go to Councilmember Flynn.

Uh thank Mr.

Chair.

Um I don't know if you can explain this, and unless it's that you had a small response to your survey, I find it rather confusing that we close cases of individuals and folks with tents.

64% of those cases are closed within one business day, either the same day or a business day.

But in the survey, 59% of the respondents said that they were that was unacceptable or a poor response.

Yet for the uh RVs and vehicles cases, uh we 52%, so a small majority of those uh calls are not uh resolved until beyond two plus business days.

But more people are satisfied with that response.

So I'm kind of flummoxed by that.

So 57% said that this was uh uh very good or excellent, yet it took more time.

Do you have an explanation for that?

Or is that go for it?

Um thank you, council member.

Uh and I just want to call out of that 59%, that's I think roughly 17 responses out of 2500 calls that we've received.

So just want to call that out.

It's it's it's less than one percent of the total calls.

That's our problem, a lot of public outreach.

And I think we would ask, like, please respond more, right?

Like, we we would love to have more so that we can see we're we've got a new process that we're iterating on, would love to have more feedback.

So for the residents that are listening, please let us know.

Um that point, my my hypothesis is, and this might be total conjecture, but for an RV, while somebody may be upset with the amount of time that they're taking, especially if it's broken down, we are permanently fixing that problem, even if it takes us more days, or even if we're asking them to move, the RV is moving off of their block.

Where when a person who doesn't necessarily, and I would love to hear if you agree with me on this, if somebody is not does not want services from us and we have enforced the campaign ban and they have moved on from the property, four hours later they may be back, right?

And so I could imagine that experience as the resident being um less satisfactory, even though it was it happened more immediate because it was a temporary solution to the problem that they had called in about.

Where for RVs, in many cases, and again, not all cases council or council member Sawyer, because I recognize there's a lot there, they are seeing a change.

We are getting a dilapidated vehicle off of their property.

So that would be my hypothesis, but I don't know if that's true.

Do you have a different view on that?

No, I mean I think that's right.

I think something that happens a lot in this survey is that we would go, we would offer services, we would gain voluntary compliance, we would say please leave, or can we get you somewhere else?

They leave, but then they do come back right away.

Um, and so I do think they're like, well, that didn't actually solve the problem.

And it's it's true, it didn't actually solve that person's problem.

Um and so it's something that we're continuing to say, how do we you know continue to outreach that location, or what else, what other tools do we have we can offer?

But it is that the person generally does come back.

Okay.

Or we were not able to find them in the first place.

Those exceptional cases, then uh not a whole lot of them, but where an RV would move a hundred feet or around a corner, but it's still there.

And it took a long time to resolve those.

So I was a little bit confused by that.

Maybe it's it's just a small sample.

But that's a good segue to what I really want to know, which is uh resolution.

How what does resolution look like?

Is it just that we've responded to that constituents uh call and the person has moved or gone somewhere else?

Because to me, resolution, I'd like to see it sifted or sorted into how many people, how many individuals accepted services, how many people got into the host system, how many people got into some sort of uh training, some sort of uh temporary housing, permanent housing.

But I realize that you know once you pass it off, maybe you lose control of it.

But to me, resolution isn't just that they moved.

Yeah, resolution would be that we've got a roof over their heads or some other situation, or they got me connected to family, things like that.

Absolutely.

So is there a way to know that?

Um so I will start and then let Aaron jump in.

The Salesforce program that we're working off of right now, that I will give you some data points off of, is um geographically based, right?

311 is calling in about the corner of a street, and we are going to that corner of the street.

We do not know when we go to the corner of the street, are there three people there, or there's six people there, or are there 20 people there?

And so the data that I can share with you on that will be about what happened at that geographic location.

A thing we struggle with, council member, is that then each one of those teams is actually providing their outcomes by individual in their own data system.

So for hosts, it would be HMIS, right?

For DPD, it would be CAD.

For um our behavioral health team, it's a uh vendor called Patagonia.

And so right now those things don't talk to each other, and so I can give you a little bit on the geographic side of the house, but the question you're asking is one that the mayor's asking us all the time that we're trying to fix, which is right now I can tell you 30%-ish of the time that we show up, somebody is still there.

So 70% of the time that we show up, there's there is no one there anymore, um, based off of the work orders that we have going.

Of when they leave, 18% of the time.

Is that a resolution?

So the big beginning.

And no one's there.

We we would close it, right?

And that would be a resolution because there's no one there.

Right.

Um, right now our data would say 18% of the time when we left that geographic location, someone was still there.

What I cannot tell you right now is what is the sys the um the circumstance of that person because it's geographic based.

Our hypothesis is is that those are almost entirely RV related because we are getting voluntary compliance.

