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Homelessness pushes out to the Colorado foothills and Denver suburbs
BY ALAN GIONET CBS NEWS COLORADO
In an RTD lot next to an open power outlet, they made their home. Kari Vernon and her boyfriend were living by a power box near a light pole in the green grass. There was a pile of things including suitcases and clothes, covered by a loose tarp. But it hadn’t been raining.
“Missed the bus that last three days because only three buses that leave here in the morning and three that come here in the afternoon. So if you miss them three buses, you’re stuck here,” she said. They had come to Evergreen to get away from the city.
“Denver, I will never stay down there,” she said.
“It’s like once the sun goes down, it’s crazy.”
Crime and drugs and alcoholism among the homeless population are a worry.
“We’ve had a lot of stuff stolen. We’ve started over like seven times because all of our belongings are gone.”
All over the metro area and foothills, homelessness has been
In Jefferson County, many of the homeless are originally from the area. There are no year round overnight shelters in Jefferson County, so people either create their own shelter in places like parking lots or open spaces, or head into Denver where there is overnight shelter. But during the day, many “They wind up coming back and they’re afraid. Because it’s too crowded. It’s overcrowded they say and there’s more crime in general,” said Karen Cowling, director of Mission Arvada at The Rising Church. “They prefer to be in the environment that they’re used to in a place where they feel safer.”
Originally Mission Arvada at The Rising Church was asked by the city to help provide services to a growing homeless population. Mass transportation helps people get back and forth from the city and is part of what made Arvada attractive to people experiencing
