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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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