If they if somebody does not, we are offering services first.

If they do not want services, we are then getting voluntary compliance almost all of the time.

And so our hypothesis is that 18% of the time are the RVs that take multiple days for us to resolve because we can't get voluntary compliance that day by law.

Of the 30% of the time that somebody is there, what our data would tell you is some sort of service was offered and accepted there 34% of the time.

So a third of the time we show up, somebody's there, and then a third of those times somebody says yes to us about uh for a service, but that's where it gets really tricky from us on a data perspective, and we recognize the problem with this too, which is I can tell you that happened, but what happened to that person is in a different data system, and right now we can't connect those.

And so construct a way.

Absolutely yes to be able to track real resolution, not just resolution in that there's no one there now.

Understood.

Understood.

And I think we we recognize the problem in that too.

I think it is affecting how we do our operations on that.

So we're in total agreement on that.

The data side of the house is quite tricky, especially when you get into MOUs and who's allowed to see HMIS data and who's allowed to see CAD data.

And so the reason why this data system existed is we actually needed a neutral playing ground for all of these teams because there are so many legal intricacies around, especially law enforcement and our homelessness teams around what they can and cannot share.

And then you put HIPAA and all of it.

And so uh totally recognize this as many gaps in it.

We are patching it together in the best way that we can now and are trying to put together a plan to have something more comprehensive in the future.

What did I miss?

That was right.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

All right.

Thank you so much, uh, Councilmember Flynn.

We have next uh Council President Pretem Romero Campbell, then Councilmember Gonzalez.

Um thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, and uh again, thank you for the presentation.

I did get a chance to, I just wanted to start with I did get a chance to um attend the set meetings that you mentioned in the beginning where you're doing the air traffic controlling and having people um you know kind of talk about where things are at, and I will say it was it was impressive.

I I appreciate um the work that is happening there.

Um I also uh I I won't I won't belabor the point, but I think the point was made earlier by councilmember Sawyer around um how we refer um or how we are able to address um areas where we have um maybe one individual or two individuals um and I know with limited resources still being able to um have those responses um for um for those folks as well um in addition to um all of the issues that are along um the corridor.

So you mentioned Evans earlier, um, but we also have Yale and Hampton and Bellevue and you know 225, where it's just right on the border of the highway and of other jurisdictions, and I think sometimes that gets very muddied as far as you know where are people at and how are we providing those services.

Um I do have a question about a little bit about the process for reporting.

I know one of the things that's been a challenge in um in Southeast Denver is just it's the combination.

So we might have individuals, we would have semis, RVs, cars on blocks in like for an entire block and consistently, and those have been really challenging to try to report through 311.

Um, and I don't know how what is the best way that we can that we can do that.

Yeah, I would say to I know 3011 is is tricky.

I would say continue to do that because we do read all of the tickets, but if there is something that's more complex, like what you're describing, you can send me an email and then I can flag it and we can talk about it at the 9 a.m.

and figure out which teams or how do we need to go about this slightly differently.

Um, but still please do the 311 because that helps us track the teams of who we'll be dispatching to that location.

But you can always flag it for me as well.

Okay.

Um specifically, it's kind of like this entire corridor leading up to the ball fields.

Um, and so when we talk about like an address, it's there's it's hard to tie an address to what is kind of a drive-through corridor.

Um, and so I think that those are some of the the big challenges that we've had um of being able to um uh respond or or you know find ways to um make sure that people get services.

Yeah, we will definitely be contacting your office.

Um I think my other questions, you've kind of answered them in the um responses to other council members.

Um, but I do think again, just to highlight, you know, we have areas where it's the right on the border of the municipalities.

So whether it's on the Highline Canal, um uh again on a corner where you know it's Arapaho County, but it's Denver, um, and somebody walks across the street, and so I think it's just how we can better coordinate.

And I don't know um if you already mentioned this, but is there coordination with other counties of you know, services and and helping folks out?

Yeah.

Um, so there's a couple of locations that we're actively working with other jurisdictions on, and so one of them is over at the navigation campus that's in Aurora, um chambers, it's just a directly across the street um from Councilmember Gilmar's district um and obviously Denver, and so we do have ongoing communication with them and host has a great collaboration with that campus, and how do we work together because they do go across both borders.

Um, DPD also has been pretty plugged in on how can we support because it is so multi jurisdictional there, and then over on 52nd um by the um Clear Creek Trail.

And then over on 52nd by the Clear Creek Trail.

So we do have a standing meeting with them currently to work on some stuff that's happening on that side of the city as well.

Great.

Thank you.

I don't have any other questions, but I again thank you for uh it was impressive with the communication that was happening during your set meetings.

Um I think uh it also led to some resolution um to some um frequent fire um calls that we keep getting um here in Southeast Denver.

So thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Council President Romera Campbell, and my apologies, Councilmember Gonzalez Gutierrez shouldn't be abbreviating names.

Very good.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

Um and thank you again for giving the opportunity to to just observe um that process of like what I would consider like a triage kind of process, right, in the mornings.

Um and so I I stayed very quiet because I just wanted to like take it all in and listen um and and let you all do your thing because I think it's important to be able to see how the process works.

Uh but with regard to the presentation today, um can you because I don't know that I heard the answer to this.

I and I know Councilman Flynn, you kind of brought this up of like what does what is defined as uh resolving a case or closing a case?

Because I've heard a couple of things now that I've been able to pull out.

One is the person's not there, um, one is maybe they take up services.

So like it would be great to get a list of like what are all of the things that define a case closure.

Um, and then from there, I think if you take it a step further further, is what is identified as success, right?

Or as what is that outcome outcome of that?

Um because a person's not there, that's maybe more of a neutral kind of outcome versus a positive like success type of outcome.

And so that that would be um helpful.

I don't know if that's something that you all are working on currently.

I'm happy to take this because it was part of the goals portfolio, um, and recognize we we haven't said this directly.

So, council member, a case closure is someone because of the way that Salesforce works and the way that we set it up, is that someone is no longer at that location.

That is a closure.

I would say we were we are to your point that's neutral, right?

We are hoping for a case closure to be one of the means being we've received we've talked to somebody and we've gotten them into services, but in terms of what is this data tell us when we close a case, it's somebody is no longer there.

We are not closing a case, like that's the ones that are staying open that are longer than a day are usually these RVs where we've realized there's a focus area piece of it, um, and we we are trying to connect somebody that is there that has said they want to receive services and we've put it on hold so that we can work through that with them.

That that's what the data is telling us, right?

So that 1.8 days is to a person is not physically at that location anymore.

We would not say that that's necessarily success either.

We would say that's neutral.

Um success would be we've interacted with that person, we have connected them, we hopefully have gotten them to someplace where they're indoors and can receive services.

That with the Salesforce data is harder for us to actually um report out on right now because again, what happens to that person is put into a different data system.

And so totally hear you.

We we need to work on how that connection happens, but do want to be clear the thing we're reporting out on is resident called because somebody's on corner of A and B is somebody still there, and that is what this data reports out on.

Okay.

So um, along with that and the plant is hopefully somehow to integrate the data from all these these different entities.

And I know Aaron, like we've talked about this years ago at this point, um, around how to have a like one type of tracking system so that you know what those outcomes are, right?

And you can get those measurables.

Um, you know, my former work, um, I worked with various different systems, they all had different ways of tracking data.

And my job was to take all of their data, and I I had to enter into agreements with each of these entities for data sharing purposes, and we had ways where I would have to send them a list, then they would send me the data back, and then I would like do all the things, right?

Um, to to then be able to report it out to our oversight committee.

Um and it was in the realm of human services, right?

So it's it's still working with people and individuals and tracking those outcomes and measurables.

So you know, I don't know where you all are in the works of that, of how you are planning to extract that data, and then somebody, whoever that hub is, and it sounds like it would be you, um, that both of you and whoever else is part of that team to then say, okay, this is where this individual went.

You know, I know there is data privacy um protections and and things like that, and so we just need to figure out like how to get over those hurdles, and are those where are those conversations at?

Because I think that's what I'm hearing from my colleagues is like really wanting to get to that granular and knowing our is what we're doing working, um, and what is effective, and then how can we do more of that, right?

So that we're informing ourselves from a data standpoint of how to like actually address the issues.

Yeah, do you want me to you can go in the middle?

Okay.

Um we have been talking about this, and this is something that I would love to solve.

I think there's a couple ways that we're trying to do it.

Um to add another layer of complexity to this is that street engagement, though this is part of our all-in-mile high goal to end unsheltered homelessness, and certainly people that we work with on the street during this street engagement um outreach work, they are unhoused.

There's also people that we come across that are housed.

And so it's also tricky because we have hosts, like not all the teams actually are working with the same population.

And so, in addition to having everyone have their own systems that they're tracking in, we also have the not every tool works for every person, and so we cannot continue to say, if you're on the street, you're unhoused, house people are fine.

It's like, well, there's still you know other things happening.

Um, so housing status, I guess what I'm trying to say is actually doesn't always matter in terms of how we're working together.

Because we've also integrated other teams like clinical teams, um, to your point, there are other protections, and so we have HMIS, we have CGIS information, um, and then we have clinical information that cannot all be shared.

And so, what we are trying to do through the roads recovery team with that workflow is to get those MOUs and to figure out how we can streamline that.

