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Durango adopts homeless strategic plan, which calls for center directing people to services

City Council, residents acknowledge shift in community attitude

A shift in attitude toward homelessness became tangible, at least in part, on Tuesday when Durango City Council adopted a plan with concrete goals and spending priorities to help people living homeless access community services.

An often split City Council offered unanimous support to adopt the City of Durango and La Plata County Strategic Plan on Homelessness, a proverbial road map drafted by consultants with the help of more than two dozen community members.

The adoption is a drastic shift from a City Council that in late 2018 received a scathing letter from the Colorado ACLU criticizing the city’s practices and policies related to homelessness. The nonprofit legal group specifically wrote in its August 2018 letter that, “In recent years, city leaders have made concerted efforts to push unhoused people out of public places, out of sight and mind, and to criminalize their very existence.”

Mayor Melissa Youssef said Tuesday, “I am almost overwhelmed as to where we’ve come, even though I know that we are really at the beginning.”

Specific to the city of Durango, the plan offers a cost estimate for establishing a center to direct people living homeless to services – an estimated $170,000 expense. The plan also includes a proposal to establish a permanent camp for people living homeless, but price estimates cannot be determined until a site is chosen.

Read the full article on the Durango Herald at: https://durangoherald.com/articles/315172-durango-adopts-homeless-strategic-plan-which-calls-for-center-directing-people-to-services

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