Homelessness

Scope of homelessness in Westminster

• Jefferson County Comprehensive Count August 2019 This report includes an appendix including all of Westminster, including the Adams County side.
• Homelessness Update to City Council Spring 2019
• Homelessness Report to City Council Autumn 2018
• 2017 Those Without Homes Report

National and regional counts

The Metro Denver Homeless Initiative conducts an annual census as part of a national Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirement. 

The census, known as the Point in Time, is of those who are living outdoors, in shelters, in cars, or in areas not intended for human habitation for the entire seven-county Denver metro region on a single night every January. It's impossible to connect with everyone living in such scattered conditions, therefore the count is based on those in shelters.  

Point in Time Counts of Homelessness by County:

Based on the population percentage of the City of Westminster in each county, on any given night, Westminster likely has close to 100 individuals meeting the HUD definition of homelessness.  

By School District:

During the 2017-18 school year – the most recent available -- the three school districts serving Westminster identified the following number of  students meeting the Department of Education’s definition of homelessness.

This is a total of 5,855 pre-Kindergarten through 12th-grade students meeting the Department of Education’s homeless definition in the three school districts serving Westminster. The city’s portion, based on manual counts from the districts, is a little over 1,000 homeless public school students. However, for the most part, there is at least one guardian and often a younger than school-age child or older sibling who has been pulled out of school. This demonstrates another known likely undercount.

How to Get Help 

For rental, mortgage, or utility assistance needs due to COVID-19, see the Westminster Housing Assistance page.

• Affordable Rental Housing Resources 
• Foreclosure Assistance
• Free Legal Help for Tenants - Eviction Prevention

Shelter Options

Complete list of options:

Call 211 or visit the 211 website. They check on bed availability twice a day; check in with agencies offering rental assistance on a monthly basis to check availability; and they can connect you to most other types of assistance – food, financial, medical, mental health and more.

In Adams and Jefferson Counties, shelter programs are available by registering at: 

• Access Housing-  in Commerce City with 18 shelter beds for families. 
• Almost Home- in Brighton with 30 shelter beds for families. 
• Cold Weather Care - 20 shelter beds, including eight for singles. Open every night from mid-October through April. 
• Comitis Crisis Center - in Aurora with up to 139 shelter beds for singles and families. Open on severe weather weeks. 
• Family Promise - 15 shelter beds. 
• Growing Home - 14 transitional shelter beds for families. 
• Severe Weather Collaborative - 30 shelter beds for singles. Open only on severe weather nights from mid-October through mid-April.  

Domestic violence shelters, open only to women with children: 

• The Family Tree Domestic Violence Shelter - 30 beds. 
• Rising Hope - six shelter beds. 

Homelessness Initiatives

While homelessness is clearly a regional issue, the City of Westminster has taken steps towards its elimination unilaterally or through one-on-one partnerships.

The city's current homelessness initiatives include:

Funding: Helping Community Partners

• Through the Human Services Board, funding is provided to the following homeless service providers and/or food banks: The Action Center, Almost Home, Beyond Home, Catholic Charities of Denver, Community Reach Center, Community Table, The Family Tree, Growing Home, Jefferson Center for Mental Health, Period Kits, Volunteers of America, Westminster F.I.S.H. plus more than 20 other nonprofits.
• Ensure local nonprofits are notified of federal and other grant opportunities to help them build capacity. 
• Partially fund detox centers with other municipalities. 
• Supported several nonprofit organizations as they applied for grant opportunities from other agencies.

Connecting People to Services

• Working with Mile High United Way to ensure that resource providers offering services to those in Westminster are listed in their metro-wide database. This way, when someone needing services calls 2-1-1 or visits the 211 website the resource in closest proximity with capacity will be the first one offered.
• Created and maintained the Westy Live Better! website to simplify finding Westminster services for low-income community members. 
• In 2020, the City hired a Homeless Navigator who meets with people to assist them with finding the best service agency or program for them to transition out of homelessness. Helping house more than 60 people in a little over two years, the City added another Navigator in mid-2022 to meet growing demand. The Navigators work with other navigators and street outreach workers employed by most of the jurisdictions in Adams and Jefferson Counties.

Housing and temporary shelter

• Making rental assistance through CARES Act funds and HOME funds for people financially impacted by COVID-19 available at Westminster's Housing Resources page. 
• Colorado Legal Services offers free tenant legal help for qualifying residents of all of Westminster, Adams County and the city and county of Broomfield.  Apply online or by phone at 303-837-1313.
• Affordable Housing Study presented to City Council on Oct. 23, 2017. It is scheduled to be updated by the end of 2023.
• Built more affordable housing throughout the city.
• Working to preserve older affordable housing by making Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds available to property owners and managers to install new windows and more energy-efficient heating and cooling systems. 
• Hired a Housing Coordinator. 
• Recruiting more hotels and motels to accept vouchers in Jefferson and Adams counties. 
• Offering motel stays on severe weather nights. 
• Assigned $5.9 million received from the State of Colorado to a low-interest mortgage and down payment assistance program operated by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority for Westminster residents to access as needed.

Surveying to Ensure We Understand the Issues and Options

• Surveyed faith-based institutions to determine what services they currently offer and what their capacity and/or interest is in future offerings.
• Participate in the national Point-in-Time count annually. The results can be found at the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative's website
• Participated in the Jefferson County Comprehensive Homeless Count in August 2019. Service providers conducted a month-long survey of those meeting the H.E.A.R.T.H. definition of homelessness. The week of August 19, hundreds of volunteers canvassed the county, including all of Westminster, to best connect to those staying outdoors. They were asked what services they currently receive, what services they need, and what barriers do they face in accessing services. 

Regional Collaboration

Public meetings are regularly held that nonprofit agencies, governments, housing authorities, faith-based organizations, businesses, current and formerly homeless individuals, and interested citizens can attend.

• Metro Denver Homeless Initiative Committees  
• Adams County Coalition for the Homeless.
• Jefferson County Heading Home 

Ways Westminster collaborates with regional partners: 

• Offer Mental Health First Aid trainings to staff; advertise publicly available ones to citizens and businesses. 
• Participate in the Built for Zero Initiative, a seven-county collaboration with the Veterans' Administration to house all veterans experiencing homelessness in the Denver Metro Area.
• Collaborate with Healthy JeffCo and JeffCo Thrives to support initiatives that take proactive approaches to reducing trauma and its effects within the community. 
• Training city leadership and staff on homelessness and its many variables. 
• Collaborate regionally through: The Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, One Home, the Adams County Municipal Workgroup on Homelessness, Jefferson County Heading Home, Severe Weather Shelter Network, and the Heading Home Governance Group and Data Workgroup. 
• Attend meetings to determine how to best provide and fund shelter during COVID in both Adams and Jefferson counties.
• Westminster staff regularly meet with staff from: Access Housing, Almost Home, The Family Tree, Growing Home, Human Services in both counties, the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, school districts' homeless liaisons, other municipalities and faith-based organizations in both counties to ensure we are all working together toward the common goal of ensuring homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring. 

How you can help

Nonprofits listed in the City of Westminster Resource Guide accept monetary and in-kind donations as well as find themselves in need of volunteers.