Fact Check: Does Boise Idaho Spend thousand of dollars on Homeless Assistance Programs?

Update 9-22-13 6:03 AM Editors Note: I've included a brief explanation of the Financial Tables included in this article Mark Reinhardt- Boise Idaho At a September 17th, Boise Idaho City Council Meeting, City Councilor Thomson addressed the issue of helping those who are homeless in the City of Boise, iand, addressed the CATCH and Community Housing Programs as the means the City has taken to do so, Mentioning the claim of thousands of dollars spent on Homeless Assistance, its important to take a look at the 2012/2013 Biannual Budget Working Documents from 2011. I first had to retrieve that document through the website after discovering that the document did not exist on the City of Boise servers According to the workshop documents, this is what the five year period for the city looked like, including actual and proposed financial figures for the Community and Housing Development budget. Retained earnings for the programs in 2009 and 2010 were listed in millions and thousands in red ink, later retaining a positive fiscal balance for 2011, while working out the numbers for 2012 and 2013. The CATCH program itself, did not have Red Ink for those years, and in fact, retained a positive balance in the Hundred Thousands. Brief Explanation of Financial Tables: Retained Revenues is the amount of money left over, after a Fiscal Year is completed. Revenues, means the amount of money taken in, spent on each program itself. When a budget document contains parenthesis, it means that fund is running a negative balance. A financial summary is the total dollar amounts spent on programs, also, outlining the amount of money, allocated to expenses. In previous News Reports, Boise Police Chief Michael Masterson had expressed how Idaho Medicaid budgeting was creating an extra strain for his officers. Even expressing to the Legislature that we should protect people, like we do Natural Resources, He was later honored for his work in dealing with persons who have Mental Health issues, http://police.cityofboise.org/media/132335/crbul_v3jan2013.pdf Councilor Thomson was factually correct, and while the issue of Aggressive Solicitation is left to Municipal Governments, Members of Local Idaho Law Enforcement had pointed out the increased impacts of State Medicaid Budgeting decisions on their departments through contacts with persons suffering through Mental Health conditions, as KPVI in Pocatello had reported, According to the Idaho Housing and Finance Association Point in Time Count for 2013, these was the figures for persons with Disabling conditions listed as Homeless, While Councilor Thomson was correct about the amount of money spent on Homeless Assistance programs, the issues surrounding Ordinance 34-13, goes farther than Aggressive Solicitation, as Councilor Mclean pointed out, Sources close to Idaho Law Enforcement have stated that Officers will not enforce the Ordinance. Ordinance 34-13, will be fully implemented on January 2nd, 2014.