How we then would bring that up into the street engagement is going to be, I think, a little bit tricky because Dottie, we have parks, we have we have people on the call, James Hicks, for example, who doesn't actually need or is it appropriate to give client-level information to, and so I think in addition to the complexity of how do we braid this data to get the information that you all are asking for, and we are certainly craving ourselves, is and who then needs to have that and how do we integrate that in?

And so we have been having conversations with some other cities.

It's going to be a bigger lift than I think I had hoped.

I think all of us are certainly looking and trying to figure that out.

But I I think in addition to there's a lot of systems trying to figure this out working together, and how do we integrate those and how do we also give the appropriate level to or I'm sorry, the appropriate information to the right person.

And so that is not a great answer, but I think that's just kind of my honest answer at this point.

But Megan, I would defer to you as well.

Yeah, the thing I would add is like where are we now?

Which is we have a monthly standing meeting across the folks that own the data in those different systems, basically visioning out how do we take that next step.

And so we totally recognize the point that you guys are calling out here.

We want to be able to come and report that out to you and honestly have it affect us as well.

I think where we're at in that is the all of the ways to solve this are resource intensive, and which is the right way to do it, which is there's a world where you bootstrap the systems that exist here together, and you have what you just described, which is somebody's just pulling, you have to have somebody that has access to all of that data, right?

And the permissions have all of that data, and then they're manually doing it in Excel.

We could do that.

Um the cases and the amount of cases, and I would even say how we're working on it in Salesforce is so complex to have that come out into a CSV that I I don't know that it would be workable, but that is one end.

The other end of a moonshot system that we're talking about is like the uh the city is invested in software systems like Snowflake that would allow us to build data table brand new data tables and say how can how can we build something new that allows us to look at resident-facing data and look at high um high utilizers of that data and build a brand new system on top of that?

And so we have a monthly standing meeting trying to at least get into a what vision do we think is the right vision.

All of these things will take time and resources.

Do you do something that is faster but is less sufficient in what we would need to actually be doing the work in the way we want to, or do you take the moonshot approach and say, okay, we're gonna build something that is specifically for this in a way that we think that would allow us to report out on that?

And so we're in the middle of that visioning right now.

We owe a we owe a recommendation to the mayor around where that is by the end of the year, and so we can come back and report on where we are on that.

But I will tell you, we're still in the midst of what is the right answer there, because once you start walking down the path, it's really hard to go back.

And so that's one of the reasons why we haven't taken that first step to the bootstrapping side of the house, is we're afraid it's only gonna get us to 40% of our answer.

Do we actually just need to be getting on a longer but maybe better path of a moonshot system that would allow us to do this?

Thank you.

I know it's a huge lift.

I mean, it's there's there's a lot of variable factors, and um I think it would be helpful, I think, for us to just be kept updated in some way because if not, I mean, these questions are gonna keep coming up.

And I know some of these things are outside of our hands, right?

Because they are like laws at the federal level and whatnot, like things like HIPAA and things that we don't we can't necessarily bypass, but we can be creative on how we get to that point.

So um the last um, I guess question that I had um really was well actually two real quick.

The maps on slide seven, um I just wanted to real quick uh refresh my memory on those.

Um so there's a two maps side by side.

Um one map has those are the so the one on the on the right, those are the focus areas.

Or can you can you go through that real quick one?

Yeah, yeah.

So the map on the left is all of the 311 reports that we got in the last 24 hours, and the map on the right is where substance misuse was checked in the report that went through.

So every dot that's on the right is also populated on the left.

And so we flag those intentionally to say which service team is appropriate.

Some of those, I'll be honest, people just check literally everything to try and get services, and so we don't want to send the wrong team, but we do prioritize those for service teams first.

Okay, all right, thank you for that.

And then the last thing is in the appendix, it shows that there are some the the various FTEs that are assigned from different agencies.

Thank you.

Um and I'm wondering how many are there any other staff that are not being accounted for, such as on in the mayor's office?

Because I don't see anyone listed coming from the mayor's office on this list.

And if so, how many folks um are are from the mayor's office that are doing this work?

I'm I'm chuckling just to be transparent because I also left us off of this one as well.

And so I think I need to be aware that I do this work also.

Um so, in terms of the mayor's office, I would say that it is tricky, and I am full-time focused on this.

Megan helps with the data and the goals component of it.

Um, and then but I would say it's us two that are are the most focused with me being the the primary person, but that is a great catch.

And I need to reflect on that.

What I would say about the list is we've done this inventory several times, really trying to get to the answer of we recognize we have gaps in service, and so we spend a lot of time in 2025 saying where are all the people, when do they work, where can they work, right?

Because if you ask us to add this all up, it says somewhere around 130 to 140 folks.

