With more shelter beds, new Springs Police chief aims for more enforcement

Over the past week, we’ve seen temperatures hit frigid low temperatures, and the extra shelter beds added in Colorado Springs in November last year have helped in giving those experiencing homelessness a place to stay.

“The extra beds have been extremely worth it,” said Travis Williams, chief development officer for the Springs Rescue Mission.

Williams said so many people came to stay last week that only six beds were open out of the 450 they have available.

“In October, for example, we had to turn around 30 people away from being able to seek shelter. So since having these extra beds, it’s been extremely important since we haven’t had to look anybody in the eye and turn them away,” Williams said. “That’s a big deal.”

With more beds open, members of the CSPD Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) are trying to get people into them.

“We’re trying to get those filled through the outreach as much as we can,” said Vince Niski, CSPD’s newest chief.

Niski was named in early February to succeed Pete Carey as the new chief of CSPD.

One of his goals is homeless enforcement.

“We are going to enforce more,” Niski said. “Obviously when there’s bed space available, we can’t force people to go, but [what] we can do is try to influence them through enforcement to not have them be in a place where they’re not supposed to be.”

To help out, Niski added another person to the Homeless Outreach Team and has had conversations with El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder to do the same. This is because of camps and people being cleaned up, only to be moved from one place to another.

“So hopefully, when he gets a body in the homeless outreach team, we can actually start solving a few more problems, rather than just moving them back from the city to the county,” Niski said.