WEEK OF AUGUST 3, 2023
VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 24
FREE
Douglas County approves over $1M for suicide prevention BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
An artist’s rendering of what the Tall Tales Ranch will look like when completed.
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Tall Tales Ranch to build affordable housing in Lone Tree BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A Douglas County nonprofit is planning a multifamily housing project in Lone Tree catered to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Tall Tales Ranch is in the early stages of building 28 income-restricted apartments in the Ridgegate area to serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as others. The project is expected to cost around $20 million. The first phase of construction will include 14 units and is expected to start in summer 2024.
Laura McKenna, executive director of Tall Tales Ranch, said the project aims to help relieve some of the high demand for housing in Douglas County and create an inclusive community. McKenna said the housing will prioritize people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, but will also accept neurotypical residents, and is aiming to serve people making between 30-60% of the area media income. “To be able to afford a typical rent in Lone Tree is really impossible for (people on social security) so our goal is to make it affordable for people with intellectual and developmental dis-
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abilities to stay there,” she said. On top of the housing units, which will be a mix of one and two bedrooms, the Tall Tales Ranch project will include a community space with amenities for residents, as well as an event barn and coffee shop, where Tall Tales Ranch will have its offices located. “Our residents, or even people who don’t live there, will be able to work in the coffee shop because employment is just as difficult (to find) as housing for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities,” McKenna said. SEE HOUSING, P2
Amid numbers that show suicide deaths have steadily risen in Colorado in the past two decades, Douglas County’s elected leaders approved more than $1 million in funding for prevention and mental health support over the next three years. The money will spread across a diverse array of approaches. Organizations that will receive the funding include the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Arapahoe/Douglas Counties; You Are Not Alone Mom 2 Mom, a peer support system for mothers; and The Aspen Effect, a group that connects young people with horses for what’s known as “equine therapy.” But the discussion about approving the funding became overtaken by a debate over whether Castle Rock Pride — a nonprofit that aims to build a supportive community in Douglas County for LGBTQ+ residents — should receive part of the money. The comments from area residents also included disapproval of transgender people. One resident, talking about gender changes, said “this is satanic evil” and criticized the county commissioners for considering supporting Castle Rock Pride. “You cannot recreate what God created,” the resident said at the July 25 commissioners meeting. Groups at higher risk
Across Colorado, nearly 800 people died by suicide in 2004, and that one-year total reached almost 1,300 in 2022, according to state data cited by Douglas County staff. In Douglas County, the number of suicide deaths went from a recent low of 15 in 2005 to dozens higher in years afterward. Last year, 53 people died by suicide in Douglas County, according to the state data. But suicide risk is a direr problem for certain demographics, and that includes LGBTQ+ youth, who are far SEE COUNTY, P12
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