(COLORADO SPRINGS) — The City of Colorado Springs has unveiled its Homelessness Response Action Plan, a comprehensive, long-term strategy designed to tackle homelessness in the city. The plan outlines 60 key initiatives that reflect the community's priorities and address the issue from multiple angles. 2025-homelessness-response-action-plan-FINAL-FOR-WEBDownload While other cities are seeing a rise in homelessness, Mayor Yemi Mobolade believes Colorado Springs has made strides to reduce that number, but he said there is still a lot of work to be done. "It is important that we strike the balance between compassion and public safety, and that's what this document reflects," Mayor Mobolade explained. The strategy focuses on six key areas: enforcement and cleanup; street outreach and shelter; homelessness prevention; employment; housing and supportive services; and collaboration and public communication. City leaders believe these priorities will guide efforts to address both immediate needs and sustainable, long-term solutions. "Homelessness is an issue that impacts all of us," Mayor Moboalde said. "Whether I'm speaking with residents, hearing from businesses, or speaking with service providers, the concern is clear -- homelessness weighs heavily on our community." Over the next five years, Colorado Springs promises to disperse an unclear amount of city and federal funds to support local nonprofits, or programs related to homelessness prevention and response. The city also plans to continue to improve clean-up response by increasing the police department's homeless outreach team from six to eight officers, and provide a toolkit to business owners on how to access resources available for trespassing, vandalism, and waste cleanup. "How do we identify what the needs are of people in those encampments?" asked Aimee Cox, Chief Housing and Homelessness Officer for the city of Colorado Springs. "We identify where we're headed, what are the needs of the people in those encampments, how do we connect those folks to services and then how do we clean it up so that it doesn't become a camp again. And I think that is something that this city is committed to doing." The city also looks to implement a "Handouts Don't Help" campaign to discourage giving money to panhandlers, while establishing a system for unshelted individuals to store and reclaim their belongings and reduce litter. "Our team goes out and helps them with every bit of that, whether it is getting their ID to start with because they've lost it, getting connected to mental health services and substance use services," said Steve Johnson, Community and Public Health Administrator of the Colorado Springs Fire Department. "Any of those things, we will help them do in order to help them stair-step their way up and out to the best of our ability and in a way that works for them, because they have to want to build on that as well."