Arvada Press 020223

Our in-depth look at the housing crisis

Arvada

city

team resolves to manage local homeless service providers

BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Arvada’s City Council rang in the new year by addressing one of the most pressing concerns for the community: homelessness.

At a Jan. 9 study session, Arvada’s city team resolved to take a more supervisory role in terms of homeless service coordination, but one of the city’s key would-be partners — Mission Arvada, a homeless service ministry that operates out of e Rising Church in Olde Town — says the city hasn’t always been a willing collaborator.

High home prices, lack of supply sever metro residents from communities

home costs and a lack of supply, residents like Laney have struggled to live in their communities.

BY ROBERT TANN COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

When Chris Laney moved into his new three-bedroom home last summer, he felt like he’d won the lottery. After more than a decade of chasing the cheapest rent across the metro area, the Littleton bartender nally has a house to call his own.

“I almost feel guilty that I have it,” said Laney, 49.

Laney is one of a handful of residents who have secured housing through a subsidized program aimed at helping lower- and middle-income people live where they work. But as cities and towns contend with historically high

“I’ve always felt like I was just passing through instead of living somewhere, putting down roots,” said Laney. He has worked at Jake’s Brew Bar in Littleton since 2012.

“ is is where I want to be,” Laney said. “My friends and family are Jake’s.”

In numerous counties, residents — spanning a range of employment from the service industry to teaching — have faced the brunt of what many o cials are calling a housing crisis.

e median price of a singlefamily home in the metro area has roughly tripled since 2010, according to an August 2022 report by the Colorado Association of Realtors. Back in 2010, the median price was about $200,000.

And wages have not kept up with home costs. Between 2000 and 2019, median rents rose at a faster

rate than household incomes “in every Colorado county and city with 50,000+ residents,” according to a November 2021 report from Denver-based consulting rm Root Policy Research. e report also said that, as of June 2021, Colorado’s overall housing inventory was 13% of what is needed for a functioning sales market.

“Quite honestly, we just don’t have enough housing, whether it’s a ordable or otherwise,” said Kelly Milliman, city council member for Littleton’s District 4 and a member of the city’s housing task force. “It’s really vitally important to the overall health of our community going forward.”

e sentiment is similar for leaders in the neighboring cities of Englewood and Sheridan. ere, o cials said a ordable home options used to be more common.

“For the people that can a ord it,

e discussion was spurred in part because of an incident that occurred on Christmas Day at School House Kitchen and Libations; one of the many Olde Town establishments owned by Scott Spears.

In an email to city council, city team members and other community stakeholders, Spears reported that a homeless man broke into Schoolhouse and vandalized the restaurant and its alcohol stock. Spears said a bar manager at Schoolhouse found the man on Christmas morning, at which point Arvada Police responded.

e man was eventually placed in jail, according to Spears, and Spears himself had to leave his family to take care of the situation.

“I’m sick of this,” Spears said in the email. “Do something. Shut down the church that is bringing all of these people down here. We all know that is the main problem. If any other business was causing these types of problems, they would be shut down immediately.

“Not only has my family and I invested millions of dollars into Olde Town, but I have given my heart and soul to our wonderful town,” Spears continued. “And now it is being destroyed. Get this homeless situation under control. You are our leaders and you are letting us down. Do something. Now.”

Low- and middle-income people struggle to live where they work

PROVIDERS

In Arvada Mayor Marc Williams’ response to Spears’ email, the mayor seemed to support the idea of having the Rising moved from the historic district.

“As you know, there are several of us who want to shut down the Rising in Olde Town,” Williams said. “I get emails from their supporters, but their support is misplaced. I’m glad this guy got arrested. Enough is enough.”

Other stakeholders seemed to agree. Steven Howards, an Olde Town building owner, echoed Spears’ and Williams’ sentiments.

“I too own a signi cant amount of property in Olde Town and am very frustrated,” Howards said. “ e Rising Church is a crummy neighbor that lacks compassion for the Olde Town community, which is a sad, sad commentary.”

Homelessness data

At the Jan. 9 study session, city team members went over data regarding homelessness. e estimates contained in that data are approximate and are culled from a variety of sources.

e city estimates that in Arvada, 1,126 people received day sheltering over a one-year period. Of those individuals, the city estimates that 200 are unhoused (more of a temporary condition), 64 are chronically homeless, 40 are veterans and 128 are disabled.

e city reports that there are 493

people experiencing homelessness in Je erson County; 142 people in emergency shelter, 164 people unsheltered, 35 people in transitional housing, 133 families, 341 adults and 19 youth.

e Arvada Police Department estimates that between 125 and 175 individuals are homeless in Arvada. Representatives from Mission Arvada — which, unlike the City of Arvada, participates in the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, which compiles data on unhoused people to appropriately allocate housing vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development — said they have served 1,090 unique individuals over the past year. Additionally, Mission Arvada has

placed 141 people into permanent housing in the last two years; 97% of which, they say, have stayed in that housing.

Deputy City Manager Don Wick said that in 2017, the city had 1,100 calls related to service for homeless people. In the last two years, Wick said, that number increased to 3,800 calls for service.

Arvada Police Chief Ed Brady said that 1,100 arrests and tickets have been issues to homeless individuals within the last year. Brady estimated that in 2020, the total cost for APD’s response to homeless calls — including the salaries of CORE team o cers, co-responders and funding for camp cleanups — exceeded $1 million.

“I don’t see that as a source of pride,” Brady said. “It just shows that there’s a demand for it… this is just the CORE (APD’s Community, Outreach, Resource and Enforcement team) O cers. So, this doesn’t even account for our patrol o cers who have to deal with issues when CORE’s not there.”

At the council study session, Wick asserted his belief that no matter what the city or relevant stakeholders do, homelessness will always exist in Arvada. He asserted that, according to the city’s research, only about one-third of homeless people wish to better their situation.

“ ere’s going to be a level of homelessness that exists in our community, regardless of what steps or actions we take,” Wick said.

“ rough the course of our research that we did over the past few

ARVADA TAKES ACTION

The city team outlined immediate, intermediate and long-term actions at its Jan. 9 study session. The following is a partial list of these actions.

Immediate: identify emergency sheltering, hire homeless navigator and coordinator, transition homeless from Olde Town, identify service location outside of Olde Town, create governance structure.

Intermediate: establish data collection method and performance measures, align service providers including the school district, develop communication plan, build a funding pipeline.

Long-term: implement regional navigation center, expand housing options, evaluate transitional housing model, elected o cials advocate for legislation and financing to assist with handling.

months, we have determined that it’s likely that we would be in the 30 to 40% range of individuals that we would have success in reaching and getting them into services or housing or a combination of both.”

However, Karen Cowling — Director of Mission Arvada — says the City of Arvada’s research is incorrect because it lacks a fundamental component of providing care for unhoused people: trust.

“Unbeknownst to them, 99% of the people we have gained trust of in here have sought help,” Cowling said. “Even if it appears that they don’t. Because maybe they’re so angry and belligerent about everything that’s happened to them and how the system has failed them. ere seems to be no hope for them.

“ ey still want help, even though they’re afraid or they’re marginalized,” Cowling continued. “ ey still want help. Your perception that they don’t want help — that’s yours. You don’t know them. e relationship is not there. ey don’t trust you enough to tell you how afraid they are, how scared they are to trust anyone. at is a complete false perception.”

e Rising’s Pastor, Stephen Byers — who helps lead Mission Arvada along with Cowling — said the city’s study session lacked consideration of the relationship needed to gain the trust of someone who’s been living at the margins of society.

Forty percent of people Mission Arvada provides services to have

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Erasmo Solerti guest artist violin

Arturo Gonzalez conductor piano

Exterior of The Rising Church in Olde Town, where Mission Arvada is headquartered.

PHOTO BY RYLEE DUNN

City of Arvada moving forward with MGT Consulting for diversity, equity, inclusion work

BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

About a year after ring their last diversity, equity and inclusion consultant, the City of Arvada is moving forward with a new one: MGT Consulting, a national rm headquartered in Florida with consultants based in Colorado.

e city signed a contract with MGT in December 2022. Over the course of the next year, the consulting rm will work with the Arvada city team to review best practices, complete an organizational as-

sessment, engage in a community landscape analysis, present a summary report and nally lay out a DEI action plan.

MGT’s work will focus on internal work with the Arvada city team, but will also include engagement with community members and the creation of a community DEI taskforce.

Arvada began considering DEI work in 2020. A rm — We e People — was hired to complete work similar to what MGT is tasked with, but was red after a Jan. 10, 2022 city council meeting in which

the consultants were chided by city councilmembers for mispronouncing “Arvada.”

In addition to working with municipalities across the country to help them become more inclusive, MGT is currently the client of Arapahoe and Pitkin Counties in Colorado.

“ We focus on DEI in general, but also really with a focus on organizational improvement,” MGT Vice President Lamont Brown said. “And so, improving culture, improving the work experience for sta members and having a sense of what is

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working for the communities that our clients serve.”

City Councilmember Lauren Simpson said she was happy MGT would be proposing concrete steps the city should take, rather than just completing analysis.

“I really appreciate the use of the term action plan,” Simpson said. “One of the things that drives me the most nuts is when and this happens a lot in academic circles, we identify an issue and then we talk it to death. But and we and we come

SEE FORWARD, P7

Here’s a Guide to the Tax Credits Available for Making Your Home Energy Efficient

Inspired by an article in The Washington Post, I’m able to provide you with a simplified guide to the improvements you can make to your home that might earn you a tax credit or other benefit under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

If you are wealthy, some of those IRA benefits may not be available to you, so check with your tax advisor. Even if you don’t qualify for the tax credits or rebates, almost all of these investments will produce savings down the road as well as being “the right thing to do.”

Heat pumps to replace your HVAC system and water heater are the first and greatest improvement you can make. Unlike gas and resistance-based electric devices, heat pumps move heat, they don’t generate heat. And a heat pump HVAC system uses far less electricity that a baseboard or other electric HVAC system does. The IRA provides for up to $2,000 tax credit for heat pump purchases, with extra benefits for low- and medium-income homeowners. Although I haven’t used them myself, you might contact Sensible Heating and Cooling, 720-876-7166, www.sensibleheat.net, one of those rare HVAC vendors which will try to talk you into a heat pump system instead of a traditional system.

Many heat pump systems, including water heaters, are “hybrid,” meaning they have backup gas or electric resistance functions that kick in or can be activated when the heat pump can’t produce the needed heat.

For example, a water heater in heat pump mode has a slower recovery than in conventional electric mode, so if you have a big family (or a teenager) you may find that you run out of hot water quickly and it takes longer than you want to reheat the water in the tank.

