Meet the new Centennial homeless outreach liaison

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

As communities across Colorado grapple with how to best serve people experiencing homelessness, the City of Centennial has a new resource — a homeless outreach liaison.

Vanessa Gates was hired to the brand new position, which falls under Arapahoe County’s direction.

Gates, who started working in the role on March 13, introduced herself to the Centennial City Council on May 16, sharing updates on what she has worked on so far and the vision for her role.

“Our target population are going to be individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness and at-risk of becoming (homeless),” Gates said.

According to the presentation, Gates will collaborate with individuals and/or families facing homelessness and refer them to the appropriate resources or programs.

She will also provide navigation assistance to reduce barriers a ecting the individual or families’ access to resources.

“I’ll conduct eld outreach in areas with higher concentrations of calls regarding people experiencing homelessness. It’ll be from (the) Arapahoe County Sheri ’s department, local businesses and the city itself,” Gates said.

So far, Gates said she has visited three encampments in the city. One was at the Dry Creek RTD station across from the Jones District, another was at Cottonwood Creek, and the third at deKoevend Park, she said.

“To date, we have discovered some hot spots. So, one being I-25 and Dry Creek, High Line Canal, and Goodson Rec Center (and) the deKoevend Park area,” Gates said.

District 1 Councilmember Candace Moon said, “I’m very happy that you’re on board. We’ve needed this homeless coordinator position for a long time. e areas you mentioned, two of them are in District 1. And we do see a lot of displaced people.” e value of collaborating with other cities, including Englewood, Littleton and Sheridan, that are also working to lessen the impact of homelessness was highlighted during the meeting.

“ is is a community problem. It’s not just the City of Centennial,” Gates said. “We really have to come together and work at this.” e Metro Denver Homeless Initiative’s 2022-2023

State of Homelessness report said the Homeless Management Information System showed 27,860 people accessed services related to homelessness between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022.

According to the report, the top causes of people experiencing homelessness are related to economic barriers, evictions, or familial challenges such as relationship issues.

Arapahoe County Commissioner Jessica CampbellSwanson said during a May 17 town hall that in Decem-