By order of Sheriff Darren Weekly, Stage 1 Fire Restrictions are in place for unincorporated areas of Douglas County. Ordinance No. O-012-004 restricts open fires, open burning, and the use of fireworks in the unincorporated areas of Douglas County. Additional information on fire restrictions stages can be located at the Douglas County Emergency Management website.
Douglas County is committed to building lasting, compassionate solutions to homelessness through a collaborative, data-informed and community-driven approach. The Douglas County Homeless Initiative was established to ensure that individuals and families experiencing homelessness are met with coordinated outreach, effective services and a pathway toward long-term stability while also supporting the health, safety and expectations of the broader community. This work is made possible through funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which enables the County to invest in a wide range of programs and services that directly support people experiencing homelessness.
At the core of the Douglas County Homeless Initiative is the Four Cs, a comprehensive and balanced approach that combines compassion with community expectations. This framework ensures that our efforts are humane, effective and aligned with the values of Douglas County residents. Each “C” plays a critical role in addressing homelessness through coordinated action.
In Douglas County, our person-first perspective leads with compassion, recognizing first and foremost the inherent value of all humans and that the challenges facing the unhoused are complex and varied, from distinguished veterans with families who lost a job and can’t afford housing, to those who may have mental health challenges, substance abuse issues, criminal records which create barriers to gainful employment, and many other cross-cutting and overlapping complexities in between.
That said, unlike many major metropolitan areas throughout the country, Douglas County will not become a victim of its own compassion and allow illegal drugs, debris and decay to proliferate and overtake our community to the detriment of the rest of the citizens and businesses that choose to locate here. This critical balance of compassionate public safety with behavioral health is at the core of our Homeless Engagement, Assistance and Resource Team (HEART).
We understand being unhoused is not a crime, and it is not our intent to criminalize homelessness. We support and fund law enforcement and have a zero-tolerance policy for crime in our community. It remains illegal in Douglas County to litter, vandalize, impede traffic, trespass or to put children at risk on our streets, sidewalks and public spaces. Camping restrictions are in place in unincorporated Douglas County, and municipalities also have ordinances in place to support public safety.
We will continue to work with civil liberties legal experts and our respective legal departments to create a uniform framework for compassionate code enforcement. We also understand that to implement Code Enforcement we must have dedicated shelter for the homeless in Douglas County (People v. Wiemold, 19CV30889). Our approach to managing those who are unsheltered in our communities is to pair our investment in shelter with a whole-person system of support.
Our system of support reflects a continuum of care that addresses not only basic needs like food and shelter but also job counseling, mental health support, substance abuse treatment, and fosters independence/self-reliance through opportunities for productive reintegration into society. The system of support includes the GOALS program as well as reintegration and transportation.
If you or someone you know needs help securing food, health care, housing, child care or financial assistance, the Douglas County Department of Human Services can connect you to a variety of programs.
We continue to work with our partners to develop and implement a public awareness campaign across communication platforms for citizens, businesses and those experiencing homelessness, which reflect the Four Cs. This includes uniform signage throughout the county and municipalities that reflect several key components:
We understand that many have the desire to help but are conflicted about what the “right” thing to do is when encountering someone who may be experiencing homelessness. Our goal is to redirect kindness and generosity to countywide resources in support of the unsheltered through DouglasHasHeart.org.
Understanding the terminology around homelessness is essential for meaningful community conversations. The Initiative’s glossary provides clear definitions for commonly used terms, helping to break down barriers and foster informed dialogue.
The Built for Zero nationwide collaborative represents more than 90 communities that have committed to measurably ending homelessness, one population at a time.
People experiencing chronic homelessness are entrenched in the shelter system, which acts as long-term housing for this population rather than an emergency option. They are likely to be older, underemployed and often have a disability. They must be experiencing homelessness for a certain length of time and have a disabling condition related to their physical, mental or behavioral health.
