Mission Arvada struggling to fund salary for staff members, mulls relocation

Homeless ministry at The Rising Church in talks with City of Arvada to move out of Olde Town

Rylee Dunn
rdunn@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Posted 6/2/23

Months after the City of Arvada held a study session to address the issue of homelessness within the city, city team members have begun meeting with representatives from Mission Arvada — a homeless ministry based at The Rising Church in Olde Town — to discuss moving Mission Arvada out of the historic district.

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Mission Arvada struggling to fund salary for staff members, mulls relocation

Homeless ministry at The Rising Church in talks with City of Arvada to move out of Olde Town

Posted

Months after the City of Arvada held a study session to address the issue of homelessness within the city, city team members have begun meeting with representatives from Mission Arvada — a homeless ministry based at The Rising Church in Olde Town — to discuss moving Mission Arvada out of the historic district.

The homeless ministry has been at the center of a debate between city stakeholders over its location in the heart of Arvada’s most traffic commercial district.

Additionally, Mission Arvada (while the two names are sometimes used interchangeably by stakeholders, Mission Arvada refers to the homeless ministry and The Rising refers to the church congregation) is struggling to pay its employees because the City of Arvada declined to sign off on Mission Arvada’s application for a Department of Housing and Urban Development Emergency Solutions Grant last September, according to  Mission Arvada Program Director Karen Cowling. 

Mission Arvada serves about 60-65 homeless individuals a day — roughly 500 per quarter — and has helped over 165 people get into permanent housing over the past two years, according to Cowling.

The ministry works with people experiencing homelessness and works to help them apply for jobs, housing, mental health and career support, and other necessities. 

Arvada City Manager Lorie Gillis explained that the decision to decline signing off on Mission Arvada’s application was prompted by the ministry's location in Olde Town — a factor that Gillis said also influenced the city team to begin examining the possibility of helping Mission Arvada move locations.

“We just recognized that there’s an opportunity for The Rising to be in a space that’s more functional and efficient for them to continue doing the good work they’re doing,” Gillis said.

“We’re just working with them on considering locations, there really isn’t an agreement as far as what, transactionally, the city will be doing,” Gillis continued. “We’re just trying to help them out. They’re in Olde Town, in close proximity to an elementary school and commercial units, so it’s not an ideal place for a navigation center for unhoused individuals. There have been some unfortunate incidents as a result.”

As the jurisdiction where Mission Arvada is located, the City of Arvada would have needed to sign off on the application for it to be submitted. Since it did not, Mission Arvada was ineligible to apply for the grant.

Now,  Cowling says the ministry will lose its funding for the salary of Berzette Green — a case manager who Cowling says has been instrumental in helping homeless individuals get into permanent housing.

“My case manager is a person with prior lived experience with homelessness,” Cowling said of Green. “She helps support her mother and daughter who both have disabilities. She has to have a full salary. ...We’re on a string and a prayer right now.”

The ministry has set up a fundraiser that has been sent out to The Rising’s community, but Cowling says that despite the help, she is struggling to see how the ministry will afford to keep Green on past the next few months.  

A recent grant has freed up $15,000 for Green’s salary, plus an anonymous donation of $5,000, which, combined, should keep Green gainfully employed through roughly December. Past that, Cowling says, lies uncertainty.

Ongoing debate about Mission Arvada’s location

Cowling asserted that Mission Arvada is the only true wraparound homeless service center in Jefferson County. The ministry offers a variety of services including housing navigation, showers, laundry service, mental health assistance and vital document recovery.

Three years ago, Jefferson County stated its desire to build two homeless navigation centers in the area to provide a full spectrum of services for unhoused people.

Last March, the City of Arvada spent $2.75 million for a property located at 51st Avenue and Marshall Street in order to submit a bid for one of the navigation centers. The county is still in the process of deciding which sites will become home to the navigation centers, and ground has not been broken on either one.

Former Arvada City Manager Mark Deven — whose tenure with the city ended with his retirement effective Oct. 7, 2022 — cited the county’s plan in an email to Cowling explaining why the city wouldn’t sign off on the HUD grant application, according to an email obtained by the Arvada Press dated Sept. 27, 2022.

“The City of Arvada has been asked to support the Emergency Services Grant Application that Mission Arvada/The Rising has been invited to submit to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs,” Deven said. “Respectfully, the City of Arvada has declined to support this application.

“The City is currently engaged in a regional collaboration to establish two housing navigation centers in Jefferson County… As part of this initiative, the City Council approved the purchase of a site for the North Jeffco Housing Navigation Center at 5045 Marshall Street,” Deven continued.

