[ Local ]

• Colorado Department of State website accidentally lists passwords to voting machines, forcing election workers to scramble to ensure the safety of votes.
• Winter storm leads to a record number of people being turned away at Boulder’s largest homeless shelter, All Roads, amid county funding cuts.
• Ballot Question 2C, which will tie Boulder City Council’s pay to the median income in the area, and 2D, which allows council members to meet privately under certain conditions, pass in Boulder. 2E, which would have given the city council more control over boards and commissions, is defeated.
• Erie elects mayor Andrew Moore and passes a 5% excise tax on cannabis, but the town council would have to repeal a ban on dispensaries before any could be opened in Erie.
• The Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission unanimously votes to indefinitely pause the controversial Draco Oil and Gas Development Plan which would have allowed for horizontal drilling and fracturing of 26 wellbores, some of which would have extended underneath residential areas and schools.

[ National ]

• Donald J. Trump wins election in spite of extreme policies, making him the second person to ever be elected to two non-consecutive terms as President of the United States. He also becomes the first convicted felon and twice impeached former president to win election
• Trump nominates several strange and unqualified candidates for key positions including Matt Gaetz for attorney general, RFK Jr. as secretary of health and human services, Dr. Mehmet Oz as administrator of Medicaid and Medicare, and Elon Musk to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency. Gaetz withdraws from the nominating process due to an ongoing investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
• Democrats urge Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to step down so that Biden can name a younger successor before Trump takes office, but Sotomayor has no plans to retire.
• The US carries out air strikes in Yemen attacking The Houthis, a group allied with Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel.

[ International ]

• Israel steps up its attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, launching an air strike against the village of Almat, which is well outside of Hezbollah strongholds.
• Violence erupts during a soccer match in the Netherlands between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. and Dutch AFC Ajax team related to the Israeli government’s actions in the War in Gaza
• At least 26 people killed and over 60 wounded after separatists bomb a crowded railway station in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
• At least 30 people have died in post-election violence in Mozambique amidst accusations that the election was rigged to keep the ruling Frelimo party in power.
• A 6.8 magnitude earthquake hits Cuba as the country is recovering from Hurricane Rafael.

Quotes

“That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to make our country better than it ever has been. They said that many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness. And now we are going to fulfill that mission together. We’re gonna fulfill that mission. The task before us will not be easy, but I will bring every ounce of energy, spirit, and fight that I have in my soul, to the job that you’ve entrusted to me.”
– Donald J. Trump in his terrifying victory speech

“Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable. A defeat does not mean we are defeated”
– Joe Biden addressing the nation following Harris’ loss to Trump

“Prosperity and abundance agenda. We have focused on saving people money through three income tax rate reductions (two at the ballot box and one through the leg: 4.63%>4.5%>4.4%>4.25%), cutting property taxes, free preschool and kindergarten for every child, eliminating sales tax on necessities like diapers and feminine hygiene products, and we are in the process of delivering on pro-housing supply solutions, investing in transit and transit-enhanced living opportunities… all while protecting and expanding personal freedom and respect for everyone.” 
– Colorado Governor Jared Polis on the secret to keeping Colorado blue while much of the nation went red

“We’re really apprehensive about what we’re going to do this winter” 
– Andy Schultheiss, chief development and communications officer at All Roads, discussing the organization’s fears about the high demand for homeless shelter services amid funding cuts

By the Numbers

10,901,567

The difference between votes that Democrats received in 2020 and 2024. While the Democrats’ number of votes decreased significantly between elections, Donald Trump received roughly the same number of votes in both elections

727

The estimated number of unhoused people in Boulder County according to the latest Point in Time count from the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative

3,002

The estimated number of people killed in Lebanon by Israel over the past 13 months

2

Thankfully, the number of terms a President is allowed to serve, even non-consecutively, according to the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution

The post Month In Review | November 2024 appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Editor’s Note: Press Releases are provided to Yellow Scene. In an effort to keep our community informed, we publish some press releases in whole.

City and partners rehouse 359 households, including 597 individuals

DENVER – Friday, May 20, 2022 – Utilizing an infusion of additional federal resources resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Denver concluded its second 100-day housing surge earlier this month to rehouse persons experiencing homelessness. A total of 359 households, including 597 individuals, were placed into housing.