A heat pump HVAC system will probably work just fine without backup so long as you don’t turn down the thermostat too much overnight. Our office is heated solely by heat pump, and we leave it on 70 degrees 24/7, and it’s still way more affordable than the gas forced air furnace it replaced.

Xcel Energy charges commercial customers about $50 just to have a gas meter before you burn any gas, which contributes greatly to making gas forced air more expensive than heat pump heating. Note: you need to have the gas meter

removed, not just stop using gas, to save that $50 per month. Even in a residential application where the monthly meter fee is less, I suggest that you focus on completely replacing natural gas appliances (including your fireplace and grill) so you can have the gas meter removed and save that facility charge plus other gas-related fees that has exploded of late.

Induction stoves to replace gas ranges not only save you money (including an $840 rebate if you qualify) but can improve you family’s health. Despite right-wing raging about this topic, it has been proven statistically that gas cooking has increased asthma cases in children and some adults. (I have a link to that study at www.GoldenREblog.com.) The rebate is available on non-induction electric stoves, but induction cooking costs less and is faster. You can dip your toe in this technology by buying a single countertop induction burner for $50 to $70, as I did. You’ll be amazed. On our blog, I also have a link to an article about how chefs have come to prefer induction cooking. As they say, “try it, you’ll like it!”

As an aside, unless and until you get rid of your gas cooktop, make a habit of turning on the exhaust fan (if it exhausts to the outside) when you are cooking to exhaust the carbon monoxide and other pollutants which gas cooking generates.

Electric cars that cost under $55,000 and trucks or SUVs under $80,000 that are assembled in North America qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 and a Colorado tax credit of $2,000 (without those federal restrictions, which include an income cap of $150,000 single or $300,000 filing jointly). Even the Tesla Model Y (the country’s most popular new EV) now costs less than the above price limits.

What’s new with the IRA is that you can get a federal tax credit of $4,000 or 30% of the purchase price (whichever is less) of a used EV that is at least 2 years old, has a purchase price under $25,000, and is purchased from a dealer. I have always advised that a used EV is your best buy, because a used EV is as good as a new EV since it has none of those components of a gas-powered car (such as transmission or engine) which may be about to fail. Google “used electric cars” and you’ll see many for sale by dealers.

solar panels to 30% for the next 10 years, and, given the steady reduction in the cost of solar over the past two decades, this investment is a no-brainer, assuming you have a roof that’s not shaded by trees. (Ground mounted PV is an option if you have a large unshaded backyard area.) Xcel Energy allows you to install panels with the ability to provide up to twice your last 12 months’ usage, which is great, because that could provide all the electricity you will need for a not-yet-purchased EV or not-yet-electrified heating system.

My advice is to purchase your solar photovoltaic system outright, not lease it or sign up for a “power purchase agreement.” When it comes to selling your house, anything other than a system that is owned complicates the sale. I’m a repeat customer of Golden Solar (303955-6332), but also like Buglet Solar (303-903-9119). What these companies have in common, and which I think is important, is that they are local familyowned businesses, which I much prefer over a national firm such a Tesla or Sunrun Solar.

Improving your home’s insulation should always be the first step in saving money on energy. The IRA provides a 30% tax credit, up to $1,200 annually, for such improvements, specifying $600 for windows and $500 for doors. The gold standard in windows and doors is Alpen High-Performance Products, a Louisville CO company, which made the triple-pane windows we purchased for our South Golden Road office — expensive but worth it in terms of comfort and energy savings. Contact Todd Collins of AE Building Systems, 720-287-4290.

Whole-house energy efficiency retrofits are eligible for a rebate under the IRA, based on proven reduction in your home’s energy costs. Speak with someone from a company like Helio Home, Inc. (720-460-1260) which covers every aspect of reducing home energy use, from solar to insulation to appliances.

The IRA also provides a $150 rebate on a home energy audit, which is an essential first-step to figuring out the best and most cost-effective efficiency improvements you can make. Learn more at www.REenergizeCO.com

Buy a new washer and dryer! The new top-loading high-efficiency washers are the best, speaking from personal experience. The washer automatically reduces water consumption based on the size of the load; and a heat-pump electric dryer saves on electricity.

Landscaping, done right, can save on energy and water. Think shade trees and xeriscaping, or installing buffalo grass, which requires little watering or mowing. Call Darwin at Maple Leaf Landscaping, Inc. (720-290-8292), a client of mine, to discuss the possibilities at your house.

If your house doesn’t already have one, a whole-house fan is a great energy saver, allowing you to flush hot daytime air out of your house before activating the A/C when you come home. It can also allow you to leave the A/C off overnight by bringing in cool nighttime air on a quiet, low-speed setting. Wholehouse fans cost between $500 and $2,000 installed. They don’t earn their own IRA benefit, but would contribute to the benefit you earn with the wholehouse retrofit mentioned above. I am a happy repeat customer of Colorado Home Cooling, now part of Colorado Home Services, 303-986-5764.

Not mentioned in that Washington Post article was daylighting of your home or office, which is a favorite way for me of reducing electricity consumption by drawing sunlight into dark interior spaces. I have installed Velux sun tunnels (similar to Solatube, another brand) in two of my past homes, including in a windowless garage, and in our former standalone office on South Golden Road. For those installations, I used Mark Lundquist, owner of Design Skylights (303-674-7147).

Jim Smith

Broker/Owner, 303-525-1851

Jim@GoldenRealEstate.com

1214 Washington Ave., Golden 80401

Broker Associates:

JIM SWANSON, 303-929-2727

CHUCK BROWN, 303-885-7855

DAVID DLUGASCH, 303-908-4835

TY SCRABLE, 720-281-6783

GREG KRAFT, 720-353-1922

PROVIDERS

spent time in foster care, Byers said, which he claimed adds to the importance of relationship building during rehabilitation.

“One of the things I think is missing in this whole discussion is the importance of relationship,” Byers said. “And how relationship builds for someone who’s often lived a life with a lot of trauma, relationship is important to help them move to the next level.”

Moving beyond one’s circumstances

Byers said that over the past two years, Mission Arvada has helped 141 people get into permanent housing. He claims 97% of them have stayed.

e nonpro t provides two hot meals a day, showers, a clothing bank, severe weather items and laundry services. Additionally, partners including Senior Smiles Dental, Christian Legal Society, Je erson Center for Mental Health, DMV To Go and others partner with Mission Arvada to provide their services in-house at e Rising’s Olde Town church building.

In exchange, unhoused people who utilize Mission Arvada’s services must attend an orientation, where they are appraised of a strict 25-rule code of conduct — which governs acceptable actions both at Mission Arvada’s property and in the broader Arvada/Olde Town community — they must follow to remain eligible for services.

“We have every service in place that will help people move beyond their circumstances, and the services are in-house,” Cowling said.

“We are the only entity like that in Je erson County that o ers emergency services and in-house navigation services for getting people into permanent housing.”

In 2020, Je erson County stated its desire to build two homeless navigation centers in the area to provide wraparound services for unhoused people. Last year, the City of Arvada spent $2.75 million for a property located at 51st Avenue and Marshall Street in order to submit a bid for one of the navigation centers.

Arvada’s Director of Communication and Engagement Rachael

Kuroiwa said that the city has closed on the property and will now begin working with Je co and the surrounding municipalities to begin planning a navigation center.

However, Kuroiwa added that while the city considers the site to be “viable,” Arvada does not have nal site con rmation from the county yet, meaning that the placement of the navigation center is still up in the air. She added that the project is still years away from completion.

“ is is likely to be a long-term project that will take several years to complete,” Kuroiwa said. “As this project develops, there will be more public information available as the planning and design process moves forward… We believe it is a viable site for a regional navigation center. Final site con rmation is part of the regional coordination work that is ahead of us.”

Kuroiwa added that the city is not considering having any services on the site until a navigation center is completed.

In Wick’s presentation, he credited “economic reasons,” “relationship issues,” “post-traumatic stress related issues, physical or behavioral health, mental health issues, addiction,” as some of the reasons why people experience homelessness.

Wick also stated that “Some make a lifestyle choice” to be homeless, an assertion both Cowling and Byers bristled at, but Williams echoed.

“People don’t choose to be homeless and live on the streets and eat out of trash cans,” Cowling said. “You know what I mean? at (comment) really bothered me.”

Williams in particular doubled down on Wick’s claim, stating that if the city does not limit the “impact” homeless people have on Arvada residents, the city will “lose our Olde Town.”

“Where I’m most concerned right now, from an immediate perspective, are the chronic homeless who want to remain homeless,” Williams said. “What do we do with them? And how do we make them have a much smaller impact on our citizens?”

Wick called Olde Town an “attractive place for the homeless to be able to come and seek shelter and food” due to a “triangle of services” in the

historic district made up of Mission Arvada, the Je erson County Public Library branch directly across the street and the nearby G-Line RTD stop.

To his point, Wick showed a heat map with homeless population clusters around Arvada, which seemed to suggest a trend of unhoused people gathering near G-Line stops, most frequently in Olde Town. He posited that after Mission Arvada closes at 1 p.m. each day, unhoused people head to the library across the street.

“We’re pretty sure this has some negative economic impact, especially around Olde Town,” Wick said. “It’s a little bit challenging to quantify exactly what that means, but if you talk to the business community, speci cally, they’ll share that sentiment.”

Cowling called Olde Town “a gem of the city” and said Mission Arvada would be willing to move its services to another location — including the property at 51st and Marshall — if the city was able to provide assistance. e Rising’s congregation has been located at the church’s Olde Town location since the 1960s.

“To be very blunt, they don’t want the homeless in Olde Town,” Cowling said. “ is is a gem to the city, and they don’t want them here. We have told them that we would operate outside of Olde Town. But we are a nonpro t. We don’t have the funding to buy a building and make it equipped to do all of the things that we’re doing.”

Wick says a move must come sooner, rather than later.

“We need to identify an appropriate location outside of Olde Town to provide homeless services,” Wick said. “I think we could have a great advantage if we can nd an appropriate place where services can be provided that will serve people and do well. But Olde Town is not that location.”

Byers said that moving Mission Arvada won’t solve all of Olde Town’s problems.

“ e other fallacy is that if we left, if we weren’t in Olde Town, there would be no homeless in Olde Town,” Byers said. “ ey’ve created an urban environment. ere are other attractions here; there’s a library, a light rail station, a transit hub, there’s greenspace all around here.

“Why are homeless people in Arvada?” Byers continued. “It’s safer than Denver, as well as many of them grew up around here. is is their home; this is their safe place.”

