2
April 7, 2022
Northglenn extends old rec center homelessness program BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Northglenn city council voted 7-0 on March 28 to extend the old recreation center winter housing program through Aug. 31. “I think this has truly been an impactful pilot program,” said Northglenn Mayor Pro Tem Jenny Wilford. According to Rupa Venkatesh, the Assistant to the City Manager, the program was supposed to end on March 31, but since the old recreation center will be vacant until August, city staff asked for an extension. As well, Adams County agreed to fund the extension, which was $520,689. The Denver Rescue Mission will continue to operate the program and Northglenn’s Crisis Response Unit will still provide case management. As of March 28, two program participants are fully housed, two have identified housing and seven identified housing support, which can be transitional housing or reconnecting with family or friends. The winter housing program has 20 fulltime participants and is connected to appropriate daytime activities, such as having a job, training for a job, working with counselors, and others. As well, it includes dinner and breakfast and case management. Between Dec. 15 and March 9, there have been 84 individual participants. Five beds are reserved for the police department to be used as emergency drop-offs and the department did that with 56 different individuals. Of those 56 people, 11 of those individuals became participants. As of March 21, five were assisted in reuniting with family members. The entrance to Northglenn’s old Recreation Center. City Councilors are scheduled to vote Dec. 6 on a plan allowing the COURTESY CITY OF NORTHGLENN now-vacant building to house people experiencing homelessness this winter.
GRANDMAS FROM PAGE 1
law enforcement employee, she started chasing bad guys after new renters living next door began a suspicious business. Cars came and went day and night to the apartment and occasionally mixed up her house for theirs. “They were knocking on my front door at 2 o’clock in the morning with a handful of money,” she said. “They weren’t selling girl scout cookies.” The events escalated and became more frequent, so she had a meeting with the police chief. “I said look, I’ve lived here for 30 years. One of us is going to go and it ain’t going to be me,” she said, in regards to her neighbor. With law enforcement contacted and more patrol cars coming by, she also kept a look out for herself; she sat in a chair next to the window and took license plate numbers, wrote down details, and still does. She even gave the police department access to her cameras. The neighbors finally left after eight months, though she said they still may live in Thornton, she said.
|
arvadacenter.org
|
720.898.7200
Grandmas engage Grandma’s Chasing Bad Guys then morphed into the Engagement Team, where they work with a Thornton Police commander and organize community policing.
SEE HOMELESS, P5
Eight people make up the group and collaborate with the police to talk about what goes on in the neighborhoods. They voice various needs, describe suspicious activity and keep watch. “I think we just keep an eye out for everybody because it takes a community to do it,” Wolf said. “The police can’t be everywhere and do everything.” Wolf also described an event where 14 teenagers approached her because, as HOA president, she told them they could not play on the basketball court. She fended them off. “I’m 71 years old and I will fight back, I won’t go down without a fight,” Wolf said. The Grandma’s said they think they are having an impact on their neighborhoods. At the very least, they said the word is getting around that someone is watching. “That’s the whole point,” Wolf said, emphasizing the role residents play as the eyes and ears of the police department. Now, they see drugs and theft reigning as the most frequent crime. With their cameras and eyes on, they stay alert and communicate with neighbors to collect any details to relay to the police department. By now, the grandma’s said, dispatch already knows their full names and numbers. For protection, the three of them carry pepper spray, tasers and Baker wears a body camera. “I’ll take a bullet for any one of us, I don’t care,” Salazar said.
