Xavier Wake, a 19-year-old, died in a tent less than a block away from homeless youth shelter Urban Peak, on Feb. 12.
His sister, Quintaisha Wake spoke at a Friday morning press conference. She wanted answers from Urban Peak and the Denver Police Department, both of whom have been unresponsive to her requests for information, she said.
The Office of the Medical Examiner confirmed Wake's death, though his cause of death is still undetermined. And an autopsy report has not been released.
Quintaisha believes Xavier died from the cold and added that drug paraphernalia was found inside his tent.
Denver Police Department offered the following statement: "We did respond on February 12, 2023, around 1:15 p.m., to the corner of 21st and California streets on a possible overdose of a 19-year-old male."
Quintaisha said she has been bounced back and forth between police department investigation units and has struggled to find answers about how her brother died or the status of the investigation.
She was troubled by how long it took for the family to be notified of his death.
Who was Xavier Wake?
"Everybody called him a gentle giant, just a big teddy bear personality," Quintaisha said. "Even though he was 6 foot tall, he was still a very gentle person."
Growing up, Wake attended Columbine Elementary, where he was bullied. His mother, Cynthia Brashears Wake, pulled him out of Columbine and sent him to Annunciation Catholic School and eventually Regis Jesuit High School, where he received a scholarship through Boys Hope.
He played on the 303 Rugby Club with students from East High School.
Xavier's mother, Cynthia, was a community organizer. She was also an alum and former board member of Emerge Colorado, a program that trains Democratic women to run for office. Cynthia died from terminal breast cancer in 2021. After Cynthia's death, Emerge set up a scholarship in her memory with the family.
Since Cynthia's death, Xavier had overdosed several times, Quintaisha said.
"My brother was not really involved in the streets a lot growing up," Quintaisha said. "I really don't know what happened."
Xavier had previously accessed services at Urban Peak and its drop-in center, the Spot, the nonprofit's CEO Christina Carlson said in a statement.
Quintaisha had spoken daily with Xavier's case worker at Urban Peak and had secured long-term treatment for him from the Stout Street Foundation. But the case worker lost touch with Xavier, Quintaisha said. And Urban Peak staff said they had not seen him for weeks.
But Quintaisha went to the area near Urban Peak where Xavier had last been seen and found him eating at nearby tables the day before he died. She went for a walk with him. He told her he was staying in a tent on the block.
She gave him keys to her apartment to warm up and take a shower. She encouraged him to reconnect with Urban Peak. The last time she saw him, he appeared to be going inside the nonprofit's building.
Temperatures ranged between 28-43 degrees the day Xavier died.
After receiving news of Xavier's death, his family contacted the head of Emerge Colorado, Denver mayoral candidate Lisa Calderón, who had been Cynthia's friend.
Calderón, who has experienced homelessness herself, hosted the Friday press conference, and spoke about how Denver should reform its approach to connecting people with housing and treatment. In crafting her policy for addressing homelessness, Calderón consulted with both service providers and doctors but also unhoused people.
She was haunted by her late friend's son's death and the lack of attention it has received. It could have been prevented, she said.
"This is exactly why we need to change the way that we do outreach, which right now is through a Street Enforcement Team that is more about clearing people out rather than actually assessing them where they are," Calderón said.
She also said she wanted to see people in Xavier's situation have access to more on-the-streets treatment options and an immediate path to housing.
"We know that homes do in fact save lives," Calderón said.
Urban Peak is a youth homelessness service provider that serves people between 15 and 24 experiencing homelessness.
The program offers hot meals, showers, laundry and case management for youth, sends outreach workers to encampments, runs shelter spaces, and offers a path toward permanent housing.
But the organization has seen a spike in the number of youth experiencing homelessness and keeping up with the demand is proving tough.
Since January, Urban Peak has served 513 youth. The nonprofit currently has access to 130 units of housing.
"The barriers to get people into housing are significant," Carlson said. "We house people as quickly as we can by identifying appropriate housing options paired with supportive services. Barriers to housing such as access to vital documents, income verification paperwork and affordable options are just some of the challenges our youth and staff face. Of those 513 that were served since January 1, 2023, we provide access to our full convergence of services."
Many of the youth Urban Peak has served have lost family members, friends and peers to addiction.
"The young people we work with have experienced a level of trauma that is unimaginable," Carlson said.
And the current offerings the city has for addressing both the opioid crisis and the housing crisis are not enough.
"We are living through an epidemic that is devastating around fentanyl, but we are also seeing the impact of decades of lack of access to appropriate and affordable housing and supportive services," Carlson said.
Finding enough apartments for people to live in is part of the challenge.
In December, the organization broke ground on a $37 million shelter. The building will open 136 beds for youth up to 24 and include a mix of social and medical services and access to education and employment.
"I wish we could open it today," Carlson said.
While it will help, it's still far from enough to house everybody in need.
"We feel pain and loss around the death of any youth who has had a connection to Urban Peak," Carlson noted in a statement. "The crisis on our streets and for people experiencing homelessness is palpable throughout our community."
Denver has seen youth homelessness rise over the past decade.
According to the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative's 2022-2023 State of Homelessness Report, 27,860 individuals received social services tied to homelessness from Jul 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022. The data takes into account Denver, Boulder, Arapahoe, Adams, Douglas and Jefferson counties.
In that same time frame, 7,334 people slept on the streets and outdoors. During last year's regional Point-in-Time Count, 2,078 people were sleeping outside on Jan. 24, 2022.
In 2022, 218 people experiencing homelessness died, according to data from the Office of the Medical Examiner. In 2023, 21 have.
Homelessness has been a major issue for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, whose administration has been bookended by the Great Recession and the pandemic during his three terms in office.
He was a proponent of the urban camping ban, which gave police the ability to ticket and arrest people for sleeping outside. His administration has conducted massive sweeps of encampments in the name of public safety, even as critics like John Parvensky, longtime head of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, have said that moving encampments around town makes it harder for outreach workers to offer ongoing care.
Hancock has consistently argued people need to move from the streets inside, and shelter access has expanded during his time in office.
"Any loss of life, including those who pass outside, is a tragedy," Denver Mayor Michael Hancock wrote to Denverite in an email. "That's why we work so hard to connect unsheltered residents with indoor solutions, especially during bitter cold weather like we've had over the past few days."
