A crowd of people showed up at the South Railroad Facility site on Tuesday as crews started to dismantle tents and infrastructure outside. It closed this week, leaving the city with no overnight homeless shelter.
Loveland Mayor Jacki Marsh was among the crowd.
“I'm getting emails all the time, and voice messages, that (say), ‘Please don't close the shelter. These are our neighbors,'" she said. "I had trouble going to sleep last night knowing 50 people didn't have a bed."
The South Railroad Facility opened in 2023 as a temporary solution that was under a permit and funded in part by grants. That has run out.
“The temporary permit has expired. We can't make an exception for ourselves. That wouldn't be fair for others who are working under a temporary permit," Kimberly Overholt with the city said. "It also would not be legal for us to do....we certainly acknowledge that this is not an easy topic, and for that reason, there's no easy solution."
Loveland approved closing the shelter earlier this year without a clear solution to address homelessness. The city’s camping ban requires available shelter before any encampments can be removed.
The city will continue to provide daytime support for the unhoused at the Loveland Resource Center. Marsh would like to create a more permanent housing facility run by local nonprofits with additional services — like a kitchen, job training and mental health resources.
In the short term, Marsh is looking at putting people in motels or getting the tents back up. She was told it only takes around five hours to get the facility running again.
"I don't see putting the tents back up as permanent by any means," she said. "But let's keep people alive and safe through the winter months. That would be my goal."
Marsh isn’t sure what to expect of Thursday’s emergency meeting. Council has been divided down the middle on this issue. She says she hopes there is a decisive vote one way or the other.
"Four land on one side, and four land on the other side, so without a ninth member, it's pretty hard to pass anything," Marsh said. "This is a major event in the community, so in calling a special meeting, my hope is that one of the four on the other side will have some compassion and allow us to put the tents back up now."
Some that provide support to homeless individuals are wondering what comes next. Those who work with these communities say it’s difficult to see people struggle with limited resources.
“That is our question to the authority as well, ‘Where would you like us to point them to?’" Caterina Hall, executive director of Loveland's Community Kitchen, said. "I don't think you know the solution for all of them is to travel to the next neighboring city.”
The latest Point-In-Time Count found that 180 people in Loveland were experiencing homelessness. This kind of survey often misses those who are couch surfing or sleeping in cars, for example. Marsh believes the main contributor to this is the lack of affordable housing.
"When you have so many people spending 50% or more of their household income on housing, and they're going to spend another big chunk on transportation, car insurance, gas, maintenance, what does that leave a family to live on?" she said.
The emergency meeting is Thursday at 6 p.m. There will be unlimited public comment. Loveland officials are also holding community conversations around homelessness in October.
Meanwhile, Fort Collins Rescue Mission recently broke ground on a new homelessness resource center. The future facility on Mason Street will have 250 shelter beds and day services.
The project has been years in the making. The Rescue Mission raised over $27 million to fund the facility. Some surrounding residents and businesses have opposed the new center, but it ultimately won approval from city officials. Construction will take about a year.
But right now, overnight options in Northern Colorado are few and far between. Fort Collins Rescue Mission's downtown shelter closed in August after a kitchen fire. It's unclear if it will reopen because of steep mitigation costs.
"With Loveland closing their homeless shelter, the need is very crucial right now in Northern Colorado, and I think we should take care of our neighbors and give them a safe place to be if they have nowhere else to go," Forwood said.
