Beckett sits with his mom, Catarina and dad, Ross after entering the gymnasium for the closing ceremony.

WISH

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Beckett made a Super-Mario entrance into the closing ceremony on a golf cart, fought Wario, Mario’s rival, with a pool noodle and saved Princess Peach.

In one last e ort to raise money, for one minute, students passed around buckets for spare change. e rest of the assembly included a poms performance with a special appearance by the athletic director. e students played nish the lyrics, played a life-size game of Hungry Hungry Hippos with Beckett and after growing his hair out for four years, one senior cut his hair o during the assembly.

Before Beckett joined Principal Dr. Christopher Page Jr. and the students in the Highlands Ranch

High School chant, Principal Page addressed the students. Page said that he was proud of the community coming together to do something special.

“ e thing that we appreciate more than anything else is a number of you did a great job this last week of silencing the noise, competitions and all of the other crazy things in our world and instead you came together and worked together to provide at least one magic wish,” said Page.

Beckett’s dad also addressed the high school with an emotional thank you.

Holiday office closure

Douglas County offices will be closed Monday, Feb. 20, 2023. Many services are available at DoItOnlineDouglas.com

Does your child need a mental health checkup?

Help is available at ImatterColorado.org. Take a brief assessment to find out if your child is eligible for free counseling. For additional resources in and around Douglas County, visit douglas.co.us and search Mental Health Resources

If you need immediate support, call Colorado Crisis Services at 1.844.493.TALK(8255) or text TALK to . If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, call 911.

Nominate a special teenager for a 2023 Youth Initiative Award

Do you know a Douglas County teenager, between the ages of 13 and 19, who has overcome adversity and created positive change in their lives, as well as the lives of others? Nominate them for a 2023 Douglas County Outstanding Youth Award by March 3. Visit douglas.co.us and search Youth Awards

What’s happening with your County government?

Our commitment to open and transparent government includes online posting of information about public meetings at which the business of government is conducted. To view public meeting agendas, participate in-person or remotely, or watch select meetings via live stream, visit douglas.co.us and search for Business Meetings / Public Hearings.

If you don’t have a K-Lawn Dealer in your area, we are looking to add a few quality dealers to our 10-state network. Key benefits include: just the or at includes Douglas County’s Homeless Engagement, Assistance and Resource Team of “navigators” who respond to homelessness, working with law enforcement when safety is a concern.

“scrape together enough resources” to pay for a motel room — thus ying under the radar of the annual tally, said Jamie Rife, director of the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative.

“We don’t have the data yet, but we (may see) that more people stayed inside or found a couch to stay on,” said Rife, whose organization oversees the count.

January’s numbers may not ocially come out for months, but data from recent years paint a picture of increasing homelessness in the Denver metro area. e newest o cial numbers, based on 2022’s count, suggest any potential rise in homelessness last year wasn’t as drastic as earlier in the coronavirus pandemic. Still, last year’s count showed nearly 1,600 people in the metro area newly became homeless, and that’s just among those who stayed in shelters.

In Douglas County — where homelessness is typically rarer and less visible than in areas closer to Denver — o cials continue new e orts to try to address the problem.

“Overall, our numbers are decreasing each month, and the HEART team is out there taking proactive steps,” said Ti any Marsitto, a supervisor with HEART.

Numbers a mixed bag

Data from recent years suggest homelessness has increased in the Denver metro area — a trend that predates the pandemic but was likely worsened by it, as the coronavirus crisis disrupted people’s housing and employment.

In 2021, compared to 2020, the metro region saw a 99% increase in the number of people new to experiencing homelessness in shelters, according to the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative.

For 2022, the 1,600 people counted as newly homeless in shelters represented a drop from the previous year — but still a 22% increase over 2020.

In Douglas County, o cials quickly presented early data from this year’s count. ey highlighted that the overall number of homeless dropped to 57, down from 78 last year, with the count of unsheltered homeless dropping to 27, down from 50. at number sat at about 28,000 people between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, based on data from agencies that partner in what’s called the Homeless Management Information System.

In 2020, Douglas County’s overall count — sheltered and unsheltered — was 53. In 2019, that number was 14, and in 2018, it was 34. ( e metro area did not count unsheltered homeless in 2021 due to COVID-19 safety concerns.)

Because the Point in Time count generally takes place on a single night and can be a ected by weather or other variables, the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative does not recommend looking at data trends year over year, although the count remains an often-cited statistic.

A more representative count across the metro area involves data from homeless-service providers year round. Between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, more than 32,000 people accessed services or housing support related to homelessness in the metro region, according to the initiative.

Meanwhile, the one-night count marked 6,884 people overall in the metro area in 2022. at compares to 6,104 in 2020.

Rife, the initiative’s director, said COVID was “a big part” of recent data. She noted that more people staying in congregate shelters or participating in certain programs set up in response to COVID might no longer show up in the Homeless Management Information System due to the programs winding down. Some people might be staying outdoors, she said.

“I would not draw the conclusion that homelessness is decreasing,” Rife said.

Homeless trends complicated e Point in Time count itself is subject to some variations year to year, Rife noted.

During the Feb. 9 news conference, county o cials in Castle Rock directly tied the decrease in Douglas’ one-night homelessness count to the work of the HEART program in recent months.

“Today, there are fewer people living on the streets of Douglas County than there were in 2022. Why? Because every morning three expert resource navigators and three law enforcement o cers wake up on a mission,” the county wrote in a news release.

But large percentage shifts are more likely in Douglas County, where the annual count tends to be in double digits. By contrast, Jefferson and Arapahoe counties’ 2022 tallies each sat at about 500. In Denver, the number was about 4,800.

Also complicating the picture: People without homes don’t always stay in the same area. Many unhoused people say they are not from Douglas County but were there because of a lack of transportation or sweeps pushing them out of other cities. Per Douglas County Sheri ’s O ce data collected on 152 contacts from January to June 2022, only 6% of them were from the Douglas County area, with the remaining either coming from the Denver area or out of state. Resources for the unhoused tend to be concentrated closer to, and within, Denver.

“I would say the PIT as a count is di cult simply because there’s a lot of variances every year because weather contributes to that, di erent volunteers (participate),” Rife said.

In Douglas County, the HEART program launched in 2022 and served as a new tool in this January’s count.

“ is is the rst year we had the HEART and leaned on their knowledge and experience to guide our unsheltered count e orts,” Rand Clark, the county’s community services manager, said in a statement.

Laydon, one of the county’s elected leaders, said his expectation was that the count would have been higher this year in Douglas County in light of HEART’s involvement in the process, so he was glad to see it was lower.

Celebrating success

Regardless of the broad trends, it’s clear that programs like HEART can make a di erence in individuals’ lives.

Marsitto, the supervisor with HEART, shared one success story at the news conference.

In October, the team contacted a 73-year-old woman who had been living in her vehicle for the past year, Marsitto said. After assessing her needs, HEART secured a hotel space for her for two weeks and found a shelter for elderly women that took her in. She has since moved into transitional housing, where she pays monthly rent for her own unit based on her income.

Marsitto said it’s important to hear the stories of unhoused people and understand their needs and the barriers they face.

“ at’s what our team is doing — we’re hearing their story,” Marsitto said.