Colorado’s experimental Fort Lyon homeless facility laid off 40 percent of its case managers and educational staff last week in a cost-cutting move that some residents and workers worry will jeopardize the program.
More than 200 formerly homeless men and women are housed at the Fort Lyon Supportive Residential Community, located about 90 minutes east of Pueblo in Bent County.
The former correctional facility and Veterans Administration hospital is run by Denver-based , which transports voluntary applicants from across the state to the rural campus for extended-stay care including counseling, substance abuse treatment and job training.
“These are people we’ve grown to trust and confide in,” said Peggy Baugher, 61, a resident whose case manager was among those laid off. “I’ve been a heroin addict for 45 years and I quit using for 60 days here, which I’ve never done in my life.”
The layoffs, which will reduce Fort Lyon’s 17 full-time case manager and vocational positions to 10, are the result of job consolidation due to a reduced budget, said , president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
He said it will not affect resident safety or the quality of treatment.
“We decided to combine the case managers and vocational specialists into a single position that will follow residents from the time they’re admitted to the time they leave,” Parvensky said. “We always have to balance the needs of the residents against what’s an appropriate cost for the benefit being provided.”
Just two weeks ago, Parvensky and Gov. John Hickenlooper visited Fort Lyon to celebrate its second birthday and meet with residents.
The remote, sprawling complex, which occupies 552 acres about 200 miles southeast of Denver, has always been considered a pilot program by the state.
This year’s overall budget of $4.93 million, which is split between Bent County (which operates the facility) and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless (which staffs it), included $2.5 million for the Coalition — down from $2.9 million last year.
Why the $400,000 difference from the coalition’s year-to-year budget was a surprise to the staff at Fort Lyon remains unclear.
Parvensky said it was due to an “error” and “miscommunication” from the Department of Local Affairs, which funds Fort Lyon. But Denise Stepto, communications director for the Department of Local Affairs, said no error was made and this year’s budget should have been no surprise.
Fort Lyon is now far more efficient than when the facility was a prison or VA hospital, said Bent County Commissioner Bill Long, who has been involved in the transition at Fort Lyon.
“We’ve been able to substantially reduce utility costs by $300,000 since the state last operated the campus,” Long said. “I hate putting a cost to what I would view as saving people’s lives, but the reality is that will be measured by the legislature and the Joint Budget Committee. If it was costing $100,000 per resident out there, it would be shut down. Hopefully we can provide the same end results with fewer staff.”
The cost of caring for a homeless person in Colorado averages about $40,000 per year, but the per-resident cost at Fort Lyon is half that, according to the coalition. More than 500 residents have been served in two years at Fort Lyon.
The facility boasts a 38 percent turnover rate — which tracks the number of residents admitted versus the number who leave or are dismissed — besting the national average of 50 percent.
“We’re under this tremendous pressure to get the numbers up and keep the cost down,” Fort Lyon’s on-site director James Ginsburg .
Ginsburg did not address the recent layoffs last week and referred questions to the coalition’s media contact.
Laid-off workers, who requested anonymity due to the fact that they are still employed through the end of the month, expressed alarm at the new ratio of residents to case managers, which is 20 to 1.
Fort Lyon resident Baugher said she posted a public petition last week, which other residents have signed, that lobbies administrators to retain the current staff.
“It feels like I’m a foster kid being pushed into another foster home,” she said.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or @johnwenzel