Next steps

Arvada Municipal Judge Kathryn Kurtz shared the latest results from the court’s One Small Step Program

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A map showing the location of homeless populations in Arvada. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CITY OF ARVADA

Golden’s UllrGrass festival delivers on wintry namesake

Hundreds brave cold weather for weekend of beer, music

BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Naming an outdoor festival in January after the Norse god of winter is bound to make Mother Nature raise an eyebrow.

Over the Jan. 27-29 weekend, hundreds braved the windy and snowy conditions to savor the beer and music at Golden’s UllrGrass festival. Temperatures were so cold on Jan. 29 that the festival moved into a heated tent.

On Jan. 28, hundreds turned out to Golden’s Parfet Park, with many donning Viking helmets and bushy beards. As the beer kept owing and the music kept playing throughout the afternoon, many attendees remained undeterred by the incoming cold front.

If anything, maybe this weekend’s wintry weather helped the festival feel even more authentic.

in your vicinity. We

make it worth your while if we can use your home.

From left, Aaron Foley, Tyler McDonald and Scott Foley wear matching beards and Viking hats at UllrGrass on Jan.28.

Bri Witherow with Barrels & Bottles Brewery shows o her Viking costume complete with a horn to hold her beer tasting glass.

The Bill and Jilian Nershi Bluegrass Band play an hour and a half set of covers of The String Cheese Incident during UllrGrass Jan.28.

PHOTOS BY SARA HERTWIG

Arvada Library closes due to methamphetamine contamination

Fourth Denver area library to shut its doors in recent weeks

BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Another Denver area library has closed over concerns about methamphetamine residue. e Arvada Library’s doors will be shut for an

FORWARD

up with grand visions about where we want to go, but we don’t come up with the little ladder rungs that it takes to get there.”

Amy Travin, the founder of local grassroots organization Arvadans for Social Justice said that while she was happy the city was moving forward with a new DEI consultant, she hopes that history — both recent and from long ago — not be forgotten.

inde nite period of time after testing for the substance by EnviroSpec.

e announcement from the Jefferson County Public Library came on Jan. 28.

e library is the fourth in the metro area to close due to meth contamination. Boulder, Littleton and Englewood libraries closed in recent weeks after simialar testing.

e decision to test the Arvada Library followed a review of incident reports across Je erson County libraries. Further testing is expected

“I’m hesitant that while reviewing the data, the history of both long ago and more recent Arvada is going to be lost,” Travin said. “There is a history of Arvada before any of us were here and before our grandparents and great-grandparents were here.”

She went on to stress that there is a history that cannot be ignored when working with and in Arvada.

“There are Native Americans in our own community living and breathing right now that have voices to be listened to for this work,” she said.

to bring any public health concerns into sharper focus.

JCPL said that recent studies indicate that exposure to meth residue poses little health risk compared to long-term exposure to meth residue in one’s home or workplace — an assertion backed by experts recently interviewed by Colorado Community Media.

“ is is an ongoing situation and if there is information that would lead us to believe that there is an unreasonable risk to the health of sta or

Travin urged the consultant not miss to not miss out on those particular voices when engaging with the community and also pointed out that more recent history, such as when the first consultant, We the People, was hired, should be just important as the history from long ago.

“ urge the consultants to ask around everyone here what they remember and also urge the consultants to watch that meeting from a year ago to gauge for themselves how open the city is to this work and what may be required to move forward in it,” she said.

patrons, testing at other locations would be plausible,” JCPL said in a statement.

Of the metro area libraries that have closed due to meth contamination, only the Boulder library has partially reopened since its initial shutdown.

JCPL said it will consult with its partners to determine when the library can reopen again. Another branch of JCPL remains open in west Arvada, the Express Library West Arvada.

BEST OF THE BEST VOTING STARTS

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(OSS), which is designed speci cally to help defendants who are experiencing homelessness. e defendants work with city prosecutors, probation o cers and homeless navigators in order to be connected with resources, treatment and housing during their trial.

Kurtz said that 733 OSS cases were led in 2022, compared to about 4,700 municipal court cases overall. However, of the 1,030 criminal violation cases led in 2022, 71% were OSS cases.

To date, three defendants have successfully completed OSS. ree OSS defendants are currently in a treatment program, and 15 OSS defendants have received housing.

“We have a couple more defendants who have successfully completed the program,” Kurtz said. “And what that looks like for me is that they’re not picking up new law violations. ey are relatively sober, they are in housing, and they’re on either disability that can help sustain them and pay for their housing or that they’re working so that they can support themselves.”

Nevertheless, Kurtz said that the biggest struggle folks in the program have is completing treatment. Kurtz requires OSS defendants who are struggling with substance abuse to attend Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, but those programs don’t work for everyone, she said.

“I told (one defendant), ‘You go to treatment or you go to jail,’ because he had so many criminal violations that he was really escalating that behavior,” Kurtz said. “And he was really given every single access to resources and was unwilling to engage at all, in any respect. And so that was kind of the end of the line for him.

“He went to treatment for a day and then bombed out and so he did end up spending 190 days in jail,” Kurtz continued.

Brady said that a shortage of mental health resources keeps people cycling through the legal system without actually getting better.

“If there’s one thing I would ask you to take away from my portion, it is that there are not enough mental health resources for those people that are found guilty of crimes or are put on M1 holds,” Brady said.

e city has committed to taking a coordinating role in providing homeless services. Wick asserted that taking a leadership role in connecting service providers to those in need would be more bene cial than Arvada actually providing services itself.

“You’ve heard from our various experts here about how they’re trying

to get people into the resources,” Wick said. “But it’s really di cult because we lack a coordinated system in order to get there.

“My recommendation is that we need to advocate for a strong governance system,” Wick continued, “like you see at the Tri Cities, what you see in Adams County and others, not to deliver the services not to be the service provider, but rather that we build the governance structure with policy aims that are clear across the county and provide consistency for what we can do, that we helped lead the e ort to develop the regional plan, execute that plan, manage and coordinate that be the catalyst for change.”

Wick also called on city council to lobby the state legislature for increased funding to accomplish this.

An exasperated Williams agreed with Wick’s recommendation but maintained that some people “don’t want to be helped.”

“Let’s certainly work on programs and how we can better coordinate and how it can work regionally on helping those who want to be helped,” Williams said. “But for those that don’t want to be helped, you know, do we just tell from, here’s a place you can go, and you can start your own little society and leave us alone? Or what?”

Byers says that if the city wants to partner with service providers, it will have to better its relationships with them — something he hasn’t seen yet.

“We need more coordination from the city, the city can coordinate and collaborate, but we need collaboration,” Byers said. “You have us, Community Table, Grace Church, the library; it would be nice if someone could just get everyone together and we’re working on who’s doing what. Possibly talk about speci c clients and what’s the best avenue to help them.

“It’s a holistic thing; a city cannot (provide services),” Byers continued. “Governments are not relational.”

“ at’s why there’s nonpro ts,” Cowling said. “We all need to work together to get people into housing.”

Despite the disorganization, lack of resources and myriad challenges facing homeless people in Arvada, there are some — though not many — success stories.

“We have about 15 dependents who have received housing, and those who have received housing are doing really well,” Kurtz said. “It’s really fun to see that while they’re not living that white picket fence life, necessarily, they’re in a much better place than they were previously, especially during the winter months.

“I think they feel really good about where they are,” Kurtz continued. “And they’re willing to meaningfully engage and work towards betterment.”

FROM PAGE 4

Arvada’s take on the navigation center model. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CITY OF ARVADA

Thu 2/09

Larry & Joe: WORKSHOP: Venezuelan Strings @ 6pm Swallow Hill Music, 71 E Yale Ave, Denver

Tue 2/14

Brody Danger: Dyketopia

Valentine's Day Spectacular @ 7pm The Bug Theatre, 3654 Navajo St, Denver

emalkay @ 8:30pm

Cervantes' Master‐piece Ballroom & Other Side, 2637 Wel‐ton St, Denver

Fri 2/10

Peter John Stoltzman Music: Rajdulari Back 2 Love @ 6:30pm Dazzle Jazz, 930 Lincoln St, Denver

The Bird Dogs @ 8pm

Cervantes' Master‐piece Ballroom & Other Side, 2637 Wel‐ton St, Denver

Sat 2/11

The Callous Daoboys @ 6pm Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St, Denver

156/Silence @ 6pm Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St, Denver

"Cyrano de Bergerac" @ 7:30pm / $21

Wheat Ridge Theatre Company, 5445 W 38th Ave, Wheat Ridge

Flak @ 7pm

Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St, Denver

Dive Bards, Interroband, and All Through the Night @ 7pm Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St, Denver

Tiny Humans @ 7pm

Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St, Denver

Girls Only: The Secret Comedy of Women @ 7:30pm Galleria Theatre, 1245 Champa St, Denver

Larry & Joe @ 8pm

Swallow Hill Music, 71 E Yale Ave, Denver

Excision @ 8pm Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St, Den‐ver

Whales @ 8pm Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St,, Den‐ver

Swavay @ 8pm

Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St,, Denver

The Fretliners @ 8pm

Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom & Other Side, 2637 Welton St, Denver

Audion @ 9pm 1134 Broadway, 1134 N Broadway, Denver

N2N @ 9pm Nurture • A Wellcare Marketplace, 2949 Federal Blvd, Denver

Valentine's Day Hip Hop Show w/ Mr. Fredo @ 9pm Gaslamp, 1437 Market St, Denver

Sun 2/12

Colorado Symphony Orchestra @ 1pm Boettcher Hall, 1000 14th Street, Denver

CHRIS CART3R @ 7pm

Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom & Other Side, 2637 Welton St, Denver

Mon 2/13

ARTS: Mini Picasso @ Hiawatha Davis Jr. @ 4:30pm Feb 13th - Mar 13th

Hiawatha Davis Jr. Recreation Center, 3334 Holly St., Denver. 720-913-0654

Visions of Atlantis @ 8pm The Oriental Theater, 4335 W 44th Ave, Denver

Ari LennoxAge/Sex/Location

Tour 2023 @ 7pm / $59.50

Summit, 1902 Blake St, Denver Midwife @ 8pm Hi-Dive, 7 S Broadway, Denver

Wed 2/15

Sematary @ 7pm Cervantes Other Side, 2637 Welton Street, Denver

TURNABOUT @ 7pm

Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom & Other Side, 2637 Welton St, Denver

Dallas Mavericks at Denver Nuggets @ 7pm Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver

Imbolc: the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox

Ilove February, primarily because it is my birthday month, though I chafe about how it got short-changed in days. But given that it is often the coldest, most bone-chilling stretch of the year in the northern hemisphere, I do not mind cutting it short and rolling into March.

roughout the ancient world, the month of February was rich with tradition. Its name is derived from Februalia, which was the period set aside in ancient Rome for puri cation rituals. From that tradition, we have the celebration of the Puri cation of Mary, which came forty days after the Nativity in accordance with Mosaic Law, and the blessing of re — Candlemas — on Feb. 2.   ose sacred celebrations happily coincide with Imbolc, which marks the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox. For many in the pagan tradition, Imbolc marks the rst day of spring.

