Fort Collins City Council approves settlement allowing homeless to store belongings in lockers

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The City of Fort Collins approved a settlement Tuesday night allowing the Mennonite Fellowship to let homeless people to use lockers outside the church to store their belongings.

An ongoing issue since last fall, many neighbors showed up to Tuesday night's meeting to voice their concerns.

"The lawyers representing the Mennonite Fellowship and the city’s attorneys have come to an agreement with some compromised conditions that the church can comply with and that we believe meet all the cities objections," said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Denver. "The city’s attorneys have agreed to recommend this settlement agreement to the city council, but it’s not final until the city council approves it."

Conditions of the settlement:

1. The operating hours of the locker program will be from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. A Fellowship representative need not be present at the lockers during these operating hours.
2. The Fellowship shall restrict locker access during non-operating hours by a using a securely locked metal bar reasonably capable of blocking access and use of the lockers without unlocking the bar. However, a locker-user may access and use the lockers during non-operating hours with the assistance and direct supervision of a Fellowship representative. Once such access and use are completed, the Fellowship representative shall ensure that the metal bar is in place and securely locked for the remaining non-operating hours.
3. As an alternative to using a locked metal bar to block access to and use of the lockers during non- operating hours, the Fellowship may use other means to block such access provided: (a) the City’s Director of Community Development and Neighborhood Services Department (“Director”) has determined that the proposed alternative means is at least as effective as the locked metal bar in denying access to and use of the lockers; and (b) the Director has issued his or her written approval of the Fellowship’s use of the alternative means.
4. The Fellowship must provide the City’s Zoning Department with the contact information at which two authorized Fellowship representatives are available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, including their names, cell-phone numbers with texting capabilities, email addresses, work and home phone numbers, and work and home addresses. These Fellowship representatives must be persons to whom the Fellowship has granted the authority to make decisions concerning the use of the lockers and they cannot be locker-users.
5. The Fellowship must post a sign at the entrance of the Fellowship’s building and on the lockers stating the contact cell-phone numbers of the Fellowship representatives.
6. If any of the contact information changes for the Fellowship’s representatives, the Fellowship shall promptly notify the City’s Zoning Department of the change(s) and update the sign if the change is to a posted cell-phone number.
7. The Fellowship shall install and maintain a security camera at a location that provides a high-quality and clear view of the lockers, their numbers and of users as they access the lockers. The camera shall be operated twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with its video capable of being monitored in real time, retained at least seven days and accessible remotely by cell phone and over the Internet.
8. The Fellowship shall post and maintain a clearly visible sign at the lockers stating the hours of locker operation and the following: “UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO LOCKERS IS NOT PERMITTED. VIOLATORS MAY BE PROSECUTED.”
9. Locker-users must sign a locker-use agreement that identifies the express hours of operation and the use restrictions as outlined in these conditions, and shall contain the phrase, “UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO LOCKERS IS NOT PERMITTED. VIOLATORS MAY BE PROSECUTED.” The agreement shall also provide that failure to comply with the locker-use agreement, following a warning, may result in removal from the Locker Program.
10. If Fort Collins Police Services (“FCPS”) or a member of the public has reason to believe that a locker- user is impermissibly accessing his or her locker as outlined in these conditions, the FCPS may contact a Fellowship representative to inform him or her of that complaint. The Fellowship representative shall endeavor to respond to the FCPS contact within thirty (30) minutes. If the Fellowship representative does not respond within thirty (30) minutes, FCPS officers, in their discretion, may proceed with enforcing any relevant State laws or City ordinances.

The Fort Collins Mennonite Fellowship installed lockers outside its building for people experiencing homelessness to safely store their belongings. 

Backlash from neighbors when the lockers were installed led Fort Collins City Council to impose stricter regulations for how and when the lockers could be used -- so strict, the church couldn’t comply. 

"The city council passed an ordinance that required us to have somebody on site here during the hours of operation which are 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and not wanting them to be open from 9 to 6 at night," said Steve Ramer, the pastor at the church. "We’re a small church. We don’t feel like we should or could have someone on site from 6 to 9 seven days a week to monitor folks going in and out."

For the past several months, the lockers have sat vacant and the people they were installed for have not been allowed to use them. 

"It’s important for me and other people to have a safe place to put safe papers, to put backpacks, to put bedrolls, our clothes," said Gloria Hallatt, who has been homeless for several years. "When they get stolen, it’s not that I’m so angry that somebody stole them, I’m angry because I’m without the things I need to survive and I have to get them all over again and that’s not easy. It’s heartbreaking because it takes a lot when you don’t have anything to get the basic necessities of life."

9NEWS reached out to every member of the Fort Collins City Council and the mayor. Those who responded declined to comment, citing an ongoing legal issue.

SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Local stories from 9NEWS