Littleton community forum on homelessness encourages dialogue

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Chattering voices lled the Littleton council chambers on the morning July 11, as people gathered around tables and wrote ideas on giant notepads in colorful markers.

e gathering of approximately 50 city o cials, business owners, other community members and representatives of the Tri-Cities Homelessness Initiative was focused on homelessness in Littleton.

Over co ee and pastries, people shared their concerns, curiosity, disagreement and ideas on the topic.

“I’m grateful to be a part of this project to listen and to put our heads together as we address this issue, that both brings up these emotions that are real and intense, and brings compassion and fear and a vision of who we want to be as a community,” said Amanda Henderson, who facilitated the event.

Henderson, the director of the Institute for Religion, Politics and Culture at the Ili School of eology in Denver, was contracted by the city to help facilitate public engagement on the topic of homelessness in Littleton.

Success and hope e highlight of the meeting for many was when Joshua Casias shared his story.

Casias grew up in Littleton and attended Littleton High School, he said. He received a scholarship to play hockey at the University of Denver, but lost this opportunity when he started using drugs.

He was expelled from Littleton High School for selling marijuana and then was in and out of prison for about 15 years, struggling with drug use. He started living on the streets and had a challenging relationship with his family.

During this time, he met the teams at GraceFull Cafe and e Life Center, community-serving organizations in Littleton, and started looking for help.

He now lives in a halfway house, has a job and is saving money. He’s looking to soon move into a sober living home and is getting married soon.

“Where I was at before and where I’m at now is just two di erent lifestyles,” he said. “From using methamphetamine on the streets to having a job and getting married soon — it’s incredible.”

“Josh, everyone in this room, I’m sure, is so happy to hear of your success,” one community member said at the end of the meeting. “We applaud you — and reach out, get our names — anything we can do, we’ll help. We want to hear so many more of these successes.” e conversations at the forum were just the beginning of working towards long-term solutions for homelessness in Littleton, City Manager Jim Becklenberg said.

“ is needs to be an ongoing dialogue,” he said. “We have some of our community here and I hope that we can take this concept and expand it so that we can keep this going and get even more in-depth around some of the topics that have come up today.”

Mayor Pro Tem Gretchn Rydin, who attended the meeting, emphasized the importance of these intentional conversations.

“Einstein is quoted as saying, ‘If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes of that hour thinking about it, understanding it, and then ve minutes solving it,’” she said. “ at’s what we’re doing here today, is that 55 minutes, right? We’re really trying to understand this.”

Moving forward, she said council’s ultimate goal is to come up with speci c action steps to keep working towards addressing homelessness in the city.

Henderson’s team will incorporate the ndings from the forum and on-

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