It is striking how two disparate ancient cultures, Greek and Celtic, both correlated the sun and poetry (a decidedly right-brain process) with the creative process. At Imbolc, the crone gives way to the maiden in anticipation of giving birth, and

JERRY FABYANIC Columnist

young Apollo, god of the lyre, poetry, and intellect, rides his chariot in increasingly higher arcs across the rmament.

In the Celtic tradition, the goddess Brighid, who morphed into Ireland’s Saint Brigid, is prominent at Imbolc, which is known as Saint Brigid’s Day. As with Apollo, she is the deity of poetry. She is also the goddess of smithcraft and healing, making her a goddess of creativity and energy restoration. And like Apollo, she is a solar deity.

On Mother Earth, little or nothing appears to be happening in terms of new life. But beneath her skin, roots are awakening, getting ready to grow and spread hair-like tentacles. Crocuses and tulips are awakening from hibernation. For those into gardening, this is the time for planting seeds in hothouses or solaria to incubate and then sprout as seedlings and mature su ciently in anticipation for their opportunity to bloom in the natural world.

Seeing that aspect of the natural cycle as a metaphor, February is the perfect time to re ect or meditate on what is happening underground in these northern climes and relate it to your ideas. Imbolc is an ideal time for imagining, a time to shake free of winter doldrums. Idea seeds lying dormant in your subconscious await to be brought into consciousness, into the visible, vibrant world.  ose idea seeds might be oating as inclinations, urges and gut feelings or may be moving past what you have said or thought you always wanted to do but for one reason or another delayed or postponed acting on. Perhaps you might want to use this time to begin planning a trip, painting a canvas, or writing. Or planting a garden, literally or metaphorically. Imbolc is a perfect time to allow those nascent ideas to germinate so they can then grow and manifest themselves.

When one ventures past planning a trip to actually making the journey, occasional forays on side trips of some sort are requisite. ey provide an opportunity for individuals to take a time-out, separate themselves from their tribe and setting, and be alone with themselves.

Banning books is for bullies

Some people have become so alarmed by what children might read in school or in libraries that they want books they don’t like removed — immediately. e targeted books include scenes of sexual awakening, gender identity, racism or violence.

But why aren’t these alarmists focusing on a book that’s chock-full of incest, rape and gore? I’m talking, of course, about the Bible.

In Genesis 19:30-36, Lot’s daughters get him drunk in a cave and his eldest daughter has incestuous sex with him. Judges 12 tells how an angry mob surrounds a Levite and his concubine, so he appeases them by handing over his companion. What happens next to the sacri ced woman is too gory for me to describe.

Yet the Bible hasn’t been a target of book banners; moreover, some zealots attack books they’ve never read. ey just have a list.

People on the warpath about “dangerous” books started urging

WRITERS ON THE RANGE

libraries and schools to ban books they found objectionable in 2021. at discontent bubbled to the surface during COVID-caused school shutdowns and has now erupted into a culture war.

says a person is guilty of “disseminating material harmful to minors” when they knowingly loan material with detailed sexual descriptions to underage children. e 24 books she cited were all “young adult” books, and parental consent was already required before they could be checked out.

I recall two friends who trekked in two di erent ways. One set out with a plan that did not unfold as intended. Instead, it became a grand adventure into self-learning. Consequently, he returned with a deeper understanding and insight into himself and a clearer perspective about what to write about next. e other friend was quite sure about her reason for leaving. She simply felt the need to go. It took her out of her comfort zone, which is always a grand place to be, for that is where true learning and adventure takes place. e beauty is that both listened to and honored their inner selves. at is the spirit of Imbolc.  So do not dawdle until you see literal blossoms and green grass appearing. As the stock line goes, “Life is what happens when you’re planning.” Your task at Imbolc is to start on the underground, preparatory back work of future creations to ensure that when your project becomes truly visible to the world around you, it will appear with radiant and luscious beauty.

Jerry Fabyanic is the author of “Sisyphus Wins” and “Food for ought: Essays on Mind and Spirit.” He lives in Georgetown.

giving away 1,500 of the banned books — donated by concerned citizens — to Nampa students and teachers.

Call first: 27972 Meadow Dr., #320

Evergreen, CO 80439, 303-566-4100

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To subscribe call 303-566-4100

Crista V. Worthy

In Idaho, where I live, book banners have targeted the state’s three largest cities of Boise, Meridian and Nampa, all in the Treasure Valley in southwest Idaho.

So far, only Nampa has succumbed to the pressure. Oddly, the book tossing was started by just one woman, Tosha Sweeney, who emailed the Nampa school board to demand that it remove 24 “pornographic” books that sex o enders might use to “plan their attacks.”

To bolster her demand, she cited section 18-1515 of Idaho law, which

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In a city as big as Nampa, with over 100,000 residents, you’d think one person’s demands would at least require a hearing before action is taken, yet the school board removed all 24 books “forever.” As it turned out, only 23 books were taken o the shelves because one young adult book on the list had never been bought.

ere was no formal review, infuriating some parents who championed free speech and free choice. A month later, they joined students and teachers outside the Nampa school district o ces to protest the bans.

Laura Delaney, who owns Rediscovered Books in nearby Boise, fought back against censorship by

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AUDREY BROOKS Business Manager abrooks@coloradocommunitymedia.com

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“ ese books are written because authors are trying to gure out the world, and having them share their wisdom with people of all generations and backgrounds makes a difference,” Delaney told reporters. en the Idaho state Legislature jumped on the controversy. Last year, House Republicans passed HB 666 to hold librarians “criminally liable” for distributing material considered “harmful to minors.”

“I would rather my 6-year-old grandson start smoking cigarettes tomorrow than get a view of this stu at the public library or anywhere else,” said Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa. A misdemeanor conviction for disseminating harmful materials includes up to one year in jail and a $1,000 ne. Many librarians found

Columnists & Guest Commentaries

Columnist opinions are not necessarily those of the Press. We welcome letters to the editor. Please include your full name, address and the best number to reach you by telephone.

Email letters to kfiore@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Deadline Wed. for the following week’s paper. To opt in or out of delivery please email us at circulation@ coloradocommunitymedia.com

Peak winter brings top entertainment

On ce every couple months, I get completely bowled over by how much there is to do in the metro area and have to dedicate a column to celebrating the wonderful variety we all have in our backyards. Don’t let the snow and cold weather fool you — there’s all kinds of options at this time of year.

I rounded up five great ways to spend this cold winter as we inch closer to spring - these options will all help get you there:

Clarke’s Concert of the Week — The Lone Bellow at the Ogden Theatre

Brooklyn’s The Lone Bellow make the kind of folk rock you can really wrap yourself up in and use to get lost. Over the course of their five albums, they’ve explored a sonic and lyrical landscape that is at times wry, but always deeply thought out and felt. The hilariously titled “Love Songs for Losers,” was released toward the end of 2022 and continued this trend, with songs like “Cost of Living” are among their strongest songs yet.

In support of their album, The Lone Bellow are playing the Ogden Theatre , 935 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver, at 9 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3. This will be a great pre-Valentine’s Day show, so get tickets at www. axs.com.

Celebrate the Year of the Rabbit with The Nathan Yip Foundation

It’s always great when you can have a fun time and learn something at the same time. That’s always been the case with The Nathan Yip Foundation’s lunar New Year Party , which will be hosted at the Grand Hyatt in Denver , 1750 Welton St., from 5 to 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 4.

The celebration of the Year of the Rabbit will include a ChinoLatino theme. According to provided information, “the evening will feature world-class performers including lion dancers, a palm reader, a Chinese calligrapher, the Colorado Mambo Orchestra and an authentic and interactive Chinese Night Market.”

Money raised at the party supports the foundation’s work supporting K-12 educational projects

COMING ATTRACTIONS

in rural Colorado communities.

Tickets are available at https:// nathanyipfoundation.org/event/ chinese-newyear-party.

The Music of Nat King Cole comes to Northglenn

Clarke Reader

Nat King Cole has one of the best and most unmistakable voices in pop music history. And there’s a reason you always seem to hear a bit more from him right around Valentine’s Day - he’s one of the best purveyors of audio romance. So, it’s perfectly fitting that the Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra (CJRO) is bringing The Music of Nat King Cole to the Parsons Theatre , 1 E. Memorial Parkway in Northglenn, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10.

Find all the details and tickets at www.coloradojazz.org.

Secure Your Super Bowl Plans at Punch Bowl Social

There’s something about the Super Bowl that just makes people want to gather. It’s always a fun time, especially when you don’t have skin in the game. For those who want to take part in some group fun without having to cleanup after, head to Punch Bowl Social Denver

The event, which kicks off at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 12, allows attendees to play arcade games, get in a couple frames of bowling and get some drinks and bites. There’s VIP options available, which include a projector viewing of the game, a beer-in-hand buffet and VIP lounge - with two complimentary drink tickets.

According to provided information, activities will continue throughout the game up to last call. There will also be live music from a local DJ at the after party. For all the details, visit https:// punchbowlsocial.com/.

Clarke Reader’s column on culture appears on a weekly basis. He can be reached at Clarke.Reader@ hotmail.com.

the law terrifying; some quit their jobs or changed careers.

e “Idaho library community has lost some good people due to the con icts centered mostly around book challenges,” state librarian Stephanie Bailey-White told me.

ankfully, Idaho’s Senate refused to give the anti-librarian bill a hearing. But lawmakers found another way to punish libraries: ey cut $3.8 million from this scal year’s original $11.5 million budget for the Commission for Libraries.

Idaho’s library budget cuts have now made it harder for libraries

ABOUT LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Colorado Community Media welcomes letters to the editor. Please note the following rules:

• Email your letter to kfiore@coloradocommunitymedia.com. Do not send via postal mail. Put the words “letter to the editor” in the email subject line.

• Submit your letter by 5 p.m. on Wednesday in order to have it considered for publication in the following week’s

to stock new books and expand telehealth services for seniors and rural residents. Lawmakersalso defunded a statewide e-book program managed by the Idaho Commission for Libraries.

Book banning campaigns aren’t new in America, but last year the American Library Association said that library sta faced an “unprecedented number of attempts to ban books.”

e organization said the books most targeted were those about Black or LGBTQIA people. e Bible was not on anyone’s list.