But then when you start looking at it by when do they work?

And oh, by the way, the biggest group on here are park rangers, and so they only work in those locations.

We can't dispatch them to other places.

Um we've done a lot of that inventory.

We feel other than Erin and I being this term here, we feel pretty good that this is the city system that it um that supports us right now, and I think we're very aware of the gaps that it presents.

Not because these teams aren't exceptional, they are working their tails off and doing a great job, but because it gets really hard after 5 p.m.

any night around who can we dispatch and how, and that's some of the inventory we did to see what our opportunities were there.

I I spend an insane amount of time mapping this out around which teams can go where because we don't also don't want teams duplicating efforts when possible, which before Salesforce was happening quite a bit because we didn't have a way to track it, and as you can see, there's a lot of imperfections with our Salesforce system.

But something that has been helpful is we actually now can visualize in a different way.

Oh, this team, this could actually go to different teams.

We only need one team to go, and then you can tap in a different team rather than all three of you going at the same time.

And so we're able to be more efficient with the resources that we have, and that is something that I'm really thankful for that we have now that I just don't think we had as much insight on prior to this.

Um, thank you so much, and you know, I appreciate a lot of the effort that is being made here.

Um, and I think the the last thing is um, I think kind of getting at what some of my colleagues have talked about is like the things that are happening, maybe that aren't necessarily these hot spots, you know, that's not downtown, it's not you know, specific areas, but they're you know, maybe there's a smaller group of folks gathering and whatnot.

Um, I think what that really gets down to as well is like root causes, right?

How are we then?

It's great we're doing all this like intervention work, which you know is absolutely necessary.

We need to do that, but it's like one of those situations where we have to walk and chew gum at the same time, and so we have to address like yes, what is before us, but we also need to figure out how to stop the pipeline, right?

And stop the leak that's continuing to happen.

And you know, because we've had many meetings, Aaron, um, and having those kinds of conversations around you know, getting at what is what are the pressures and what are the challenges that our communities are facing as a whole, and how are we filling those gaps so that those folks don't end up on hard times and don't end up in those situations?

Um, and I know that's like very altruistic and you know utopian type of state of mind, but it is something that I think we can strive towards.

And and I just I worry that we're not, and and when I say we, I mean us as a city, I mean the administration, like where what are we focusing on and where are we truly investing um our resources into?

Um, and it goes back to the same thing that we've been saying the last couple of budget cycles, which is are we do are we um are we paying for the nice to have's or the needs?

Like what are the things that we need versus what are the nice to have's?

Um so anyway, I'll stop there and pass it on to my other colleagues.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Gonzalez Guterres and Council President Sanoval and then Councilmember Torres.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, thank you all.

I appreciate um you highlighting 52nd and um gray street and that it's on the map, and just want to say thank you for going out there.

Um it's such a complicated issue, um, similar to um pro temporo Campbell having not just city jurisdictions, CDOT as an owner of a land, and I just don't um CDOT, in my personal opinion, doesn't always take care of their land really well.

Um so my question for you is how can I, as the representative from that area, get more tapped in, and you could take this offline with me.

But I would love to go to one of those meetings that you have with Arvada and other jurisdictions, and I would love to take Adam Paul from the mayor's office who helps with these intergovernmental issues and is really key on figuring out how and who is best to work on those.

So if you could please um contact me, Erin, directly um after committee this week, so I could get clear my schedule so I could attend those meetings because I um these issues that come up, we create these bike lanes, it's on a bike lane, it's on the river.

Um, and then what's happening is I think a couple of them are now coming down from um the Clear Creek into Rocky Mountain Park.

And what is challenging for me is that when you have um people experiencing homelessness in those there's this perception uh that it's not safe, and that's not accurate, as we all know, crime is going down, and there are people who are having really hard times.

It's really expensive to live in Denver, and it's really expensive in the United States right now.

We have really expensive things happening in our economy, and the economy is not thriving in the way it used to be in a lot of the city services to Councilman Gonzalez Gutieta's point, have been clipped from the federal government, which is hinder how which was not helped, which is impacted us.

So just wanted to go on the record and just say, please can you reach out to me directly?

Because I really would want to go to one of those meetings and see what's happening and figure out how I can use my influence um as the elected representative for those areas, and just want to say thank you to your teams for being responsive and thank you for your teams for having to have to go out at five o'clock.

Um, oftentimes you'll see my staff at RO meetings, you'll see a lot of people around that table, all of our staff after five o'clock in community, because that's when community can be present.

That's when community is not working, that's when community happens.

And so then that means there's gonna be issues in community after five o'clock, and we're gonna have to figure out in this budget crisis that we're in how to address the all of those issues holistically while we're also getting to root causes.

