Boulder homelessness impact-abatement efforts produce mixed results

BOULDER — Boulder’s homelessness crisis is a complex problem with a variety of causes and effects. For business owners, particularly in neighborhoods around the Pearl Street Mall and University Hill, some of the most obvious effects are customer and employee access and safety concerns, whether real or perceived, related to encampments. 

The city has stepped its encampment impacts abatement efforts in recent years, officials said during a broad discussion on homelessness Thursday during a Boulder City Council study session, but problems persist. 

Impact abatement is “not a strategy to resolve the underlying issues of homelessness,” Boulder city manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde said, but…