Crista V. Worthy is a contributor to Writers on the Range,writersontherange.org, an independent nonpro t dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She lives in Idaho.

newspaper.

• Letters must be no longer than 400 words.

• Letters should be exclusively submitted to Colorado Community Media and should not be submitted to other outlets or previously posted on websites or social media. Submitted letters become the property of CCM and should not be republished elsewhere.

TREMBATH

Thomas “Tom” Trembath

November 27, 1930 - January 15, 2023

omas “Tom” Trembath, 92, of Marshalltown, IA passed away on Sunday, January 15, 2023 at Bickford of Marshalltown. Cremation rights have been accorded. Anderson Funeral Homes of Marshalltown has been entrusted with the arrangements. Online condolences may be sent to www. andersonfhs.com.

Tom was born November 27, 1930 to Stan and Mary (Meeker) Trembath in Evans, CO. He married the love of his life, Cynthia, on June 1, 1952 in Greely, CO. Together they had two sons and a daughter. Tom served our country in the Army during the Korean war, and was stationed in Fort Riley, KS from 1953 to 1957. He spent most of is life in Colorado before moving to Marshalltown in 2017 to be closer to his daughter, Kathy. Tom

GRASSESCHI

worked as an Elementary Principal for 38 years, retiring from Je erson County School District in 1998. He was very involved in his communities, including serving multiple positions on the Arvada United Presbyterian Church committees, the Optimist Club Backpack Program, the school’s volunteer reading program, and an Arvada Food Bank board member.

Tom will be missed by his daughter, Kathy Siebring of Albion, four grandchildren; Andrea Goodrich of Coralville, Owen Siebring of Cedar Rapids, Keriann Hawkins of Mason City, and Grant Siebring of Cedar Rapids. He was preceded in death by his wife, Cynthia, two sons; Curtis and Michael, grandson, Garett Siebring, brother, Frank, and three sisters; Jo, Shirley, and Mary Lou.

Barbara Ann (McCarthy) Grasseschi

December 4, 1939 - January 20, 2023 Proclaiming

Barbara Grasseschi , age 83, of Arvada, passed away peacefully on January 20, 2023 at Collier Hospice Center in Wheat Ridge. Memorial Mass will be at 11:00 a.m. on

Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at Spirit of Christ Catholic Church Chapel in Arvada. Father David Rykwalder of Grand Island, Nebraska will be celebrant.

The most vulnerable of the housing crisis The Long Way Home

BY MICHAEL DE YOANNA MICHAEL@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Our monthlong series exploring the a ordability and accessibility of housing in the Denver area takes a turn to one of the most perplexing issues facing our communities: the lives of those who have no homes. Point-in-time counts in Adams, Arapahoe, Broom eld, Denver, Douglas and Je erson counties nd 2,000 people living unsheltered and 3,000 in emergency shelters. Most of those people were found in Denver but many live in our communities and neighborhoods.

While panhandlers and tent cities are visible across the metro area, many of the unhoused are unseen and may not even be included in the numbers because they are sleeping on a friend’s couch or a family that’s living in a relative’s extra room. e federal government includes this status in its de nition of homelessness, along with those who are at imminent risk of losing a roof over their heads.

Homelessness has long been a

problem in the metro area and the soaring housing costs that we’ve tracked in our series certainly don’t help. Typically, a family shouldn’t spend more than 30% of their wages on rent and utilities. Elsewhere in our series, we’ve found that many people across the metro area are living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to a ord a place to live. Minimum wage earners might spend upward of 60% of their paychecks on rent.

Across the Front Range, rising housing costs are worsening the problem. In Littleton, south of Denver, the price of single-family homes has jumped roughly $300,000 since 2017. Lone Tree saw increases in excess of $473,000. In Brighton, $225,000.

Apartment rents have followed in recent years, part of a trend spanning the last two decades where median prices rose faster than median household incomes “in every Colorado county and city with 50,000+ residents,” according to Denverbased Root Policy Research, which analyzes housing a ordability issues.

they have lots of choices in the metro area,” said Brad Power, Englewood’s director of community development. “But we’re starting to see more gaps with people who are on the other side of the income spectrum.”

Devin Granberry, city manager for Sheridan, said higher home costs have driven workers out of what he described as a historically blue-collar area.

“It leads to a very transient pipeline of citizenry and workforce,” he said. “ ere’s no sense of belonging, there’s no sense of ownership, and all of those are negative impacts on a community, the wellbeing of a community.”

Searching for a home

After leaving the house he owned near Houston, Texas, more than a decade ago, Laney knew buying a home in Denver would be a near-impossible feat.

He was making good money at a medical diagnostics company and had been able to purchase a brand-new home in a Houston suburb for less than $150,000. But his mental health was su ering and he knew he needed a change. With friends living in Colorado at the time, Laney decided to move more than 1,000 miles north to Denver.

With his fresh start came the opportunity to dive into a longtime passion: wine. He took classes to become a sommelier — a trained wine professional. He sold wine to businesses across the metro area, worked part-time at a cozy wine bar and restaurant in the heart of Littleton’s historic downtown, and eventually landed a full-time job at Jake’s.

Laney settled on wherever he could nd the

Some of the most needy in our communities nd homes through federal funding, like vouchers. But the system, reporter Nina Joss nds, is based on lotteries, where people in need of housing may wait for years before winning. Others wind up roughing it on the streets, as reporters Andrew Fraieli and Olivia Love discovered in an interview of a man who lost his legs sleeping under a highway bridge during a horri c snowstorm. ere are consequences to it all, like how the mentally ill are especially vulnerable to homelessness and highly likely to nd themselves in the criminal-justice system — meaning a record of police contacts for crimes connected to their situation, such as trespassing, becomes a barrier that prevents them from turning their lives around. ere are costs associated with this to taxpayers, like those associated with providing more policing and beds in jails. Trends like those will be on the radar of Colorado Community Media’s newsroom in the months ahead.

most a ordable apartment — something hovering around $1,000 per month, in places around Denver. e ones he found in Littleton were too run-down. As rents around the region rose, Laney moved ve times in six years.

“During this whole process I knew I wanted a house,” Laney said. “I wanted something that was my own, and it’s hard to build a home in an apartment, especially when you keep moving.”

Laney’s experiences came as Littleton residents expressed less con dence that their city was a ordable. From 2012 to 2022, residents who cited a ordable cost of living as a reason for living in Littleton declined from 30% to 14%, according to biennial city-issued surveys of hundreds of residents. Over those same years, residents who said a ordable housing and rental rates were a reason for living in the city went from 20% to 9%.

Laney said he worked, saved and kept his spending habits to a minimum during those years, staying laser-focused on his ultimate prize. Credit-card debt from college “really destroyed a lot of opportunities,” he said, but he kept “working, working, working.”

Even though Laney estimates he was making about $48,000 yearly, he says he was far short of what he needed for a down payment on even the least expensive of homes in Littleton.

He wasn’t alone. A 2020 analysis from Denverbased contractor Root Policy showed that individuals who earned $29,000 to $95,000 yearly in the metro area could not a ord the average price of a home, which was nearly $420,000 that year.

“It’s a pretty serious situation,” said Corey Reitz, executive director of Littleton’s housing authority, South Metro Housing Options. “ e list of folks who can’t continue to live here continues to grow.” at list, according to Root’s analysis, includes workers in health care, education, construction,

Contributors to the project include:

food service and more.

Essential workers risk being priced out Sta ers at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood say the housing problem also a ects them. ey blame the shortage of essential hospital workers they’re contending with, in part, on the cost of housing.

“Absolutely the rising cost of housing here in Colorado is a topic,” said Dena Schmaedecke, the hospital’s vice president of human resources. “Colleagues are often bringing up those stresses.”  at housing-cost factor has caused hospital leaders to o er a $10,000 housing stipend to incentivize new employees, Schmaedecke said.

In Brighton, northeast of Denver, Michael Clow, chief human resources o cer for 27J Schools, said the cost of housing has impacted the district’s ability to maintain and support sta .

“We hear from candidates and from our new hires that the cost of housing and their ability to nd housing is a real problem,” Clow said. “ We recently had two math teachers (husband and wife) join us. ey were excited to live their dream and move to Colorado. After just one year and realizing they could not a ord to raise a family here, they moved back to their home state.”

Clow said the crisis has restricted the district’s pool of applicants graduating with teaching degrees, creating intense competition for sta and teachers.

“ e cost of housing is becoming a serious

Homelessness is a series of trapdoors and obstacles

BY ANDREW FRAIELI AND OLIVIA LOVE COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Jonathan Townshend Garner spent nine sleepless nights in 2017 covered in snow staring up at the bottom of a frozen overpass in Aurora. Just a few short months before, the 35-year-old was planning to purchase a condo with his girlfriend.

He never expected that a breakup would send him down a series of increasingly di cult trapdoors — without housing or insurance, each door became harder to climb through. Because of those cold nights in 2017, Garner even lost his legs.

What led Garner to homelessness is not unique. As homeless rates continue to climb in this country for people in many di erent situations, the causes can range from one lost paycheck to addiction or mental health issues with no money to support treatment.

In Garner’s case, he was in a stable housing situation that was reliant on two incomes. e loss of a girlfriend meant the loss of a second, necessary paycheck.

“I’m all of a sudden in a situation where I’ve lost half my income in regards to what’s going towards payments,” Garner said.

Homelessness a ects many types of people. It also comes in all forms from living on the streets to couch sur ng or sleeping in a car. Common among all situations that have forced someone into homelessness is the world around them not being designed to help.

According to HUD fair market rent data, rent for a studio apartment in the metro area has increased by more than $300 per month since 2019, but minimum wages have only increased by about $2.50 an hour — increasing the percent of wages needed to be put towards housing from 54 to almost 60%.

e National Low Income Housing Coalition — a nonpro t that aims to end the a ordable housing crisis through policy and data research — deems housing costing more than 30% of wages spent on rent and utilities as una ordable, placing workers at risk for homelessness.

is lack of a ordable housing acts doubly as a factor for becoming homeless and a barrier from escaping it.

Unable to deal with the breakup and loss of income, Garner said it triggered a dormant alcohol addiction.

“As soon as she left, I started drinking again too, which was probably one of the worst decisions that I made,” he said. “And I’m a hell of a drinker. It took me no time before I was drinking before work every day.”

His addiction became another trapdoor. He was evicted from his home as his costly addiction grew, losing his job within a few months, and he continued falling until he landed on the streets.

In 2017, he found himself buried by snowdrifts, numbed to the elements by frostbite and an empty bottle.

Over the next three and a half months, he was in an ICU burn unit,

where his legs were amputated for frostbite. What happened to land him there remains a blur, with Garner saying he was just lost in a blizzard of snow and substance abuse.

