Feb. 5—A Boulder homelessness advocate will host an event Friday to give away almost $80,000 worth of high-end outerwear.
Jennifer Livovich, founder of the nonprofit homelessness advocacy organization Streetscape, will be giving away approximately 3,000 articles of clothing, including women’s and men’s coats, snow pants and boots, by Arctix Apparel.
The clothing giveaway will run from noon to 3 p.m. Friday at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 3700 Baseline Road, and Livovich said the clothing will be given to “anyone in need.”
Livovich received the clothing through the Dakota Project by Arctix, a program with the goal of donating 108,000 new outerwear items, or $5.2 million in merchandise, to homeless shelters and nonprofits serving unhoused populations across the country.
The idea for the project came from Arctix Chair Matthew Bruderman’s teenage daughter, Dakota, who was interested in doing work to help the unhoused. Bruderman partnered with Zeldin Cares, a New York-based charity group, for the project.
Daniel Gall, a spokesperson for Zeldin Cares, said “dozens” of organizations across the country have applied for funding and that there are still about 40,000 items of clothing left to distribute.
Zeldin Cares was founded by former Republican U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, an ally of Donald Trump who voted to overturn the 2020 election results and unsuccessfully ran for governor of his state in 2022.
Asked for comment, Livovich wrote in a statement that she had no knowledge of Zeldin’s connection with the Dakota Project, adding that she only knew of the Arctix chair’s daughter’s desire to help people struggling with homelessness.
However, she wrote, “I don’t see politics when I think of outerwear that can help save lives and help people that are scraping by. These boots are going to prevent frostbite for many.”
After her own experience living on Boulder’s streets for five years, Livovich founded her first homelessness advocacy group, Feet Forward, in 2020. She was Feet Forward’s executive director until she resigned in May of last year due to a dispute with the board of directors over the ACLU lawsuit challenging Boulder’s camping ban.