“Save HomeWard Bound” An Open Letter to the Grand Junction City Council

Dear Grand Junction City Council Members,

I do not envy your position at this moment in history, the short-sighted and ultimately cruel policies of the Trump regime are starting to manifest into real world consequences for Grand Junction and the Grand Valley.

The federal grants that Homeward Bound depends on have been drastically scaled back, which is the cause of the impending permanent closure of the North Avenue shelter.

The North Avenue Shelter has provided an essential service to this community since 1998. As the homeless issue has waxed and waned over the decades it has always been the constant, it was always there taking in the most vulnerable.

The unhoused folks that make use of the shelter are largely the most vulnerable: single women, elderly, mentally and physically disabled, those recovering from major injuries/surgeries/illnesses, those with jobs who need to shower daily, parolees who need a physical address, and so many more side-cases. 

For years now homeless advocates that have objected to camp sweeps and park closures have been fed a line of rhetoric about how we have plenty of services, and those not accessing those services are just choosing not to, and therefore justifiably subjected to punitive and legal actions. Advocates have long pointed to credible and repeatable studies that have found that the homeless population in the Grand Valley is over 2000 persons while pointing out that a mere 150 beds is wholly inadequate. 

But now with the partial closure and the projected permanent closure on the horizon this justification is no longer available, and the most vulnerable are going to be on the streets this winter, in addition to the 1800 people or so that already find a way to exist without using the shelter on a daily basis. 

It’s hard to predict the ultimate price of this closure, we have gotten very accustomed to the North Avenue Shelter just being there doing its thing. We should expect to see increases in police calls, ambulance calls, ER visits, incarceration costs, etc. It’s going to cost unhoused people attempting to pull themselves up by their bootstraps their jobs, it’s going to cause people to relapse on their sobriety, it’s going to cost people their stability and their ability to remain med compliant.

It’s going to cost all of us, business owners, workers, tax-payers, unhoused folks, far more than it would take to keep the doors open. 

It’s real simple: desperate people will render desperate deeds.

Everything has to go somewhere, and they will go somewhere even though there is nowhere for them to go. They can’t go to Whitman, the Hang-out is closed, the Resource Center is gone, and now the only emergency shelter in town is closing permanently.

This problem is only going to get worse. Thousands of Grand Valley residents are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits and healthcare in the next couple of months. Wages are stagnant and according to the City’s own data 55% of wage earners in Mesa County cannot afford rent on the free market. I’ll say it again, more than half of all workers don’t get paid enough to live here! In the coming months we are going to see a massive rise in the numbers of our coworkers, neighbors, and friends becoming unhoused. It’s going to happen.

I’m sorry the burden has fallen on your shoulders to do something, but the fact is nobody is going to swoop in and save us, we as a community will have to figure this out. Inaction is untenable. My hope is the City Council will follow the lead of the community which heroically raised $150,000 dollars to save the shelter. Some donated because of their compassion, but many others from a pragmatic point of view. 

Whether it’s pragmatism or compassion that moves you, we must fund the North Avenue shelter, the human, social, and economic cost are simply too high not to step in and help Homeward Bound continue to provide this clearly essential social service for our community. 

I would like to remind the council that the city’s ordinance that bans camping, 12.04.080, is not enforceable if “there is no available overnight shelter.”

Inaction or a vote against funding North Avenue Emergency Shelter is in essence a vote to legalize camping in our public parks. 

The funds are available, the city recently put an additional $17 million into reserves, this is certainly a community emergency worthy of tapping those funds.

Thank you for your service to the community,

Jacob Richards