{"id":30862,"date":"2023-11-03T20:47:39","date_gmt":"2023-11-04T02:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-human-services-fine-committee-now-funds-health-homeless-issues\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:27:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:27:26","slug":"state-human-services-fine-committee-now-funds-health-homeless-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-human-services-fine-committee-now-funds-health-homeless-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"State Human Services fine committee now funds health, homeless issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Colorado Department of Human Services has awarded Jail Based Behavioral Health Services Mental Health Expansion funding to five county jails, including the Montezuma County Detention Center.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Since 2021, the Colorado Department of Human Services and the Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health invested more than $7.5 million to address the homeless and mental health crisis. Through its Fines Committee \u2013 which Human Services pays for noncompliance with a consent order \u2013 they have funded nine different housing programs, including one in Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

IMPACT \u2013 Intensive Monitored Preventative and Acute Competency Treatment \u2013 serves Montezuma, San Miguel, Delta and Montrose counties and received $428,000 to make housing available with treatment and wraparound services for competency clients.<\/p>\n

Currently, the Fines Committee funds IMPACT\u2019s transportation, food, operating costs, a case manager for high-risk clients, house manager, medication, phones, two houses for clients, toiletries, utilities, business clothes for clients and monitoring services including urinalysis tests and GPS ankle monitors.<\/p>\n

IMPACT also has the capacity to virtually provide every eligible competency client in the region.<\/p>\n

Competency refers to a person\u2019s capacity to function meaningfully and intentionally in a legal proceeding.<\/p>\n

Other funded programs include CBER, operated by WellPower, which received $400,000. Colorado Coalition for the Homeless received $1.5 million; Ananeo Housing, $1.1 million; SAFER Opportunities, $2 million; and Monarch Recovery Housing, $953,074.<\/p>\n

The Fines Committee also approved funding that is not yet operational. That funding includes $822,000 for Assisted Living of Aurora, $822,000 for Transitional Housing, $313,762 for San Luis Valley Recovery Housing, and $10,000 for the Boulder County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

When CDHS was sued in 2011 for the failure to execute proficient timely evaluations and restoration treatments, resulting in a notable wait list of pretrial detainees, the Fines Committee collected their forfeitures and funded different housing programs to assist people in the competency system.<\/p>\n

CDHS also has been under court supervision from a 2019 consent order and is fined up to $12 million per year for noncompliance. The fines land into a fund for programs that focus on eliminating the wait list.<\/p>\n

Representatives from CDHS, Disability Law Colorado and the Special Masters make up the Fines Committee.<\/p>\n

According to a news release, the OCFMH also recently put into effect a nearly $300,000 contract with Abt Associates to determine the likelihood of supporting individuals with serious mental illness with Colorado\u2019s behavioral health and judicial systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cProviding funding for these programs will have a ripple effect across the mental health and justice systems,\u201d said Leora Joseph, director of OCFMH. \u201cWe cannot solve the consent decree without addressing housing for Coloradans experiencing homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Programs with creative initiatives, rural communities and agencies are encouraged to apply for support through the Fines Committee. A full list of programs supported by the Fines Fund and more information about it can be found on this graphic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these programs help people with psychiatric illness and low-level charges transition out of jail, off the waitlist, and into structured treatment and housing,\u201d said Neil Gowensmith, a special master who oversees CDHS\u2019s consent decree. \u201cThis kind of support is not only humane but also effective, decreasing the chances of return to the legal system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IMPACT, which serves Montezuma County, receives funds for services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81229,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30862\/revisions\/81229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30862"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}