Bringing Court to the Community

A human-forward approach toward helping Boulder’s unhoused

By Matt Maenpaa

On any given day of the week, Boulder court navigation manager, Dara Amott, and her staff are visiting parks and churches, or the offices of local non-profits to check in on defendants in Boulder’s community courts, a judicial program that works with unhoused people and those with repeated violations of the city’s camping ban, public consumption and other non-violent offenses.

Amott and her team work as court navigators, a role more like a case manager than a probation officer. Recognizing that many of these defendants who frequently get tickets for camping are already struggling, the navigators work directly to help them connect to needed services such as food, clothing and health care. Rather than putting offenders through a series of court dates, or having law enforcement officers take time to arrest them and book them for a night in the county jail, community court takes aim at the roots of homelessness directly.

Community court isn’t held in the traditional halls of justice but instead goes to the people who most need it. Operating out of the plaza in front of the Tate Municipal building at Canyon and Broadway also puts it in proximity to where many of the unhoused spend their time already, making it more logical to partner with organizations like Deacon’s Closet, food banks and health care providers, bringing services to one place.

“Holding court outside in the community, where people can walk up to address their cases or ask questions, allows us to build connections that increase trust and engagement,” Amott says. “I’m able to go out in the community and meet with a person to explain their next steps. You can see the relief on their face when learning that they can address their citations outside at a place that also has access to these other resources.”

Even before the community court was officially formed, past Presiding Judge Linda Cooke was looking to address the root causes for repeated problems that were taxing Boulder’s judicial system. When she joined Boulder Municipal Court in 2001, the focus was on quality-of-life violations primarily involving CU Boulder students. Rather than saddling college students with hefty fines for noise violations and public intoxication, Cooke and the courts collaborated with CU Boulder to develop restorative justice programs that helped the students connect with the people living on The Hill near them.

As Boulder’s unhoused population grew, the need to address those violations became a priority. In order to tackle the root cause, the unhoused not only needed to stay out of the court system, but also needed access to bureaucracies like Social Security offices, the DMV and the disability offices. Many of the chronically unhoused struggle due to trauma, addiction and other issues that keep them from regularly engaging services like the local shelters. 

“One of those barriers [to housing] is that you need what I call the ‘five magic documents’ to even be eligible to be placed on the housing list and potentially get matched with a resource,” Cooke explains. “You need a social security card, a birth certificate, a state ID, verification of the length of time you’ve been homeless and then a medical disability verification that qualifies you for permanent supportive housing issued by a physical or mental health provider.”

Prior to 2016, when more housing development became available within the county, resources were limited, and Cooke had discerned a pattern. Plenty of people in the system that actively engaged in the services or who had only recently become unhoused due to disasters like the 2013 flood had the highest success rate getting into the available housing. 

Those with the highest acuity—the chronically unhoused that had been on the street for decades—were still being left out. These repeat offenders weren’t violent, but they were still issued citations for things like public consumption and urination and camping in restricted areas, taxing the system. By 2014, Cooke had probation officers assisting with court navigation duties and had started imposing sentences with more nuance.

“If somebody would plead guilty to camping, I would give them four hours of community service,” she says. “I would suspend [the sentence] on the condition that they then go get their state ID or their social security card.”

The added sanctions weren’t as effective when the probation officers had split attention and didn’t have the time to devote to each case along with their other duties, so Cooke worked to establish a full-time navigator position that would assume that role. In 2016, the community court was officially formed through use of a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Center for Justice Innovation. 

Since then, the program has continued to grow and helps address the struggles the unhoused community faces. Amott and her team of two navigators spend one day a week dedicated to helping defendants with the necessary steps to get their cases dismissed and put them on a path toward permanent housing. They especially focus on tasks that are otherwise difficult without things most people take for granted, like access to a computer with internet, reliable transportation or even the money to pay document fees.

“Some defendants are already engaged in case management, but for others this is the first time they’re receiving support,” Amott says. “We can help them take the first steps to get stabilized and work toward housing.”

Tracking success for the community courts comes not from the reduction of cases alone, but helping the defendants get the support they need to prevent citations in the first place. The results are effective, considering that with the 63 people helped through the program, there were a total of 2,614 cases between them. Since being housed, the total number of cases between those 63 people has dropped to a mere 13.

Municipal Judge Jeffrey Cahn presides over the community courts now, working closely with Amott and her team, as well as the prosecutors and the Boulder Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team. In order to provide mental health services, the community court has partnered with Naropa University’s mental health faculty to provide hands-on experience for post-graduate students working in counseling and social services. The goal is to continue helping these people, not only to get on their feet, but to allow Boulder’s justice system to focus attention on greater issues in public safety.

“I always emphasize that this is a practical response to the world we live in,” Cahn says. “It’s an empathetic and humane approach, very much in the best interest of the defendants who appear in front of us, but it’s also very pragmatic. Otherwise, these cases sit there without resolution, then sometime later someone gets arrested and serves time on an outstanding warrant, but it doesn’t solve the problem going forward.”

Amott echoed Cahn’s practical approach, pointing out the costs inherent in cycling someone between jail and the streets. Time in jail for people whose only real crime is being unhoused takes resources from law enforcement across the departments, as well as the judges and lawyers, and it disrupts their process for getting housed. 

“By addressing cases early on and connecting defendants to services, community court saves the city resources,” Amott says. “We all want to reduce homelessness, and it takes a team to do so. By providing wraparound services in all parts of local government, we are more likely to help our most vulnerable population.”

Boulder Municipal Court
1176 6th St.
Boulder
bouldercolorado.gov/services/community-court