**Jefferson County Addresses Rising Homelessness with Collaborative Cold Weather Shelter Response**
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — For over a decade, Shelley Long has witnessed the transformative power of community through her work helping countless Arvada residents in need get back on their feet. Long is the pastor and director of REACH at Grace Church Arvada, a program dedicated to supporting community members transitioning to stable housing by providing resources, support, and a shoulder to lean on.
“Just getting to be with the people on the weekends, somebody who knows their name,” said Long. “That next step of somebody being there to encourage them, to chat with them every day. How’s it going, to walk through the discouragement and to celebrate the wins? That’s huge.”
However, the latest numbers from Jefferson County highlight the growing challenges for nonprofits like REACH. According to county leaders, homelessness in Jefferson County increased 27% over the past year, with one in two individuals experiencing homelessness for the first time — the largest jump in the metro area.
This increase comes as the county faces reduced cold-weather shelter availability. “Over the past couple of cold-weather seasons, there were options available for sheltering that we knew were not going to be available this season,” said Jefferson County Regional Homeless Coordinator Kerry Wrenick.
Finding ways to keep the unhoused population safe during the cold-weather months has become a top priority for county leaders throughout the year. “If we serve somebody in Lakewood, it doesn’t mean they’re not going to go to Arvada that evening. We’re all serving the same population, so pooling everything together seems like the most reasonable response — proportionally,” Wrenick added.
In response, Arvada, Edgewater, Golden, Lakewood, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, and Jefferson County recently signed a one-year intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to collaborate on cold weather shelter services for the upcoming winter. Together, they have pooled just over $2 million for emergency sheltering efforts.
This funding will pay for motel vouchers, which will be distributed by homeless navigators 72 hours before severe weather hits. Additionally, if temperatures drop into the single digits or lower, extreme-weather mobile shelters will be deployed at various locations throughout the county.
While the regional winter shelter response aims to address immediate needs, county leaders acknowledge the importance of long-term solutions. “We need a solution to the winter season right now, but we have to have a tangent, longer-term solution for addressing homelessness as a region,” Wrenick explained. “I continue to work with our city and county managers on what that longer-term solution looks like.”
Long praised the collaborative effort among local governments, emphasizing that it is an essential piece in the broader effort to lessen homelessness across the county. “I think the city and county are really trying to put their finger on all of the resources we have here in our area that can work together,” she said. “I’m so glad that they keep working at this. This next step for severe weather—I’m glad that they’re figuring that out.”
—
*Watch this story in the video player below.*
https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/jefferson-county-municipalities-pool-2-million-for-emergency-cold-weather-shelter-response