PRESS RELEASE: Community Demands Responsiveness in Critical Issues Related to STAR and Homelessness
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2023
Contacts:
Vinnie Cervantes, DASHR
vinnie@dashrco.org
Ana Cornelius, SCAC
primalwellnessltd@yahoo.com
Rudy Gonzales, Servicios De La Raza
rudyg@serviciosdelaraza.org
Chris Richardson, Wellpower
chris.richardson@wellpower.org
Community Demands Responsiveness in Critical Issues Related to STAR and Homelessness
Denver, CO – Throughout the 2023 Municipal Election in Denver, there has been an abundance of conversation about the Support Team Assisted Response Program (STAR) and candidates have largely celebrated its success and committed to supporting and expanding the program. However, as workers and community members that have been critical to STAR’s services and design, we collectively demand that candidates respond to real issues related to STAR, disability, homelessness, and mental health.
STAR responders have experienced increases in entities/agencies misusing STAR in many ways that were not part of the program’s design or intention. Certain groups have requested that STAR engage in policing activities by “moving along” unhoused folks in the 16th Street and Capitol Hill area. Shelters have tried to call STAR to remove people from their property. When responders have declined, police have been involved as enforcement.
While STAR has been misused at increasing rates, responders on the van have also experienced significant barriers in getting individuals to the care and support they need. Increasingly, STAR has been turned away from shelters while trying to transport folks on the street to short term support. Often, the excuse has been that some people, especially those living with disabilities, have been deemed unwelcome due to shelters’ inability to meet their Activities of Daily Living (ADL’s). This might mean that someone has a wheelchair or has been deemed oxygen-reliant and therefore STAR is placed in the difficult position of leaving that individual on the street, taking them to the hospital to be discharged the next day, or finding a temporary hotel room for them to stay.
Chris Richardson is the Associate Director of Criminal Justice Services at Wellpower, which provides the clinicians to the STAR vans. He reflected on what the STAR teams are seeing on the ground: “STAR teams and partners are seeing system gaps that impact our most vulnerable and in-need community members. Most notably are in the rise to assist shelter systems that are not able to care for their clientele with higher level Activities of Daily Living (ADL) needs. Our most vulnerable members of our community are left in the cold when they are actively seeking shelter. As a system and community, we need changes to develop immediate programming and supports to meet the level of care that these individuals request and should be provided.”
Beyond the issues and barriers that STAR is experiencing that must be addressed with real solutions, there are narratives about homelessness that have caused our groups great alarm as well. There is a national trend of declaring that all unhoused folks are also disabled, creating false and harmful narratives that have resulted in bad policy decisions. One of the effects has been to use mental health interventions on individuals who simply need housing or shelter. This narrative has been rampant throughout the municipal debates and is incredibly irresponsible to the individuals experiencing homelessness and issues related to disability and mental health, but also the individuals and organizations who work to meet their needs.
We collectively come together as service providers, crisis responders, policy advocates, community leaders, and impacted individuals to demand better of our election debates and candidates hoping to lead our city. We demand dignity and humanity as it relates to our unhoused neighbors. We show up in solidarity with the STAR responders, the barriers they have to navigate, and the people in their care. The problems STAR faces are systemic, but we the undersigned demand creative, responsive solutions to the myriad issues impacting our unhoused community and our growing crisis of homelessness.
STAR Network:
Servicios De La Raza
Denver Alliance for Street Health Response (DASHR)
FACEIT
Muslim Family Services of Colorado
Struggle of Love Foundation
STAR Community Advisory Committee
Community Partners:
Bring Our Neighbors Home
Colorado Jobs With Justice
Denver Democratic Socialists of America
Harm Reduction Action Center
Mi Familia Vota
Mutual Aid Monday
New Covenant Christian Church Alpha and Omega Ministries
Northeast Denver Islamic Center
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
Swing By Street Supply