The City of Fort Collins addresses homelessness through partnerships, funding community agencies and coordinating comprehensive responses. The goal is to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring through collaborative systems and data-driven approaches.
Homelessness is a complex issue. It involves two important community values that sometimes conflict: helping vulnerable people and protecting public health, safety and welfare for all residents and visitors. Counties traditionally handle social services. However, homelessness happens in cities and residents contact City officials to solve it. Cities across the nation must find creative solutions. Partnerships are key to making an impact.
The City will never "end" homelessness. The goal is to create systems so when someone experiences homelessness, it is rare, brief and does not happen again. This is called "functionally ending homelessness" or "functional zero." The City and its partners who serve unhoused residents know there is an urgent need to coordinate a complete response in Fort Collins.
The City of Fort Collins does not provide direct service (like giving out clothing, food or other goods). Instead, the City funds community agencies, brings together important conversations and develops policy. Everyone working to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring in our community wants to build better systems, use data and work together to respond well and understand the many challenges that cause homelessness.
The creation of a dedicated staff position in 2021 helped improve coordination, service systems and communication for homelessness services and response. Besides this position, 100% of City homelessness funding goes to community partners to support direct service efforts.
The City of Fort Collins works closely with many partner agencies to help people quickly exit or avoid homelessness. Links below give more information about some partners. Many welcome volunteers and community member involvement:
homelessness@fortcollins.gov