Garner had not looked for a shelter because he felt he deserved what he was experiencing on the street, his addiction giving him too much bluster to ask for help.

“And so when things have gotten so bad for me, I was like, ‘I guess that’s where you go when you’re at this place,’” Garner said.

But from Aurora to Lakewood, many who look for shelter have a hard time nding it — especially in winter.

The stick and carrot of winter shelter

“Police show up to tell you to leave, but don’t have an answer as to where we can go,” said Marshall Moody, who experienced homelessness in Lakewood over the summer.

He wasn’t hunting for winter shelter, but acknowledging how there were no shelter options in Lakewood, and describing how he felt harassed by police telling him to move along.

In Aurora, one of the only overnight shelter spaces is the Comitis Crisis Center.

“Comitis has, what, 30 beds? I’m sure there’s easily 200 homeless people in Aurora. Easily,” said Jason, 40, who declined to give his last name, pointing out the lack of shelter options.

Jason has been homeless since 2019, falling on hard times after breaking his back and not having the ability to a ord medical care.

Anna Miller, director of business development and public relations at Mile High Behavioral Healthcare — which Comitis Crisis Center falls under — has said before that the center has an outreach team that goes out every day working with the city and police department to inform people on the streets about avail-

able resources. e organization was supportive of Aurora’s camping ban passed last summer.

But like the ban, these opinions are from the summer.

During the winter, many more people experiencing homelessness look for indoor shelter due to low temperatures, snow, rain and windchills causing regular, local shelters to ll up fast.

is is where short-term emergency weather shelters come in.

For much of the metro area, the “extreme weather” needed to open these emergency shelters — which vary from the Severe Weather Shelter Network across Je erson County that uses a network of churches, to opening some day-only centers for overnight stays — requires the temperature to be freezing or below with moisture, and 20 degrees or below without moisture.

In Denver, the required cuto is 10 degrees or six inches of snow — though, according to Sabrina Allie, the communications and engagement director for the Department of Housing Stability — or HOST — in Denver, the city council has asked the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, which created the cuto , to revisit these regulations.

e issue is that cold-weather injuries like frostbite and hypothermia can set in as high as 45 degrees depending on wind and moisture. is is according to doctors from Denver Health and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, which sent a joint letter to HOST and DDPHE asking the city to raise their cuto .

“Hypothermia and frostbite may develop in minutes and often occur in the setting of risk factors for heat loss or decreased heat production including pre-existing medical conditions, exhaustion, dehydration, substance use and malnutrition, all of which are common among people experiencing homelessness,” doctors

said in the letter.

Some see winter shelter as a carrotand-stick situation though, requiring the cuto to not be too comfortable for those experiencing homelessness.

“We do not want to enable, we want to empower,” said Lynn Ann Huizingh, executive director of development at Je erson County’s Severe Weather Shelter Network. “We do the best we can to provide some good relational development, but we also want to encourage people to pursue answers that would lead them o the street, and if they get too comfortable, they just don’t have any reason to try and pursue anything else.”

However, at all times, the goal is to keep people from freezing to death, Huizingh added.

Aurora’s policy, according to Emma Knight, manager of homelessness for the city’s Division of Housing and Community Services, is to open emergency cold-weather shelters at 32 degrees during wet weather, and 20 degrees otherwise.

In Garner’s case, freezing to death almost became a reality. Instead, he left the hospital as a double amputee — disabled, homeless, and penniless.

“And I wish I could have said that that was my rock bottom as well. But it wasn’t,” Garner said.

Police interactions and laws against homelessness

Over the next nine months, Garner continued drinking and using drugs while trying to condition himself to his surroundings.

“ ere isn’t a rock bottom, there isn’t some stable ground that you hit. It is a series of trapdoors that gets progressively lower on to in nity,” Garner said.

Some of these trapdoors take the shape of police interactions and the possibility of jail time due to criminalization of homelessness. In the summer of 2022, Aurora passed a camping ban, following in the footsteps of Denver, which passed a similar measure a decade ago.

“Can’t camp, but you have only one shelter in the city of Aurora,” Jason said, referring to the Comitis Crisis Center. “ e camping ban doesn’t mean we can’t be outside — that’s really the main point — the camping ban means we can’t be safe outside.”

Terese Howard, homeless advocate and founder of Housekeys Action Network Denver, said these bans just push people around, possibly into more dangerous and secluded areas if they don’t just move a block away from where they were before.

Police harassment often comes out of these laws as well, Howard said. O cers will tell people experiencing homelessness to “move along” without o ering alternatives, according to Howard.

Denver’s camping ban speci es “shelter” to include “blankets, or any form of cover or protection from the elements other than clothing.”

“ ere’s this illusion that you need this stick to connect people to services,” Howard said. “ at’s a lie, it doesn’t work. You can just look back

Jonathan Townshend Garner, 35, lost his legs to frostbite after spending days covered in snow while homeless.

PHOTO BY ANDREW FRAIELI

The di culties of using housing choice vouchers

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

About a year and a half ago, David Hernandez received a call from a number he did not recognize. When he called the number back, he heard news that would drastically change his housing situation.

“I was confused,” he said. “At rst I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ She’s like, ‘You got chose (from the) lottery, so we’d like to go forward with it.’”

At the time, Hernandez was living with his grandmother in Westminster. But then, after spending years unmoored, moving between states and staying with family members, Hernandez got approved for a voucher for government-subsidized housing.

“When I got it, it was a big relief,” he said. “It was so much stress that was taken o my conscience … It was kind of lifesaving, to be honest.”

e news was a complete surprise to him. What Hernandez didn’t know is that it took ve years for that call to come. His aunt had signed him up for a housing choice voucher lottery at Maiker Housing Partners, the public housing authority in Adams County, without telling him.

anks to her action, his unknowing patience, and, some would say, his luck, Hernandez became one of 2.3 million families and individuals in the United States to bene t from a housing choice voucher program, federally funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.

Formerly, housing choice voucher programs were known as Section 8, but experts have widely replaced this language in an e ort to be more accurate about the type of rental assistance and to avoid the stigma the term carries with it.

Housing choice voucher programs, which are implemented by local authorities like Maiker, subsidize rent to help “very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled a ord decent, safe and sanitary housing,” according to HUD.

On one hand, vouchers make it possible for those without other options to have a roof over their heads.

But, according to housing experts, the program is not a fast-track to housing for many people in need, as it faces a range of issues from lack of funding to scarcity of units.

Eligibility

Within housing choice voucher programs, vouchers may be earmarked by local authorities for di erent types of rental assistance.

For example, some public housing authorities o er vouchers speci cally for veterans or for families whose lack of adequate housing is the primary cause of the separation of a child from their family.

Another type is what HUD calls “project-based” vouchers. ese offer rental assistance that can only be used for speci c properties approved by the public housing authority. is is the type of voucher Hernandez received.

Hernandez said the voucher helped him nancially, emotionally, physi-

cally and mentally, but being tied to one apartment complex has its downfalls. If he could choose, he said, he would rather live in a place with different management. In his complex, he feels like he and his neighbors are treated poorly, partially because they have low incomes.

But the most common type of housing choice voucher allows a recipient to choose where they want to live among properties in the private market. A HUD senior o cial told Colorado Community Media in a call that after 12 months, participants in the project-based voucher program can typically request to have this type of voucher, which is more open-ended.

Properties for a typical housing choice voucher must meet standards of health and safety before a tenant can move forward with a lease. In addition, public housing authorities review rents to ensure they are reasonable for the speci c housing market, according to HUD.

Families with vouchers generally pay 30%-40% of their monthly adjusted gross income for rent and utilities, according to HUD. e public housing authority covers the rest.

In Colorado, landlords are required to accept housing choice vouchers and are not allowed to discriminate against rental applicants based on source of income, per a 2021 law.

e voucher approval process begins with an application, said Brenda Mascarenas, director of housing services and programs at Maiker.

“ e couple of things we look at under formal eligibility (are) background, income, and citizenship,” she said.

Generally, a household’s income may not exceed 50% of the median income for the county or metropolitan area. But most vouchers go to applicants with incomes much lower than that. By law, a public housing authority must provide three quarters of its vouchers to applicants whose incomes do not exceed 30% of the area median income, according to HUD.

In Adams and Arapahoe counties, a single person who earned no more

than $41,050 was eligible for a housing choice voucher in 2022, according to Maiker and South Metro Housing Options, a public housing authority in Littleton.

Wait times and lotteries

Unfortunately, the likelihood of getting a voucher is not solely dependent on whether a person is eligible.

Because of lack of funding for the program, HUD acknowledges “long waiting periods are common.” e o cial with HUD, speaking generally about the department, told Colorado Community Media that for households that receive a voucher, the average wait time is 28 months. e o cial noted that this number only includes people who actually receive a voucher, so the true average wait time is likely signi cantly longer.

Some public housing authorities use a lottery system to select voucher recipients. At Maiker, Mascarenas said the team aims to open their lottery pool every other year, meaning applicants could wait up to two years if they are selected from the lottery their rst time. If not, they might wait through several cycles.

At South Metro Housing Options, the voucher waitlist was last open in 2012, Executive Director Corey Reitz said. ey anticipate it opening again this year, more than 11 years later. ese long wait times are not unique. Only two housing agencies among the 50 largest in the U.S. have average wait times of under one year for families that make it o of wait lists for vouchers, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute based in Washington, D.C.

To Hernandez’s bene t, he wasn’t aware he was waiting for his voucher. He said it would have been challenging to be in “limbo” for so long.

“If I would have known I’d have to wait ve years for that, I probably personally wouldn’t have done it,” he said.

Peter LiFari, executive director at Maiker,  attributes long waitlists at public housing authorities to lack of federal funding and a massive de-

mand for housing vouchers.

“It’s a program designed to exist in scarcity, which is really disappointing,” he said. “I get emails every day, basically from folks (saying) ‘How do I sign up?’ and ‘I’m homeless and I’ve never asked for help before and I’m ready now,’ and it’s like, unfortunately we don’t we don’t have the vouchers to be able to meet the need.”

Because of limited funding for HUD, designated by Congress each year, only 1 in 4 households eligible for a housing voucher receive any federal rental assistance, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

e HUD o cial interviewed by CCM agreed that a main shortcoming of the program is that there are not enough vouchers. e o cial said rental assistance programs are an outlier compared to other federal safety net programs in that many people qualify but do not receive the support. e o cial attributed the lack of funding to the fact that the voucher program was created in the 1970s, after other programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program were already underway.

