Wednesday’s community meeting to address the issue of homelessness around Longmont’s Roosevelt Park took on some of the larger questions.

Residents who live around the park asked city staff questions such as: Why is the homeless population increasing? Where can they go? What is the city going to do about the root problem?

Carmen Ramirez, manager of the city’s community and neighborhood resources division, said that nearby residents may be seeing an increase of homeless population around the park for a variety of reasons.

“Surrounding communities have gotten tougher and are pushing people out and it’s summer so that’s probably contributing. You probably don’t see these numbers in the winter,” Ramirez said. “You’ve heard several times tonight that rents have increased in Boulder County, and in the Denver metro area, so there’s a very low vacancy rate…wages are not enough to get them into a rental and if you haven’t had a rental history for a while, that can be an additional challenge.”

Matt Goertz stood up during the question and answer portion of the meeting and explained that he “didn’t have an address right now.”

Goertz said he was new to the state, had two dogs and is working two jobs.

“I’ve got a tent but nowhere to set it up,” Goertz said, choking up. “I don’t require water or electricity or anything like that, I just need a location where I can put a tent for the night. I don’t cause no trouble for nobody.”

While there isn’t anywhere Goertz or other people like him could legally camp in the city, City Councilwoman Polly Christensen said that when they were talking about overall solutions, she didn’t think a campground was such a bad idea.

Christensen and Councilwoman Bonnie Finley attended the meeting and both spoke about the need to care for Longmont’s homeless population.

“Nobody wants to be homeless. This guy is working, you know. It’s not like he’s not trying,” Christensen said, referencing Goertz. “There are a great number of homeless people working and they would like the chance to be self sufficient … there are simply many, many of us who are one or two paychecks away from being homeless and we need to own up to that and show compassion.”

Finley says she catches the bus to Denver from the park and at times she is scared to exit her vehicle because two homeless people may be fighting nearby. She advocated for reducing homelessness partly through the Housing First philosophy, a school of thinking that says it is cheaper for a community to give a chronically homeless person a home than to keep caring for them via police, nonprofits and emergency rooms.

Officers from Longmont Police Department were on hand at the meeting to explain what they can and can’t do in regards to homeless people.

Officer James Brown explained that while open containers, fighting, using drugs, urinating in the park, creating a disturbance or camping in the park after 11 p.m. were ticketable offenses, simply being a homeless person in the park, or even being intoxicated in public, are not illegal.

“If you see criminal behavior we encourage you to continue to call it in because it’s important that we come out to it, but an analogy I like to use is that if a group of soccer moms were doing the exact same thing, would it be a problem? If the answer is no, it is likely not a crime,” Brown said.

And ticketing the homeless doesn’t seem to be working, officer David Kennedy said.

“I can’t think of anyone, or any specific situation where the one open container ticket I wrote to an individual solved their homelessness,” Kennedy said.

Instead, three police officers have formed an outreach team, to get to know the city’s homeless population on a personal level and try to get them referred to resources that can help them get off the streets.

Residents alerted city staff to some Roosevelt-Park-specific issues such as an old storage shed that is supposed to be torn down, but has become overgrown and dimly lit. Jeff Friesner, with the city’s recreation department, said Regional Transportation District-Denver police are going to patrol the bus stop more often and Brown said Longmont PD are doing their best to get foot patrols around the park at closing time. Public Works staff said they are trying their best to keep the park clean and lit at all times.

One woman asked whether the police officers could talk to the liquor store on Ninth Avenue and stop them from selling alcohol to people who are noticeably drunk. After all was said and done, Ramirez took a list of resident ideas and suggestions and scheduled another tentative meeting for three months in the future.

Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci