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 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.

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.

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

SEE PROVIDERS, P4