Councilmember asks to add homelessness strategy resolution as White House guidance changes funding priorities

On July 30, Councilmember Robert Van Dyke asked the Grand Junction City Council to place a resolution on a future workshop agenda that would amend the city’s local homelessness strategy in light of a recent White House executive order. Van Dyke said the executive order includes new federal guidance and funding tied to treatment-focused approaches and that the city should clarify its definitions and program priorities to preserve federal grant eligibility.

Van Dyke told colleagues the city’s survey data shows a large increase in the unsheltered population and that the council’s current strategy groups many categories of housing insecurity together. He recommended narrowing the strategy’s operational definition of homelessness to distinguish unsheltered people who may need outreach and treatment from other forms of housing instability (for example, couch-surfing), and asked staff to review existing homeless programs to identify opportunities to emphasize treatment-based services.

City staff and other councilmembers supported scheduling a workshop to discuss a resolution and requested staff coordinate legal review and program details. Van Dyke said he had consulted the city attorney about civil‑commitment safeguards and did not expect state civil‑commitment rules to be preempted by any federal guidance; his principal concern was maintaining federal funding while adjusting local strategy and program focus.

The workshop concluded with staff agreeing to regroup on scheduling and to circulate a tentative workshop date for the council to consider the resolution and program review. No formal resolution was drafted or adopted at the workshop.