City: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Reporting to: Chief Housing and Homelessness Officer

The Challenge

From 2022 to 2024, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Colorado Springs decreased by approximately 300 residents. Despite this improvement, the annual Point in Time Count identified a persistent unhoused  population in need of comprehensive support in the downtown central business district. In addition, data gathered by the Downtown Partnership, a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization representing businesses, nonprofits and individuals downtown and citywide, revealed a troubling increase in public defecation, urination, drug use, discarded needles, people sleeping in doorways, theft, and harassment.

The public has called for a stronger law enforcement response to address these problems. However, research consistently confirms that law enforcement alone is not a solution to homelessness. Police are not equipped to address the root causes of homelessness, such as high housing costs, mental illness, and addiction. Furthermore, criminalizing survival behaviors perpetuates an expensive cycle of homelessness and incarceration.

To support people experiencing homelessness in downtown Colorado Springs, the city aims to develop more effective strategies for connecting these individuals to shelters, housing, and essential services—while addressing criminal behavior to create a safer environment for all. In November 2024, Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade launched the Homelessness Response Action Plan 2025. The plan balances compassion with public safety to address chronic homelessness. By building upon the success of key city programs and leveraging crucial data, the plan presents clear roles and funding priorities for the city. They include enforcement, clean-ups, support services, prevention, mental health, housing access, and pathways to employment. The action plan represents a community-wide effort to keep homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring by uplifting the voices, insights, and expertise of community members, service providers, local businesses, and unhoused residents.

Mayor Mobolade has established the Housing and Homelessness Response Department (HHRD) to implement the plan and support system transformation. The department includes 10 staff members and is led by the Chief Housing and Homelessness Officer, Aimee Cox, who reports to the Deputy Chief of Staff and also serves on the mayor’s leadership team. HHRD also receives and administers approximately $5 million annually through Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) entitlement programs, administers a 50-million-dollar private activity bond allocation for affordable housing development, and receives other state and federal grants for housing, homelessness, and community development services. The HHRD is charged with enhancing data-driven decision-making to improve the coordination and integration of human services. This realignment will develop new and effective pathways for people seeking services and increase successful housing outcomes.

The fellow will work to decrease the criminalization of homelessness and increase access to care for unhoused residents in Colorado Springs, who are disproportionately Black. The project aims to achieve the following outcomes:

• Improved data collection and utilization to define and address challenges in combatting homelessness
• Enhanced access to meaningful, individualized services for people experiencing homelessness
• Shorter durations of homelessness and increased exits to positive housing destinations
• Fewer homelessness-related calls to the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD)
• Fewer citations issued by the CSPD to people experiencing homelessness
• A clean and safe downtown, allowing tourism and business to flourish
• A shared understanding and informed agenda for addressing homelessness in the long term

Key questions include:

• How do we accurately quantify the nature and prevalence of homelessness in downtown Colorado Springs?
• Which services are most effective and where are there gaps?
• What are the best practices for encouraging individuals experiencing homelessness to utilize services?
• What best practices can be adopted from other cities to address unsheltered homelessness in urban centers?
• What types of data can best measure both homelessness-related challenges and policy outcomes?
• What tools are available for collecting data?

What You’ll Do

Working with the Housing and Homelessness Response Team, the fellow will use data, stakeholder input, and promising practices to inform the design and implementation of a program to alleviate homelessness in downtown Colorado Springs. Key stakeholders include the Mayor, City Council, County Commissioners, Colorado Springs Police Department, Homeless Outreach Team, Downtown Action and Response Team, Colorado Springs Fire Department Homeless Outreach Program, Pikes Peak Continuum of Care (made up of local services providers, government representatives, advocates, and people experiencing homelessness), Downtown Partnership, and El Paso County Public Health and Department of Human Services.

Key actions and deliverables include:

1. Quantify the prevalence of the problem
   • Review local data and conduct interviews with key stakeholders
2. Outline best practices for serving chronically homeless individuals
   • Prepare a brief on best practices
   • Evaluate existing local approaches in relation to best practices
   • Include an assessment of the intersection of homelessness, mental health, and substance-use disorders
   • Examine existing research to identify why unhoused individuals don’t use available services. Make recommendations on how city government can increase access and awareness
3. Develop a plan for improving data collection, information synthesis, and knowledge across agencies working with people experiencing homelessness (law enforcement, service providers, and behavioral health professionals)
   • Conduct research to identify the best types of data to use
   • Identify approaches and tools for collecting data, including an inventory of existing data
   • Recommend a consistent set of definitions for collecting data on relevant conditions (e.g., homelessness, living situations, mental health)
4. Present recommendations to all key stakeholders

What You’ll Bring

• Data analysis
• Design thinking
• Policy analysis
• Qualitative interviewing and analysis
• Research and program design

Apply here.

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