No Children on our Streets!@#  Support Needed!

Families Kicked to the Streets at the Closure of Cold Weather Shelter

No Children on our Streets!@# 

Your Support Needed!

Cold Weather Shelters closed yesterday – kicking HUNDREDS of families to the streets. The City opens cold weather shelters at 25 degrees and puts families with nowhere else to go in hotels. Now, these families (an estimated 500, according to one hotel worker) and their children are back on the streets – in their vehicles, couch surfing, or otherwise without anywhere to live. 

A number of families reached out to HAND as the hotel was closing, desperate for someone safe to go. These are families with small kids… Middle schoolers, toddlers, even infants. Folks reported suffering from conditions worsened by the cold – from asthma, to critical brain conditions. In a moment of crisis, we were able to find hosts for two families (one a lesbian couple with a seven and three year old and a four month old baby, a second a couple with a three year old with seizures), and put six families up in a motel, completely filling all their vacancies, but only for a week. Additional families continue to reach out from all sorts of situations – including one just evicted due to being in a weather-related car accident that flipped their vehicle and left them injured.

Here is a message sent to our organizer from one of the grateful families:

“Hello good evening, we just finished cleaning everything, I thank God first of all for using you as that 

angel of hope for a family that could not find any way out, thank you for giving us the opportunity to benefit from that blessing and I want you to know that you can count on us for whatever you need, I think that the best way to repay all that effort that they make with us, is to be an exemplary citizen in this city that despite the adversities opened its doors to us and gave us the opportunity to meet wonderful people like you, you can’t imagine the happiness that my family felt knowing that today we would not spend the night under the coldness of the city, that is why I ask God to multiply by a thousand percent everything that you give and to always take care of you and bless your entire family. Thank you, thank you a thousand times, thank you 🙏🫂”

These families need City action NOW!!! We cannot become numb to and accept a reality where families with small children are sleeping on the streets!@# Mayor Mike Johnston cannot claim that “no families are on the streets” while literally hundreds of families were displaced from the closing of cold weather shelter!#& The City must extend cold weather shelters to be ongoing shelters for all families in need. If we have the budget to put $643MILLION towards arming our police force (page 709 of https://denvergov.org/files/assets/public/v/4/finance/documents/budget/2025/02.19.2025_ada_compliant-final-adopted-2025-budget.pdf) and even $2million towards pickleball (https://medium.com/@davidheitz50/pooping-more-important-than-pickleball-residents-tell-denver-council-during-budget-hearing-b735a1a129d0), then we have the budget to shelter our most vulnerable families and support their pathway to stability. We MUST agree on a moral line somewhere: no small children should be forced to live on the streets!

CALL-TO-ACTION!!! As we push for the City to do what is needed and extend shelters for all families in need, we need community’s help to keep these families in a hotel and off the streets for at least the next week!

1. Please donate via paypal and make note it is for ‘houseless families’  https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=HHEMK4XX5UAM2 

2. If you would like to host one of these wonderful families with children temporarily, please reach out so we can discuss our process and connect you with the best fit for your and their situations. Contact us at info@housekeysactionnetwork.com or 701-484-2634 to do so.

3. Additionally, all of these families are asking us for work opportunities to be able to get ahead and provide for their families. Many speak Spanish. If you have a work opportunity available, no matter if it’s for a few hours, a day, or longer term, please reach out to us at info@housekeysactionnetwork.com or 701-484-2634 so we can connect you with a hard working family member.

4. And, please contact the Mayor and ask him to quit leaving families on the streets, act on his words, and provide extended shelter for all families in need – mayorsoffice@denvergov.org (include the words “No Children on our Streets” in your email.) 

Onwards…