Deven then went on to say that he felt that Mission Arvada’s location in Olde Town precluded it from being a suitable homeless ministry.

“Mission Arvada’s location in Olde Town is within close proximity to a private elementary school as well as businesses and residential units,” Deven said. "This is not an appropriate location for a housing navigation center… These conditions have become a burden to the Olde Town community."

Deven concluded his email by recommending that Mission Arvada find a new location.

“In the course of discussing your request with council members and City team members, it was suggested that Mission Arvada could seek a partnership with another service provider wherein navigation services could be provided in a more appropriate location,” Deven said.

“The City and the community must focus on a more permanent, sustainable, well coordinated and systematic approach to addressing the needs of unhoused individuals and families within a more appropriate location,” Deven continued.

Moving Mission Arvada out of Olde Town is a position shared by other important power brokers in the community. In emails between local stakeholders obtained by the Arvada Press exchanged around  Christmas of 2022, Arvada Mayor Marc Williams seemed to support the idea of shuttering the homeless ministry.

“As you know, there are several of us who want to shut down the Rising in Olde Town,” Williams said. “I get emails from their supporters, but their support is misplaced… Enough is enough.”

Steven Howards, an Olde Town building owner, echoed Williams’ sentiments.

“I too own a significant amount of property in Olde Town and am very frustrated,” Howards said. “The Rising Church is a crummy neighbor that lacks compassion for the Olde Town community, which is a sad, sad commentary.”

Cowling attributes a lot of the issues discussed by stakeholders to communication breakdowns between different government agencies and service providers in their jurisdictions.

“I think part of the issue is that there's some breakdown in collaboration with the county and with the cities and how to make that all happen in terms of funding and whatnot,” Cowling said. “So yeah, we're the only navigation center and housing navigation center and a shelter in pretty much all of Jefferson County that does what we do.”

An unlikely partnership

Despite both sides seemingly being at odds with each other, the Arvada city team and Mission Arvada staff have come together recently to discuss a solution. On the table, Cowling said, is a move out of Olde Town.

“We've been working with the city, because they initiated us working with them… They basically came to us and wanted to start working together to have us move out of Olde Town,” Cowling said. “They want to help us do that… So, I guess, like help us find a property — there’s a lot of T’s that need to be crossed, and I’s that need to be dotted, obviously, very major, long process.”

At the helm of the city’s delegation, Cowling says, is Gillis, who Cowling said has offered to help Mission Arvada with a real estate search, supplying an architect to help gauge building feasibility, and the potential to expand the ministry, which currently has a capacity of 75 individuals per day.

Gillis said that discussions are still in the preliminary stages and explained that no official agreements have been reached as of yet.

“Part of this is establishing our relationship with them,” Gillis said. “We’ve had a lot of that, we’ve had a lot of conversations You start slow on things like this and have the right conversations. We’re so committed to determining sustainable, well-coordinated, approaches to the needs of unhoused individuals in our community and partner with community organizations that provide services.

At the end of the day, the decision is up to The Rising’s congregation, which will have the final say on the ministry’s decision to move. The church would follow the ministry out of Olde Town; The Rising has occupied the corner of 57th and Webster for over 30 years.

Nevertheless, moving out of Olde Town could be a workable solution for both sides, Cowling said, as long as the new location is accessible by public transportation. Another condition, she added, was that if Mission Arvada moves, the City of Arvada must promise to sign off on any grants the ministry might apply for.

“I think as long as there was public transportation to our site, and it was in a fairly visible location, and it was very close to the G line specifically it would be a transition like anything is a change; that would be a little awkward at first,” Cowling said. "But I think… clients will know, we'll make a concerted effort for them to know where we are.”

Cowling said that her team has met with city staff members about 4-5 times, which Gillis confirmed. She characterized recent meetings with city team members in more favorable terms than those which took place months ago.

“We really would not have been (considering moving) if they hadn't approached us,” Cowling said. “But we were trying to look at the pros and cons. ...Again, not my decision, it's our church congregation’s decision. It also gives me some encouragement that the city is meeting with us on a regular basis.”

Gillis said the potential partnership is spurred by the city’s evolving understanding of the homelessness issue, and said she hopes both sides can let go of what has been, up until this point, a rocky relationship.

“We know that The Rising is a player and we went to be their partner,” Gillis said. "Some of this is just timing, too. We’re learning, and we’re working with our regional partners. There’s not a playbook. We’re really committed to the collaboration and it will really require that all of us step forward, move forward and let go of the past.”

homelessness, arvada, olde town, marc Williams

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