Colorado Springs, El Paso County officially approve agreement for cleanup of illegal homeless camps

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- By unanimous votes Tuesday, the City Council and county commissioners passed an agreement that allows the city to clean up homeless camps for the county, with certain stipulations.

As KRDO first reported three weeks ago, the county can request that the city clean up camps within a mile outside the city limits; the county will reimburse the city for costs associated with cleanups.

Officials believe that the agreement exemplifies cooperation between local governments and a more efficient use of resources; the city has a dedicated staff for homeless camp cleanups while the county does not.

According to data provided by the county, the city cleaned up 1,544 illegal homeless camps last year, while the county had 31; officials believe that most camps are along the city-county line.

Jamie Fabos, chief of staff for Mayor Yemi Mobolade, said that the city and county spent two years discussing the agreement.

"This is based on resident feedback," she explained. "Residents don't know the difference between the city and the county, and few of us know when you've crossed over kind of an imaginary line. They just want the homeless camps addressed, and that what we committed to doing. We are permitted to clean only up to a certain point when you get to a city/county boundary. And so, what you end up doing is pushing a camp back that will always spill right back into the city as soon as our code enforcement crew leaves. And we wanted to eliminate that, and kind of make our teams more effective."

Commissioner Stan VanderWerf agreed, saying that cleaning the camps should be a priority.

"They are a public safety and fire risk, certainly on the West Side, for the residents around the homeless camp, but they're also a public safety and fire risk for the residents in the camp," he said. "There are people in these camps who get preyed upon by other people. So, these are risky places for everybody."

Council members expressed concern about how often the city would clean camps in the county, and whether doing so would strain city resources.

"It's hard to speculate how many camps the city could clean up, but I would say that the city has the ability to decline our request to clean up a camp," said Mindy Schulz, the county's manager of strategic services. "They can say that they don't have the resources or the time tight now."

While commissioners voted for the agreement, the City Council considered a motion to reduce the coverage area to a half-mile beyond city limits.

"The county has a lot of resources," said Councilman Dave Donelson. "If they have 31 camps, I think the county can hire a few people to go out there and clean them up, if that is their urgent desire to do that."

The motion failed, however, and the council decided to support the proposed agreement as presented.

Another concern expressed by some Council members, is that there should be more focus on why there are so many camps.

"There is more to address with the problem of homelessness and the reason we have camps," said Councilwoman Nancy Henjum. "And we need to be joining with the county to work on that together."

Councilwoman Yolanda Avila asked for public comment on the matter before voting, and one citizen spoke to suggest a strategy for reducing the number of camps.

"There's a common sense solution to this that hasn't been considered," said Christopher Bonham. "Plenty of other cities are doing this. Set up secure campsites. It's a step forward and one way to deal with it."

But local law enforcement agencies are opposed to secure campsites because of the risk of violence among occupants, and Donelson wasn't keen on the idea, either.

"What I don't think we should do, is make it barely tolerable to live outdoors," he said. "Because there are lots of problems with sanitation, disease. There are too many places where it isn't safe for citizens to go because of what happens in these camps. That's not how we should be living."

Schulz said that most of the county's camps are on private property, and those property owners have to give consent to allow city crews to clean the camps.

She said that the county hires contractors to clean up those camps and the property owners have to pay for the cost of the work.

"We did create a program this year that would assist private property owners in the cost of that cleanup," Schulz revealed. "We can reimburse up to 15%. No one has applied for it yet."