Black Coloradans barriers in homeownership

According to Colorado’s Department of Labor and Employment, no unemployment claims with job separations from Suncor have been led since Dec. 15.

Loa Esquilin Garcia, a spokesperson for Suncor, said “extreme and record-setting weather” leading up to Dec. 24 caused the shutdown.

the applicants visited properties, landlords denied their applications. is happened over and over again.

By Ellis Arnold Colorado Community Media

the time ve years ago. “After that, we did the application online and sent it in without them being able to see the person.”

BY NINA JOSS AND HALEY LENA NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM; HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A few years ago, Aurora Warms the Night, an Aurora-based nonpro t serving people who need housing, ran into a challenge when assisting its Black clients in applying for apartments. When

So the team decided to take a di erent approach, sending in White volunteers to check out the apartments rst.

A long line of cars outside the city of Brighton’s rapid testing site at Riverdale Regional Park. The site has had to close early many days in recent weeks due to high demand. Adams County’s 14-day test positivity rate was 15.9 percent, as of Nov. 17, according to Tri-County Health Department. Brighton and Commerce City’s test positivity rates were both higher than 13 percent. Forty- ve people in Brighton and 29 in Commerce City have died from COVID-19 related health issues. To limit the spread of COVID-19, at least 15 counties moved to tighter restrictions that prohibits indoor and personal gatherings.

“I would send one of our employees or people that were White to look at the apartment — to get the pricing, get everything, to make sure everything was available,” said Brian Arnold, who was executive director of the group at

Once the application got approved, the team at Aurora Warms the Night would let the real estate agents see the client was Black. Arnold said this process worked almost every time and became the organization’s own way of making a dent in the discrimination that people of color may face, but nd e state’s COVID-19 dial, which has been in e ect since September, is the set of di erent levels of restrictions that each county is required to follow based on the severity of a county’s local virus spread. e dial grew out of the state’s safer-athome order — the policy that came a er the statewide stay-at-home order this spring and allowed numerous types of businesses to reopen. e state recently switched to color identi ers — levels blue, yellow and orange rather than numbered levels — to avoid confusion. Until Nov. 17, level red meant a stay-at-home order. Now, level red — “severe risk” — is the second-

As Denver metro counties continue to inch closer to local stay-at-home orders under Colorado’s system of coronavirusrelated restrictions, the state announced a new level of rules that prohibits indoor dining and personal gatherings — a change that applies to the majority of the Denver metro area and many counties in other regions.

“We decided to shut down the entire facility and put it into safe mode to allow for the inspection of all units and repair of the damaged equipment. e inspection and repairs of the damaged equipment are ongoing,” Garcia wrote in an email. e plant anticipates a progressive restart at the later end of the rst quarter for 2023. Adams said no schedules have been shortened or lessened, and everyone remains in the same roles.

“ is is no di erent than every couple of years, a re nery shuts down to retool, so everybody stays in their same roles, even at that time,” Adams said.

BY LINDA SHAPLEY, PUBLISHER

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