Curtis Park residents say they’ve done their “fair share” to house Denver’s homeless and want someone else to take on part of the burden.
The Curtis Park Neighborhood Association has refused to extend the life of one of the city’s largest overnight shelters – a pilot program at the St. Francis Center.
The center, 2323 Curtis St., takes in as many as 300 homeless a night – about a quarter of the people seeking overnight refuge.
The association agreed to continue the one-year pilot project to May 1, six months longer than the group’s original accord with the city.
The association was “real clear that they wanted us to go someplace else,” said Deborah Ortega, director of Denver’s Commission to End Homelessness, who helped broker the Curtis Park deal.
It’s city policy to obtain community input and support for any plan to temporarily house homeless, Ortega said.
Neighborhood association officials declined to comment or did not return phone calls.
But Stephen Gregory, owner of a bed and breakfast on Arapahoe Street, said the Curtis Park neighborhood – a collection of Victorian homes just north of Lower Downtown – “cannot continue to be the dumping ground for the city’s problems.”
Within blocks of the St. Francis Center are three other shelters housing up to 900 a night – including Samaritan House, one of the city’s largest facilities, with 400 beds.
“We’re saying that we’ve done our fair share,” Gregory said. “It’s time to get someplace else to support the city in its efforts.”
With its concentration of shelters and other social welfare agencies, common resident complaints include cluttered sidewalks, alleys used as public toilets and a generally grimy atmosphere, said St. Francis director Tom Luehrs.
City Council members are willing to help relocate the program, Luehrs said, “if the city can convince the neighborhood association” in another community.
But in Curtis Park, discussions are over.
“This neighborhood’s basically said they won’t do it any more,” Luehrs said. “They made it clear: You’ve been good, but if we can say no to homeless services, we will. And they did.”
The decision has put city officials in a bind because there aren’t contenders to replace the St. Francis program.
In January, the city’s new homelessness commission – whose goal is to end the problem within a decade – said it was making “great strides” in its first six months and applauded “our community’s fresh commitment” to help.
Now, the city is “frantically looking at places” to replace the St. Francis program, Ortega said.
“The homeless are a stigma and the chronic homeless can be frightening to others,” Ortega said. “It comes up all the time: Why aren’t other parts of the city doing their part or asked to do their part?”
City Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth, who represents Curtis Park and supported the pilot, said: “I had to put my foot on their necks to get this done.”
Now the rest of the city needs to do its part, Wedgeworth said.
“It’s a citywide issue, and I’m proud that they helped again,” she said, “but I stand behind their decision to say it’s time to look at other locations.”
Police say the shelter hasn’t drawn a high number of complaints and the homeless population probably isn’t the sole cause of any rise in crime.
Closing the shelter may actually spawn some of the problems residents feared when it opened, Sixth Precinct Commander Deborah Dilley said.
“These people won’t have a place to go, and they will be walking through the neighborhoods looking for a place to hang out,” Dilley said.
Gregory says it’s a case of NIMBYAM – Not In My Back Yard Any More. Curtis Park ” was being turned into a little Bowery,” he said. “Where does it stop?”
Curtis Park is Denver’s oldest surviving neighborhood and sits within the Five Points area. Its history and architecture have turned it into a popular area.
As LoDo developed into a tourist and nightlife magnet, the homeless concentration once centered near Union Station migrated northeast.
St. Francis also operates a daytime homeless shelter that is unaffected by the decision to close the night operation.
The overnight program at St. Francis is unique: no one’s allowed to sleep there – lying down, anyway.
Zoning restrictions prevent a true overnight shelter. As a result, many sleep with their heads on a table, others sit against a wall, and still others slump in a chair, their chins at their chest.
When the overnight program closes, seven people will probably lose their full-time jobs at St. Francis, Luehrs said.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-820-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
