Littleton has issued $9.9 million in bonds to the for the organization to use for capital improvement projects.
About $8.9 million of that will go toward refinancing of the nonprofit’s existing bonds for 10 facilities throughout Arapahoe and Douglas counties, which executive director and CEO Joan DiMaria said will help save the organization money that can be put back into behavioral health services. She said six of the nonprofit’s facilities are in Arapahoe County, and it served about 1,100 residents in Littleton last year. Many of the patients who use its services are on Medicaid or uninsured, she said.
“We’re a private not-for profit, and it’s fair to say there has been little to no funding for community mental health for the past 10 years, and quite honestly, we try to diversify our revenue, such as having services for private insurance clients,” DiMaria said.
She said they can’t use existing revenue for capital improvement projects, so the bonds were crucial. The organization is 55 years old, and several of its facilities are in need of repair. Some have heating and air conditioning issues and others desperately need renovation, such as the Sycamore Center facility in Littleton. They want to use $800,000 from the bonds for these improvement projects. DiMaria said taking money out of the general fund for these improvements is not an option because they need that money to provide services to their clients. She said the organization serves about 450-500 new clients every month.
“It really makes us better able to provide the services we do, and I think we really do help people in our community a great deal,” she said.
At the Sycamore property, the plan is to knock down an old house on the property to make way for more parking.
“It’s become a problem, so we’re looking at that as something that needs to get done,” she said.
At the Santa Fe House, officials would like to make renovations to allow for the crisis response team to move there to better serve clients looking for those services.
DiMaria said the renovations at the Sycamore location will allow for greater same-day access, the demand for which has increased over the past few years.
“When you have that kind of open-door policy, there’s a lot of traffic and you really have to pay attention to the infrastructure,” she said.
Doug Farmen, finance director for Littleton, said the bonds are being issued through conduit issuance and that the city assumes no debt obligation for issuing the bonds. It’s necessary for the network to get a municipal sponsor to use the bonds and it allows the bonds to be at a lower interest rate.
“It’s going to help everybody out,” Farmen said. “It’s a good partnership for us to have for them and it lowers their expenditures.”
He said the city did the same thing for the Colorado Center for the Blind a few years ago.
Farmen said the city does not have to pay for bond counsel, as that is taken care of by the network.
The network is working through Citywide Bank, which has arranged for the purchase of the bonds. DiMaria said $200,000 of the bond money goes toward customer issuance fees.
Clayton Woullard: 303-954-2671, cwoullard@denverpost.com or