“Denver’s network of shelter services partners do an incredible job, day in and day out, at delivering house keys and a brighter future for individuals facing episodes of homelessness,” said Mayor Michael B. Hancock. “With two successful housing surges behind us, we’re not only placing more people into housing, we’re also fostering innovations that will make a lasting impact going forward.”

Just over 100 days ago, Mayor Hancock and the Department of Housing Stability (HOST) launched the surge with a goal to get 400 households experiencing homelessness housed in 100 days. While the effort fell slightly short of meeting this stretch goal, gains were made over the first surge held last fall. Twenty-one more people were housed as compared to the first round, including a significant number of individuals who moved from unsheltered homelessness to housing. Case managers and street outreach teams placed a total of 90 households into housing from settings that included Safe Outdoor Spaces, unauthorized encampments and other unsheltered locations, exceeding their goal of 75 unsheltered households.

The housing surge expedited the city’s work with partners to connect people living in shelters and on the streets with housing utilizing new housing resources. The city worked with Emergency Housing Vouchers, rapid resolution, rapid rehousing, and permanent supportive housing providers.

A broad coalition of nonprofit and homeless service partners worked on the housing surge, with the support and coordination of Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, Community Solutions, and Homebase. The city also leveraged the voter-approved Homelessness Resolution Fund to expand an existing contract with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless to provide housing units from their own portfolio and to help identify private landlords willing to participate. The housing surge is part of Mayor Hancock’s economic recovery package.

For more information on other housing resources available to Denver households, visit Denvergov.org/housing.

The post Denver Moves Hundreds of People from Homelessness to Housing Over 100-Day Surge Effort appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, a body responsible for distributing federal funds to address homelessness in the seven-county Denver Metro region, has put out a shocking report under the banal title, “State of Homelessness 2020 Report.”

Though the annual Point In Time (PIT) count for 2020 determined there were 6,104 people experiencing homelessness in the region, the count in the HMIS data system that tracks unique individuals who seek aid was 31,207: a factor of more than 5 times greater.

Despite a common belief that addiction and bad choices are the cause of homelessness, the report shares that “the top reasons of homelessness in the region are high housing costs, a lost job or inability to find work, and relationship or family break up . . . .” The overview section is brief yet rich:

“This report highlights two overarching trends in homelessness. First, inherent in homelessness, is the racial inequity that must be addressed. Second, the only long-term solution to homelessness is housing. The region faces a significant affordable housing crisis, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic impact.”

This year’s Boulder PIT count showed Black people are 12 time more represented in the County’s unhoused population compared to the general population. For the region, indigenous people are 7 times overrepresented. Combined with the fact that, per the report, “the leading cause of homelessness, not just in this region but around the country, is a lack of affordable housing,” gentrification, failure to invest in affordable housing, inequitable (read racist) lending policies, and the wealthy using real-estate as an investment vehicle, all lead to the crisis in homelessness.

For example, a recent study found that redlining, “a discriminatory practice that puts services (financial and otherwise) out of reach for residents of certain areas based on race or ethnicity,” continues despite supposed efforts to end the practice. “Fifty years after the federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in lending, African Americans and Latinos continue to be routinely denied conventional mortgage loans at rates far higher than their white counterparts.”

Despite these systemic and racist causes of homelessness, people like Boulder Housing and Human Services Director Kurt Firnhaber continue to argue that providing services just attracts more homeless people – even though the count of people experiencing homelessness in Boulder has increased concurrent with a service bed count decrease of 70%. Firnhaber, before a person recently froze to death in the September snow storm, said “[We need to be] honest with them about what their options are [and] say, ‘We’ll have 180 beds in our community this winter [so] you’re likely not going to have a place to stay . . .”

Turns out racism is at work not only at mortgage lenders, but in local government too. 

Darren O’Connor is an attorney in Boulder practicing in the areas of eviction defense, family law, criminal defense, and civil rights. He can be reached at DOLawLLC@gmail.com.

The post Racism, Redlining, And Recessions: Vastly Greater Numbers Of People Homeless Than Previously Reported, With BIPOC Folks Far More Likely To Suffer appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.