More than half the 61 goals listed in a five-year Homelessness Response Action Plan that Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade launched in November 2024 have been completed, he announced Wednesday at a news briefing. Another 25% of the objectives are underway.

While the city does not provide direct services, staff are involved with enforcement, camp cleanups, street outreach and other areas of the issue. Accomplishments include addressing problems happening on the street today and long-term challenges, the mayor said.

Since Mobolade took office in June 2023, there has been increased police coverage and enforcement of municipal laws, expanded sit/lie restrictions, new security measures downtown and Tuesday’s decision to fund private security for the South Nevada Avenue corridor. There also has been $860,000 raised in donations to expand winter sheltering, investment in behavioral healthcare and addiction treatment, completion of a countywide needs assessment and securing state funding to develop an action plan, City Council approval to shift $2 million in unspent federal funding to institute a diversion program to help families avert homelessness and advancement of nearly 3,000 affordable housing units with private activity bonds, federal funds and tax rebates.

“Homelessness is one of the most visible and complex challenges facing the city,” Mobolade said.

Recent statistics have shown both increases and decreases in the local homeless population, depending on which survey and data set is used, Mobolade noted. But both can be true at the same time, he said, as the population is in flux.

Regardless, the pressure to produce system results is high, according to the mayor.

How a community responds to homelessness is difficult because “There’s no one cause, no silver bullet,” he said.

But it continues to be one of the top complaints he receives, often followed by the question, “Why aren’t you doing anything?”

Mobolade said he wants every resident to know that a lot is being done — often behind the scenes — and there’s more work in the pipeline.

“I get criticized, ‘Mayor, you’re not doing enough to look out for our residents or businesses, and that is simply not true,” he said.

Mobolade believes an idea that arose out of the Homelessness Response Action Plan that is now solidified and formalized will help more people leave homelessness for stable housing quicker and provide a greater chance of them obtaining other assistance they need to improve their lives.

Unveiled Wednesday, a new Homelessness Response Team will regularly convene about 20 city staff from 15 departments and divisions to create coordinated plans for how various facets of homelessness will be approached.

For example, more signs restricting panhandling from unsafe high-traffic areas around the city are being erected from the effort of having multiple voices at the table, Mobolade said.

Participating city departments include the mayor’s office, housing and homelessness response, police and fire departments, parks and recreation, neighborhood services, municipal court, public works, Mountain Metro Transit, the stormwater enterprise, planning and the Pikes Peak Office of Emergency Management.

Priorities include enforcement of laws pertaining to illegal camping, parking, sitting or lying on public property and others such as trespassing and vandalism, along with camp cleanups, street outreach, emergency shelter, housing, supportive services and employment.

“We’re one team, one city, one coordinated response,” said Aimee Cox, the city’s chief housing and homelessness response officer. “We solve problems together.”

Plans will be reviewed and reset as needed to fill gaps and change what’s not working into something that will, she said.

“Showing we did what we said we’d do — whether fewer people are living unsheltered, more people are employed, people are healthier — will build public confidence.”

The coordination will produce more consistent data by which to measure outcomes and greater accountability for achieving results, which will lead to more people being rehoused, Cox said.

Additional supportive housing is being planned in the city, particularly for very low-income households earning $24,500 or less annually for a single person and $35,000 annually for a family of four, she said.

“Our goal is straightforward. Homelessness in our community should be rare, brief and nonrecurring,” said Cami Bremer, president and CEO of Pikes Peak United Way.

Her organization and the city of Colorado Springs recently were awarded oversight and management of the Pikes Peak Continuum of Care, which coordinates regional strategies for homelessness, redistributes federal funding, tracks and surveys the homeless population and works with local service providers to prevent and end homelessness.

 “We’re encouraged to see leaders and organizations stepping up across the community, and we’re honored to stand alongside our partners in this work, helping move the needle on an issue that both impacts and requires us all,” Bremer said.

The intent, Mobolade said, is not to create more government but to make the government that exists work better.

“We’re aiming for greater coordination, so our services are better coordinated,” he said.

A clear strategy looks like knowing where the police department is doing enforcement in what encampment on a given day, then sending in outreach workers to talk with people living there before anyone else and involving representatives from transitional housing programs, the mayor said.

All to this end: that people who don’t have a permanent roof over their heads won’t just move a few blocks or miles away but move toward assistance that leaves chronic homelessness behind.