DENVER — Contracts allowing the Salvation Army to oversee two of the City of Denver’s hotel shelters are days away from expiration.

According to Denver City Councilwoman Shotel Lewis’ office, the current contracts for the former DoubleTree and Best Western Hotels along Quebec Street expire on March 31. It’s unclear if the city will renew the contracts with the Salvation Army or choose another service provider.

Lindsey Torres and her dog, Flynn, haven’t had an easy road.

“It’s been about a year almost,” said Torres, referring to her time living in city-owned shelters.

Now, she calls the former Best Western home.

“But sometimes I’d almost rather be outside,” admitted Torres.

Inside the hotel shelter is a lack of hot water, bugs and drug use, according to Torres.

“They do have roaches here. I was getting in the elevator and I could hear it walking on the wall,” said Torres.

There’s also a history of crime. Last week, the Denver Police Department arrested an employee accused of sexually assaulting a woman staying at the 4040 Quebec St. shelter. Last March, the former DoubleTree was the scene of a double homicide.

“You don’t want to have homicides happening within facilities in which we have stood up to house folks to get them off the streets,” said Councilwoman Shontel Lewis.

On Monday, Denver City Council rejected another nearly $3 million contract with the Salvation Army for homeless services.

“I would say my experience with the Salvation Army has been disappointing,” said Lewis.

• Hear from Councilwoman Shontel Lewis in the video player below

‘Deep and grave concerns about the Salvation Army’: Hear a Denver councilwoman’s passionate speech on homeless services

The councilwoman said it’s time to turn to community-based organizations for help.

“We have organizations that are providing food for hundreds of families on a weekly basis. We have community organizations that provide housing. We have community organizations that provide behavioral support. What they don’t have is the investment of the city,” said Lewis.

Denver7 took that idea to Amy Beck with Together Denver.

“Some of the people in the grassroots organizations already have connections with the folks here, already treat them with compassion and love and kindness, so it just makes sense,” said Beck.

But Beck said it all comes down to if the city wants to change course with its current plan.

“It comes down to if the mayor’s office wants to move in that direction because he’s already created this homelessness response and it’s not working,” said Beck.

We asked the Salvation Army about the possibility of losing the contracts. In a statement, a spokesperson said, “The Salvation Army is a proud partner of the city of Denver and would like to continue the Housing Now program together. If that’s not possible, we will continue the program with other funding for as long as it’s deemed possible

“We think we’re doing this work well. And we’re doing it from a place of deep care for our neighbors.”

If the contracts do expire, city officials said there are no plans to close the two shelters.

The second dean injured in the 2023 shooting inside East High School is suing Denver Public Schools and its Board of Education, alleging the district’s discipline policies were “unclear and inconsistently applied” and that staff were not properly trained to search students.

Eric Sinclair filed his lawsuit Friday in Denver District Court, following a similar suit against the district filed earlier last week by Wayne Mason. Sinclair and Mason, as East High administrators, were shot by student Austin Lyle inside the city’s largest high school on March 23, 2023.

Lyle, who had been required to undergo daily weapons searches at the school, took his own life later that day.

Sinclair’s lawsuit was heavily redacted — his attorneys cited student privacy rules — but it alleges East High staff weren’t adequately trained on how to search students for weapons. It also alleges that, by removing police officers from schools in 2020, the board and district “shifted the responsibility to faculty and staff to manage, search, disarm and de-escalate potentially violent or volatile students.”

Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges, DPS’s discipline policies, which have been criticized by parents and educators as too lenient, weren’t always implemented as written.

“Defendants actively obstructed East High School and other schools’ ability to suspend or expel students who violated Colorado law and Denver Public School policies and presented a danger to the schools,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit was filed under Colorado’s Claire Davis School Safety Act, which says schools can be held liable if they fail to provide “reasonable care” to protect students and employees from violence that is “reasonably foreseeable.”

Sinclair was shot twice, in the thigh and through his stomach and chest, resulting in the loss of his spleen, according to the lawsuit.

“The events of March 22, 2023, were the consequence of Defendants systematically shifting responsibility for guns in schools onto faculty and staff while denying them the tools to keep people safe,” the lawsuit states. “The result of Defendants’ actions were two tragedies: two deans shot and an obviously gifted but immature and volatile young man dead.”

Bill Good, a spokesman for the district, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

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Originally Published: March 25, 2025 at 10:29 AM MDT