At the regular meeting held on Tuesday this week, the Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) heard from library malcontents during the open public comment period. Commissioner Tom Jankovsky arrived late due to traffic problems and had to leave after the first item on the agenda — a letter to the BOCC written in early January by the Carbondale town manager regarding migrant newcomers.
The letter asked commissioners to consider three ways to help Carbondale help the migrants: 1. a $50,000 contribution from county funds; 2. a shelter space; and 3. a regional discussion to boost a coordinated response from local governments to homelessness and the needs of the recent arrivals in Carbondale. Copies were also sent to Eagle and Pitkin counties.
Carbondale Mayor Ben Bohmfalk, town trustee Colin Laird and former Roaring Fork School District superintendent Rob Stein, who has been helping the Town of Carbondale provide aid to the migrants, were on hand to discuss the letter and provide an update about efforts to help more than 100 unhoused newcomers over the winter.
In late December 2023, many of the migrants, mostly from Venezuela, were sheltering under a Carbondale bridge, camping out or living in their cars. The nonprofit group Voces Unidas spent nearly $80,000 in direct aid and advocacy for the migrants before pulling back on Jan. 7.
The Third Street Center sheltered more than 50 migrants until mid-January. Other shelters remain available until the end of March. Funding from various nonprofits, including Aspen Community Foundation, as well as citizens and the state’s Department of Local Affairs, has helped mitigate costs and could be used to organize a regional response.
Stein told the BOCC that the Town is concerned about what happens after the shelters close. “Absent any other action, likely what will happen is that people will be back camping on public space,” he said. “It will be an enforcement problem. It will be an environmental problem. It will be a community problem. It will be a deterrent for tourism.”
He added that a coalition of organizations who work on homelessness is in the works. Meanwhile, this summer and fall, he expects more new arrivals in the Roaring Fork Valley. “People are coming because there’s cash-paying day labor jobs,” he explained. “So, we either manage the impact or we don’t manage the impact, starting on April 1.”
Laird is worried that if more people arrive and municipalities and counties in the Roaring Fork Valley aren’t working together on solutions, responsibility will fall to law enforcement. “One of the things we’ve learned is that our approach to the current unhoused is less than ideal,” he said. “If there’s an opportunity to build our capacity to deal with folks that are already here struggling with housing issues, we should try and do that as well.”
Bohmfalk made sure the BOCC knew that providing services for the unhoused population was not why Carbondale became a destination for the migrants, telling Jankovsky that Carbondale is not a sanctuary city. He said the Town first looked at the impacts of a “do nothing” approach, but problems that come from lots of people living outside in winter with no facilities forced Town officials to take a different tack. “So we took a ‘do something’ approach and we’re kind of back there again,” he said. “We’re trying to put together what the next phase will look like.”
The BOCC unanimously denied the $50,000 request. Bohmfalk had asked them to avoid politicizing the issue but his words apparently fell on deaf ears.
Jankovsky began the discussion by admitting that he was going to get political and, while sympathizing with migrants, cited an increase in poverty in the county and disgust with the Biden administration’s border policy. He also dropped the “I” word: “It’s literally an invasion of our country,” he said.
Commissioner Mike Samson echoed sentiments about the border and added that he wants to put locals first.
Stein said that many of the recent newcomers qualify for temporary protective status, which can take months to obtain. “We’re trying to buy them a little time so that they can become incorporated legally into the workforce,” he explained.
But John Martin sees giving money to migrants as enabling organized crime. “You’re still helping out the organized crime who is sending these people and making money on the other end,” he said. He, too, wants to put locals first and added that he helps out migrants on an individual level, but they are “taking advantage of the system”.
Bohmfalk told The Sopris Sun in an interview after Tuesday’s meeting that he hopes the BOCC will join community conversations about the issue, which have already begun. He added that the migrants who came to Carbondale are not running from anyone. “They’ve been allowed to stay here as they await hearings, but they haven’t been given permission to work,” he explained. “So they’ve found themselves in a position of dependence.”
In other news, the BOCC approved a contract with international law firm Womble Bond Dickinson LLP on behalf of the Western and Rural Local Government Coalition for between $60,000 and $100,000 for work on an upcoming state oil and gas regulatory rulemaking. The money will come out of the county’s Oil and Gas Mitigation Fund.
The entire meeting is available at www.garfield-county.com/board-commissioners