Colorado will spend $95 million to create two new campuses to help people transition out of homelessness — including supportive housing, behavioral health services and job training — under a pair of laws signed by Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday.
The first, HB22-1378, creates a $50 million grant program to create a regional campus for the Denver metro to help people recover from and find long-term stability after experiencing homelessness. The second, SB22-211, spends about $45 million to repurpose the recently closed Ridge View Campus, about a 30-mile drive southeast of the state Capitol, into a supportive residential community to help people out of homelessness.
The two create “the largest investment the state of Colorado has ever made in homelessness resolution and prevention,” Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said. Both are paid for almost entirely with federal relief money.
“We can really start to move the needle on the homelessness crisis in Colorado with these investments today,” Alderman said at the bill signing event for the Denver metro grants. “And I really hope the state continues to make the investments after this one-time funding is used up so that we can make meaningful, lasting change.”
In the metro area alone, the number of people experiencing first-time homelessness nearly doubled in 2021 over 2020, according to the most recent State of Homeless report. In all, the report found 32,233 individuals accessed support services for people experiencing homelessness between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. Nearly 13,000 individuals lived outdoors at some point.
Both campuses aim to provide full wraparound services to people, including transitional housing, help with mental health and substance use disorders and job training. The Ridge View Campus must also provide transportation for residents and the public.
“Because of this bill, there will be thousands of Coloradans who will be able to support themselves, have a family, live out their lives in our great state, recover their dignity, have a home, because of the work that will occur in this facility,” Polis said at the signing to repurpose the Ridge View Campus.
At both signings, he noted that these bills are the state providing support to local communities. In the case of Ridge View, it included the use of existing state property to help speed up the program becoming operational. It is being done in partnership with Aurora and Arapahoe County.
The Ridge View Campus operated as the Ridge View Youth Services Center for 20 years, before state officials shut it down in 2021. Kids there attended an on-campus charter school and received intense treatment for behavioral health issues. Complaints against it included students running away, drugs, fights and inappropriate use of restraints, according to the Colorado Sun.
That campus covers 100-plus acres, with industrial shops for welding and carpentry, a gym, cafeteria, medical facilities and 126 rooms. Each room previously held four students.
“This is a wonderful facility that Colorado has here and there’s no better use for a place like this than to help people get back on their feet, and the way we do that goes beyond just offering residential services” sponsoring state Rep. Alex Valdez, a Denver Democrat, said.
State Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat, painted the facility’s distance as potentially a good thing for recovery, too — after all, it’s harder to stumble into vices when surrounded by rolling prairie.
“It’s hard to be homeless,” Fields said. “And it’s hard to break the cycle of homelessness. But this is an opportunity that we can do that.”
In addition to Fields and Valdez, the Ridge View bill was also sponsored by Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat. The bill creating the grant for the Denver area campus was sponsored by Sens. James Coleman and Chris Hansen, both Denver Democrats, and Reps. Iman Jodeh and Tom Sullivan, both Democrats representing Aurora and Centennial, respectively.
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