Homeless in Boulder: The Homeless Community

“It’s a lot of work. It’s exhausting. And it’s humiliating, it’s embarrassing, it’s degrading. You’re never welcome anywhere, and you’re always breaking the law.”-Lori Hopkins, supportive housing resident.

In the final part of this series on homelessness, Julia Caulfield discusses the realities of how the city deals with the homeless community. It is very difficult to find their way from the streets and back into the community.

“People don’t realize the amount of hills you must climb to get out of homelessness.”-Mike Homner, advocate for the Boulder homeless community.

The decision to get out of homelessness is much harder than simply getting a job and an apartment. There are many institutional barriers to a homeless person getting back on his/her feet as well as the continued enforcement of laws that specifically target the homeless community.

“I’ve seen people reach out and do good things for homeless people, actually take them under their wings, you know, adopt a homeless person.”-Mike Homner.

Both Hopkins and Homner are optimistic about the ability of the Boulder community to handle the homelessness issue. The community has shown they will reach out to the homeless, but the institutional barriers and rising home prices makes it likely this issue will continue into the foreseeable future.

This is the fourth in a series of stories by Julia Caulfield on the homelessness issue in Boulder. This series looks at this problem from the perspective of the shelters, park rangers, city, and homeless.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download