Denver City Council member calls to defund city's Street Engagement Team

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver City Council could be looking to change how money is spent to address homelessness in the city.

City Council member-at-large Sarah Parady has started that push, wanting to defund the city’s Street Engagement Team in the next city budget. With support from other council members already secured, that amendment could be made to the city’s budget before a final vote next week.

“I think we’ve reached the point and time where we should really move that team," said Parady.

The current role of the SET is to engage with the city’s homeless population and offer outreach solutions. But Parady said it hasn’t been effective.

“They will essentially just tell the person to move along," she said. "It's fairly rare for them to make a connection to a resource and when they do, it's actually usually over to another city team so then you’re just kind of duplicating and bouncing people around.”

Her idea is to move the nearly $1 million spent on the SET and its 12 team members into other branches of the city, such as the Department of Housing Stability.

“Put them within our housing department or our public health department or another department that has the resources to actually resolve the situation that the person may be experiencing rather than just telling them to move along," said Parady.

When asked about the idea, the city of Denver says in a statement to FOX31:

"The Street Engagement Team (SET) connects individuals with services and support while allowing law enforcement to focus on higher priority calls for service.  SET members save lives by administering Narcan, transporting individuals to shelter in dangerous weather, and building relationships and trust with folks to help them toward better situations. SET is a crucial tool in our work to address unsheltered homelessness and we look forward to continued engagement about this critical service." City of Denver

Parady said that within HOST, however, that money can be better used to get better help to the homeless population.

“We’ve done a really good job of creating those resources, and so we should make sure that we are able to connect people with them effectively," said Parady.

She said that just training the current SET staff on better outreach methods is not feasible.

The amendment proposal will go to a vote this week and the final vote on the city’s budget will happen on Nov. 4.