City must provide services people actually want

Have you, the reader, ever seen police sweep a camp? Do you know what it entails?

It means police showing up outside your tent, often early in the morning, to force you from your home. It means much of your belongings, including your tent, being seized and destroyed. It means risking arrest if you fail to bow to the whims of the police. It means losing what little resources and shelter you had, with little recourse but to start over elsewhere in the city, hanging on until the next sweep.

A recent letter to the editor claimed that removing encampments is the most “humane and compassionate position” on the matter. However, be clear: There is no humane nor compassionate way to remove someone from their home under threat of violence. There is especially no humane nor compassionate way to seize and destroy someone’s home. Furthermore, experts on houselessness overwhelmingly agree that camping bans such as Boulder’s do nothing to reduce houselessness. The idea that sweeps “funnel” people into services is a myth.

I believe people are the best experts on their own needs. If you actually speak with houseless people (which I do on a weekly basis), you’ll find that the actual reasons people don’t use the shelter are because they consider it unsafe, inadequate and draconian. The shelter is very far from other services (including basics like grocery stores), has severely limiting hours and policies, and often bans people for minor and arbitrary infractions. If people find life on the street preferable to staying in the shelter, that is an indictment of the shelter, not the houseless.

Sweeps don’t work; if Boulder wants unhoused residents to use city services, the only way to achieve that is by providing services people actually want to use.

— Emily Graham, Boulder

Life is short, tell people how important they are

Khalil Gibran has taught us this truth: “Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness, and knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream. And that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that moment which scattered the stars into space.”

My sister, Gloria, and her husband, Ed, had three wonderful children, all different, and very special. The oldest was Carl, who became a very competent lawyer. But, most of all was devoted to playing Santa to children. My son, Don, was one who benefited from Carl’s devotion as Santa.

My niece, Diana, became a polished Nurse Practitioner devoted to those who experienced Psychological trauma. She has utilized her talent to teach nursing at the graduate level while playing a supportive role in our family.

My youngest niece, Marianne, is a talented expert in dyslexia treatment to children while tending to newly-arrived refugees fleeing countries looking for life in the U.S. Both of my nieces sing and play instruments and carry on the legacy born by their mother and father who were gifted musicians. I have been proud and inspired by them.

We need to tell the people in our lives how important they are to us whenever we have a moment as a way of extending our gratitude. Life is too short to keep these feelings to ourselves. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross would ask, “What’s the Risk?”

— Joseph La Camera, Boulder

Measures added to tax burden, increased rents

I would like to commend the Camera for its two recent editorials on March 12 and 19. The former explored our rising property taxes, their effect on homeowners and whether there is any relief in sight.

The editorial on March 19 discussed possible solutions for the housing crisis puzzle. Rents in Boulder are rising and causing many tenants to be “rent burdened”: they spend more than 30% of their income on rent.

These articles, while informative, raised many questions. I was left wondering why the Camera gave its full-throated endorsement to ballot issue 6C in November. Approval of the Library District measure raised residential property taxes by 4%, and commercial taxes by even more. The March 12 article even admits that our tax districts “could wind up with a windfall of cash beyond what they asked for from voters.”

Endorsing 6C has added to the property tax burden and caused rents to rise. So may I ask the Camera what has changed in the past four months? Why are these issues suddenly indicative of a housing crisis that didn’t exist in early November?

— Robert Pane, Boulder