So thank you again for and please pass on my sincere um thanks and gratitude for the workers who have gone out there knowing full well that they were probably and you all furloughed last year and didn't get a merit increase, and we're looking like we might we don't know if we're gonna get merit increases for city certain for city employees, and that's really hard when you're doing this type of work.

Um it's fulfilling in one point, but also getting paid what you deserve is also fulfilling as well.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

President Sandoval and Councilmember Torres.

Thank you so much.

Um just going back to some of the detail in the um slides.

What's the budget for this side of the work?

That that isn't a tough question.

You're not budget this out as one intervention because this is not anyone's full responsibility.

There are some teams where it is, such as host, they have a team dedicated to this.

DDPHE has teams dedicated to this.

But and and Dottie has teams dedicated to this.

But the rest is really this is part of, but not the whole of.

And so to get that number is incredibly challenging.

We have tried to come up with equations that make it make sense.

And to be honest, it's kind of a ballpark.

It's not perfect.

But because this is not a full-time dedicated team, it's gonna be a hard answer to get you.

But it's a super fair question.

And and something I think we need to drill in on a lot more to understand what are we spending on all in mile high?

Um, and is it is it the value that we need to see produced out of um out of what we're seeing in our neighborhoods?

Um the um because I know it bleeds into a variety of other things.

We just extended, I think for the eighth time, the motels contract, right?

Um are we gonna need to do it again before the end of the year?

I don't even know.

Um so some of those things um um just feel vague, and I I feel like we're just constantly um uh seeing a balloon kind of expand on this.

Um I counted 84 current staff in the list um that's in the appendix um uh that are somehow associated with street engagement.

Um 94 authorized.

Um are those 94 positions budgeted?

Because it look like the DDPHE 5 C hot positions, if you can help me understand what that is, are in hiring, but so wondering where in that process they're at.

Yeah, so those are the clinical homeless outreach team that will be um with the hot team, the homeless outreach team with DPD.

Um, so we have our co-responder team, which is dispatched through 911, they ride with police, and that is through the 911 system.

With the system that we have here with 311, um, and you're welcome to come up and speak too, um, is that we do have the hot team that that is a team that is focused on this.

They get pulled away for other police work as emergencies happen, but that team is is highly focused in district six on this work.

The clinicians will be riding with them.

We think it's important though that um the officers have access to these teams.

We actually want to have a clinician with that team to do some of that mental health work and and mirror it off of the success we have with the co-responders, and so they are actively hiring.

I believe they hired a supervisor for it, but I'm not sure.

But the positions are currently posted.

Okay.

And then the other positions are hiring or are they being held vacant?

Um the majority of them are still going to be hired, but I would have to look through and see specifically which one it is.

I know one of the hot officers um recently got a chief job, and so I I just um the and I get what you're saying in terms of some of these uh teams do not work 100% on all in mile high street engagement.

I'm looking at the 33 Rangers, for example.

Um, but it I don't know if you don't know how much time they're spending on all in mile high work as opposed to other parks and recreation enforcement, um, that we know how much we're spending on this.

Um and so I that remains a puzzle for me that is is just gonna be an issue, I think, if we don't truly know the cost of all in mile high because it sits in so many different kinds of buckets, then we're not able to track or know.

It's taking 20% of our rangers' time or 50% of their time uh spending on the all-in mile high calls that are coming in.

Like that's important for us to know about.

Um so just just want to share, I think that um concern question that I've got kind of going forward.

Oh, go for it.

One thing I would say on this is I it's a great call out.

I think we've gotten much better at, and I know Cole Chandler has been in front of this body a couple of times, reporting out on the supplies and services side of the house.

I think we do have a really good sense of what we spend on all mile high on that side.

I think to your point around how do we prorate what an officer what a D1 officer is doing on any given day for street engagement, I think we've really struggled with.

I think we can come back and come with some estimates, but unless we're tracking it at the hour by hour level on somebody's time card, every week is incredibly different.

I mean, for this this week, right now, I I think this morning we had 77 open cases.

Last week we had 32 at one point, and so I think it's just so variable that happy to come with some some averages, but I think that would be the best we can do just because it is so variable if we weren't going into somebody's time card and asking them to code it.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think that matters for us to know do we need to carry this much of a staffing load year over year?

Yeah, or or can we start pulling back from some of those things, or do we need to increase them?

Like, so those are the that just a budget question for me.

Um sorry, can I respond to that too?

So I think another way, because this is something that I've been struggling with is like how do we get everything really tight and organized?

And I think that's something I've came to realize through talking to some of the staff, is that I don't know that staff always say, well, this is for all in and this is for this.

I think they see, for example, Ralph is here with Dottie, you know, there is trash, and whether that came through 311 or somewhere else, it's it's still the same resolution, right?

