Loveland has ditched its plans to buy property for a future long-term overnight homeless shelter after a potential operator pulled out. Boulder-based Bridge House sent a letter to the city withdrawing its application to operate the proposed shelter on 71st Street.
Bridge House said they needed to step away from the project to maintain existing operations. The homelessness service provider recently opened new facilities in the Denver metro.
"Hitting pause on Loveland and concentrating on the long-term stability and success of what we've built," Colleen Krueger with Bridge House explained.
Krueger said the scale of homelessness on the Front Range has been hard to keep up with.
"We're all doing what we can with the resources we have, and the resources are getting tighter and tighter, and the need is getting greater and greater," she said.
Without a partner, Loveland is scrapping its plans to purchase the property. That means the city's unhoused services will phase out this spring without any other options.
Temporary overnight services will end at the Loveland Resource Center in March, with all services closing up shop - and the city selling the property - at the end of April.
Mayor Patrick McFall says the city doesn't have the funding or the expertise to operate a full-time shelter.
"It took us as much by shock as it did anyone else when Bridge House came back and basically said, 'look to try and meet the timing goals we have, currently with the capacity we have,' they just are not able to do it right now," said McFall.
The mayor resists the idea that the city can support homelessness services on its own.
"Find me one city out there that's taken on the unhoused area by themselves that hasn't damn near hasn't run their general fund budgets broke, and really haven't come up with a solution," he said.
McFall says he welcomes a ballot initiative from residents that could create a funding mechanism to support a new shelter. But stresses that strong partnerships will ultimately stand the best chance of success.
But Bridge House isn't the first partner that's fallen through in Loveland.
Last year, First Christian Church was working with the Loveland Homelessness Task Force to rezone its property for a homeless shelter.
As KUNC's Stephanie Daniel reported, Patrick McFall - then a councilmember - moved to table the church’s rezoning hearing and requested a comprehensive study. The motion passed and the hearing for the shelter was tabled indefinitely. No further information was given regarding how the impact study should be conducted and completed.
The church eventually dropped its application. The Task Force dissolved, citing the city’s inaction.
