The Denver building where an 11-year-old girl was injured after falling several stories from an open window on Monday has a history of broken window locks, according to city officials and legal letters sent to the Salvation Army.
A resident at Denver’s reached out to Darren O’Connor — a Colorado-based attorney who focuses on family law, civil rights and eviction tenant representation — early last year because water was seeping into his family’s unit and causing mold to grow in the carpet, O’Connor said.
The leakage was traced to an unsealed, sliding glass window that wouldn’t close entirely or lock, which concerned the family with a crawling toddler, O’Connor said.
O’Connor described the issue as a “phenomenal risk of catastrophe” in a letter to the Salvation Army about the unitap habitability in February 2024.
Throughout his investigation, O’Connor discovered that a large chunk of the building’s windows weren’t sealed and shelter residents were opening the already lock-broken windows or unscrewing them to cool off, he said. All of the windows led to tiny platforms with no railings to prevent a multi-story fall.
A Denver Department of Public Health & Environment investigator on Feb. 21, 2024, went to the shelter at 7525 E. Hampden Ave. after receiving a complaint the day before and found the patio door and its seal to be damaged in a way that allowed it to be opened to “an unsafe drop,” according to an email from Amber Campbell, the spokesperson for the department.
The onsite manager told the investigator that management was already scheduled to look into the problems with mold and water getting into the unit, but the investigator issued a notice of violation that required the door to be sealed and secured within 30 days, Campbell wrote. The investigator confirmed that the needed repairs had been completed in a follow-up visit to the unit on March 22, 2024.
The family shelter used to be an Embassy Suites hotel. The hotel removed the railings and locked window access to the balconies before the city bought the building, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said during a on Tuesday.
“When we acquired it, we shored up the locks,” Johnston said. “We also put notices on every window in both English and Spanish saying ‘Do not open these sliding doors’.”
Some residents broke off the locks and opened the doors against that guidance, which is how Monday’s tragedy happened, he said.
It’s unknown if the 11-year-old girl has been released from the hospital. The Salvation Army previously said the girl was seven years old.
The cause of the fall is also unknown, but Derek Woodbury, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Housing Stability, called the situation an “accidental falling” on Monday.
“All rooms at the Tamarac Family Shelter are equipped with safety measures to ensure windows cannot be fully opened. This design works properly so long as the windows are not tampered with,” Woodbury said in a statement. “Safety will always be our top priority, however, at this time, we have no reason to believe this is anything more than a terrible and unfortunate accident.”
The Denver Police Department is investigating the incident. An unidentified spokesperson for the department said the girl suffered serious injuries when she fell from the seventh floor to a second-story rooftop but is expected to survive.
“The reason the balconies don’t have a fence is because you’re not supposed to get out there to begin with,” said Jon Ewing, a spokesperson for the city of Denver.
Ewing said the windows are screwed shut and shelter tenants sign an agreement not to open them. The screws are supposed to be inspected every week, but they’re certainly inspected at turnover by Salvation Army staff, Ewing said.
“You have to open them yourself … unless somebody didn’t notice that the window could still open,” Ewing said.
The windows open roughly four inches for ventilation, but the screws make it difficult for some, Ewing said. City officials are installing new fasteners in the shelter’s rooms to fix that issue and prevent tampering.
“What we’re doing today is making a permanent solution where we’re putting in bolts that can’t be manipulated with … regular screwdrivers that you can buy at the store to go even a step further,” Director of Denver’s Department of General Services said during the Mayor-Council meeting.
Staff also went through every room in the shelter to tighten the current window bolts and ensure the windows couldn’t open from the inside, Gardner said.
“All we care about is that the guests are safe,” Ewing said. “Thatap why we have a family shelter. We screwed the window shut, we said don’t open the window, but thatap all we can do. We can’t be there 24/7.”
Ewing said residents can file maintenance requests to fix broken window locks, but O’Connor said getting Salvation Army to complete any repair requests was difficult and a case manager on site threatened to have his client discharged from the shelter.
The Colorado attorney said he had to threaten to take the Salvation Army to court before repairs on the window, a broken fridge and growing mold were made. Even then, the window was shut but not routinely checked.
O’Connor said his client faced ongoing issues with the management and ended up moving out of the shelter out of fear for his family’s safety.
The family left the shelter when they were assisted into their own apartment by The Salvation Army, according to The Salvation Army spokesperson Jennifer Forker.
“The Salvation Army met all responsibilities within our purview to ensure the windows were secured and guests were informed they should remain closed,” Forker said in a previous statement.
Updated at 3:04 p.m. July 10, 2025: This article was updated to include a statement from The Salvation Army about the reason the family who complained about a broken window left the shelter.
Updated at 6:02 p.m. July 9, 2025: This article was updated to include information about a complaint to the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment and what its investigator found when following up.
