"Until the City Council and voters decide to get tough on this issue it will only get worse."

But this presents a PR nightmare, because these "get tough" measures will be very contradictory to how Boulder residents are perceived. Regardless of how true it is, Boulder has a reputation of believing all humans have value, a complete range of services is their God given right, and everyone needs to pitch in.

Then it lands in their backyard.  Also, without supporting data, there's no reason to assume all of this is recent arrivals.  There are a lot of displaced people in metro Denver right now, partly because of assistance programs Boulderites tend to support. It creates entitlement, and entitlement doesn't pay the bills.