ARVADA, Colo. — Last year, nearly 53,000 people across Colorado sought out homelessness services, according to a study by the Colorado Homeless Management Information System.
The study differs from Point-In-Time counts, a once-a-year survey that typically only captures a snapshot of certain communities experiencing homelessness. Last year's Point-In-Time count found that 300 people were experiencing homelessness in Arvada.
"[The rate of homelessness] is an increase over a longer period," said Rachel Kuroiwa, the director of communication and engagement for the City of Arvada. "2023 to 2024 was somewhat steady, but it's really an increase over the last like six or eight years. That's not just in Arvada, that's in Jefferson County and other places in Colorado as well."
Homelessness is an issue that cities throughout the state have been working to tackle for years. Denver7 | Your Voice traveled to Arvada to see how it is getting people off the streets.
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Arvada city leaders developed the Homelessness Action Strategy, which outlines five goals to end homelessness:
- Enhance integrated services for people experiencing homelessness that increase options for economic and housing stability.
- Prevent people from experiencing homelessness.
- Foster long-term housing stability.
- Facilitate broad access to information to increase awareness and understanding of homelessness in our community.
- Establish data collection and reporting methods to support continuous improvement.
"A lot of times, what people identify is that they have experienced some sort of shock to their family, so that could be death or divorce in the family, not being able to pay for housing," Kuroiwa said. "I think a lot of us understand that housing affordability is a big problem in Colorado, so those are some of the big reasons people cite for why they're experiencing homelessness."
- Read the full Homelessness Action Strategy below
To meet the first goal of the strategy, Kuroiwa said the city wants to establish and sustain housing-focused outreach services. It also wants to develop a 24/7 emergency non-congregate shelter for adults experiencing homelessness, which does not currently exist in Arvada.
"An emergency shelter is really kind of defined as a low barrier," Kuroiwa told Denver7. "Anyone who's experiencing homelessness can come in and get respite."
A plan for an emergency shelter site fell through last year, according to Kuroiwa.
"That would be at the Early College of Arvada site. So, the city had purchased that in, I believe the purchase finalized in August of 2024, and then we very quickly learned that we were not in alignment with the neighbors," she explained. "And so [Arvada City Council] decided to take a step back, pause that part of the plan, and to re-evaluate and see what we can do, both to rebuild trust with the community and then also to identify other possibilities for how we can address homelessness."
To meet the second goal, city leaders want to cultivate prevention services for those at risk of experiencing homelessness. Arvada is also exploring the creation of an eviction or foreclosure prevention program to serve all types of at-risk households in the city.
In addition, the city wants to launch a coordinated messaging campaign and establish a culture of authentic communications on homelessness with the surrounding community.
City leaders will determine key performance indicators to measure success.
The Homelessness Action Strategy was presented to the Arvada City Council but has not yet been approved. Kuroiwa told Denver7 it's unclear when that could happen.
For Karen Cowling, the executive director of Mission Arvada, these are all goals worth working toward.
For more than 8 years, Cowling has been at the forefront of helping those experiencing homelessness in Arvada.
"Mission Arvada is a day shelter and a housing navigation center, and we're serving primarily northern Jefferson County," Cowling told Denver7. "We're the only place really doing what we're doing now, in Jefferson County."
At Mission Arvada, those experiencing homelessness can receive food, a shower, clothes, and wrap-around services between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
On average, 75 people visit Mission Arvada every day, according to Cowling.
"Last year, we served over 900 unique individuals in our doors," she said. "We have everything in here. We have our own case managers that are paid for through grants and private donations, and that's a constant kind of thing around the funding stuff."
Cowling said the work she's done is more than a mission; it's personal.
"I was traumatized as a child myself, and I came through that over a long period of time. So I really understand where people have trauma, because I would say the majority of our clients, that's the issue," she said. "My husband and I became a foster-adoptive family, and our three boys were adopted, and we've gone through a lot of challenges with our boys and our foster care history. We led a support group for 10 years out of our home. A couple of our boys had struggled with some homelessness as they got older. We love our boys. We actually lost one of our sons to an overdose four years ago. I've just always had the compassion for the hurting and the marginalized based on my own childhood history, and then falling into adoption and foster care and walking alongside our own boys and others that were that were helping."
Over the years, Cowling said the work has become more consistent but fulfilling nonetheless.
"We've helped people get housed. We got 53 people into permanent housing last year," Cowling explained. "They're people first, and they all have a story. If you just sit down to talk with them, they will talk with you, and they will share, and you will hear in parts what has contributed to their homelessness."
"It's not hopeless. If we work together as a community, we can help so many people," Cowling added.
Tackling homelessness can be difficult work. Cowling said the Mission opened its doors for 45 nights last winter as an emergency weather shelter. She told Denver7 she doesn't think they can afford to do that this year if their funding challenges continue.
Cowling worries that people could suffer if the City of Arvada and Jefferson County also lack emergency shelter. However, she said she'll do whatever she needs to avoid that.
"My hope is that the county in the city can come together and walk alongside of nonprofits such as us and others to provide these services and expand exponentially to provide 365 overnight sheltering as well as navigation and wrap-around case management for all of them," said Cowling.
City staff told Denver7 that's something they're working on, alongside other solutions.
"We have engaged with the Colorado Rangers to provide some additional presence in Olde Town on the weekends and during high volume times for just public safety," Kuroiwa said. "We have a fully staffed CORE team, and those are community outreach police officers who work to do outreach and also enforcement. We also are working really closely on regional collaboration, which is a key ingredient for any successful approach to homelessness."
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