This is a developing story.
The City of Boulder will not open a temporary 24-hour emergency warming center for people experiencing homelessness during the impending severe winter storm, which is anticipated to bring potentially large amounts of snow by the end of the week. However, the current main shelter will increase its capacity, according to city officials.
“The severe weather protocol will be used this weekend as it has for other similar weather conditions this season,” Kurt Firnhaber, the city’s director of Housing and Human Services, said in an email.
Changes to the protocol are triggered when forecasts show winds above 70 miles per hour, a daily high of 20 degrees Fahrenheit or below, a nightly low of 10 degrees Fahrenheit or below, or six inches or more of snow.
As a result, the city’s largest shelter, the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless in North Boulder, will expand capacity and hours in response to the anticipated severe weather conditions. The shelter is typically closed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is set to increase its capacity to 180 people from 160, without turning anyone away through coordinated entry.
The protocol will start Wednesday night, March 13, and extend until Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. The shelter will remain open during daytime hours on Thursday, March 14.
Dozens of people stayed at an emergency overflow shelter opened by the city and Boulder County in January 2024, as temperatures dropped to dangerous lows.
The city, meanwhile, has announced the closure of all its facilities on Thursday, March 14.
Where do people that can’t access or haven’t yet accessed coordinated entry? Also are hotel spaces available for greater than the overflow of 180?
To be clear, exactly who will be turned away from the homeless shelter, whether by capacity or other restrictions? And precisely what are those restrictions?
Hi Lynn, I’m the community resource connector at the Boulder Public Library. I don’t speak for the city but I’ve come to know the system quite well.
The shelter runs intake for most clients between 5pm and 7pm (they’re limited by neighborhood opposition to more intake hours) and usually has a capacity of 160 (180 during this last storm).
Most likely, the folks turned away will have waited at least an hour for results of the lottery and then be on their own (BSH sometimes has RTD Passes sometimes not) to find shelter. This also often strands them in North Boulder.
While employed at the shelter I was often put in a position to say “NO” to folks who arrived after 7pm, no matter the weather. It was really disturbing and to be quite honest, a policy I often ignored as there were almost always dozens of vacant beds as a result of more long-term clients not showing up for their reservations.
Seems to me if there’s a bed someone should be in it, right?
Josh – yes, fill those beds! It’s insane for people to go all the way out there in freezing weather just to be denied and stranded even when it’s at capacity, nevermind when they’re just a few minutes late. Can you tell me anything about their new “Conditions of Stay” contract? What is in it, and will it apply to all users of the day shelter?
No edit is available. Forgot “go”. Where do people that can’t access or haven’t yet accessed coordinated entry go? They are turned away and have to be exposed to the elements at night when the library is closed?
I wore thermal underwear, jeans, t-shirt, a light jacket, heavy winter coat, wool-blend socks, boots, two pairs of gloves, and a knit ski mask (balaclava). My bedding included a small tarp as ground cover, a sleeping pad, zero degree-rated sleeping bag, two GI-surplus wool blankets, a big comforter, a camp pillow, and a large tarp over it all that was staked down securely from the wind. Even at temps below zero woth several inches of snow and a strong breeze, I stayed warm in my burrow. (I also used a hospital-style urinal overnight so I didn’t have to leave my comfortable bed.)
That must’ve been brutal. I’m glad you survived and hopefully you have a roof over your head today! 🙏
Lynn, they are saying people won’t be turned away because they haven’t done coordinated entry. It’s being waived for the severe weather period. Whether an extra 20 bed capacity will be sufficient is unknown. What they will do if capacity exceeds 180 also unknown. Last report from the Shelter was that they were using up to 15 hotel rooms when needed, but those may already be in use for all we know.
Folks without CE status are allowed a short number of stays at the shelter before they are denied entry due to no-CE.
I work with the unhoused community at the library and I had at least a dozen frightened and nervous folks asking me where to shelter from the weather. I’m ashamed to say that I often end up recommending Longmont because the shelter in Boulder has such ridiculously high barriers for entry.
It’s not a great system…
Josh – the city website said it will not require coordinated entry for day shelter clients. Is that true? If not, where is it stated it will be required?
Josh – please write to city council about this. They need to know the impact of not opening an emergency warming shelter for this storm.
Things will never get straightened out with homelessness in Boulder, CO so long as the current leadership remains in charge of the homeless shelter/services industry!
We need folks willing to fight both the public and the city in order to build a continuum of care that WORKS. The federal government ties our hands in many situations and sometimes I wonder if we’d be better off not taking the money so that we have more freedom to do what works. HUD is a joke.