Dear Safety, Housing, Education, and Homelessness Committee members,
Again we are writing to you to ask for your no vote on a proposed contract renewal with the Salvation Army: this time to run the Doubletree (Aspen). The most serious horrors of the Doubletree are well known including…
- Double homicides that took place not long after it opened. (One body was not discovered for two weeks. The trauma of being right near these murders still affects residents.) And not two days after that body was found, another resident was stabbed, luckily she survived.
- A TSA staff member, with a known record of aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault convictions, sexually assaulting a resident at the Doubletree hotel shelter.
These are just the most well known atrocities that have taken place at Doubletree. We hear from residents about the effects of these horrors and of countless other unacceptable actions by the Salvation Army and their staff regularly.
There are currently 30-50 people living outside near Doubletree – the majority of them are former residents of Doubletree or Best Western (also run by TSA) who have been kicked out by staff. They now live on the streets nearby, constantly being harassed by police, not allowed to have any tents or shopping carts or any protection from the cold or heat or rain. One of these people, a man who one of our members has known for many years, died on the streets just the other week after being kicked out of Doubletree for drug use while he had an infection in his leg – this infection got worse fast on the streets and he died of sepsis.
Residents have to go through invasive security checks every time they come to their own place, treating the place even more like a prison. Staff take items like cooking pans, laundry soap, or anything they can claim is a weapon or drugs.
In a survey of Doubletree and Best Western residents, “staff” was the number one reason named for not feeling safe at the shelters – followed by “deaths.”
Below are quotes from a few Doubletree residents –
“In no way was I prepared for the intake that was equivalent to entering a maximum security prison with security being bigoted prejudiced and profiling us as criminals because we are homeless human beings. I was shoved into the Doubletree not provided the very basic minimum of a TV, a trash can, a refrigerator to potentially store food correctly, a microwave to heat food, and I’m told to put a request in at the front desk which I did approximately 2 weeks ago have heard absolutely nothing.
Care taker and partner not allowed in, RV not allowed on property when told it would be, told be moved into rapid rehousing from Radisson but instead moved to Doubletree and still no steps to housing…”
“I heard the shots, it was right above my room.
Staff is always asking me for sex.
We were without hot water because the druggies was taking the copper pipes and selling them.
I’m sick of seeing dead bodies being taken out of here.
I need money for hygiene products. They are supposed to supply us but say that there’s none. Staff steals.
They stole my bag of laundry soap in the Ziploc bag. Accusing me that’s it is cocaine. I told them it’s soap and get it tested. I almost got thrown out
I heard the screams of the lady that got raped. She probably asked staff to let her in as the third floor our key card doesn’t work.
I’m scared that I won’t get out of here alive.”
And this one sums it up…“[It] Helps people die out of the public eye! So the upper class won’t be disgusted to see a dead gutter in the drain.”
Residents of Doubletree shelter deserve better. They do not deserve to be treated as prisoners, or worse. The Salvation Army has had ample chances to correct their ways to improve conditions at this shelter, and they have not done it. The City even had to step in and co-operate the shelter with them for a while due to TSA’s neglect. TSA was supposed to contract security and had not even done this – forcing the City to take over that portion of their funds.
A new provider is needed to run the Doubletree. The City should not renew a contract with a provider this bad just because it’s convenient and they do not have another provider lined up. This opportunity should be used to find a better provider and ensure proper accountability for how these sites are run.
Please vote no on this proposed contract with the Salvation Army.
Sinserly,
Housekeys Action Network Denver
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