10 08 25 Loveland Mayor Jacki Marsh talks about using city hall to shelter homeless

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's Morning News. Loveland City Council held a
virtual meeting last night about the issue of homelessness. Many
praising Loveland's Mayor Jackie Marsh for opening the doors of
city Hall to the homeless, as the only homeless shelter
in the city of lovelngth closed last week, while others
said she didn't open her doors in open city Hall
without the authorization of the city manager, and some have
called for her resignation.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Joining us on the KWA Common Spirit Health Hotline is
Loveland Mayor Jackie Marsh. Mayor Marsh, thank you so much
for your time this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
You're most welcome. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
When you first had this idea of bringing the homeless
individuals in, who did you talk to, what interactions took
place before it led to what has now been a
really big blowback in what ended up being I guess
a controversial action done by you.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Well, I guess a little bit of background. You know,
I had spent the night with our unhouse outside City
Hall Saturday night, so I knew how brutal forty three
great temperatures were when the weather was dry. So Sunday,
you know, I was following the weather, expecting only about
a thirty five percent chance or brain starting at nine pm,

(01:11):
which I wasn't really worried about because people can temporarily find,
you know, get underneath and eve or something like that.
But as the day went on, the forecast changed from
rain from seven to ten and then six. So I
went back to city Hall where you know, the tents
were set up, and with the help of some of
our in house we moved a lot of the items

(01:34):
that would have been damaged with rain, you know, food
and paper, towels, and basically moved that all into a
community supply tent. I started reaching out to our city
manager and city attorney. My first text to them was
three twenty two in the afternoon explaining my concern over

(01:56):
the weather forecasts and asking if I could move them
inside if it began to rain, provided I found people
to help me supervise. So we went back and forth.
You know, once it starts started raining, I mean, you know,
that's where I in my shoes. I believed I had

(02:16):
to make a decision if they if they get wet,
then they're you know, their personal items, because not it
not everyone had a tent for shelter. So when people
get wet, how do you dry them off? So once
it started raining, the city manager was trying to open

(02:39):
our temporary shelter, what's called the Loveland Resource Center. However,
you know staff, you know, understandably it's a Sunday afternoon,
early evening, we're not responding to calls and email, you know,
because they're out and going their weekend. They assume so
at any rate that the city manager was trying to
get the l RC open, And later in the evening

(03:01):
I did get a text, I think I saw it
a little bit before nine pm that you know, they
could find two people to staff the LRC. But at
that point it's pouring down rains and there's no way
to get them from city Hall to the l RC
without them getting soaked. And with the unhoused, you know,

(03:24):
they are not going to leave their belongings at city
Hall and go to another facility. So it would have
meant moving their belongings as well as them, and I
didn't have the means to do that.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
We can talk, we can talk more about the merits
of what you did and the reaction to it, but
how big is homelessness in the City of Loveland?

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Mayor you know, Larimer County did a study recently. I'd
say total maybe it's about seven hundred, but that number
is people that do have includes people that do have
temporary maybe sharing house with somebody sleeping on a couch.

(04:03):
I would say active is maybe closer to one hundred
and eighty to two hundred people.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Mayor Marsh, I know yesterday during the city council meeting
there was a lot of back and forth, some supporting
your move, some highly against your move. What would you
say to council members who say, well, you could have
invited the homeless into your house instead of into a
city building, and when it's after hours, some people even
claiming that that's trespassing in some ways.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Well, to be clear, I have in the past invited people.
I had a family living with me for several months
years ago when I had a shop on Fourth Street
and lived above it. So I have done that. My
house could of told you know, the amount of people

(04:51):
that were at city Hall, and again, how do I
get them here? You know that's the problem. Then house
have mobility transportation issues. You know, they walk or they bicycle,
that's their means of getting around town. I think one thing,
one of the callers I mentioned last night, these commenters

(05:12):
who phoned in a misunderstanding. There's a lot of misinformation
out there. Was the implication that people, the people who
stayed over had access to private areas in city Hall.
That's not true. If you go into city Hall, there's
a lobby, you know, a waiting area, there's hallways, and

(05:35):
then there's city council chambers themselves and bathrooms. All the
departments Finance HR all of the any department is behind
locked doors. So all the unhaus access to is the lobby,
the hallways, the bathrooms, and city council chambers. No personal information,

(06:00):
no private information. So you know, you know, people get
upset when they don't have the Complease.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
I believe, how are resources for homeless there in Leveland
it sounds like you have a temporary place you were
going to activate, couldn't do it in time. The one
that you had, whether or not it's permanent, I don't know,
was closed, but sounds like there's a thirty day extension
on that. Is there a real lack of resources to
have this? Is this a will or skill issue for
the city of Leveland to look out and see what

(06:28):
they can do and provide for the homeless.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Well interesting put it that way, because obviously, you know
what we spend money on is our priorities.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Right.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
We had a back in twenty twenty two, we had
a number of businesses kind of you know, come to
city council asking us to do something because it was
affecting their business. We had some large encampments in some
of the business areas on open lands but closed to businesses,

(07:00):
and so we directed the former city manager to come
up with a solution. So in twenty three we opened
up the South Railroad facilities, as some people call it,
tent city, and there were we purchased FEMA tents, which
are large tents that can comfortably fold five cots, so

(07:23):
five people was provided obviously blankets and those things. They
had the addition of heaters and air conditioners for tough weather,
so we provided that. And I'm going to divert here
a little bit. When when we did that, people that

(07:46):
you know, people that are in house have very limited
capacity to hold on to their belongings because everything has
to go with them, you know, when they leave the
you know, of the South Railroads facility to go to
the library of the community kitchen, had to take those
things with them. There's very limited ability to do store things,

(08:09):
so people didn't hang on to their tents and didn't
hang on to their sleeping bags, clothing in their backpacks,
and to be seasonal. So we stood this facility up
and during good weather, forty to fifty people was the
average nightly you know, visitors to that. During poor weather,

(08:30):
of course, that balloons and there are a lot more people.
So that became active in April of twenty three and
that's what we've been using. So twesday, a week ago,
we closed that and you know, basically booted everyone out
and locked the door. And again they didn't have you know,

(08:51):
they didn't have outdoor equipment at that point because they
hadn't needed it or Marshall.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Unfortunately, we're almost out of time here, but I do
have one one final question for you and then maybe
we can have you on further to talk a little
bit more in depth on it. But if the weather
did take a turn for the worse, would you be
willing to do this again?

Speaker 3 (09:14):
If I were in that position where you know, I
don't you know, can't get the lovel and Resource Center
open at the end of the day, I have to
live with myself. I know how cold I was in
dry weather. Do I could not have driven away, gone
home to my warm home in bed, and left all

(09:37):
of those people to send for themselves without proper equipment,
and quite possibly be physically harmed by being out in
the exposure.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Lovely Mayor Jackie Marsh, thank you.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
You're most welcome.