Commentary submitted to Daily Camera

By Max R. Weller

I’m not going to challenge anyone here for exploiting the death of a homeless man in Boulder on Christmas morning of 2017, but the fact remains that had he chosen to remain sober he could have taken advantage of free camping gear, boots, winter clothing, blankets, etc. and kept his wits in order to survive overnight, outside in the cold. I did so myself for about a decade in Boulder and its environs, and I found it preferable to staying in any filthy, noisy and chaotic emergency homeless shelter run by a nonprofit.

The choice to remain sober is one that anyone can make each and every morning, and in fact it’s the ONLY way you can ever stay sober. It’s not up to a program like AA or Housing First to do it for you, no matter what the apologists and enablers say.

Last time I checked with my friends who reside at 1175 Lee Hill, the much-ballyhooed Housing First project located right next to Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, SEVEN residents had passed away from alcohol-related causes since it opened in 2014. It’s been over a year since I had an update on the death toll, but I’m sure it’s risen.

In any case, with hundreds of homeless men and women on the streets in Boulder County, there is NO HOPE of affording new $250,000 apartments for all of them. Thus, there are only 31 units at 1175 Lee Hill. For whatever reasons, the local homeless shelter / services industry rejects the Tiny House concept being used by other more progressive cities; costs per unit there are $5,000 or less. Bottom line: you can’t save everyone, but you can certainly follow a more cost-effective model to house many more of those in need.