Denver’s cold weather shelters are reopening — and once again using an understaffed crisis hotline that some unhoused families say has failed to connect them to emergency shelter.
The city describes the phone number as a “front door shelter.”
While unhoused individuals, including youth, can go to physical shelters, families are expected to call a number and wait for a call back.
During other cold-weather events this winter, families Denverite spoke with said they were unable to get in touch with anyone on the other end of the line for days. They were left stuck outside and living in their cars on freezing cold nights.
No significant reforms to the Connection Center suggest things will go differently this time.
How the Connection Center works.
During most of this winter’s cold-weather events, the message from the Salvation Army — the religious nonprofit that operates the Connection Center crisis hotline — instructed people to call back until they reached someone.
Now, a recording on the hotline instructs people to leave a voice message.
The organization has one person responding to all those calls, according to spokesperson Jennifer Forker, who acknowledged that current staffing does not meet the demand.
But the city says it has a possible fix.
“During these activations, additional staff is available if needed to help manage incoming calls related to cold weather shelter needs,” Department of Housing Stability spokesperson Julia Marvin wrote Denverite.
How that staff is activated is unclear.
Despite the hotline’s imperfections, the city has no other options for families besides the Connection Center.
When Denverite asked whether families should show up at other homeless shelters, Marvin said, “the Connection Center is the best point of contact.”
There is no physical shelter where the city tells people to go unannounced if the hotline does not function.
Not every call will be answered live, Marvin said. If families want in, they must leave a voicemail if nobody picks up the phone.
“Leaving a message ensures they will get a call back and be connected to shelter options as soon as possible,” Marvin wrote. “During these activations, additional staff is available if needed to help manage incoming calls related to cold weather shelter needs.”
But “as soon as possible” may not be fast enough. Messages, according to the Salvation Army, will be answered within two business days.
The cold-weather shelters are only open from 1 p.m. on Friday, April 18, to 11 a.m., Saturday, April 19 — a full day less than the time window in which families can expect a call back.
During that window, the Connection Center will be shut down from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., unless the organization expands its normal operations.
If a family calls on Friday, they are not guaranteed a call back by the nonprofit until after the cold-weather event.
Whether more staffers will be tasked with call-backs during the cold weather event is unclear.
Forker was not aware of any efforts to increase Connection Center staffing as of Thursday afternoon, the day the cold-weather shelter was announced. The Salvation Army offices were closed on Friday to celebrate Good Friday.
“It’s important to note that in the most recent cold weather activations, every eligible family that contacted the Connection Center—whether they spoke directly with staff or left a message and were called back—was successfully placed into cold weather shelter,” Marvin wrote. “We will continue doing everything we can to ensure families receive the same timely support during this activation.”
But homeless families and grassroots activists said they could not reach anybody. Families showed Denverite call logs demonstrating they had called hundreds of times before reaching somebody, as the hotline instructed them to do.
But the city said the high number of calls was a stunt from grassroots homeless activists from Housekeys Action Network Denver (HAND).
But HAND objects to that take.
“That is called lying in order to deflect the reality,” HAND member Terese Howard said at a protest led by formerly homeless individuals outside The Salvation Army headquarters earlier this month. “And it is a serious dismissal of houseless families who are in [expletive] crisis calling hundreds of times. That is insane.”
Individuals can still access walk-up shelters in the cold.
Those shelters include:
- Men: Denver Rescue Mission Lawrence Street Community Center, 2222 Lawrence St.
- Women: Samaritan House, 2301 Lawrence St.
- Youth/young adults ages 12-24: Urban Peak, 1630 S. Acoma St.
- Individuals can also access 24/7 emergency shelter at The Aspen (the former DoubleTree hotel) at 4040 Quebec St. and at a city facility at 2601 W. 7th Ave.
For more information, go to the city’s shelter access site.
