Connect with us

Denver, CO

Denver OKs $30M contract with nonprofit despite questions about agency

Published

on

Denver OKs M contract with nonprofit despite questions about agency


A nonprofit that has raised red flags for other cities will begin operating one of Denver’s homeless shelters after the City Council approved a $30 million contract with the group Monday.

Urban Alchemy, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, has been accused of fiscal and data mismanagement, leading one city to drop the organization as a partner this year.

Nine of the 13 City Council members ultimately voted to approve the contract after over an hour of discussion on those concerns in which council members also expressed their exasperation with Mayor Mike Johnston’s office.

“The other option appears to be putting people back out on the street in the middle of winter,” said Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer in explaining her “yes” vote.

Advertisement

Jeff Kositsky, the deputy director of shelter and stability in the city’s Department of Housing Stability, said during the meeting that if the council rejected the contract, there would be no way to find a new provider by the time the contract with the Aspen shelter’s current operator — The Salvation Army — expired.

“I think ultimately we would have to shut the shelter down,” he said.

Only three groups submitted bids to run the city’s homeless shelters when officials put out a request earlier this year, Kositsky said. The other two are Bayaud Works and St. Francis Center, both of which were already selected for other contracts.

Urban Alchemy will begin operating the 289-unit Aspen shelter in Central Park in 2026 and the contract will last through 2028.

Denver officials announced in August that The Salvation Army would no longer operate three facilities in former hotels after the City Council raised concerns that the group was unable to keep its occupants safe. There was a string of violent incidents at the shelters and in March, a Salvation Army employee was charged with sexually assaulting a woman staying at the Aspen shelter.

Advertisement

The Salvation Army will continue to run the Crossroads Center, the Labuth Family Center, the Connection Center and the Harbour Light Center.

In San Francisco, the city controller’s office accused Urban Alchemy of not properly tracking the time its employees worked for the city causing an “increased risk to public funds and client services,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The controller’s office later ruled that the group was back in compliance with the city’s standards.

The nonprofit, which gives jobs to formerly incarcerated people, also ran into a conflict with Austin earlier this year. Austin officials wrote in a memo to their City Council that they wouldn’t renew their contract with the group after the nonprofit self-identified staff members who had misrepresented data about people using the shelters, according to the Austin-American Statesman.

Cole Chandler, who leads Johnston’s All In Mile High homeless initiative, said the contract with Urban Alchemy was an unusual, performance-based deal to ensure the work is completed.

“These are new accountability measures that have never existed before and those are specifically in place because council advocated for those,” he said.

Advertisement

The meeting reflected another instance of council members’ frustration with Johnston’s administration. Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, who represents the district where the Aspen shelter is located, said she didn’t feel his team answered her concerns about the group.



Source link

Denver, CO

Suspects sought in Denver shooting that killed teen, wounded 3 others

Published

on

Suspects sought in Denver shooting that killed teen, wounded 3 others


Denver police are searching for suspects in a Saturday night parking lot shooting that killed a 16-year-old and wounded three men, at least one of whom is not expected to survive, according to the agency.

Officers responded to the shooting in the 10100 block of East Hampden Avenue about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, near where East Hampden intersects South Galena Street, according to an alert from the Denver Police Department.

Police said a group of people had gathered in a parking lot on the edge of the city’s Kennedy neighborhood to celebrate the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro when the shooting happened.

Paramedics took one victim to a hospital, and two others were taken to the hospital in private vehicles, police said. A fourth victim, identified by police as 16-year-old William Rodriguez Salas, was dropped off near Iliff Avenue and South Havana Street, where he died from his wounds.

Advertisement

At least one of the three victims taken to hospitals — a 26-year-old man, a 29-year-old man and a 33-year-old man — is not expected to survive, police said Tuesday. One man was in critical condition Sunday night, one was in serious condition and one was treated for a graze wound and released.



Source link

Continue Reading

Denver, CO

Denver’s flavored vape ban sends customers across city lines

Published

on

Denver’s flavored vape ban sends customers across city lines


The new year in Colorado brought new restrictions for people who vape in Denver. As of January 1, a voter-approved ban on flavored nicotine products is now in effect in Denver, prohibiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products within city limits.

Just outside the Denver border, vape shops say they’re already feeling the ripple effects.

Advertisement

CBS


At Tokerz Head Shop in Aurora, located about a block and a half from the Denver city line, owner Gordon McMillon says customers are beginning to trickle in from Denver.

“I was in shock it passed, to be honest,” McMillon said. “Just because of how many people vape in Denver. But we’re hoping to take care of everybody that doesn’t get their needs met over there anymore.”

One of those customers is Justin Morrison, who lives in the Denver area and vapes daily. He stopped by the Aurora shop a day after the ban went into place.

Morrison says the ban won’t stop him from vaping. It will just change where he buys his products.

Advertisement

“I’m going to have to come all the way to Aurora to get them,” he said. “It’s pretty inconvenient. I smoke flavored vapes every day.”

