After May 1st, when Boulder Shelter for the Homeless closes its emergency dorms for the season and The Exodus of the Unwashed begins!

It’s been a real trial for everyone in 2009-2010, with the influx of parolees in greater numbers than ever before, mental patients who aren’t compliant with their prescribed meds, and alcoholics and drug addicts who are in need of inpatient treatment. I’ve often said that a homeless shelter is not a jail, not a psychiatric ward, and not a detox center; but primarily due to budget cuts at the state level, BSH has become all three rolled into one this season. A contributing factor has been the complacency of many in leadership roles in Boulder’s homeless services industry, to just put up with it.

I thought it was tough back in Kansas City, MO when I worked on the staff of a homeless shelter there. And that facility was located in a former hospital, in very run-down condition, and in the middle of the most crime-ridden area. I saw a man sitting in a parked car just outside that shelter get shot in the back of the head and killed, in what turned out to be a dispute over a $20 debt.

I now have the same gut feeling of imminent danger here — in my fourth season in Boulder, CO. All it will take is for one of these unrepentant convicts, lunatics, or inebriated yahoos to get hold of a firearm and go on a rampage with terrible consequences. It seems to me more important than ever to start searching bags and backpacks at every homeless shelter/services venue. As budgets permit, professional security guards would also be in order.

It would also be appropriate to start giving priority to homeless Boulderites, over the sort of sociopathic characters who come here from Denver just to trash our fair city. It’s sort of like if Kansas City, MO “encouraged” their worst-behaved homeless people to go to Lawrence, KS. The difference is that the City of Lawrence (home of KU) would refuse to take them out of some naive sense of compassion. Instead, the miscreants would be put on a bus back to KC the very first time they acted out. It’s long overdue for Boulder to exercise some common sense in re Denver transients — especially since Mayor Hickenlooper ain’t sending any financial support to Boulder for taking care of them. Thank you again, Boulder City Council, for not permitting camping in our public areas; otherwise, they’d be staying here year-round.

Frankly, too, I’m looking forward to that time come May when I can walk into BSH at 6AM for morning services and enjoy peace and quiet, along with fresh air and pleasant manners in clean surroundings. To me, it’s well worth sleeping outside overnight; an experience which has its own rewards.

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