Congress increased funding into the voucher program throughout the pandemic, but the funding generally went to special populations as opposed to the entire program, LiFari said. e American Rescue Plan Act, for example, provided 70,000 emergency vouchers to assist individuals in violent, dangerous or homeless situations. Mascarenas said Maiker received 46 vouchers from the funding.

Last year, the Biden administration awarded more than 19,000 housing choice vouchers to more than 2,000 public housing authorities. Twentynine of the authorities are in Colorado, including agencies in Adams County, Je erson County, Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Englewood and Arvada.

But even with the extra funding, housing authority employees say it is challenging to keep up with the demand.

“One of the challenges with any … new sources of funding to support housing, it’s still administering the money and the funds and the vouchers,” said Reitz from South Metro. “So we still need sta to do so. And we’re no di erent than most other agencies or industries right now in terms of sta ng, so that’s a challenge.”

e demand for vouchers in Adams County is higher than Mascarenas has ever seen.

“I’ve been with Maiker for 30 years and I’ve never seen the market in such a bad condition,” she said. “I’ve never seen the need grow so great.”

Maiker has about 1,625 housing choice vouchers to distribute in Adams County. In July 2022, the last time their lottery was open for applications, over 3,500 people applied.

“Even two-parent households are still nding it very di cult to make ends meet with two incomes coming into the home,” Mascarenas said.

Next to his kitchen, David Hernandez has a DJ setup where he likes to mix music for fun.

PHOTO BY ANDREW FRAIELI

HOMELESSESS

at the last 10 years of Denver to see the reality of that lie. It’s meant, rst and foremost, to push people out of sight, out of mind.”

According to one national study from 2013, criminalization can create a cycle of incarceration that perpetuates itself.

Noting a loop of jail time and homelessness, the report says: “Incarceration has been noted to increase the risk of homelessness” as it can weaken community ties, limit employment opportunities and make it more difcult to get public housing.

“ is bidirectional association between homelessness and incarceration may result in a certain amount of cycling between public psychiatric hospitals, jails and prisons, and homeless shelters or the street,” the report concludes.

A homeless count across the metro area

Nationwide, at the start of every year, a count is taken to try and estimate the unsheltered homeless population.

At the same time, a count is made of people who have stayed in a participating shelter at some point across the country. ese counts are run by HUD through volunteering shelters and local governments.

In the 2022 point-in-time count across Je erson, Broom eld, Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Denver counties, there were nearly 2,000 people living unsheltered, and just over 3,000 in emergency shelters.

According to the data, most of the homeless population is in Denver.

HUD’s de nition of homelessness includes those who are in imminent risk of losing their housing. However, the annual report does not include that data or consider people who are couch sur ng, or temporarily living at a friend or family member’s home.

Jason had been working, but with a broken back, he could no longer work or a ord needed medical care.

Like Garner, Jason requires a wheelchair to get around, which creates another level of di culties for those experiencing homelessness.

The cost of a disability

One day in the spring of 2018, Garner’s wheelchair got caught in some weeds in a eld. He spent hours there, yelling for help, until a couple happened upon him.

VOUCHERS

She attributed part of the higher demand to the pandemic, which impacted many workers and families. Another theory comes from Reitz, who said higher demand could be because salaries and wages have not kept up with rising housing costs.

Unit scarcity

In addition to the lack of funding, LiFari said the lack of physical housing supply is a detriment to the function of housing voucher program.

“We just don’t have enough units,” he said. “We don’t even have enough housing to support folks that are above the poverty line … because we just abandoned building for one another.”

e couple befriended Garner, brought him some basic necessities, and got him into a detox facility. After a few stints, Garner has now been sober for more than four years.

“But the patience that these strangers showed me was something that was unbelievable to me,” Garner said. “I will never forget before they took me in the third time telling them: ‘Well, what if I just do this again? You know, what if I, what if you take me to this detox, you come pick me up, and I just start drinking again?’”

Garner said the couple told him they would keep trying. Services like detox are di cult to use for people with addictions and mental health issues, as they often have no support system to encourage them to go, as well as there often being little state support.

In 2019, a study showed that about 20% of all Americans were a ected by mental illness in the past year.

According to e National Coalition for Homelessness the general e ects of various mental illnesses “disrupt people’s ability to carry out essential aspects of daily life,” as well as make social bonds.

“ is often results in pushing away caregivers, family, and friends who may be the force keeping that person from becoming homeless,” the report elaborated.

But the couple that helped Garner in that eld became his support, hosting him until they fell on hard times and divorced.

e lack of units creates scarcity in the housing market, LiFari said. With high demand, competition and rents increase across the region.

As a result, “lower-income Coloradans are left on the outside looking in,” he said.

“ e program can’t run unless there’s houses and units where people live, right?” he said. “So, without that, we’re just creating this ‘Hunger Games’ construct.”

After being chosen for a voucher, the competition begins. People have about two months to nd a home to rent and sign the lease. But that’s not enough time for many folks to nd homes and Maracenas elds many requests for extensions for as many as four more months.

Even with these extensions, LiFari said the highly competitive market presents a challenging dynamic for

Eventually, Garner’s friend helped him get a studio apartment in Evergreen, helping to pay rent for the rst three months.

“So I stayed those rst three months and realized I didn’t want to leave,” Garner said.

Garner said without his friend helping with rst and last month’s rent and more in those rst three months, he wouldn’t have been able to a ord it. After the rst three months, Garner continued to stay in the apartment, getting help from friends. He got what he needed, he said, but it wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t how he wanted to live.

“I come from the salt of the earth, blue collar, working folk, you know, and really, at the bottom line, I’m just trying to work in any way I can,” he said. “All I’m trying to do is provide for myself.”

The housing and wage gap

Part of this di culty, especially in Evergreen, is the gap between wages and housing costs.  is lack of a ordable housing acts doubly as a factor for becoming homeless and a barrier from escaping it.

Adam Galbraith works as a bartender at Cactus Jack’s in Evergreen. He said the only reason he can save money at all is because his 1,100-squarefoot apartment has four people in it.

“If you’ve got roommates, that’s the only way you’re going to save money,” he said. It’s also the only reason he can

people to nd vacant units within the time frame. Part of this is because renters must be approved for leases by landlords and there are many barriers that can work against voucher holders – from the potential for discrimination to criminal records Is it a solution?

In LiFari’s eyes, the housing choice voucher program “only exists as medicine for a misdiagnosed illness.”

Although it certainly makes a difference in combating homelessness, he said American society and government need to focus more on the root of the problem.

“ e program is a function of how we value people and how we value where they live,” he said. “We refuse to address the root cause of the illness because then we have to view how we view poverty.”

For Hernandez, viewing poverty

live in Evergreen, along with his landlord keeping rent lower than it could be at $1,500, “so locals would rent it.” Others he knows have seen their landlord sell the property and give them two months to get out — he’s had it happen to himself twice.

Evergreen isn’t really the place to perform hip hop on the corner, but Garner had a background in performance and music — participating in rap battles and the underground scene in his younger years under his stage name, LaKryth. After practicing, studying and preparing, he took to the streets with his guitar, not in his wheelchair, but instead standing on prosthetic legs.

“I’m a pretty damn good musician, you know, and I can sing pretty damn good too, but I’m not going to pretend like I’m oblivious to the fact that my disability and my prosthetics aren’t a contributing factor to the response that I’ve made in the community,” Garner said.

After getting attention on social media, he began to book more gigs, participate in rap battles, and through participating in Colorado Community Media’s housing series panel discussion, met the owner of Cactus Jack’s Saloon, where he is now host of the weekly open-mic night.

He said he can’t work a job “on paper,” and he still faces struggles with his health and well-being. Garner has a roof over his head and food to eat. He says that’s all he can ask for.

realistically is important.

“Believe me — a lot of people don’t want to be depending on the government,” Hernandez said. “But at the same time, they need (vouchers) because it’s crazy out there.”

Although the housing choice voucher program is not perfect, LiFari said it still makes an impact.

“We have no other way that reaches the scale and has the complexity to be able to address individual housing markets, to drive housing stability and stave o extreme poverty and homelessness than this program,” he said.

And on top of that, Hernandez said it makes an important di erence in people’s spirits.

“It’s good for people to get (themselves) on the right track,” he said. “It’s a good thing to get your sense of, you know, you’re involved in society, you’re part of something.”

Jonathan Townshend Garner hosts an open mic night at Cactus Jack’s Saloon in Evergreen where he also performs.

PHOTO BY ANDREW FRAIELI

A-West defeats rival Ralston Valley in wrestling dual

BY DENNIS PLEUSS JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

ARVADA — Arvada West’s boys wrestling team honored its seniors and then celebrated a dual victory over rival Ralston Valley on Jan. 26. e Wildcats took a 51-27 victory over the Mustangs at Arvada West High School.

“Like I tell the guys, ‘It’s all practice until we get to February,’” A-West rst-year head wrestling coach Adrian Green said after the Wildcats’ nal home dual of the season. “Every match and every dual is important. is is experience. If it goes well great. If it doesn’t go so well that ne. Either way just don’t get too high or too low. It’s all learning until you get to the end.”

A-West sophomore Auston Eudaly got the Wildcats o to a good start with a second-period pin in his 144-pound match against Ralston Valley sophomore Cooper Hineline. Eudaly is the Wildcats’ highest ranked wrestler, holding down the No. 3 spot in the Class 5A 144-pound rankings by One the Mat.

“He (Eudaly) is a very complete wrestler, especially on his feet,” Green said. “He has technique after technique. e sky is the limit for him.”

Eudaly just placed 6th at the Top of the Rockies Tournament last weekend at Centaurus High School.

“I heard so many people say it is way tougher than state,” Eudaly said of the Top of the Rockies Tournament. “I went into it knowing I could place. I just had to ght my way through and I ended up with sixth. I was totally happy with that.”

Eudaly was joined by senior Nathan Barnes (165 pounds), fresh-

man Julian Vigil (175), sophomore Keegan Sturgeon (106), freshman Aiden Mena (113) and senior Cooper Best (138) with victories in matches that were wrestled. All by Best’s win came by pin.

Ralston Valley managed victories by sophomore Carter Coorough (150), junior Kyle Phipps (157) and

freshman Auston Blattner (285) and junior Laine Kougl (132).

In less than 24 hours after the dual, A-West and Ralston Valley saw each other again.

e Class 5A Je co League teams — Arvada West, Chat eld, Columbine, Lakewood, Pomona, Ralston Valley and Valor Christian — descended on Chat eld High School on Friday, Jan. 27 for the 5A Je co League Tournament where the individual and team league titles will be decided.

“Just go in and win it hopefully,” Eudaly said for taking the 144-pound individual title at the league champions. “ at just wrestle my best.”

