FREE
Week of January 19, 2023
JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 10 CALENDAR: PAGE 9 | SPORTS: PAGE 16
VOLUME 18 | ISSUE 31
Our in-depth look at the housing crisis
Arvada City Council holds executive sessions on homelessness, Jefferson Parkway BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Trickling up: How housing is becoming less affordable for more Coloradans BY TAYLER SHAW AND LUKE ZARZECKI COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
A home means everything to Shelley Gilson, a 50-year-old single mother of three girls who works as a guest service agent at an airline. “It’s one word: priceless,” she
said. The rising cost of housing in the Denver area has made it difficult for her to afford a home. She spent years bounding around working for low pay, including to several affordable housing communities across the state.
Eventually, more than a decade ago, she found a home at Orchard Crossing Apartments in Westminster. It is an affordable housing community that includes Section 8 housing, the federal government program that provides vouchers to low-income families, the disabled and elderly. SEE TRICKLING UP, P12
Editor’s note: Arvada’s City Council held a discussion on homelessness on Jan. 9. Coverage of that discussion, along with input from community leaders not included in the study session, will appear in the Jan. 26 edition of the Arvada Press. While Arvada City Council was busy on Jan. 9, they did most of their work away from the dais. In addition to their regular business meeting, council held a study session on homelessness with members from the Arvada Police Department and city team and engaged in two executive sessions, which are not open to the public. One executive session focused on receiving legal advice related to questions arising from the homelessness study session. The other was held for the purpose of receiving instructions related to Broomfield’s withdrawal from the Jefferson Parkway project. City Attorney Rachel Morris said that the Jefferson Parkway executive session would see council reviewing the proposed terms of a potential resolution between member entities. Jefferson County and the City of Arvada sued the City and County of Broomfield in June 2022, and Arvada Marc Williams said at the time he hoped the dispute could be settled before going to trial. Council also unanimously resolved to have the Arvada Police Department join the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority/ Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force, also known at C-MATT. “In 2016, a number of agencies in the metro area entered into an intergovernmental agreement to form the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority/ Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force, force or CSEE COUNCIL, P3