For KKTV, Colorado Springs’ local CBS affiliate, Brian Sherrod reports on the city Fire Department’s new Homeless Outreach Program, or HOP, which is composed of “trained behavioral health providers with combined experience in mental and medical health assessment, treatment, education and care.” The HOP team “focus[es] on helping the homeless in their current state and location instead of enforcing them to leave [by providing] medical care on the scene[,] passing out applications to help find better shelter [,] [and] if a person is due in court, the team gives them a ride[,] brings water to keep the community hydrated, and treats for their dogs.”
“What it boils down to is we are not enforcement. We are resource navigation,” Amanda Smith, a community behavioral health coordinator with the Colorado Springs Fire Department, told Rocky Mountain PBS’s Alison Berg: “Getting ticketed and having to pack all their things up and move is a traumatic thing for people.” As a local judge told the news outlet, the different roles that the fire and police departments play matters a lot to the outcome: “There’s a level of trust with the homeless population and the fire department [that’s not present with] the Colorado Springs Police Department.”