VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 3
WEEK OF JULY 17, 2025
FREE
ARVADA’S ANNUAL FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION
HUD cuts threaten 55 Arvada households Federal funding up in the air as rents rise BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Arvada’s Fourth of July celebrations at Stenger Sports Complex had a slight issue at the top of the show but otherwise went smoothly. See Story on Page 2. COURTESY CITY OF ARVADA
Community Table opens new building Food bank welcomes back clients at larger facility BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
After months of preparation, Community Table opened the doors of its new location at 4600 W. 60th Avenue, inviting clients to shop at the state-of-the-art facility. The nonprofit held its opening day of the new building on July 8, and while CEO Sandy Martin said there are still kinks to be worked out, the first day was a success.
VOICES: 8 | PUZZLES: 19
“We were open for our first day of shopping yesterday and it went pretty good,” Martin said. “We got a lot of lovely comments from our clients and the volunteers just love it. It really is an amazing facility now and we’re just wading our way through and living in the facility to see what changes we need to make. All the feedback has been terrific.” Martin said that folks were able to use public transit to access the new facility, which is located near the 60th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard G-Line stop. She added that the food bank will make some small changes to make the shopping process easier, such as adding a Ring Doorbell that allows desk staff to talk with
clients before they come in, making sure folks don’t accidentally go to the business to the west instead of the correct door and helping people avoid the volunteer/staff area. Community Table hosted elected officials from Adams and Jefferson Counties and residents of the abutting neighborhood, Arlington Meadows, for tours of the new facility. “We just appreciate how supportive the community is and how everybody’s kind of going with the flow and allowing us to, you know, get the kinks out of this and make this a really wonderful experience for them,” Martin said. “We just love the new building.”
Fifty-five households receiving assistance in Arvada might see their funding cut off, as the Department of Housing and Urban Development has informed the Arvada Housing Authority that they are anticipating funding cuts in the near future. Carrie Espinosa, Arvada’s manager of housing preservation and resources, presented at the July 8 Arvada Housing Authority meeting — which is composed of the seven city councilmembers — and discussed the challenges facing the city’s housing assistance program. Espinosa said that the formula that HUD uses to allocate funding includes an inflation factor informed by fair market rents that has mostly stayed stagnant as rents have increased. This has left the city with a $925,000 budget shortfall. “What we have is a situation where our budget fell flat, but our costs continue to increase, which puts us in a shortfall situation,” Espinosa said. “At this time, we are projecting about a $925,000 (shortfall) come December 2025. We are closely working with our local HUD office and the HUD shortfall prevention team to determine what those are.” She added that the city applied for additional funding in June, but won’t know if that funding is approved for a few months. If the funding doesn’t come through, up to 55 households in Arvada might lose their housing. “HUD has stated that they are anticipating funding cuts in the near future and they are telling housing authorities to take steps to decrease the overall number of families they serve,” Espinosa said. “We are in conversation with HUD about what that looks like.” When asked what would happen to the 55 households if they lost their housing, Epinosa said there was a high chance they would be evicted. Espinosa also noted that there were over 3,000 waitlist applications in January and that the waitlist will now remain stagnant as these changes are sorted out. SEE HUD CUTS, P6
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