When office workers find human excrement at their doorstep, homelessness is a business issue. When encampments along Boulder Creek create an unsafe environment for visitors, homelessness is a business issue. When unhoused individuals commit repeated criminal acts in local stores and restaurants, seemingly without repercussions, homelessness is a business issue.

And when people are dying in our streets because they can’t get out of the cold, have developed a dependence on addictive and harmful drugs, or the surrounding violence leaves them vulnerable … homelessness is everyone’s business.

It’s with those impacts to the unhoused population, our businesses and our community that the Boulder Chamber, Downtown Boulder Partnership and Visit Boulder embarked on a deep dive into the multi-dimensional challenge of homelessness. Over the past six months, we explored the causes of rising homelessness in Boulder, the status of efforts already underway to address this crisis and promising evidence-based solutions deployed in other cities that are grappling with similar conditions.

Today, with the humility to recognize there will always be more to learn, and experts we can learn from who are doing good work in this area, we share our initial findings and suggestions for how our community should approach the challenge of homelessness. Like the challenge itself, the approach we recommend is multi-dimensional, yet our voice is unified on behalf of business interests. With broad input from our members and stakeholder, culminating in unanimous approval from all three of our governing boards, the Boulder Chamber, Downtown Boulder Partnership and Visit Boulder are united in our commitment to specific goals, principles and action steps that lead to positive outcomes for our unhoused population, as well as impacted businesses and residents.

Our first goal is to help return unhoused individuals and families to stable housing. We recognize that this journey is often complicated by other personal circumstances, including drug addiction and mental health disorders. Still, it is unacceptable that people are still dying on the streets in a community with the resources and ingenuity to provide life-saving support services and a clear pathway to permanent housing. We must strive to make the incidence of people living without shelter in Boulder rare, brief and non-recurring.

At the same time, we cannot tolerate encampments on our public spaces, nor the associated criminal activity and environmental degradation. That is why our goals are clear: 1) We will protect our public spaces and lands from intrusion associated with homeless encampments; 2) we must eliminate criminal activity associated with the unhoused; and, 3) we are committed to securing a safe and clean environment that supports a vibrant economy.

In stating our goals, we also recognize that the journey toward achieving our vision will not be easy, linear or without trial. Still, we must stay the course, guided by principles that are sensitive to the human and economic conditions at the root of homelessness, while also respecting the rights of businesses and residents to share this community free of criminal behavior, unsanitary conditions and fear for their safety.

Specifically, we offer the following as the standards we will abide by as we work to achieve our homelessness solution goals:

Our first priority, and the ultimate standard for success in our efforts, must be saving lives. This is only possible if we invest in resources and programs that successfully transition individuals and families into stable and supported housing. That means we need to evaluate — with attention to the input from those with lived experience — multiple temporary and permanent sheltering options as alternatives to illegal and unsafe encampments, along with consistent access to available daily necessities, case management and employment services. Clearly, too, we must meet the enormous treatment deficits for mental health and substance abuse disorders.

The other priority is reasserting control over conditions we have allowed to fester for far too long. To that end, while providing alternatives to homeless encampments, we support measures that remove illegal encampments from public spaces and a robust criminal justice response to recalcitrant individuals. Further, we cannot allow our service offerings to make Boulder a magnet for homeless populations from across the Front Range. We must carefully monitor and creatively respond when there is evidence this is occurring.

The underlying message: This is a comprehensive approach to confronting our homelessness challenge, entailing both proven effective services and appropriate enforcement. As we have learned from other communities, this is the only practical means toward progress on an issue that is plaguing cities and towns across the country.

We offer a list of recommended action steps toward achieving our stated goals through the Boulder Chamber website: boulderchamber.com/advocacy/homlessnesssolutionspolicyframework

Each step will take a focused, coordinated and collaborative effort. We also recognize it will entail funding that needs to come from existing city, county, state and federal resources. It may even take further community investment. In all these respects, speaking with one voice, your business community is at the table and prepared to tackle the challenge that lies ahead.

It’s our business — it’s everyone’s business — when it comes to making meaningful progress toward addressing homelessness and making our community safe and inviting for all!

Charlene Hoffman is the chief executive officer of Visit Boulder. Chip is the chief executive officer of Downtown Boulder. John Tayer is the president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber.