A Colorado county has gotten almost every homeless person off of the streets by enacting a “Handouts Don’t Help” initiative amid the nearby city of Denver’s all-out homeless and drug crisis.
Less than an hour south of Denver, Douglas County has taken the panhandling, loitering, drug dealing, and street-sleeping problems seriously.
Around 70 signs have been erected at intersections and roads that used to be popular homeless spots, directing people to DouglasHasHeart.org — a webpage with resources for those in need and a place for people to donate directly to the Douglas County Community Foundation.
“The thought dawned on me from a common sense standpoint – I saw a lot of people like my daughter feeling conflicted at an intersection,” Republican Douglas County Commissioner Abe Laydon told Fox News of the campaign:
If you see someone who appears to be down on their luck, it feels bad when you drive by and don’t do something – but the flip side is we all know the stories of those who maybe did not use all the funds they received in the most appropriate way. Maybe it’s going to food, maybe it’s going to drugs – you don’t know where the money is going.
It seems like the more you give at those particular corners, the more people it attracts. It becomes a conversation topic on the streets – if you go to this corner, you’ll get money there.
The corners that were once full of homeless people and beggars are now clear.
County data revealed that the number of homeless individuals living on the county’s streets dropped from 43 to just six from 2022 to 2024, and the number including those who sleep in their cars or local shelters decreased from 96 to 69 — out of a total county population of 375,988.
In Denver, which has a population of just under twice that of Douglas County, the homeless population exploded to 9,065 in 2023 from 6,884 in 2022.
“I saw it coming from Denver – people would get off the light rail, not pay for a ticket, get off at Long Tree,” Laydon said. “Next thing you know they’re asking for money on a corner.”
The commissioner recounted how he first thought of the “Handouts Don’t Help” program when he was volunteering with the homeless population in Long Tree and across an encampment “littered with liquor bottles and drug paraphernalia.”
“It was kind of everywhere, but never as bad as downtown Denver – we started at a good place,” he told Fox News. “[Our smaller homeless population] gave us the opportunity to nip this problem in the bud before it became really pervasive.”
According to Laydon, the initiative is not just about signs and redirecting people to donate to an accredited charity instead of to panhandlers. Task forces are directly engaging with and aiding people who end up on the streets.
HEART Team vehicles respond to each report of people sleeping on the street to offer them help.
“If people need services, they’re getting them. They’re getting hotel vouchers, we’re partnering with Ready to Work,” the commissioner said. “If somebody needs a job, they will get one. If they need a bus ticket back to their family in Tennessee, we’ve done that. If someone needs food for a night or a week, they’ll get it.”
HEART team navigator Tiffany Marsitto said they keep trying even after people refuse aid.
“I had an individual who was service resistant in the beginning during our first couple of interactions. He was going through a mental health crisis,” she told Fox. “[Four months later], when he was ready to re-engage with our team we were there for him. We helped him fill out an application for a housing opportunity in the Metro region.”
“People may not be ready today but could be ready in the future,” Marsitto added. “They see our face, they know that we’re there and they know that our team cares. They know that our community cares about them, us continuing to engage with these folks goes a long way.”
Laydon emphasized that illegal activity is still “illegal activity, whoever you are” — so people who partake in “urinating, defecating outside, doing drug deals in our light rail system” will be arrested regardless of homeless status.
Camping on the streets is also illegal, but the HEART Team said that they encourage people to go to shelters rather than writing a ticket every time.
“Our goal is compliance, to use the ordinance to get the unhoused individuals to find a better solution,” another navigator, Rand Clark, said. “Very rarely does someone want to intentionally break the law. We’ve been able to use that tool from a positive perspective, to say that our county ordinance is that you maybe can’t sleep here, so how can we help you find a shelter in a place where you want to be and are not breaking the law.”
Cathy Alderman, chief of communications and public policy officer for Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, expressed doubt in Douglas County’s approach.
“We applaud any jurisdiction working to address homelessness, but as they do not provide shelter or robust services, and we know they are bussing people to other cities and counties for help, it’s hard to believe that being unwelcoming to people experiencing homelessness is a true solution to the problem,” she said in a statement to Fox News.
Regardless of the naysayers, Laydon has celebrated the functional end to “homelessness in our community”: