West of the Durango Tech Center, Fritz Schnell’s camp is neatly kept, as are many of those on La Plata County property.
Some residents clean regularly, and Manna Soup Kitchen’s garden manager and volunteer coordinator, Jason Cloudt, on Wednesday led Schnell and a few other homeless residents to abandoned camps that needed to be cleaned.
“Everybody has the right to a clean environment to protect them from the elements and the animals,” Cloudt said.
The group packed out bags of trash and an entire tent, one of the last in the area where a bear attacked campers in May 2015.
The high-profile attack prompted the La Plata Sheriff’s Office to start an educational campaign with homeless residents to keep camps clean. After years of shutting camps down, the Sheriff’s Office told residents camps would be left alone if they were kept clean and the campers obeyed the law, said Lt. Ed Aber, who started the effort.
Around the same time, Manna started offering their clients tokens that can be used for services at the kitchen in return for bags of trash brought in from campsites.
Both Manna and the Sheriff’s Office have been working on a cultural change, and Aber has seen a measurable reduction of trash, from 13 pickup truck loads in spring 2015 to eight pickup loads in spring 2016.
“There is a relationship being built, and there is trust being built. They are trying to police themselves,” he said.
But the policy has led to concerns that more people are being drawn to the area and to camp within the city’s Overend Mountain Park, said Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Metz.
“There is a lot more trash and problems associated with the homeless,” she said.
While the number of homeless people in Durango is difficult to track, Aber believes the population is increasing.
The reasons homeless people come to the area are as varied as general population growth, Aber said.
An increase in Durango’s homeless population would be in line with the state trends. There was a 6 percent increase in the homeless population between 2015 and 2016, according to a November federal report.
To help address the problem, Gov. John Hickenlooper proposed spending $18.3 million in 2018 on helping chronic homeless people by creating affordable housing and housing for those with behavioral health needs. About $16 million to pay for these projects would come from marijuana tax collections.
In recent years, the state has supported providing permanent housing for homeless people, a model that does not require them to be sober or find work before moving in.
Permanent housing could solve some problems caused by camping, create a healthier place for people to stay, and reduce the burden on emergency responders, city officials and other stakeholders said Tuesday during a meeting on homelessness.
“When you provide people with a stable environment, it’s been shown to reduce those emergency service contacts,” Aber said.
While he sees permanent housing as a long-term solution, Aber plans to continue to improve relations between the Sheriff’s Office and the homeless population.
The department is training officers to patrol on mountain bikes, and Aber would also like to train officers specifically to do outreach within the homeless community.
The outreach team would build relationships and trust with homeless residents to help encourage better behavior and to encourage victims of crimes within the homeless community to report them.
“People know the offenders. They know the victims, but they are not talking,” he said.
Just like any other segment of the population, the homeless community has those who are working hard to better themselves, and there’s and a criminal element.
To stay away from potential trouble, Schnell set his camp up far away from others, and he is hoping to qualify for Social Security disability soon so he can move into his own home and start working again.
“It’s very physically demanding; if you get sick, you can be really sick,” he said of camping.
Schnell was living in Mancos before becoming homeless three years ago. He came back to the area after staying in camps on the Front Range.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
