Governor Ritter Establishes Colorado Community and Interagency Council on Homelessness
Yesterday Governor Ritter signed an executive order re-establishing the Colorado Community and Interagency Council on Homelessness. An estimate in August 2006 found more than 16,000 homeless people statewide, and the true number is almost certainly higher.
One third of Colorado’s homeless population are children or teenagers, and 62% are children, teenagers, or parents. Homelessness disproportionately affects minority communities.
The Council brings together the Departments of Human Services, Health Care Policy and Financing, Corrections, and Local Affairs; the Commissioners of Agriculture and Education; members of the state legislature and the non-profit community; and others.
The Council’s mission is to “make cross-agency and community cooperation the norm in responding to homelessness and to use a more efficient and supportive approach in creating and implementing evidence-based plans to address homelessness and, to the extent possible, end it.”