I'm still gonna clean it.

And so I I think that there's also this way to look at it is the park rangers are going to enforce and they're gonna support regardless if it came through 311 or not.

And so this is a tool of how are we responsive when there needs to be a resident come thing?

You know, that's a good point because our residents don't care.

They don't care where it comes from, but but their scope stays the same, and so also there's been times where DPD, for example, it might not be a 311 call that came in, so it's not an all-in, but they'll still call us and say, can we deflect this person?

Can we get them connected?

And so I think there's that other perspective around like do we owe that to you all into the community?

Yeah, I think it's a super fair question, but does it also make sense for us to talk about this as a continued system because the scope and the responsibility and the response of these teams is the same regardless.

And so I just want to offer that perspective as well.

And the one thing I would add too, I agree with everything Aaron just said, I would liken it to um the interagency we work we do with PI as well, which is depending on the site of where it is, you may have Dottie that spends a tremendous amount of time on one site and no time on another.

Um, and so we also owe it there too, because I think you guys have asked us before what's the budget for PI, and really PI and this are a prioritization tool more than they are an allocation tool.

That person is doing the same function building.

So, like that's why this matters in a different way.

Totally understand, Councilmember.

I think the point I would make on the FTE though, is almost none of those FTE were hired specifically to do all in mile high, they were hired functionally.

We are now prioritizing their time on street engagement, but they weren't hired to support this, they were existing personnel like the park rangers.

And so if this weren't here, they would still have 33 park rangers, they may have more.

It's just a prioritization of how they're spending their time.

I think that's accurate.

And if they're if they have the time to spend on other things that are happening in parks, right?

Um, so um thank you for that.

Um I'll just go really quickly through my last two.

Is there any different response and you can follow up later after emergency emergency sheltering when folks are transported to emergency shelters?

Is there any additional outreach that's done after that emergency is done or while it's happening?

Um, because uh folks are being driven to seventh and Bryant and then there's tons of attrition and folks are kind of uh peeling off.

Um, or uh the emergency sheltering need is done and Sun Valley, Valverde, um uh I don't know if there's an increase in calls.

Like, is there any different kind of response um once there's an emergency sheltering situation?

For the service for how we support that group after the emergency, that is a good question, and that would actually be with host, and so I'm happy to ping host and ask them to follow up on that.

Yeah, thank you.

Um, and then after um, I'll just ask you to let me know how to ensure increases in complaints get to your entire team.

Like I know you're plugged in on eighth and la pan.

I'm getting a lot of complaints about La Alma Park again.

Um and so and and so I'm sending those in most cases to DPD.

Um, but I want to make sure like it is at the like at the core of your conversation.

So if there's a different person or Aaron, if that's you, um, if I just need to uh I just want to know who's the top of that heap so that I'm I'm not like sending it out to multiple people and it's never making it to your to your plate.

Yeah, please send it to me.

I have a big whiteboard in my office that has la pan written all over it and La Alma so send it to me, I keep track of it, and then I stay in constant conversations with the teams um to make sure we're being responsive.

But absolutely, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember uh Torres.

And and I'll add one piece as to why the uh um kind of pirata view of all in mile high is essential.

It's essential because it's an elevated program initiative, whatever the actual official term is that the administration is identifying and elevating to communicate impact, positive impact to folks that are unhoused.

P and I is a targeted initiative that rotates.

So I think there has to be uh a way in which we are looking at uh parata um data because if our park rangers, for example, are spending four hours on this a day.

Are there other um supports in parks across the city that that um um ability and time could be used differently?

Are they best used in this concerted effort, or are they better used for all of the other needs that we have throughout our parks?

So I think finding a way to do that, especially for all in mile high, especially because that's an elevated target initiative, highlight priority will be helpful.

So I look forward to coordinating with y'all on um making sure that we can find some way of communicating that um time interest cost as part of a budgetary, and no need to respond, but this that's is a larger discussion, but I'm with councilmember Torres.

I think that is extremely unique, and I think um our residents are expecting a little more of a thorough um review of kind of pro rata time based on capacity management for those teams.

So we have Councilmember Cashman that jumped back into the queue and then Council President Sandoval will close us out.

Yeah, thank you, uh Committee Chair.

Uh I just wanted to give a meet too on the the need to know what we're spending, as difficult as it is to assemble that.

For me, it's simply if I if I sit uh in an uh uh neighborhood meeting with a registered neighborhood group, and someone says, How much are we spending on homelessness services?

And I say, Yeah, you know, it's tough to tell.

That that does not wash.

So best you can do would be great greatly appreciated.

That's thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Cashman.

And Council President Sandoval.

Thank you.

