One of the city’s oldest charities will no longer run several shelters around Denver.
The Salvation Army's contracts to run three of the city's hotel-style "All In Mile High Shelters" will expire at the end of the year. The charity said it was giving up its management role at the facilities because it was losing too much money. Meanwhile, city officials say they had already decided to bring in new operators for the shelters.
"This is a decision we've made as an organization to ensure our financial sustainability," said Maj. Nesan Kistan, who oversees the regional division of The Salvation Army. The Salvation Army will keep working with the city government in other ways, including by managing the Crossroads men's shelter and the city's Connection Center for family homelessness, among others.
Mayoral spokesperson Jon Ewing stressed that "the shelters are going to continue operating. There's not going to be any change to those shelter sites." He added: "We're going to keep working with The Salvation Army, but those three sites will be run by other operators in 2026."
As tensions over the shelters’ management grew in recent months, city officials invited other organizations to submit proposals to run the hotel shelters.
The Salvation Army applied to continue running two of the shelters, but city officials have informed the religious charity that it wasn’t selected, Ewing said. But a spokesperson for the charity stressed that the charity stressed that its decision was "not based on the 2026 contracts," but instead on the "financial hardship of operating these programs any longer."
The city hasn’t completed negotiations with the shelters’ potential new operator or operators and cannot disclose which it's negotiating with, he added.
The shelters in question are located in former Best Western, Embassy Suites and DoubleTree hotels. They are now called the Aspen, Stone Creek and Tamarac shelters. The buildings have been in the spotlight for safety and habitability issues, including when an 11-year-old girl survived a high fall from a window in the Tamarac facility.
As they considered applications from potential shelter managers, city officials looked at criteria like cost, past performance and the capacity of the applicants. The new shelter management may not be announced until October, with the new contract beginning in January.
The Salvation Army had run the hotel sites since they opened in 2023. Expenses last year "far outpaced available funding," according to the charity.
Continuing to absorb these costs would jeopardize the quality and integrity of all our programs,” Kistan said. “Instead of spreading our resources too thin and risking the standard of care we’ve upheld for more than 160 years, we’ve made the necessary decision to step back in some areas to strengthen and sustain our impact where it’s needed most
“We are a better city today for the efforts of The Salvation Army,” Mayor Mike Johnston said in an earlier statement in April. “The Salvation Army performs a difficult job at an extremely high level, and I know they are as committed to accountability and improvement as they are to our shared mission of ending unsheltered homelessness in Denver.”
The city has spent more than $174 million in contracts with The Salvation Army since 2020. But with tensions mounting, city leaders earlier rejected a $3 million contract with the organization for a “rapid rehousing” program, and took months to approve its contract to run the Crossroads shelter, leaving the group to operate on an “IOU” basis.
As of June, 25 people had died at “All In” shelters operated by The Salvation Army: two murdered, one by suicide, three of natural causes and the other 19 from drug overdoses, according to the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment. At the same time, The Salvation Army estimates that staff saved 165 lives using CPR and opioid overdose reversal drugs at one hotel shelter since December 2023.
In 2024, The Salvation Army failed to provide security at a shelter, though it had been contracted to do so — the same former DoubleTree shelter where a double homicide took place. The city eventually took over providing security, and there have been no more homicides.
The group’s history in Denver dates to 1887. For years, the organization operated independently of the city, raising funds through major donors and Christmas-time bell ringing. But its relationship with the city of Denver began to expand under former mayor Michael Hancock.
After the city passed its urban camping ban in 2011, the local government relied on The Salvation Army’s Crossroads shelter to host hundreds more people, and the city began funding its shelter work.
The Salvation Army has faced mounting criticism from housing advocates and some Denver City Council members over conditions at the “All In” shelters, which are owned by government bodies but operated by the charity.
Councilmember Sarah Parady previously told Denverite she would not vote for another long-term shelter contract with the group without significant changes.
“I have heard from an increasing number of whistleblowers with a variety of experiences with TSA who have raised grave concerns about harms to guests (and staff) at Denver TSA shelters,” Parady wrote Denverite.
But The Salvation Army has pointed out that it has worked without pay at one of the city’s great unsolved challenges, and that some of the issues stem from the local government’s struggles to maintain the aging hotel buildings it has turned into shelters for hundreds of people and families.
“The Salvation Army is doing some very heavy lifting for the city, and it’s our pleasure to do so,” spokesperson Jennifer Forker said in an earlier interview. “Serving our neighbors in need is what we are called to do. We care deeply for all people. And everyone, regardless of their circumstances, deserves a chance to thrive.”
The group noted that it had helped to place nearly 2,000 people into "permanent and stable" housing through the All In shelters, making up about half of the people who were served at the shelters. Former staff at the shelters will get "wraparound assistance," including job help, emotional care and, in some cases, severance packages. The group said it had been an "honor" to work on the shelters and that it was committed to a smooth transition.
