I investigated reports of unsafe conditions at Denver’s largest homeless shelter. Our reporting showed that a lack of coordination among city agencies put hundreds of people at risk of catastrophe.
Later, the leader of Denver’s Road Home was transferred and I reported on complaints about his inexperience and leadership style. More recently, a city audit found that Denver’s homelessness strategy is “fragmented and understaffed.” The Salvation Army has since announced plans to rebuild the shelter.
While Denver’s Brighton Boulevard was rebuilt for yoga and coworking, the Salvation Army’s Crossroads homeless shelter there steadily grew more dangerous. In fact, fire officials say the building for a time was so overcrowded and ill-maintained that it was primed for a catastrophe that could have killed many of the people staying there.
“It would have been very serious. There would have been major loss of life. You have 800 people, and you’re putting them into a building that can’t accommodate 800 people,” said Manny Almagure, Denver’s division chief for fire prevention, referring to the shelter’s most crowded days this winter.
City officials and the Salvation Army say a surge in homelessness caught them off guard, leaving Denver at risk of a disaster at its most populated homeless shelter.
While the city’s homeless services agency knew the shelter’s population was rising, the fire department officials in charge of building safety say they weren’t aware. As a result, a warehouse with a deficient sprinkler system and an emergency exit that opened to a sheer drop was allowed for weeks to take on hundreds more people than city standards permitted. Meanwhile, other facilities had room to spare.
The most serious issues have since been addressed, but the Crossroads building still isn’t up to city requirements — and it may never be.
The changes now in motion likely will result in the Salvation Army demolishing the building and redeveloping it as affordable housing, posing a significant new challenge for the city’s shelter system. Homeless advocates say the episode shows the hypocrisy of Denver laws that allow homeless people to be penalized for sleeping outside.
Read the full story at Denverite.