Pomona captured the conference team title for the eighth straight year scoring 269.6 points, 100+ points better than second-place Chat eld. e Panthers won eight individual titles.

e Panthers have been No. 1 in the On e Mat 5A rankings all season and will be going after their fth 5A state team title next month down at Ball Arena.

“Right now they are the cream of the crop,” Green said of Pomona. “He (Pomona coach Sam Federico) has done a great job over there.”

Dennis Pleuss is the sports information director for Je co Public Schools. For more Je co coverage, go to CHSAANow.com.

Columbine girls clamp down defensively against Arvada West

BY DENNIS PLEUSS JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

LITTLETON — Columbine assistant girls basketball coach Kylie Bolding picked up her first win as the Rebels’ acting varsity coach Jan. 25.

“It felt great,” Bolding said after a 55-36 home victory against Arvada West in her varsity head coaching debut. “Greg and I have worked together a lot. It is a lot of pressure sometimes coming in and filling his shoes, but the girls did everything to a tee tonight. They really executed and made my job a lot easier on the sidelines.”

Greg Bolding Jr. — Columbine’s head coach who actually proposed to his assistant coach last season on the Rebels’ basketball court after a game — was in Portland, Ore. at a Nike directors conference until Jan. 27. Kylie said her husband is scheduled to fly back to Colorado on Friday in time for the Rebels’ home game against rival Chatfield.

“He might be back Friday, otherwise I’ll be looking for my second win against Chatfield,” Kylie said. “Hopefully there is no (flight) delays. Whatever happens, we’ll have the same energy Friday night.”

Columbine (8-10, 3-2 in Class 6A Jeffco League) was desperate for a conference victory after back-toback losses to Valor Christian and

Chatfield the pervious week. The Rebels had lost five of their previous six games.

“It was a really good win to get our momentum back,” Columbine junior Emily Allison said. “It was good to see us able to score and do what we know we can do.”

Allison led all scorers with 19 points, but the Rebels’ leading scorer had plenty of help. Seniors

Dakota Archuleta (13 points) and Araya Ogden (12 points) also finished in double-digit points.

Columbine jumped out to a commanding 20-4 lead early in the second quarter and limited A-West (13-4, 2-3) to just 11 points in the first half.

“We talked about how it would all come down to discipline tonight,” Kylie said. “Being in the

help side and filling those gaps. Knowing where (Brooke Meeks) is at all times. She is a great shooter. I’m proud of them listening to the game plan and executing. We really took it to the in the first quarter.”

A-West senior Brooke Meeks hit a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter for the only two field goals the Wildcats made in the second quarter.

Senior Ellie Pugliese finished with 8 points to lead A-West. The Wildcats had a good third quarter defensively holding Columbine to just 3 points. The Rebels took a 2921 lead going into the final quarter.

Allison, Archuleta and Ogden took over in the fourth quarter. The three combined for 24 of 26 points Columbine scored in the fourth quarter to win going away.

“Finishing is something we’ve struggled with all season,” Kylie said. “It is something we’ve been working on day-in and day-out. It felt good to finish.”

The Rebels were clearly happy to play well for their acting coach.

“It was good to see us play well and get a win for Kylie,” Allison said.

Dennis Pleuss is the sports information director for Jeffco Public Schools. For more Jeffco coverage, go to CHSAANow.com.

Arvada West senior Ellie Pugliese (10) drives toward the basket during the road game against Columbine on Jan. 25. The Wildcats su ered a 55-36 loss.

PHOTO BY DENNIS PLEUSS/JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Arvada West sophomore Keegan Sturgon (top) gets back points in the 106-pound match against Ralston Valley freshman Nico Benello during the dual Jan. 26 at Arvada West High School. The Wildcats took a 51-27 victory over the rival Mustangs.

PHOTO BY DENNIS PLEUSS/JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

PRICES

obstacle for us to maintain service levels and serve our mission,” he said.  Farther north, in Fort Lupton, the Weld R-8 School District has faced similar pressures. Superintendent Alan Kaylor said the annual salary for a rst-year teacher in the district is about $41,000.

Kaylor bought his home in 1995 for $72,000. He said a home across the street from his was recently listed at $685,000. e price of that house across the street rose more than four times faster than the pace of in ation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ in ation calculator.

“How can any family a ord that?” he asked. “Something has to give. After a while, you have to wonder how long people will tolerate living on teachers’ wages.”

Even for some residents making a larger income, housing remains elusive.

West of Denver, in Evergreen, husband and wife Bill and Charm Connelly bring in a combined six- gure salary.

Bill Connelly is an insurance agent and blackjack dealer for a Black Hawk casino. Charm is the front-house

general manager for Cactus Jack’s, a bar and restaurant in Evergreen. e two rent a three-bedroom home and are struggling to save for a house. Even downsizing to something smaller, they said, would likely increase their spending by roughly $400 a month. e two currently pay $2,200 per month on rent.

“I feel like a failure. I nally get a good full-time job making great money, and eight years ago, 10 years ago, we could easily have gotten something,” Bill Connelly said.

“Between the two of us, I see what we make,” Charm said. “We are making decent money, but I want to be able to save money and not blow it all on rent.”

For Adam Galbraith, a Cactus Jack’s bartender, the only way to keep his rent a ordable is to live with others.

“ e only reason I’m able to save money is because it’s a 1,100-squarefoot place and we crammed four people in it,” Galbraith said, adding monthly rent is about $1,500. “If you’ve got roommates, that’s the only way you’re going to save money.”

A housing ‘limbo’

Near the end of 2019, Laney, the Littleton bartender, was beginning to feel more con dent about reaching his

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HAPPY

goal for a down payment. He’d paid o his car and credit-card debt and said he “worked hard to keep it that way.”

His savings account was beginning to bulk up. en came COVID-19.

Years of careful saving and unyielding restraint on spending evaporated in months. Laney was forced to drain his savings account during the beginning of the pandemic amid lockdowns. He received nothing from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, though he would gain $3,200 from stimulus checks in the months to come. Still, he was hanging on.

It was “the community around Jake’s, our regulars, who kept us alive,” Laney said.

“I was there every single day, for damn near a year,” he said, with the bar able to do curbside orders even as its indoors remained shuttered.

Before the pandemic, Laney estimates he brought in about $4,000 each month before taxes. By the end of the month, after paying for rent, utilities, groceries and gas, he would be left with just $200 to $300, which usually went into his savings.

Living that way was “terrifying,” said Laney, who always felt he could be on the edge of losing his housing should he have a bad month. e pandemic only exacerbated the uncertainty.

As his savings depleted, Laney’s dream of owning a home never seemed further away.

But his resolve didn’t waver and he used what federal relief he had to rebuild his savings because, as he put it, “I had a goal: I wanted a house. When I came out of the tunnel I knew what I

FREEDOM. TO BE YOU.

wanted.”

By 2021, he started looking again. A townhome might come up on the market — far from perfect, but within Laney’s means — and he would ready himself to put down an o er. It never was enough.

“Someone comes in and puts 20k cash on the o er, or 30k or 40k,” Laney said. “I went through about a year and a half of that and I knew in my head I was not going to be able to get a house.”

A real-estate agent who came into his bar told Laney to apply for a $300,000 bank loan. He had good credit, the agent told him, and would be a shoo-in for the money.

“ ree hundred thousand dollars does not get you a townhome,” Laney thought to himself.

He was frustrated. More than frustrated. He felt depressed.

“I’d done everything right, everything I was supposed to do and it still didn’t matter,” he said. “I’m just stuck, like the hundreds of thousands of other people, in limbo.”

Laney’s luck began to turn near the end of 2021 when he heard there were about to be dozens of single-family homes for sale in Littleton for less than $300,000. He thought it was too good to be true.

‘We can’t all win the lottery’ at year, South Metro Housing Options, which manages a ordable properties throughout Littleton, sold 59 of its single-family homes to Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver, which pledged to renovate the units and sell them at a below-market price.

Laney’s hourly wage had slightly increased since the pandemic from $8 to $10, though 90% of his income still came from tips, he said. Still, Laney believed he met the nancial require-

ments for a Habitat home, which would only sell to peoplewho earn no more than 80% of the area’s median income.

But when Laney applied to be on a waitlist at the beginning of 2022, he was quickly denied. He was told his income, roughly $56,000 when he applied, exceeded the cap by less than $1,000.

Laney said he was actually making less than that, about $54,000, but because Habitat counted his “unrealized interest gains,” such as money held in stocks, Laney was over the threshold.

Habitat was also only looking at the income of recent months, Laney said, rather than his income over the past year. is made it look like he made more than he did because his monthto-month income would uctuate dramatically based on tips.

He applied again and was denied again, this time for making just $300 more than the cut-o . But, a slow month at work turned out to be a good thing. His income dipped just enough that by the third time he applied he made it on the waitlist.  at did not come with the guarantee of a home. Laney was in a line of people just like him and demand far outweighed supply. Number 10 was his position. Who knew how many more were behind him, he thought. en it happened. Laney was made an o er, a 1,275-square-foot detached home near Ketring Park in central Littleton valued at $285,000, roughly a third of what similar properties sold for.

“I can’t even express how happy I was,” Laney said. “I’ve been living and serving this community for 10 years and I want to live here.”

Still, the program has some drawbacks compared to traditional homeownership. Laney cannot build as much equity as many of his neighbors

because he does not own the property the home sits on. Instead, it is owned by something called a land trust — a collection of entities.

“ e beauty of the land trust is it removes the cost of the land from the equation from the cost of the home,” said Kate Hilberg, director of real estate development for Habitat for Humanity. “It allows the homeowners to pay on that mortgage for that home and improvements to that home but not the land.”

Land trusts are crucial tools organizations like Habitat use to lock in the a ordability of homes even as property values rise elsewhere. e owners of these units will see some equity from their homes, Hilberg said, about 2% each year. But it won’t be enough to match the likes of homeowners who have used their growing property values to build decades of generational wealth.

“A lot of families use this as a starter home option and they do gain enough equity and stability to turn that into a down payment on a home in the open market,” Hilberg said of homes under land trusts.

But fathoming a concept like equity is a luxury for those who still can’t buy a house on the market, Laney said. While he’s thankful for what Habitat did for him, he fears the few dozen homes it manages in Littleton can only go so far to meet the demand of hundreds, if not thousands, of residents who have struggled as he has.  “ ere isn’t enough income-based housing for people … the people who live and work in this community can’t a ord a house,” Laney said. “We can’t all win the lottery.”

Colorado Community Reporters Andrew Fraieli, Steve Smith, Tayler Shaw and Ellis Arnold contributed reporting to this story.