A congregate shelter is a shared living environment combining housing and services such as case management and employment services. Often in congregate shelters, people sleep in an open area with others. They are typically separated by gender and have set hours of operation.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) CoC program promotes community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness. The program provides funding for efforts by nonprofit providers and state and local governments to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families while at the same time minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused to individuals, families and communities by homelessness. Metro Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI) is the appointed CoC lead for the greater Denver region.
A facility with the primary purpose of providing temporary shelter for homeless people, including cold and hot weather shelters that open during extreme temperatures.
For example, the Board of Douglas County Commissioners entered into an Intergovernmental Agreement with the City of Aurora to help fund the Aurora Regional Navigation Campus to support those experiencing homelessness or housing instability. The County agreed to contribute $1.125 million of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. The new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus, located at 15550 E. 40th Ave. in Aurora, will provide a variety of services for people experiencing homelessness such as transitional housing, employment services, workforce development, daytime shelter, emergency shelter, medical clinics, addiction counseling, mental health services, medical respite beds, housing navigation, case management and meals.
The definition for ending chronic homelessness accounts for the long-lasting nature of chronic homelessness, which can be more readily anticipated and prevented. As a result, functional zero for chronic homelessness means there are fewer than 3 people experiencing homelessness at any given time (or .1% of the total number of individuals reported in the most recent point-in-time count, whichever is greater). Functional zero sustains the incidents of homelessness to rare, brief and infrequent.
The GOALS program is a Two-Generation (2Gen) housing program for families experiencing homelessness, originally established in Arapahoe County. Douglas County is proud to partner with Arapahoe County and Family Tree to bring the GOALS program to Douglas County thanks to a $1 million federal grant.
GOALS provides families with a private room while they develop long-term goals for stability and self-reliance. Families are provided a safe space for four to nine months and one-year of follow-up support.
Through this program, families are able to:
Hidden homelessness refers to people who aren’t part of official counts. They might be couch surfing at a friend’s or a relative’s house.
The HMIS collects and reports data on the characteristics of people experiencing homelessness and their service use patterns.
Homelessness for an individual or a family can take many forms. Below are some common experiences.
This applies to individuals and families on the brink of being unhoused. They typically have a late notice, pending count date or have been issued an eviction notice. They don’t typically have sufficient resources or support networks needed to maintain their housing or find other permanent housing solutions.
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is the primary piece of legislation related to the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness. Specific provisions ensure enrollment, accessibility and educational stability for students lacking a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence. Learn more about McKinney-Vento services offered through the Douglas County School District.
The Metro Denver Housing Initiative is the region’s Continuum of Care (CoC) system that coordinates services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson Counties. They work closely with the regional communities to build a crisis response system aimed at getting people housed as quickly as possible.
HEART provides collaborative support to individuals and families experiencing homelessness through whole family case management, making connections to stabilization services and providing information on community-based resources.
This model provides housing assistance and supportive services on a long-term basis to people who formerly experienced homelessness. PSH is funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Continuum of Care program and requires that the client have a disability for eligibility.
This count is a one-night estimate of both sheltered and unsheltered homeless people nationwide. Local groups conduct one-night counts during the last week in January of each year. Douglas County participates with the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative CoC to survey homelessness in the region.
On July 29, 2024, Douglas County conducted a summer Point-in-Time Count. This Point-in-Time showed the number of individuals sleeping outside was reduced from 43 to 6, and no encampments were found.
Transitional housing provides people experiencing homelessness a place to stay combined with supportive services for up to 24 months. Douglas County Cares partners with local non-profits and the Douglas County Housing Partnership to provide support to families living in supportive housing in Douglas County.
Unsheltered homelessness refers to people sleeping outdoors in places not designed as a regular sleeping location, such as the street, a park, under an overpass, tent encampments, or abandoned buildings, or in their vehicles with no other safe, permanent place to live. Sheltered homelessness includes people staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs or living in a hotel or motel paid for by a non-profit agency. In Douglas County, we also include those who are fleeing domestic violence or human trafficking, those doubled up with no other option, and those who are temporarily housed in an institution or care facility and would otherwise be homeless when considering the impact of homelessness on our community.