Um I have one thought.

Have when you were having the conversation about um sales sales point or sales, I can't remember what it's called.

What Salesforce?

Yeah, Salesforce.

Have you used Peak Academy?

Have you gone through a peak academy and have you sent Peak Academy a problem statement and worked with our Peak Academy?

We had a situation on city council for our state ledge, and we used Peak Academy and they came up with a really cool process.

And we were so glad to have used that service.

Have you used have you used that service for Salesforce?

Coming up with like how to integrate all the data and collect all of it.

Yeah, so early, early when um the street engagement director, Andy Phelps, when he was here.

He this all started actually with Peak, so I love that you brought that up.

Um and they were able to do some initial mapping and then that transferred into a different process.

But I I love Peak and that certainly would use them every time if I could.

But yes, that's a great call out.

And yes, we did use them early on.

So would we would it be appropriate to go back to them now that you have it up and going and saying, hey, now we're at the second iteration where we need your help to come up with how to figure figure out and aggregate all of this data so that we can collect it in a different way and have it aggregated in a different way.

I would absolutely love to be have them at the table, um, council president.

I think at the table, they usually lead it.

I the problem, the problems that we're seeing right now are actually like legal requirements.

And so uh we've been working with CAO around how do we do data sharing across groups that are not allowed to have the same data is is the big hurdle that we have right now.

Again, I think once we have legal answers, they would be exceptional on what is the process piece.

But I think our biggest barrier right now is the legal side of the house.

Well, that's the first time we heard legal.

So that's an that's important um point to have brought about.

You didn't say that the last time.

Okay, thank you.

And then I'll just um third, I know we only have first and second, but all third, the point that I really do believe we need to know how much we're spending.

Um I look forward to finding that out in the budget book and just um know that if it's not and it's not clearly delineated, those will be some of my questions during budget hearings, is I do need to know.

Because you're correct, if you're allocating resources right now for park rangers to go out and start doing homelessness initiatives, and their job is to be park rangers in the park, they're not doing something that their job description was told to do as park rangers.

And you just said park rangers are doing homelessness work and doing part of this whole triage of things, which I understand.

I just had a huge encounter out in Rocky Mountain Lake yesterday, and I texted my constituent this morning and said, is it gone?

And parts of it are gone, the trash isn't gone, but the people have moved on, and I'm sure that was the park rangers who had to do that.

And when I was here and started when we got park rangers, that was not part of their job description.

Their job description was very much different.

So if they're if other resources are being pulled from other agencies and they're helping with this initiative, um, it's I get that it's hard to budget, but it's really important for us to know that because then that means we might need more park rangers who actually do park ranger jobs.

Um, because I don't think a lot of them are hired to do um help with situations of people experiencing homelessness.

That's not their field of expertise.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So much, Council President Sandoval.

One quick question for community solutions.

Have y'all had any engagement with kind of their practice?

I know for Bill for Zero and other work that they have done, they have um I think effectively leverage, I think HMIS and other tools to identify their success rates for uh veterans that are facing on um homelessness or that are unhoused.

Curious as to what that integration has been, if any, um with community solutions.

Yeah, so we are meeting with them.

That is more of in Cole's realm of work right now, not so much with the street engagement, but I think it's a good call out, and we actually meet with them, I think maybe next week.

Um, but but I also I just want to respond to I think two of the things I just heard is that though this is an all-in-mile high, something that we are realizing is that not everyone that we're working with, actually quite larger group than we initially anticipated, are actually housed.

And so I also just want us to be really mindful that this work is not just people who are unhoused and that the trash and the public disorder that people might be experiencing is actually not just houseless people and that it is it is a larger group.

So I just want to be mindful of that that oh, I totally hear the ask and totally understand why you would want that, and we owe that to you.

I also just want to be clear that these are other house residents of Denver that are also part of these calls that these teams are responding to.

And so I just want to have that frame as we go into this budget.

Well, I've got to tell you, I think we appreciate the work.

I sat through the kind of the action meeting um and saw all of the coordination.

Um I think that's uh a ton of work you're doing, and I elevate and appreciate kind of that good work.

All of the folks that are on that call from all the agencies, I can see specifically in District 9 some of the hot spots that we have, how you've coordinated.

So I think you're gonna receive applause from our offices here.

But I I think the situation that occurs is when you have the umbrella of an initiative like all in mile high on this, and we have actually within the budget book a um budget for that.

If we describe things within that construct, um, there's going to be a budgetary request.

And so maybe we find other nomenclature as far as this initiative going forward, but now if it's under all in mile high as far as the presentation, the budget is tied to that.

And with that, I want to say thank you all again for being here.

Um we have two items on consent that have not been pulled off.

Meeting is adjourned.