The goal of the ban, according to public health advocates, is to reduce youth vaping.

Morrison said flavored vapes helped him quit smoking cigarettes, an argument frequently raised by adult users and vape retailers who oppose flavor bans.

“It helped tremendously,” he said. “I stopped liking the flavor of cigarettes. The taste was nasty, the smell was nasty. I switched all the way over to vapes, and it helped me stop smoking cigarettes completely.”

McMillon worries bans like Denver’s could push some former smokers back to cigarettes.

Advertisement

“If they can’t get their vapes, some will go back to cigarettes, for sure,” he said. “I’ve asked people myself, and it’s about 50-50.”

While McMillon acknowledges it will bring more business to shops outside Denver, he says the ban wasn’t something he wanted.

“Even if it helps me over here in Aurora, I’m against it,” he said. “I feel like adults should have the rights if they want to vape or not.”

More than 500 retailers in Denver removed their flavored products. For many, they accounted for the majority of their sales. Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment says it will begin issuing fines and suspensions to retailers found selling flavored tobacco products.

Both McMillan and Morrison say they’re concerned the ban could spread to other cities. For now, Aurora vape shops remain legal alternatives for Denver customers.

Advertisement

Despite the added drive, Morrison says quitting isn’t on the table.

“It’s an addiction. You’re going to find a way to get it. That’s why I don’t see the point of banning it here,” Morrison said.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Denver, CO

Planning to begin in Denver for American Indian Cultural Embassy

Published

on

Planning to begin in Denver for American Indian Cultural Embassy


Denver will be the site of the United States’ first-ever American Indian Cultural Embassy.

Funding for the project was approved by Denver voters in the Vibrant Denver Bond measure.

The vision is for the embassy to welcome Native people back home to Colorado.

On the snowy day of CBS News Colorado’s visit, Rick Williams observed the buffalo herd at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

Advertisement

“These animals are sacred to us,” said Williams, who is Oglala Lakota and Cheyenne. “This was our economy. They provided everything we needed to live a wonderful lifestyle.”

Rick Williams, president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy, looks at buffalo at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

CBS


Williams is president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy.

Advertisement

“‘Homeland’ is a special term for everybody, right?” Williams asked. “But for people who were alienated, for American Indians who were alienated from Colorado, they don’t have a home, they don’t have a home community that you can go to, this is it. And I think that’s sad.”

The First Creek Open Space — near 56th and Peña, near the southeast corner of the Arsenal — is owned by the City and County of Denver and is being considered for development of the embassy.

“To have a space that’s an embassy that would be government-to-government relations on neutral space,” said Denver City Councilmember Stacie Gilmore, who represents northeast Denver District 11. “But then also supporting the community’s economic development and their cultural preservation.”

stacie-gilmore-first-creek-open-space.png

Denver City Councilmember Stacie Gilmore speaks from the First Creek Open Space in northeast Denver about the possibility of building the United States’ first-ever American Indian Cultural Embassy at the site.

CBS

Advertisement


Gilmore said $20 million from the Vibrant Denver Bond will support the design and construction of the center to support Indigenous trade, arts, and education.

“That sense of connection and that sense of place and having a site is so important if you’re going to welcome people back home,” added Gilmore.

“What a great treasure for people in Colorado,” Williams said as he read the interpretive sign at the wildlife refuge.

rick-at-interpretive-sign-arsenal.png

Rick Williams, president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy, reads a sign at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

CBS

Advertisement


He said the proposed location makes perfect sense: “Near the metropolitan area, but not necessarily in the metropolitan area, we would love to be near buffalo. We would love to be in an area where there’s opportunities for access to the airport.”

The Denver March Powwow could one day be held at the embassy.

Williams dreams of expanding the buffalo herd nearby and having the embassy teach future generations Indigenous skills and culture.

The concept for the embassy is one of the recommendations emerging from the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission, a group of American Indian leaders in Colorado who began to organize four years ago to study the history of Native Americans in our state.

And the work is just beginning.

Advertisement

“We have to think about, ‘how do we maintain sustainability and perpetuity of a facility like this?’” Williams said. “So there’s lots of issues that are going to be worked on over the next year or so.”

Williams added, “One day our dreams are going to come true, and those tribes are going to come, and we’re going to have a big celebration out here. We’re going to have a drum, and we’re going to sing honor songs, and we’re going to have just the best time ever welcoming these people back to their homeland.”

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s staff sent the following statement:

“We are excited about the passing of the Vibrant Denver Bond and the opportunity it creates to invest in our city’s first American Indian Cultural Embassy. We are committed to working hand-in-hand with the Indigenous community to plan and develop the future embassy, and city staff have already been invited to listen and engage with some of our local American Indian groups, like the People of the Sacred Land. We are not yet at the stage of formal plans, but we are excited to see the momentum of this project continue.”

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending